The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Last Dance, MLB Official Proposal For Return, UFC First Sport Back

Episode Date: May 11, 2020

Much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 12-02 and H-town. What's happening in lunchtimers? Good afternoon to you. And welcome to a Monday edition. The Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790 with our producer Joe George, my co-hosts,

Rossville, Real. I'm Matt. Nice to have you with us. On this Monday, we look forward to hanging out with you. Breaking bread on a variety. A pulpery, a plethora of, I wouldn't say like really thick sirloin or rib-eye steaks. But we got a nice, we got a nice cookout here in the old barbecue of topics. Okay.

Like a jalapeno of sausage or? Yeah. Maybe some pulled pork. I got hot dogs on the grill. I've got some chicken breast. Uh-huh. I've got a little skirt steak. Now, do I have any filet mignon on there?

No, but that's fine. Okay. enough stuff to get to that's going to hopefully entertain the hell out of you between now and three o'clock this afternoon. And we invite you to join us in a variety of ways. First and foremost, look us up on Twitter and send us a tweet to your direction, our direction, at SportsMT, at SportsRV and at Joe George. Radio. You can also, we'd love to have you interact with this as well via the phones at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790.

Major League Baseball and Conversation, NBA, NFF. college basketball and the UFC. I will say this, and I do want to spend a lot of time about the last dances. By the way, are y'all getting sad? We're down to two? Yes. I mean, if they were making these things on the fly, why could they extend this to like a 16-part series? Because you only have so much material.

Do you really want to watch eight hours or, I mean, 16 hours, I guess it would be, eight weekends? It's a little much. What are you going to do in two weeks on a Sunday night at 8 p.m.? I'm going to be free. Well, they are releasing the new documentaries. So the week after the last dance ends, it's two Sundays in a row, the Lance Armstrong, 30 for 30. There you go.

You can watch that. Then the Sunday after that is the Bruce Lee documentary. Oh, is those 30 for 30s they were promoting? Yeah, so then it's Bruce Lee after that. And then that Sunday after that is the home run chase between Sosa and McGuire, 30 for 30. Okay, I think we're in good shape then. And then after that, hopefully sports are back.

30 for 30 sports talk 790 Yeah Is there enough drama around here? Oh there's plenty of drama To go back to the beginning? Yeah we can figure something out I mean enough interesting drama That's true

There's been drama how interesting has it That's true I mean we We January 2010 Oh there's been a few things Has been Okay

I don't know if the general public's gonna want I don't think fans in like Denver particularly care about it Yeah I don't know if it needs a national broadcast That's true get us on AT&T SportsNet Southwest. They won't even could return my phone calls. Okay.

All right. 71321257-9 if you want to get with us today. Let me get to this UFC first. I didn't watch it. I didn't watch the prelims. I just had it on in the background. Okay. I don't know who they are or what they do.

I mean, obviously. They fight. They fight. I don't know. Weight classes. I don't know what their histories are. And I didn't watch the pay-per-view. My son went over to Buddy's house and did so.

Oh, did he wear a mask? I don't know. We'll call him and ask him later if you want me to. The point being is that for an event, you've got to partner up with ESPN. They're going to do your really good by you. You know that? I mean, last Saturday night,

even with that I'm being on pay-per-view, which most people did not see, it got tremendous run on ESPN. Because, again, there's nothing else going on. So they went all in. Rossi, I spent two hours, watching coverage of an event that I didn't even really watch. And I just thought it was impressive how in-depth ESPN got.

And it just gave you, through my mind and my eyes, a small example of, I'll watch just about anything, even long as it's live. That's what I found myself doing. I wanted to see the reactions of Joe Rogan. I wanted to see the reaction to the fighters. I wanted to hear about the fighter that tested positive and they didn't, you know, they didn't compete. I wanted to see what it looked like being in Jacksonville,

Coliseum. From all accounts, it went pretty well, right? Yeah, it was a good event. I watched it. Watch the pay-per-view card as well. A lot of good fights. I would say myself as a casual UFC fan, like out of 1 to 10 of how much I'm into it, maybe a 5. But obviously, with nothing else going on, it was just to me a formality of whether or not I was going to get it or watch it. So I was impressed. But it was always good, yeah. But it's always good.

I watched it. I'm like Ross asked me on Saturday. I'm like an 8 out of 10 UFC fandom. So, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was the one sport. I was super confident that without fans, it would be no big deal. Because for years, they've done a reality television show called the Ultimate Fighter, where

they fight in Vegas at their performance facility in front of only the other fighters and Dana White and the judges. So, it wasn't that different. And honestly, like, it was a great event. It was a lot of fun to watch. The fights were

awesome. And the only problem I have was judging. Besides that, it was perfect. But here's the thing. I mean, you talk about social distancing. UFC is the, just about the complete opposite. Yeah. I mean, there's sweat. There's blood. There's intimate contact. I mean, it's everything

that sports not supposed to be during this time. And yet they pulled it off. Yeah. And they got tested. They got tested. And as Joe Rogan said, I got cleared. I knew once I was inside, I wasn't going to get it because nobody else that was involved with this had it or was going to get it.

So I could go in the ring and talk to these guys. So you didn't, if you were a UFC fan, you didn't miss, there was nothing you missed down on except the hot ring girls, right? They even had hot ring girls. Did they really? Yeah. I think it was like one instead of like four or five like they normally do. Okay.

Yeah. And we missed one fight because one fighter tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday. It was going to be a good fight, though. And it would have been a really good fight. Like, that's one bummer. Yeah, and that's going to happen because I'll tell you what, guys, if we start playing football and baseball again, there are going to be some guys that are going to test for a fever,

and they're going to pull them out. Oh, absolutely. And that's why I think baseball rosters are going to be much bigger. I think football rosters in theory could be much bigger. But these are the things, again, me not being a UFC fan, I appreciated what they did. They put on, and by all accounts, people that bought the event, nobody left disappointed except for again some judges but that's what scurried boxing and

UFC does they always want to put controversial scores out there so for the five for the five paperview fights ended in a knockout so I mean there weren't you didn't need judges for the most part there but I would say yeah it was good it was entertaining uh the commentary was good everything was pretty seamless I think maybe once or twice I felt like it was kind of weird because there was no fans or maybe there was like a big punch thrown and somebody got their head knocked back and there was no fan reaction and you're just kind of waiting for a fan reaction and there was none.

They only happened like a couple times. I didn't think too much of it. And apparently if you could hear the announcers, the boxers could hear the fighters could hear the announcers, Greg Hardy was like, what did you say about me? And then he got really angry. Oh, no, well, he

they were talking about, yeah, he was getting advice, basically. I love that. Well, I hate that it was Greg Hardy. Yeah, that's true. It's the one thing the UFC has done in the last like five years that pisses me off. They don't care about criminal records. They just don't care. And frankly, you know what?

Their fan base doesn't either. Oh, totally. So, but yeah, for someone that doesn't watch it and didn't buy it, I came away with impress of how seamless it appeared and sounded and the immense coverage that Sports Center gave it. And we were on Saturday night, we're all getting home from the bar. Well, I was getting home from the bars. Nobody's going to bars.

But you were getting out, if you were cooking out or whatever, you want to sit down and watch some tube, some ESPN, you got a heavy, steady dose. of that event's coverage on that network. And so I think it's very, very smart. You know, people always complain about ESPN and how you get involved with them and, you know, how they cover things. But when they do it right, and you have an emotional and or physical and or financial investment in that operative. Like the WWE gets a lot of running ESPN, not because it's all of a sudden this amazing activity,

because the wrestling hasn't really changed a whole lot. It's because ESPN's got a dog in the fight. when ESPN wants something, gets in something involved, they're going to cover it properly. And again, I think for UFC fans who always say, we don't get enough mainstream coverage,

you certainly got that a couple of nights ago. Are you going to watch on Wednesday? Is it worthy? I mean, it's just another UFC fight. Is it a pay-per-view? Yeah, it's ESPN Plus again. What does it cost? Whatever ESPN Plus monthly costs, like $8.

That's not terrible. I think it's like five or six. Oh, really? Yeah. All right, so things I want to get to. I want to get the last answer. I'm very sad at the two episodes. I just am because it's become Sunday appointment watching.

Be in front of your television at 8 o'clock on a Sunday night. MLB wants to play baseball. Shaq has some advice about what he thinks should happen for the rest of the NBA season. Dr. Fauci cautions the NFL. And imagine a high school player getting illegal benefits to go to a very prominent college basketball school. I know it's a stunner. that plus Monday night football needs new broadcasters

and Jerry Stiller passes away at the age of 92 watching some of his highlights loved him on Seinfeld I think I vastly overrated Seinfeld as a just a comedy series funny but after Curb

doesn't pale in comparison That's just me Okay 713-212-5-79 if you'd like to join us today 7-13-212-5 790. When you try to make up smack talk, it benefits you.

We'll have an example of that from MJ next. 1212 on 790. Houston's official sports cliche translator. I'm working hard. I'm trying to be a good teammate. I'm trying to go out here every day and do my job. Matt Thomas. Taking it one day at a time.

So there was a kid that played high school basketball in the 80s here. His name is LaBrandford Smith. I think he went to Bay City High School. a legendary high school player. He goes and plays at Louisville. I believe Denny Crum was his coach there. He winds up going to the NBA

where he has a very pedestrian and really not really a long NBA career. Well, one of the games he had, which was really good, was against the Chicago Bulls. As I explained last night on the last dance, where he scores 30, excuse me, shouldn't eat during break, 37 points. Cover your mouth, Matt.

I didn't cough. A little bit. Well, okay. So 37 points and then... What are going on that? I lose track. 37 points. You're talking about the last dance, the Bradford Smith with the bullets.

And then he... So Michael goes... Or he goes over and says, good game, Mike. And the next night, they go to Washington, D.C. And Michael Jordan's like, I'm going to get him back for all this. And he's going to score 36 on the first half. 47 overall? Something like that. And then come to 5.5.

find out LeBratford Smith didn't say a word to him. Yeah. Michael Jordan is a psychopath. Fact. There's just new ways to develop. I mean, we knew he was a diva. That goes without saying, when you're the greatest of something, you're going to be the diva. Then on top of that, you are going to be competitive in everything.

Whether it's basketball, whether it's cards, whether it's throwing dice, golf, waking up first in the morning. Who knows? What do they call it? Penny pitching? when he was throwing the quarters with that guy with the long hair. He was in these episodes, too. He was that. I was chasing.

I was watching it hair way too much on his show up. I want a 30 for 30 on that guy. Is he still alive, you think? Maybe. I've already been to Chicago this year, so I don't know if he's still working there or not. What if he still has the same hairstyle? Well, you know, I'm going to look for it now. You have to.

I'm going to go to Chicago next time we go to the Rockets, put the Bulls there, and I'm going to say, what's that dude's name? Do you even know what his name is? Yeah, we do. He's like a former cop. He works security or something like that. That there was a whole... It was a whole...

There was a whole thing on him. Yeah, 30 for 30 on him would be a great idea. So could you imagine... Port LaBradford-Smith... I mean, I don't know if it was a story back then, but did he basically just give out this lie today and then let Port LaBradford live with it for 23 years? Or did he just say that just to add something to the film?

That's why I don't understand. Was there ever evidence Did Michael Jordan 23 years ago say, good game, Mike? Or did he just make this up for the... I don't know. I knew I'd recognize a name. I'm glad you brought up his whole history here in Houston because the name rung a bell with me,

but I didn't know why, so that was why. Was this the first revelation that he'd completely made this up? This is the first I'm hearing of it. That's the first. I'd heard that story of him, like, getting at LaBradford Smith, but I hadn't heard that he had made it up completely. Yeah, that I don't know. That's what I want to know is, did he let poor LaBradford-Smith hang on this for 23 years? That doesn't seem very nice.

And Will Bradford-Smith should have been claiming his innocence for the last 20-something years, right? If he didn't say that, if he didn't say that, if it was this national story that he'd said nice game, Michael, he's like, I didn't even talk to Michael. What? What? Well, sometimes you may say things and you don't remember saying them. Yeah, that's true. He could have been very much in the passing. Another thing of Drew me, drew me a chronic crazy was the fact that, Michael Jordan apparently wanted George Carl to say what up. Yes. And George Carl said nothing. I did see a follow-up. Apparently, I don't know if George Carl came on the Van Pelt.

Did he come on the Van Pelt? He apparently confirmed that story that he slighted Michael Jordan for whatever reason, which seems like a mistake. Yeah. I don't see why it's a mistake. Why do you want to talk to the person who you got a bike the next night? Just say hello. I don't think Michael was. How about this?

It was ill-advised. I don't think Michael was looking. Michael was not looking for a 15-minute conversation. Yeah, just don't respect the goat. And when you don't, when you disrespect him, he's going to beat you. But it's not like they would have lost to the Sonics if George says hi. You're ruining last dance scenario here, my friend. But like the way that Michael's even talking himself, like, it's like you get this feeling

that for some reason he thinks they would have lost. If George doesn't say, if George says hello. Well, they might have lost if they put Gary Payton on Michael Jordan the whole series. Man, that laugh when he just laughs at Gary Payton, when he's watching the iPad, awesome. Is he the, I'm trying to think, and all my time watching basketball, is he the greatest defensive guard I've ever seen?

Gary Payton? I would probably say so. Like, who's the best defensive guard in the NBA today? That just locks you. I mean, Quai, Leonard. Yeah, I mean, he's more of, I would think of him more as a wing, but probably, if you're thinking defensive wing defender, then you would say, yeah, Quy Leonard, probably right now.

Paul George probably up there. Yeah, Paul George. He's not in league anymore. more, but like Tony Allen's name popped in my head. Yeah. But Gary Payton, when he was in his heyday, first of all, I used to hate Gary Peyton because he always had a scowl on his face. He never seemed happy. And he also gave the Rockets fits for about a decade. Yeah.

No matter what uniform he was wearing. I like Sean Kemp, though. I didn't like Gary Payton, but I like Sean Kemp for whatever reason. All right. I run through Sonics players. We'll play this game. Deadlift Shrimp. Did they bother you? Detliff shrimp. Yes, hated Delaf Shrimp. Xavier McDaniel. Eh, whatever. I love him now.

Well, that's because he dropped an F bomb on the other show. Hell yeah. Look at you trying to get the FCC violation over here. We dumped it. Hersey Hawkins. How'd you feel? Dale Ellis, hated him. Tom Chambers, hated him.

Jack Sigma, hated him. Vin Baker, hated him. Former Rocket, great Vin Baker. Yeah. Yeah. I mentioned this on Twitter yesterday. The NBA needs Seattle back. It's just a, first of all, it's a great sports town. Second, it's a beautiful place to visit.

And third, it's a great NBA town. They just could, the city council and the mayor could never get an arena built properly. We know that around these parts, what happens here? So it just, it just seems so awkward that the city of Seattle, which is a great basketball, so he has been, it was for decades. How long have the Thunder been in Oklahoma City? It's been 10 plus years. Well, it's been since Kevin Durant, Kate, was in 2007.

He played one year there, so 2008. Damn, 12 years. I think they're going to come back soon. people in Memphis are really scared the grizzlies are going to move you know I was listening to they should be Dan Patrick talked to Shaq about that on his Friday show yeah I didn't know it was that hot of a rumor but Dan was saying Vegas for the Grizzlies you've been talking about that for a while too I've brought up three cities that

need NBA basketball Vegas Seattle and Kansas City I'll try to find the article and sent it to you but I was reading how someone's proposing out the NBA to help with their financial issues, a simple solution would be to expand, that they could improve the financial stability of the NBA by adding to markets. Both in the West, I'm presuming, right? Probably. Yeah.

But it would make a lot of sense. I've already told you guys this before. You put an NBA team in Las Vegas. You're going to go 30 and 11 minimum at home. Maybe even better, no matter how bad your team is. That Vegas flu is a real thing, don't you think? Kind of like Miami in L.A. Las Vegas Golden Knights hockey?

do very well. The arena is already there. You're already in, I mean, I can't imagine free agents would want to go there. That's why it was cracking me up. The clippers are going to buy the form and rebuild that. They're still going to play second fiddle in Los Angeles, no matter what.

Yeah, as soon as there's the Las Vegas team, we'll get breaking news bulletin that James Hardin has demanded to trade to Las Vegas. As is probably 75% of the league. Rossi, you know this. The amount of card playing on planes? Yeah. It'd be probably be bad for their, it'd probably be a really financial boon for the Las Vegas economy, but bad for the players.

Again, if you're a fan of the Las Vegas whatever's, you win at least 30 games a year, all at home. You may suck on the road, but you're going to go 30 and 11 in home. Because guys are going to party until, I mean, what do you put them? Didn't Antoine Walker lose all of his NBA money because he was gambling? This could be a lot more of that going on. Just saying, maybe that's part of the reason why Vegas is. is not going to be a place where they go to this NBA pod because they're afraid guys when

Vegas opens up, they're not going to behave. Are casinos opening up now there or what's going on? I haven't heard a word. Okay. It's funny, I check three things. My stock, which is plummeting, how Vegas is doing, and how Lake Charles is doing.

I just wrote them in that particular order. Not Bitcoin? No. You have a Bitcoin buyer? No, I'm not. Maybe it's time, though. I never a Bitcoin in my life. All right.

Oh, and by the way, you know, we've had this argument about, where Pippin is on the greatest of all 50. Mm-hmm. The documentary last night puts him clearly in the 46 to 50 category. What a bitch move. I'm not going to get the shot, so I'm not even not going to go out there. I'm going to sit there.

And oh, by the way, it was the right call because Tony Koo-coach made the shot to help them beat the next. Yeah, that had to sting a little bit for him to be on the bench and watch Tony Koo-coach make that one. So what makes last night so good is that we all knew how. he got crushed media-wise and that the players got mad Bill Cartwright seven foot plus Bill Cartwright goes in the locker room and is crying

over how Scotty Pippen let his team down how about him saying I wouldn't change a thing couldn't believe he said that bitch move seriously he looks so bad throughout this documentary like Michael said before people are going to hate me no Scotty

no we hate you no we knew who you were Michael Jordan you're giving us no new revelation Like, Scotty wouldn't come back from his injury. He delayed his surgery. Then he didn't want to come back. Andy demanded a trade. We got that in what episode two?

And then they go through this part where he quits on his team, not a top 50 player of all time. Because here's the thing. You, Ross, you convinced me that I had him way too low until I watched last night. I still think he's low. But that was definitely, yeah, definitely a punk move. Good. I mean, if that's the greatest I quit move in sports, what's number two? who was the bill's

Roberto Duran no moss who was the bills player who quit at halftime like two years ago Oh it was the safety or whatever What was his name? Yeah the corner he just retired At the half time

I can't remember What was his name? But in a big moment though Is there a big moment that you go It'd be like asking A pinch hitter for the Astros To go against Vante Davis

Mariano Rivera And going I don't think I'm going to be able to get a hit So I'm not going to be available Vante Davis Yeah Roberto Duran saying no Moss in the middle In the rematcher with Sugar Ray Leonard

Yeah, but did you feel bad for him because he was getting beat so badly? I didn't feel bad for him. No. Should he have gone out? I don't remember the fight well enough. Would he have had a chance to win or he's like, I'm just getting crass? No, I mean, he was getting beat to the punch and stuff like that. He said he was having stomach cramps.

That's a Monday for us, right? But point being is that he, he knew the shot wasn't going to him. He knew the shot was going to somebody else who's had a history, as they documentary pointed out. of making all those shots. And not only was he just not even an innocent by-center on the court, he just sat there. I mean, damn, Scotty. And yet we embraced him in Houston for a short time,

until ever chemistry issues here. And then he goes on to Portland and has a pretty decent way to end his career, and then goes back to Chicago before it's all sitting done. Oh, would you all think about no rocket mention at all? No mention of the two championships. Not one word. Definitely a Michael Jordan presentation. Yeah, exactly.

The NBA did not exist while I was not here. I just don't think the Rockets are important to Michael Jordan's story. You don't even think it's worthy of while there were, I mean, again, this could be Houston bias, and I'm okay with that. You don't think there's a passing mention of the two team, the one team that won the two championships in between theirs? Not one little passing mention. I thought we might even get a, the magic would go on to get swept by the rocket. It's like one sentence? Nothing.

I know. Yeah, again, Joe, the NBA in terms of Michael Jordan productions, did not exist between 1994 and 1995. And by the way, we need to, we're going to break, but we need to talk about Mr. I'm out of shape after three months of training. He did okay. We'll talk. We can we talk about it. 1229 at the Matt Thomas show. 713-212-5-790.

Alexa, play sports talk 790 on I-Hard radio. Sure. Mr. Bunby, would you like it regular? Or talked and screwed. Ha-ha-ha-ha. A couple more things that made me think this was definitely far from a purely objective documentary. This was definitely a Michael Jordan production, even though they were not putting his name to it. Terry Francona thinking that Michael Jordan was going to play in the big leagues is a joke.

He batted like 206. 202, three home runs. OPS was like 550 something. I was less than 570. You don't go from doing that to all of a sudden. being a major league baseball player. Apparently he hit like $2.55 in the Arizona Fall League, people are saying.

I'd have to look up his Arizona Fall League stats. He would have eventually played because Jerry Ryansdorf would have found a way to acquire him to trade. Kind of the way that Tim Tebow keeps getting promoted. Yeah. Like Ryan Zorff would have finally found a way to be like, okay, all right, Michael,

we're going to trade for you, you're going to come to the White Sox, you're going to come up, you're going to be on the big league roster. You're not going to play every day, but you're going to be in left field two days a week. It smells of a September call-up is what it smells like. Yeah. It's just like what we think Tebow is going to be every year for the Mets, but they just haven't done it yet.

They're not going to do it. He hit under 200 and AAA. Tim Tebow's not going to play the major leagues. I hope not. No, don't worry about it. It's not. You, the Mets cannot be that big of a fool. They're just, you have to have some respect for the guy. You have to have some respect for guys that are playing the game that have worked their way to become legitimate players. And then the second part was, boy, they sure wanted to make sure and tell you how tired Michael Jordan was playing in that back quarter of it, 95 season. So let me get this straight. The greatest athlete of our time, one of the most athletic specimens we've ever seen in

our entire lives and our generation with legendary stamina, a guy that would play 36 holes of golf, and then go play 40 minutes in a basketball game, took time off, and he was playing professional sports still, and then with counting practice and games that he played, within three months, he was. wasn't in shape? Yeah. That's exactly what he's trying to tell you. Okay.

If that's the case, then I don't want the NBA to come back. And then he still, yes, true. Exactly, but it's not the case. It's fake.

And he was dropping 30 a night and he has better numbers or at least comparable numbers to each of the next three playoff runs. When you look at the playoffs, with the only stat really being off is turnovers.

They just weren't as good of a basketball team. Orlando was better. Yeah. Period. They just were. That's, and everybody's like, well,

they swept them the next year when he had a full time. They had a guy named Dennis Rodman, Hall of Famer, one of the greatest defenders of our time and a rebounder and the perfect number three on a championship run. And Michael was then able to learn about, like, play with his new teammates. Like, to me, if you're going to make an excuse, it's you come back, you've never played with Ku Kluch. Like, you don't know how, like, some of the roster is the same, but you lost Horace Grant. That's more of an excuse to lose than out of shape. Like, it's just, it's the one thing where it's kind of petty.

and it's revisionist history. Instead of just saying, we lost, you had your trainer say that, well, I told Michael, when he was going to play baseball, it was going to change his body and ruin his basketball career. Like, they started planting that seed as soon as they could. And that's why, again, for as awesome as this is, there are definitely lots and lots of, Michael needs to see everything that's on the cutting room, you know, in the film room. There's no. Final say. Yeah, I'm going to get the final say on this. Did you think that they handled the thought of him having gambling issues that force his retirement?

Brian McIntyre was the guy. He was the guy in the beard. He was the director of public relations for the NBA. The guy that said BS. He went to the BS card two times, right? Yes. I thought they handled it as well as they could. I mean, they're all saying that it's not true.

I don't know what else they're supposed to say. If it's still a conspiracy theory and they're all in on it, then, I mean, frankly, the only person who knows passed away. I knew that this was coming up on this episode. I read on his murder a little bit last week. The only thing that's kind of curious, they didn't file a missing person's report for his dad for 21 days. That's really weird. So, like, if you want to theorize that Michael Jordan knew something bad was happening to his dad, why would they not file a missing persons report sooner?

And one of the things was when I was reading about all this, they were saying, oh, well, you know, he would always go away for a few days. That's why we didn't file the missing persons report. Then you had the interviews in these episodes on Sunday where they say it was not unlike him to, it was, I mean, it was unlike him to not be in contact. It was very weird that he wasn't at least talking to their mom and that it wasn't, he wouldn't just disappear for a few days. Disappearing is one thing, not.

calling somebody and saying, hi, wife, I'm fine, hope you're doing well. Obviously, texting wasn't a big deal back then, but certainly cell phones were still in play. It's a little shady. Let me just say this. Because it made you feel like if you questioned at all Michael Jordan, if you thought in your mind that Michael Jordan could have left the sport because of gambling issues, it made you feel like a horrible person. And what I watched yesterday didn't change my opinion. I know David Stern said it was absurd Brian McIntyre

the PR guy said BS twice Michael Jordan said it obviously Am I a horrible person to believe that I'm not supposed to believe 100% of that I get it you did have the guy who's saying that Even during the Olympics he said that he was going to go ahead and quit and play baseball

But that guy's a big Jordan guy though I don't know that guy Yeah I think he wrote a book about him right Yeah it just says author rare air But see that's the reason why I ask you all your opinion on this is because we have become such a society that is just cynical for anything. If I say anything to you and I say, this is the truth, you're supposed to say, yeah, okay, Matt, I believe you.

But there's a lot of people that just flat out line. I mean, using a very small example of the little Bradford Smith stuff, I mean, if that was a story 20-plus years ago, that's a lot to hang on a guy for something he never said. So under my notion of the average person lies three times a day, if you can, if you say, look, this is the most important thing I ever happened in my life. My father was killed because of my illegal activities. I got to, I got to go to my grave with a few myths out there. And maybe this is one of them. But man, you've, if you watched it last night, you were made to feel really bad to even think that Michael's gambling problems forced him to retire and or something to do with his.

I think it was Andrew Kramer, right, who was talking about if you connect the dots, though. Yeah. And that's the thing is, if you connect the dots, it's still, it's still hard to not think that there's something involved with it. You know, maybe he wasn't suspended. But to me, of why his dad got killed and not knowing anything for 20 days, it's just, there's still too many unanswered questions there. I think the suspension, they answered it directly. I think we have to go off their words since more than one person said that he wasn't suspended for a team months.

Could David Stern go to Michael Jordan and say, look, you've got some issues, you've got some stuff going on at the house, you've lost your father, you look tired, you've carried the way of the world in your shoulders, one of these championships for a dream team. Take a year off. I can see David Stern going to him and saying that. And whatever you want to say will go along with. But it sounds like you need time away from the limelight. You could buy that, right? I think it was a good point that somebody made, though, that Michael Jordan, I mean, he grew the league monetarily by leaps and bounce. To tell him to go away would be foolish.

I mean, it's crippling to the NBA financially. Was it crippling for him to be gone a year and a half? I'd assume it was. Well, I mean, if TV contracts are already signed. Yeah, they're already signed. If tickets are already being sold, tell me how a year and a half, crippling. And if it did, I'd like to know because that would be good information for me. Maybe not a year and a half, but if he would have actually retired, it could have been crippling.

And that's another thing, though, too. He retired for a season in 65 games. Right. Who says go away for a season in 65 games? Yeah, see, I, for 147 games. Well, my, what was the, what's the time? My answer back to you would be then he wanted to go away for a couple of years. Michael called commissioner and said, look, I got to get back. My team is very average. I want to play basketball again.

said okay? Yeah. Okay, well, that's just, I mean, I guess it could have happened. If baseball never goes on strike, are we sure Michael goes back to the NBA? That's another good question. Like, if Michael, if Terry Francona and people really believed Michael Jordan in their mind could have made it to the pros

and Michael believed that, and could have made the Cardinals roster. Like, if baseball doesn't go on strike, does Michael actually return to basketball? Because that's why he originally started working out again, because there was a strike. So if there's no strike, what happens.

And by the way, does him going to play baseball? Does that negate the, I'm tired, I get to wear the world on my shoulders, I need time away. Not really. I don't know. Birmingham, Alabama, when he was playing with the Barron's, had hundreds of television crews there, sold out games. He was the biggest guy in town by far. But it was still Birmingham, Alabama.

But man, they would put the minor league games on ESPN of him. Did they really? Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's, look, it is what it is. And what ultimately, I, again, I hope it wasn't because of gambling. I hope that he just is the storyline he's telling us is the absolute truth. But I don't want to be made to feel like I'm a horrible person to think that there's got to be more to it than what there is. Because again, he just, he didn't go, Ross, he didn't go hide for a year. He went to go play minor league baseball where he knew he was going to get major attention. And the goal was for him to play in the major league. leagues. He wasn't going to play Birmingham to be a Birmingham Baron for a long period of time. He wanted to go be a Chicago White Sock. That's the end game, right? He wasn't going just to do it. He was doing it because he needed to get some at bats in and get live pitching in order to maybe someday play with Chicago White Sox.

To the point of Joe is that if there wasn't a strike, maybe he's playing baseball, which meant guess what? The same national notoriety he got in basketball, he will now turn to baseball and get. 1243.43. It is a man of television show 713-21, 5. 790. 713, 212, 5, 790 is how you reach our show. If you want to reach out to Twitter, Joe George Radio at SportsRV, and I'm at SportsMT. 713, 2125-790. Baseball, conference call today. They're going to try to put together a season. We'll discuss the game plan on that next on 790. Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson here. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790.

1248 on the Matt Thomas show. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Matt with Ross and Joe. Tonight, another Monday night meeting on our Sports Talk Facebook page at at Facebook.com slash sportstack 790. Three of us will be on there. Are you on there, Joe, and I invite you this week? Yes.

All right. We got Adam Wexler and Gordy and I think that's, oh, Michael Connor. So we enjoy doing a. Once a week we get together about 35, 40 minutes and come up with crazy topics and ideas and thoughts. And Ross always wins the background battle. Hmm, what should I go with tonight? You got to put Scotty Pippin on the bench behind you. Right?

I might put the Rockets beat the magic or something like that just because people are trying, or not people, just the Michael Jordan documentary trying to act like he couldn't, Michael Jordan just couldn't walk after playing professional baseball and talking about working with his trainer. but he's so out of shape that within three months of practicing slash playing games slash apparently beating up on the Warriors in their practice and taking on BJ Armstrong one in one and all that apparently he's just he's just out of shape. BJ Armstrong looks like he has an age one day. Yeah, B.C. Armstrong does look good.

You know what B.J. Armstrong does now? He's an agent. Yes. You know who recently released him? I know Donatus Modi Unis released him at one point, but I don't know who else. Isaiah Hartenstein. I wonder who I'll have to look it up who's BJ's biggest client is

Excuse me That's in it right, right? Maybe you didn't 7-1-3-212 5s Maybe on like hoops hype or something Agent clients I think he's still got Derek

Rose Oh really? Yeah I think he saw as D-Rose Okay Let's see he's got Bismack Beyondbo This is according to realgm.com Yeah A lot of people I haven't heard of

More people Javele McGee Moudier. That's a 10 plus year player. Derek Rose. Bruno CabloClo. Rocket great. Rocket great.

Isn't he on the team again? Yeah, he is. Yeah, he is for sure. I couldn't remember. Well, the trade deadline feels like it was so long ago. Can you name the Rockets right now? Austin Rivers. James Hardin.

Russell Westbrook. Good job. PJ. Mm-hmm. Roco. Yeah. Bruno. Does he?

count? Yeah, Bruno's on the roster. One of... I say Harnstein doesn't really count, but... He's more RGV than he is here. Yeah. One of BJ's clients is named Poo Jeter. Richardson? Oh, Poo Jeter. Okay. All right, so he's doing okay for himself.

He's all right. So the number one guy in his list is Derek Rose. I would say so, yes. Unless you want to say Bismack-Biombo. I don't... No, I would not cherish him as a big-time NBA talent. Javelle McGee? A long time NBA player.

Javelle McGee's made BJ Armstrong a lot of money. I'm sure. Okay. Major League Baseball wants to play baseball. They are having a conference call maybe going on as we speak with the owners in Major League Baseball. That would have set up the season between 78 and 82 games where you play 12 games against your own team and your own divisions, which would mean four times 12 is 48. And then you would play six games if you were to go with a 78 game schedule against the, other five teams in the other leagues

geographic, like National League West, America League West. So you have 48 plus 30 is 78. 78 game schedule. Now, you could obviously bump it up and play an extra game with your own division so you can make 82, whatever the case may be. They're looking for around a July 1st, July 2nd start date. And they're looking to have seven playoff teams in each league. They're looking for Unified VH.

Everybody would play under DH, and they're looking to play in stadiums, including in New York, maybe by the end of July. Encouraging, right? Yes. This is the latest of 50 plans we've heard from Major League Baseball. This one is actually stuck for 48 hours. It's good. To your point. There hasn't been like, I saw this late Friday, and I'm like, it's Monday hadn't changed dramatically.

Why is Major League Baseball out there and basketball is afraid of their own shadow right now? Well, I mean, they had the conference call with Adam Silver and they kind of talked, went through some things. And I think that was important. But Adam Silver during that conference call said, we're not prepared to make any sort of decision at all this month. And we don't have to be under any sort of pressure under any sort of clock. Meaning that they must in the end in the end game believe they can go to as late as late September, maybe early October before claiming a national champion or NBA champion. Maybe they just think their window is a lot longer than. we as normal fans believe it is.

I, you know, that's a great question. But man, baseball ain't afraid. They're ready to go. They just did a huge antibody research study that tested thousands and thousands of majorly baseball players and employees. And that in study, here it is, 5,603 major league baseball employees, 39 positive tests for the COVID. 0.7%, not even 1%

of Major League Baseball employees. None of the people who tested positive have died from the virus and is the largest national antibody study to debate, to date at this point.

According to ESPN's Jeff, passing the studies expected to provide researchers with a sense of how widespread the virus is in metropolitan areas.

Stanford doctor says the 0.7% rate from MLB employees is both good and bad, with the bad part being that the epidemic hasn't gotten very far. Which I think anybody using these test results are going to not use these stats for a long period of time, right?

Things are ever changing. Fluid, yeah. I don't believe that Major League Baseball is like, oh, we got this thing solved. Let's go play ball. I think what they're saying is, look what we've done. Look what we've already tested and look at the good results so far. Participants in the study were 60% male, 80% white and featured largely white-collar workers. The Stanford doctor noted that can undermine the legitimacy of nationwide stats because there is a socioeconomic stat where poorer populations are facing COVID infections at higher rates.

I don't think we can debate that. But there's not people that are playing major league baseball are not in a lower socioeconomic status. Correct. So they're all high paid players in good facilities. Now I'm going to worry about their next meals. They have good homes. They've got they see doctors on a regular basis. I think the Stanford doctor is trying to dispute anything that the Major League Baseball is saying,

and I don't think anybody's trying to argue what the Stanford doctor is saying, but Major League Baseball are white-class citizens. I mean, not white-class. What do they call it? High-class. Upper-class? Upper-class, yeah. No, they're not upper-class.

They're ridiculously high-class. But this test wasn't just baseball players, I thought. Yeah, it was staff members, too. Yeah. Who you would also... I guess they would be white-collar as well. White-collar jobs, too, yeah. I don't think anybody's making eight-ballers.

bucks an hour that was got tested by this. Probably not. So, you know, it just feels like to me major league baseball is, I'm not saying super aggressive, but they're, they're ready to get going where football doesn't have to worry about it because their clock doesn't start until September. Basketball just feels like they're really, really, really nervous about trying to come back. Maybe it's because their, their players are saying that. Shack said that as much.

I'll read you some shack quotes coming up at the top of the hour. but he didn't feel like they should be coming back. The thing, though, is, guys, no matter how bad MLB wants to come back, the players are going to have to take a portion of their salary. If they're only going to play 80 games, they're only going to get paid for 80. They're not going to get paid for 162. These owners are not going to pay them a full salary, especially when those stadiums probably are not going to ever have full crowds

at any point during the season. And that's where the big negotiating problem is going to be, is that they can say this, they can agree to it, They go to the player association, and they're like, all right, we're going to take our test and we're going to do this. We want to be fully paid. You can't pay. Who's the highest paid player in Bay, Bryce Harper? You can't pay Bryce Harper every bit of the dollars he's making this year.

There's half of games and no stadiums full of fans. So that's where the sticking points are going to be. How much are they going to give up? I don't know. I mean, would it be as simplistic to say if we're going to play half the games, you should have half the salary? Probably. I mean, that's, I would imagine. imagine. That's what they want.

You think the union is going to go for that? Probably not. They're going to be negotiating. And that's where it's going to get a lot of people upset, is that they want full salary for half the half of the games. Yeah. I mean, but the MLB is going to say, you know what? I mean, we'll just won't have a season then, and you'll get zero. I mean, what can we do? Yeah. Basically baseball, I think, could say, we're going to take a loss this year,

but we're not going to pay you for what we can't make back. Basketball is going to have to deal with that, too. it'll be interesting because on the conference call on Friday, Adam Silver said they're losing 40% of their revenue. Remember we talked about from ticket sales? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like the numbers we had seen were like 15, 20%.

Now they're saying 40%. So then do the players associations of those various sports leagues trust their bosses? They will counter. They will counter. They do their own vetting and all that type. There will be lawyers. Yeah, I'll tell you what Shaq had to say. He don't want to come back.

Of course, he's not playing, so it doesn't matter to him. 7-13-212. 2-57-90 with a message here for Berkeley Eye Center. The folks at Berkeley Eye Center want me to let you know that, yes, their offices are now open. In fact, you can go get outstanding care for your family, your own eyes, and how about getting LASIC from Berkeley Eye Center? It's the welcome-back LASIC savings offer going on right now at all the locations all around town. You can get 0% financing for up to three years. So basically, what I'm trying to tell you is LASIC may never be as affordable as a

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Text the word LASIC to that number, or you can call them right now at 713-5-26 I's and schedule that consultation. 526 eyes. Welcome back, LASIC Savings from Berkeley Eye Center. Is the Matt Thomas show. Ken Rosenthal from The Athletic was a guest in the show a week ago. Says MLB owners have approved a proposal for the 2020 season to present to the players' union source tells the athletic, meaning expected between union and league tomorrow. Here's how it's going to work. I'll be the I'll be the owners, Ross, you'll be the union.

Guys, we're going to play baseball this year. We're going to play 82 games, and we're going to have a DH, and we're going to let you have rosters of, I don't know, 30, 35 players, and we're going to play in your home stadiums, and we're going to cry on a champion. We're going to have television, and we're going to have seven teams in each league make the playoffs, and we're going to play. And we're excited because America needs us to play. What do you think, Union?

Pay us. You're going to put right, pay me rob on my, their shoes? Yeah, we're going to, look, it's basically 50% of the season. So if you make, you know, the quick math on this says if you make $30 million this year, you're going to make $15. Maybe they want even less because you're not only in half the season that's gone, it's none of the inner arena in stadium revenue. Oh yeah, by the way, you want your full salary. I can't do that first of all because we're only going to play half. And of those 40 home games I'm getting, which I normally get 80, you're probably all going to have fans in 20 of

them and there'll be no 40,000 games. It'll be 10,000. It'll be interesting. This, I mean, this is obviously, as every commercial says, unprecedented times, but I mean... Or uncertain. Very uncertain as well. How much are the owners going to try

to get over? How much are the players going to be willing to take? And who's going to get public pressured the most, right? Because I think public pressure factors in in these things more than probably the owners and players would like to admit. And everybody's going to want baseball back. We're going to say, we don't care how you cut it up. We don't care what percentage you're getting. We want baseball back. And it becomes a blame game. If it's the union, we hate

the players union. If it's the owners, we hate the owners. It could be really bad PR for them if they don't work this out. I hate all of them. Yeah, that's true. If we don't get baseball back and it's because of money, yes. Just, so what's, so let's do this. Let's open this up and be reasonable by this. What's fair? If you're the owners, you're not getting any gate, well, you shouldn't say any. You're going to get very limited gate revenue. You're getting less of a season. Is it absurd or inappropriate, whatever you want a term you want to use, to ask the players,

if we're going off a half season to get half of what you pay? No, you've got to be, the players have to be willing to take a proportional pay cut. I would think so. It's the right thing to do. It's see. I'm normally on the player side of most of these types of things, but yeah, how could you be the players union and say we deserve, if I'm making $40 million a year, I need to be paid $40 million or something like that? I wonder how it's going to go. They've already won the first battle that this is service time as full year. They play 80 games this year. That counts the same as playing a 162 in previous years. So George Springer and Mookie bets, everybody else that can be technically free agents will still get that. So they've already won the service time battle. And AJ Hinch can manage next year No matter what

No matter what No matter where Free and clear But you know what guys I don't see how Unless Major League Baseball is cooking the books And hiding things How can the Major League

How can the players Say no And not America just crush them Because It wouldn't happen And if it is their fault It will leak out that it's their fault Because here's the same thing on the other side

You can hide numbers when you have 30,000 people in your stadium, how much you've sold on luxury suites and booze and tickets. You can't hide empty seats. You can't hide that you try to sell season ticket packages normally for 80 games. You're selling them for 40 or you're selling them for 20. You can't hide 80 games going into oblivion. You'll never get those back. I'm trying to be reasonable on the players.

No, yeah. And it needs to happen soon. If they agreed to, if they've agreed to a set of guidelines for the season in order for them to be a season. And you know that Major League Baseball is going to do everything. They're going to have to take it on the chin to pay for the testing. They're going to have to pay for the additional cleansing and all the, all the things to make it as safe of a game facility as humanly possible. how do the players go to the table and say, nah, not good enough and not face the wrath of the American public?

Unless the American public says, these greedy bastard owners want to play baseball when we should be worrying about just getting our society back in order and making sure they're all safe and our business is going, why are we wasting our time with a frivolous little game of baseball? That's a good point. there absolutely could be a contingent of people saying, well, the players are looking out for their safety

and if they're going to risk themselves, because that's one of the things that we heard in negotiations prior. Yeah. The owners are saying, we're going to pay you this. Well, the players can say, hey, we're the ones at risk. We're the ones putting ourselves out there. We're the ones that are going and living in these bubbles or maybe not in a bubble if we're each in our own arenas or whatever.

But we're taking all the risk. You're going to sit there and rake in the dough. We need to be compensated for that. Because don't typically, when players hate deals that come to them from the owners, it's because they believe the owners are trying to circumvent the system. They're trying to hide the numbers, yeah. Or not being fair. Yeah. Or getting over. Yeah. And that's the thing, too. These teams are going to have to open up their books or something.

Because you don't have time for all that to come out in a court of law. Every day you're burning, you're burning millions of dollars. I don't see how they need to open up books. The books are pretty much laid out. There haven't been a game been played. Yeah. There's no television money coming in. I mean, the percentage is like you. said, because you can be kind of fuzzy on the math, right? We make this much from booze. We make this much

from this. We're losing X percent of our revenue. And the players can say, oh, no, you're not. You're losing half of that or whatever. How do they resolve that in a quick and timely fashion? The most implicit thing I can think of is if you're playing only

half the games, then you're only making half as much revenue, which means we can only pay you half as much. Again, nobody playing Major League Baseball is going to have to worry about feeding their kids tonight. And so, yeah, telling Mike Trout he's going to go from $30 to $15 million, that's a pretty significant drop in salary.

But he's only being asked to work half as much. And he also has to understand that Angel Stadium isn't probably going to be open for half of those 40 games. When, would the leadership of the baseball players association say, if we, get into a nasty fight over this, we're going to lose in the court of public opinion, and that major league baseball owners Ross could say, you know what,

if guys, we're not going to pay out a player to make $40 million for an any game season when I can't jam my stadium full of fans. Yeah, this is just going to happen. Both sides are going to have to be negotiating in good faith and negotiating to try to get this done. People don't believe sports leagues do that.

Right. They don't normally. But if there's any time to do it, now's the time. Yeah, I mean, you look at what happened this weekend with the UFC. Like, baseball has to know if they return. It could change their sport forever. Like, they've talked about ratings for years now with baseball. If they're the only thing on, they're going to get people watching their sport that are just not interested.

But now they're going to be because it's the sport that's on television. but if you don't play because of money, you're going to alienate more fans and your ratings are going to be worse down the road. You've got to get back on the field. They just got to figure it out, frankly. If they can safely play, they got to play. And again, it feels like Major League Baseball

is doing everything in their power to make sure the field of play, the testing, the locker rooms, where they're going to play. It does Major League Baseball no good for another outbreak to happen and make their sport have this tarnished legacy of not protecting the health of their players. Right?

Yeah. There's a lot of angles to them. They didn't have this conference call today, guys, and said, look, we're going to go out there and play these games and hopefully nobody gets sick. My guess is they're going to do everything in their power to make sure that everybody that puts a major league uniform on that plays a game can feel comfortable doing so. And yeah, they're going to be nights where somebody goes to the ballpark and they've got to. a temperature, they don't play. There's going to be probably, I mean, it feels like to me that the amount of tests that are being produced daily can cover these sports, Major League Baseball is not going to put themselves

out there and start thinking about playing a baseball game if they don't have the assurances that they can get enough tests for their players, or staff, for anybody involved. I mean, I'm very encouraged. I'm just really nervous about how tomorrow is going to go. Because you're asking the Major League Baseball, any, go to any union in America, guys. and say we're only paying you half. It's going to be met with some skepticism. 113 is our time.

Are you as baseball fans encouraged by what you're hearing? Major League Baseball approving a proposal for the 2020 season to present to the players union, meeting expected between the union and the league tomorrow. If they say yes, it will be probably one of the most encouraging days we've had in sports in two months. 713-212-5-7-90. to chime in.

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Matt Thomas show. Before we get to some other things on the other sports, one quick thought. Chandler-Rome put a retweet of his story he did about players taking a reduced salary and baseball earlier this month. Apparently, the players, Chief Tony Clark, said that they had, that major league baseball might have to accept further saddle reduction

if games are playing in empty stadiums. The chief Tony Clark balked at the thought, writing that, quote, players recently reached an agreement with Major League Baseball that outlines economic terms for resumption to play, which included significant salary adjustments and a number of other compromises. That negotiation is over. Wow. So, if you're the owners, knowing what Tony Clark just said, are you going to take that

agreement that you put together today and said, all right, do you think we'll get this by the MLBPA, or do you think they're going to bitch and mon about it? it tomorrow. Because man, if you're taking what Tony Clark says at face value, he's saying we've already taken enough concessions, we're not going to take anymore. So this may get ugly is what you're saying. So basically reading that quote, which was two weeks ago, knowing that Major League Baseball was going to try to play baseball this year, either tomorrow these baseball players say, you know what, we got to go play. Or if they shut it down, I know where this is going to go, Ross. It is going to be very ugly for the players. There's not going to be a section of America that says they're getting economically screwed. You may have a section of fans that say you shouldn't be out there trying to play when we've got this pandemic going on, but it won't be because players are being unfairly treated economically. It's going to be hard to convince an average baseball fan that if indeed they say no because they feel like they're not being treated fairly,

and they're asking for more pay cuts for anybody to feel sorry for them, especially when the jobless rate in America is at an all-time high. Good like Major League Baseball players. And hopefully, Major League Baseball owners are being reasonable about what they're expecting from their players. I mean, when it says, when Ken Rosenthal says a proposal is being submitted, Is that, does that mean like every single base is covered and this is what we're going to propose? My assumption would be, yeah.

And then I guess the MLBPA and Tony Clark and whoever makes a couple of modifications or makes a couple of demands. That's right. And then they send it back and then hopefully we're good from there. Kind of like a CBA negotiation. Yeah, I guess that's exactly what's going on here. And this is only for the 2020 calendar. My assumption is everything in 2021, it reverts back to its normal play. And this thing dissolves at like 1231, 2020 or something.

even though I'm sure they have to factor in. The players have to think now, if we agree to too many concessions at this moment, and then there's still a little fans next season, but we're allowed to play baseball, like what is that going to happen to us next year? So I guess they do have to think a little big picture, but you kind of think they all just want to play.

It's better than not getting paid at all. Yeah, this is fascinating. Because is, do you think in that conversation today as they shut out the big conference call? that if they said the players balk at this, it won't play this year. I hope that that term or that conversation didn't come into play. But we're probably not there yet.

I'm sure we could get there, though, pretty soon. And Tony Clark has some pretty strong language of that quote that you read, that they've already put up enough concessions and all that type of stuff. So let me read it again. This is interesting. This is a statement of the Associated Press. This is two weeks ago. The association's chief, Tony Clark, balked the thought of further salary reductions.

Again, it's two weeks ago. Things could certainly have changed. Writing that, quote, players recently reached an agreement with Major League Baseball that outlines economic terms for resumption of play, which included significant salary adjustments and a number of other compromises. That negotiation is over. Justin Verlinter, quote in the same story, said, quote, we've already taken a salary cut. And I think Tony Clark's statement on that was pretty clear regarding.

that situation. Baseball players got some big stones. It's called the most powerful union in sports, correct? Gate receipts comprise a large portion of the team's total revenue. In 2019, the Houston Astros generated $420 million in total revenue. 180, almost half from gate receipts. Is that right? Damn!

So first of all, you're going to cut the games from 80 to 40. And of those 40, let's say you get to have everybody in the stands 10,000 people max for 40 games. Pennies and the dollar that 180. Yeah, your payroll. I mean, what's the actual payroll right now? What, 170 million or something? Well, hell, between Altuvae and Granky and Verlander, it's just skyrocketed. all I say is this

Major League Baseball 2020 Payroll is supposed to be over 200 million 206 million Good luck tomorrow and you know what say a small prayer for the ridiculously rich human beings

on as Major League Baseball players who have to know that if they shut this proposal down because they're not getting their full salary or they're being asked to take another salary reduction is not going to win the Court of Public opinion

and then the pressure is going to be on them, and then Major League Baseball is going to come out and say, we tried. We tried to have a season. But any of us in the owner's shoes aren't going to pay full cost for, but there's no chance they can ever make that money up. And again, this guys, this is for one year.

This is not even, this is not a long-term plan. This is, I don't think this is a got-you moment for Major League Baseball. But Major League Baseball is going to suffer, as is all the sports until we get people in the facilities. college football. Rossi, I've said this five million times. I don't know how college football is going to make it without fans. I just don't know.

The NFL seems like that their television dollars are so crazy that they can live with a season without fans. Maybe the NBA can. My guess, the NBA feels like come December when their new season comes out, that they'll be able to survive and have fans and maybe get it close to normalcy. But nobody's thinking that right now. NFL seems the easiest.

First of all, it's the furthest away. So you can have more tests. You can have all that. Second, you kind of just take the UFC approach, and there's only one game a week. So you test everybody, game day, or you test everybody all the time. And frankly, outdoor facilities.

Anybody tests positive. You get, so what happened? They had somebody test positive on the UFC 249. They took them off the card. They're gone. Everybody else who tested negative, you're good. And you only have to do it once a week in the NFL. NBA and baseball?

you're having to do it constantly playing a bunch of other people and all that type of stuff. Yeah. Okay. Say a small prayer that the smart minds think about this proposal tomorrow and hopefully the Major League Baseball would not send out a message that's trying to, you know, take advantage of baseball, take advantage of players. Real quick, I mentioned Shaq. He was asked in an online article about the future of the NBA. And he had some comments.

Now, again, this is an ex-player as compared to a current one, who's not making the kind of money these players are making. We'll give you his thoughts on what he had to say. Next is the Matt Thomas show continues. Also, Monday Night Football looking for a new broadcast group because Booger and Joe Tessator are out. We'll get to that. And Zion Williamson's family took extra benefits, Ross.

Does that come as shock to you? I didn't think so either. 127. It is the Matt Thomas Show, 713, 21, 2.1. 2.5. 790. IHeard Radio, the free app for your music, your stations like Sports Talk 790, and number one for podcasting. Real quick from Shaq, an online story, he was asked about what would be your mindset if he played in an arena with no fans, and why do fans matter? He says, it matters because looking at the fans start your adrenaline. Let's just say I'm playing on the road.

I need to look at that one fan that's making faces at me. I need to look at that one fan that laughs at me when I miss a free throw. Wow. I didn't realize how important you fans were. Okay. Next, do you think it's possible or reasonable to still have an NBA season at this point? Shaq says, I think we should scrap the season. Everybody go home, get healthy, come back next year, just scrap the season, just scrap it. To try to come back now into a rush playoffs as a player, any team that wins this year, there's an asterisk.

They're not going to get the respect. What if a team that's not really in the mix of things all of a sudden wins with a new playoff format? Nobody is going to respect that. So scrap it. Worry about the safety of the fans and the people. Come back next year. You know, again, I think if Shaq's an active player, he probably has a way different viewpoint on this.

But Shaq does carry weight, literally, because he is. And also, he's a guy that's, you know, people go to for opinions about the NBA. So take it for what it's worth. You don't have to say, oh, that makes a lot of sense. It makes no sense. That's just one person's opinion. As competitor, You think some of the players would be upset at the season were to be canceled?

Look, I understand how players are feeling. I really do. But any team that gets it done this year, there's going to be an asterisk on that championship. Why is there an asterisk? Why is there an asterisk? Because I think there shouldn't be. If Adam Silver on Friday said he wanted full seven game playoff series. If there's full seven game playoff series, I think there should be no asterisk, no matter who wins.

if the Memphis Grizzlies win the championship, there should not be an asterisk. If you go through full seven-game series with warm-ups and training camp like they're talking about, with possibly a few regular season games, I know it takes Michael Jordan three months to get into shape, but maybe these NBA players will be okay. My thought is the only way it becomes if you get gimmicky. Gimicky is a one-and-done playoff. Yeah, one-and-done playoff playing games and three or five-game series. I'm on board with an asterisk.

about having a tournament to determine the last seat. Just figure out what the appropriate number of regular season games would be to finish to a certain number, play the playoffs. The only difference would be two things. There's no true home court and there's no fans. Dems the breaks of a pandemic. Yeah. Right?

It's an even playing field. I understand you play your whole life for home court advantage or you play the whole season for home court advantage. Them's the breaks. Yeah. It's got to be compromised. And again, the NBA has not hidden the fact it's going to take these players three, four weeks to get themselves back into game shape. It'd be something to say in 10 days we're playing a playoff game. I don't think the NBA has ever given any inclination that that's what they want to do.

So it's easy because you're an analyst. You play the game and you're going through it and you want to play and get a champion determined. I think Shaq the player would give you a different viewpoint than Shaq the analyst. Agreed? Probably. I would say probably. Because there hasn't been a player yet that said we shouldn't shouldn't play the season, correct? Have you noticed that? No. They're probably

under instructions not to talk about it. I haven't heard much of anything either way. Either way, for that matter. Ian and Channelview at 135, Ian, good afternoon. Hey, man, what's going on? I heard you talking about the fan being in college football and how they're going to survive. And I know

although probably the fan revenue for college cream is way greater than it is for other sports. You know, who exactly are you paying outside of the coaches if you just don't have any fans there? Well, you're paying for everything involved with the institution. You're paying for the volleyball program, the softball program, the tennis program, all that stuff. Oh, so the NCAA, all their revenue shared between all the sports. No, schools pay that money, get that money, and then they spread it over their athletes.

athletic budget department, the entire department. So, yeah, it'd be basketball and football kind of would be one of the only reasons why it would start up again. In theory. In theory, those two men's basketball and football largely take care of the athletic budget for the entire department. Yes. I'm sorry, Matt.

I never thought of it like that. Please continue on. All right. See you later. Great show. Thank you. Appreciate. Yeah.

I don't know the nuances of the NCAA revenue sharing. I just know that there's not much of it at football. Right? If that was the case in every school would be built the same. I mean, what do you mean? Alabama doesn't get the same money that Louisiana Monroe gets to find. Yeah, oh, he's taking the NCAA in the whole, no, it's school to school basis. Yeah, school to school basis.

Alabama's making a lot more money than Louisiana Monroe. Even though, is that the one they lost to in Nick Sabin's first year? was it Louisiana Louisiana Monroe yeah one of those Louisiana yeah I think that's right yeah they paid them like two million dollars to beat them it happens was it's happened like what it happened what did it happen recently um somebody

Tennessee pays a lot money to get their ass beat at home we got a win yeah over who did Troy be Troy be I have no idea there USC LSU? Yes, LSU, yeah. It actually happens more in basketball than it does in football.

That's true. You got to think Stephen F. Austin got money to go play at Duke. That's true. Yeah. You know what I mean? But yeah, all that money goes to athletic budget. And I understand, like, it'll be interesting to see what happens. But the thing is that I keep going back to is, I mean, they had volleyball,

rowing, whatever, lacrosse, all that type of stuff. They had that years ago. They had it before huge big TV money. Division II schools give out football scholarships, and they have other athletic facilities. There's a way to do it. You just have to figure it out, and you have to do it in a way that's probably not as accommodating.

You probably don't have all the top-in Nike gear and all that type of stuff for Texas's tennis team. Oh, if you want to go to Division II status in terms of how you conduct your department, you are not leaving within two hours of your campus. You are not flying anywhere. You're not going on television. You're not putting them in gear.

You're not feeding them as well. You're not paying for all their tuition. Yeah, I mean, you could really dumb it down. I'm saying it can be done. Well, it might be done for some schools that are barely hanging on right now. Like, how are these FCS going to survive? Because these FCS schools like to go play at FBS places and go collect those paychecks. Go to be a million dollars, yeah.

I mean, the amount of money that small Division 1 football teams get to go get throttled, you know, Texas Tech will pay big time money to go bring in Stephen F. Austin. Well, I mean, that's how Stephen F. Austin funds their entire athletic department. If that game isn't played, how in the world is Texas Tech going to write SFA a check for anything close to that amount? And if it is played and it's played without fans, it's harder for the school to pay them out, right? if Texas A&M is playing whoever or Texas Tech or Texas. Like let's say

Like Texas is playing U-TEP this year. I'm sure they're paying them right? Oh sure. So within the system, can they get like a handshake deal? Like an ad boy? Like we'll pay you back later? An I owe you?

We'll pay you nothing this year but next year's payouts $1.9 million. I wonder can you, I wonder if they can't even renegotiate those. Like if you promise, if you're LSU you promise to play some terrible school, $2 million to come get beat down.

Can you go back and negotiate to only pay them a million dollars? Or is that just like they're stuck? There's no law against that. What I could see probably happening is if we go to college football this year and only play conference opponents, that that game against Louisiana Lafayette now becomes a game in 2026. problem is Louisiana Lafayette you know let's face it

they're already thinking about how they're going to spend that money probably have an earmarked so even if you push it back four or five years that doesn't take care of today's problems yeah it might be paying for their football coach like that's what that money might be used for is paying for the head coach

that's what we need that's where I mean a lot of I mean these coaches are making what's the Knicks say making like 9 million 9 million a year they got us hurt Tom Herman's making 6 million to winning Alamo Bowl? Like, how much do you go to ask Nick Saban to take?

You were talking about pay cuts. Yeah. How much do you ask him to take? I don't know. How much does it take to fund the volleyball team for a season? I mean, how much money does he need? That guy's got to be filthy rich. But what is it like if he's filthy rich and has been?

It has all the money in the world. And he knows that if he only takes a 1% cut of his salary, how is that really going to make the difference in keeping? the University of Alabama float athletically. I'm sorry, tennis team. You're out because...

We've got to pay Nick Saban. Yeah. The men's tennis team gets caught. Clearly, the football program is 8 billion times more important the tennis program. But that's a headline you don't want at the University of Alabama. Now, a positive way, if you're going to take a pay cut, is a lot of people

are talking about how companies treat their employees during this time will reflect their business in the future. You got to think if Nick Saban takes a pay cut and he's like, I'm worried about everyone. Maybe that helps in the recruiting. Parents say, hey, Nick's a good guy. Took a pay cut to keep all the other programs? Does it help your recruiting base later on?

I don't even think it becomes a conversation point. It might. I just keep going to someone's house. You don't want to be. Louisiana schools can't function anymore because when they asked a coach, Coach O for 20% reduction in salary. And he said no. Yeah, you don't want that headline.

But man, how do you not go to these? How many obscene coaches' salaries are out there? I mean, Tom Herman's making six to do whatever. Jimbo Fisher's making what? 10. 7.5 for 10 years. 7.5 for 10 straight years? Fully guaranteed?

Oh, man. I'd like to have this problem. I like for I'd heart to say, Matt, you make an ungodly amount of money. They'd be crazy if they did that. Save sports RV. Save me, Matt. Take a 12% 15, 20% cutting your salary. Come on, Matt.

1-20th of you. Come on. That's true. 143 on Sports Talk 790. 7-13-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. We have a college basketball player who's now in the NBA that apparently took illegal benefits. Or did he?

It is the Matt Thomas show. 713212.5.790 with a message here for Woodhouse Day Spa. Did you give Mom the gift of relaxation yesterday? What? You forgot? What you gave her a card and you bought her a happy meal? Yeah, that's not going to work. When these spas open, it sounds like they're going to be open in the next couple of weeks.

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Nice soothing way to get back in the segment. No. Joe's trying to get me to growl. I got a whole other hour and change of this show and the nightcap coming up at 6 o'clock. What's on the nightcap tonight? We've got interviews coming up? Nope. Okay.

Wonderful, fun sports talk. Probably a preview of sports that are on tonight. We like to call that Joe's TV guide. What? Where he runs through very, you know, like tonight on TV there's going to be, you know, some old NFL. We'll figure it out. We'll get to the bottom of it and we'll talk about what we should watch. Suggested sports programmings.

Joe's TV guide tonight on the nightcap. When was the last time we read a TV guide? Actually read one? Probably at my grandma's house when I was like 13 or 12. People used to collect the covers. Yeah, that's true. They collected them on. For what?

Just to have as a collection. And collector's items. Do either one of you remember getting the Sunday paper and having a separate book of TV listings? Yeah, I would look through the TV listings on the Sunday paper. Yeah. Absolutely. No idea. Youngens.

Do they even do this? I don't get the paper anymore. Do they even have, they even print the TV guide out? I don't know. My dad gets a Sunday paper still, I think. Still? You read a paper. You just read online.

You just read step. Well, I don't pay for the papers. I just read the funniest. I used to always just, this is what I would do on Sunday. I would grab the comics. I would grab Zest, and I would read Ken Hoffman, make sure that I read him every week. And Best Buy and looked through all that. You and I, even though we are separated by a few years, are brothers when it comes

of that. I was sports. Yes, sports, of course. Sports 2. That was usually like the featurey type thing. Zest. Yes. Ken Hoffman. Once and while, parade when they would have the on the cover what people make.

Yeah, parade would be a little, yeah, I would go to that sometimes. TV guide and a travel section because I always was, I was fascinated by the fact that people would put ads in the travel section to say, fly to Miami for $98 round trip. And I could never find it anywhere. This is pre-internet. So I'd call these airlines and say, hey, I'd like to get this $98 affair, and they're like, we don't have a $98 fare. So I think travel agencies, when they used to be around, used to lie to people about how cheap you could fly somewhere. Like a bait and switch. Yeah.

Oh, you know what else? I used to go through Classifies. Just look at stuff for sale or classic cars that I would never buy because I was 14. Did you ever look in the classifieds when they were escorts available? I did now know. Well, you roll your eyes. no they used to have uh not in the paper though they used to have personal do they have personal do they have personals in the paper they would have um i know they did personals in the

houston press no these these i think they were i think they were absolutely uh come to our nightclub and meet ex said lady yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i don't remember that and then they you'd hide there would be 900 numbers that would be hidden in there some of the ads too there open spaces. The Chronicle would sell it to anybody. They wouldn't care. That's true. God, I can't. I don't remember the last time I bought a paper. The last one I could read was I was at a

restaurant or getting my shoe shined or at a doctor's office or something, but I don't think I've ever, you know, it's been long since the times I've actually purchased one. The sports page is like five pages at this point now. They split it with a section. Yeah. The comics are only like, the comics is only, I got Sunday comics maybe a week or two ago. Yeah. They're like, it's like two

pages. Did you laugh at all? No. I did the find the differences. Word find. A jumble, if you will? Yeah, they jumble. That's always good. All right. So we have a sports marketing agency, loosely used term, suing Zion Williamson. Go on. Well, the sports called prime sports marketing, very clever, suing Williamson for $100 million in punitive damages. $1 million. Breaching their five-year contract. So what Prime Sports Marketing did is they had to go put up a bunch of testimony that in legal documents to force some open and honest conversation between Prime Sports

Marketing and Zion Williamson and CAA. In this court filing for, this is a guy that owns a Prime Sports Marketing, asked Williamson to admit the following things happened, that Williams' mom's mom. Sharonda, Samson, and Lee Anderson, his stepfather, demanded and received gifts and economic benefits from persons acting on behalf of Duke University to influence Williamson's decision to attend Duke to play basketball. Next, Samson and Anderson demanded and received gifts, money, and her benefits from persons on behalf of Nike to influence Williamson to attend Duke University. Next, Samson, that's the mom, and Anderson, the stepdad. demand and receive gifts, money, and or benefits from persons acting on behalf of Adidas, to influence Williamson to wear Adidas shoes, and to influence Williamson to attend a college that endorses Adidas shoes.

Next, before becoming a student at Duke, Williamson and or persons on acting on his behalf, but not limited to his mom and stepdad, except the benefits from an NCAA certified agent that are not expressively permitted by the NCAA between January of 2014 and April. of 2019. So he got money and or benefits. It's the ledges. He got money and or benefits to go to Duke, to wear Nike, to wear Adidas, and talk

to an agent? Yes. That's like the exacta. What is the one? Quinella, when you hit all of them? No, it was not Quinella. That would be a Superfecta, the four. The Superfecta, that's what it is. Yes. He hit the Superfecta. He hit all four. He did everything. Now, Duke's defense has

to be this. We didn't give him the money, and we didn't tell Adidas or Nike or any of those people we were going to be involved in any of this. What Duke has to prove is that Adidas said, or, no, Nike said, you go to Duke and Nike will pay you because Duke and New Yorkier schools and that Duke's on television all the time and the Nike brand will be out there. it's up to Duke to basically say we had nothing to do with this. We were just a client of Nike's.

We were the innocent bystanders on this. We had no idea there was money being shuffled between mom and stepfather. So the biggest recruit, probably since LeBron James, who's been a YouTube star since he was like 14, went to Duke and didn't get any benefits from Nike. He got benefits from the shoe companies. He did not get any money from the university is what Duke is going to try to tell you. Okay. Do you know how horrible of a day it was at the time of his household yesterday? Oh, how horrible of a day was it?

Oh. Was it Mother's Day? What's the problem? But you can't ruin a Mother's Day when the mother's favorite college basketball team is being torched by the former agent of Zion Williamson. Former business associate. Would you cook her, by the way? How to go? Good breakfast.

We did... Oh, you were doing brunch. Yeah, did waffles. scrambled eggs and bacon. Mimosas? No. Bloody Marys? No. Morning beer?

We don't do a morning beer. Why not? Michilada. Probably waffles are a tough make at home because they don't stay crunchy very long. I thought you get the waffle. I thought you had a waffle maker. And they're just very soft. Okay.

Yeah, they don't come out crunchy. They just don't come out. So what I did today was I took one of the waffles and I made extra and I put it in my toaster. Like an ego. Yes. Good call. And the problem was it just got stuck in there and I had one of going to

taking a knife and jam all of it. Make sure you unplug it for you put a knife from there, Matt. I did, I did, I did it. Good advice. I might have been burned once or twice. It wound up being a big old mess. And the day was a mess because Zion Williams. And then on top of that, I got to tell Kim that Dukes could be in potential serious trouble.

I believe all of this. I believe it all too. Back college basketball from the shoe companies to the AAU to the campuses themselves are the most corrupt thing in the world. The world. The world is maybe a little much. Probably politics in like Bolivia or something. Pretty corrupt.

The contiguous 48 states. You all right with that? Maybe. I don't know. There's some dirty stuff going down in Idaho, Matt. No, absolutely. As far as national and as far as sports, it's got to be basketball for whatever reason is probably worse.

Football may be right there at number two. Why is basketball so dirty? We don't even collectively care about college basketball. I think for whatever reason, you just have a... I mean, maybe it starts with AAU coaches. Those guys, you just seem slimy in the first place if you're an AAU coach. If you're an honest AAU coach, call me at 713212-5-790. Sean Jones.

Is he a coach? He wasn't an AAU coach for his son. What are you? Yeah. Okay, if you're honest, 713-212-5-790, no one's calling. There's nothing honest about it. It's corrupt. It's slimy.

It's awful. And now Mrs. Thomas is not going to be able to sleep tonight because Duke may be going... Duke might get dinged. Although again, does Duke... Is there a paper trail where Duke gave the money to Williamson? And didn't it come out over the weekend? Something very bad happened in Kansas as well.

That's every weekend. All right. Final hour of the Matt Thomas show starts with some encouraging news, hopefully on baseball. After I tell you about Oop, Steam Cleaning, 281, 822-0-561. Please memorize the number I certainly have. If you are looking for a place that will come to your home and clean your car, carpets and make them look and smell their very, very best. 281, 822-0-561.

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You like a good Houston story? Oops. made and successfully continues to take care of people all over Southeast sexes with a locally based company. Take care of local, take care of your carpets, do it both with Oop Steam Cleaning. 281, 822-0561, 281, 822-561, and online, Oopsteam.com. This is the Matt Thomas Show. Wow, the Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790 with Ross, saying with Joe.

I'm Matt. We're very pleased that you guys have spent some time with us, ladies too. If you'd like to join us, 713, 212-5-790, 7-13-212-5-790. The plan, Ross, that made it over the weekend, was a schedule between

78 and 82 games. This is talking about Major League Baseball. You play your own division, the four teams in your own division, a handful of times. And we'll just, for the sake of a 78 game schedule, we'll say 12 games. That's 12 times 4 is 48.

You take the five teams in the division in the other league, same geographics, National League West. You play those six times. That's five teams times six is a total of 30. 30 plus 48 is a 78 game schedule. Seven teams

make the playoffs in each league. You play in your home facilities as long as your state allows you to. You try to get back fans as quickly as possible, realizing if full crowds probably isn't in play, you do have a DH, and you start this season around July 1st or 2nd. That, in a nutshell, is what the owners today got on a conference call and agreed to. Tomorrow, the meeting happens between the baseball union

and the leagues themselves. That's where it gets interesting. How quickly are they going to want to get this done. How amicable are these negotiations going to be? We already had the quotes you ran through. Very interesting quotes that you ran through from Tony Clark and Justin Verlenters saying, hey, we've made all the concessions we're going to make. So how much are they going to be willing to concede? See, that's the thing is that what kind of power does that union have if they haven't played? What do you mean? Meaning if they were playing these games and then they went midway through and said,

we're going to cut your pay. That was collectively bargained. They can't do that. But they have not stepped on the field in a real game this year. So at this point, they should be getting nothing. Like what leg do they have to stand on? Right. Not much of one.

I wouldn't think. How can you say, pay me $40 million or what is a Verlander making, 33, somewhere like that? How can you say pay me $33 million for a 162 game season? We're playing half of that. how could you possibly think that's a leg you have a leg to sand on there? But then I guess where the negotiations come in as you say we're playing half the games

and we're losing X percentage of our revenue. You're losing 80% of your revenue, give or take. You're losing half the gate and you're playing half the games. Less people in the stands. I mean, significantly less, except for Cleveland.

They don't draw anyway. But point being is that Minute Mae Park normally has 30,000 people. You're probably looking at 75% 500 now, if that indeed, if this does come into play where you social distance the fans. My guess is this year that no, that there's not going to be a full stadium in any sport in the rest of this calendar year. I went on and said a few weeks ago, 2022. Maybe I was, I'm hopefully way off on that. How in the world does the union go to the baseball owners, their bosses and

say, we're not taking any more cuts? if they say that, Ross, what's the first thing out of Major League Baseball? What's the first thing out of their mouths? You can't be serious. You want to come look at our books? Come look at it. Yeah, I think there's going to have to be some kind of opening of the books.

And then I think another factor, of course, is the public pressure. Can the baseball players associations sell to the fans? We're not playing baseball because we don't want to take, because we're only going to make $6 million instead of $20 million or whatever. And you're still multimillionaires. But then I guess they have to take the stand of we're trying to be safe, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So I mean, what is the public appeal going to be? What is there going to be the stance of the Players Association?

Because now the owners have submitted their piece. They kind of put their cards on the table in a sense. So let me ask you this. They're not going to get a full television deal out of this. They're not getting a full revenue. They're not getting a full sleight of games. They're not getting a full stadium. Some, in fact, if you're in California,

you may not be able to open up your own stadium to play your own no-fang games until maybe August, which means you're going to play a month in Arizona. Who picks up the tab on that? I don't know. Because what I need to know is this. There's got to be something, because I consider myself a simpleton

when it comes to these labor negotiations because I'm not involved with it. I'm only scratching the surface on this. Tell me at what point does the players association go, gotcha. You're not telling us the truth. Or what point do they say this is what we want?

Do they want half their pay? Do they want three quarters of their pay? Do they want full pay? Do they want what kind of assurances do they want from the Major League Baseball? So if they reject this offer, it will have to come out and they have to figure out what is exactly that they want? It's totally unreasonable for them to say they want 100% of their pay. So what percentage are they going to say that they want? I mean, were we supposed to applaud them because they already took a pay cut?

No. Does anybody feel sorry for them? No. Rossi, this is different because if this was strictly just negotiating between player and team because they're just trying to split up a halacious pie, then there are going to be some, some fans are going to like, you know what? Go get what you deserve because if one for you, there would be no baseball. There's always that section of that population does that. But this isn't the negotiation they're having this go around.

This is a negotiation of look at our beautiful Major League Baseball calendar. We have to throw it in the trash. Look at our beautiful manicured stadium on our beautiful contract, the television contract we negotiated so all of you can get all this revenue. That's all gone. It's havesies. I'm trying to wrap my mind around why the players tomorrow could get cranky on the baseball. owners if they're trying to save the season,

unless they believe that the owners are hiding something. Yeah, if they think they're being dishonest about their revenues and what they're losing, that could definitely be a factor. Or, I mean, do you think there are players who are legitimately concerned about going back to work and legitimately think it's premature and don't want to do it and don't want to be a part of it? I think that's part of the reason why the blowback with the Arizona pod thing. Yeah, because there was a huge blowback there. They're like, hey, I don't want to leave our families.

Now they're saying your own facilities. I think there are definitely people who are nervous. Okay, well, then they need to say that and not worry about their salaries. I agree. I mean, just as an example of my own personal life, I work at a retail store. I went back this weekend and half the employees didn't come back and won't be coming back because they don't feel comfortable working at them all. So, like, people are going to make their own decisions about whether they feel safe or not. And if they don't want to get – if they don't want to come back, it means they don't get paid.

I think it's pretty cut and dry. Yeah. Then we need – then there should – then money shouldn't be an argument then. Yeah, at least for those players. For players that want to come back, they have to get it through their skulls that I'm only playing half the season. There's nobody in the stands. Nobody buying beer. Nobody buying hot dogs.

There's no – there's 4,000 people here in a 43,000-seat stadium. The revenues just aren't there. what vain major league baseball player would say, sorry, this, them's a breaks. We still, I have a contract.

You got to pay it out. Could you imagine, could you imagine going to the, I have a contract that says this. And I don't want to dime less. I don't think they, I don't think they can do that anyway. That would be pretty difficult for them to do.

What if there are players who are, like, who want to opt out? What if they make that? Like, if the player, if you say you're concerned and I don't want to play under any circumstance, you can opt out and you're getting no money or something

like that. What percentage of players do you think they would be? Very small. Very small. But I think there, I mean, there are players, who's, who's the wife? Somebody's players has a wife who has, like, some kind of asthmatic condition. And there are going to be people like that who maybe their kids have asthma or their wife has asthma or their mother stays with them or whatever. And they, under no circumstance, do they want to come back?

Yeah. Because they're concerned for their loved ones and their well-being of their loved ones. So then we got to, we got to, they have to announce who they are? I mean, I guess we would know when they'd play. Yeah, we would know. They're just not out there. And they wouldn't be on an injurer report. Because how many, on this phone call tomorrow, is Tony Clark going to say that 30% of my labor does not,

my union does not want to play baseball next year because of the worried about the pandemic? I think, I think the only concern they're going to have tomorrow is, okay, you want us to play, we're good, make it worth her a while financially. It was Sean Doolittle's wife. She's got a cute asthma. So she, like, if you're Sean Doolittle, don't you kind of want to say, I don't want to be involved

at this at all, because if I bring this home to my wife, she could possibly die. So maybe that's a, could, he could opt out. How big of a sticking point is that tomorrow?

I don't know. And does a team want to pay a Sean Doolittle, whatever he is, to take a year off and then pick up where his contract left off? And what if Sean Doolittle

in the middle of the season says, all right, my wife says, she's tired of seeing me and she's feeling better. I want to go play. I mean, my guess is that he's

Tony Clark is representing the group of people that want to play that they want to make sure they're being financially taken care of because the owners are ready to make some money by putting these games on television

you're not making it the gate the TV deal must be good 213 on Sports Talk 790 719 if you'd like to join it 713-212-5-790 on Twitter at Joe George Radio at SportsRV and I'm at SportsMT. We take you till 3 o'clock this afternoon. Variety of things to get to. If you missed the last dance, I don't know what you've been doing because there must

been something better else on TV Sunday night. I know money in the bank a hurt was just bizarre and stupid. So that doesn't bother me at all. I do want to get to more on MLB playing ball. And Dr. Fauci says the National Football League needs to be super, super careful because you could be spreading the virus and not even know it when you're playing a football game. A lot of precautions are being put out there. 713-21257.

9-9 with a message for Big City Wings. Big City Wings is home for terrific crawfish and there are 5 pounds for $25 available today. That's 5 pounds for $25 in any of their eight locations of Big City Wings. On top of that, it is the tender special Monday, which means you can get. Are you ready for this? $1 chicken tender sauce and tossed the way that you want to. And on top of that, how about 34-ounce big brews available all day? You can go in and eat.

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So will the great wings and crawfish at big city wings and big city wings. This is James Arden. It goes to hard three to shoot. Jacks up a three hits. This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Are you kidding? 219. It is a Matt Thomas show.

Sports Talk 790. You're chuckling about something. Nothing. the loss of Jerry Stiller. Why would I laugh about that? Well, 92 years is a good life. I knew he was alive, I'm pretty sure. Little Richard, I wasn't sure, because I confused him with Chuck Barry.

Number one and number two, as far as Godfathers of Rock and Roll. We don't have, believe it or not, but we're going to, we may have to, we're going to get it back once we get the offices going again. We may just do five dead our lives a day. And just see how well you do. How well I do? Yeah. I don't care of the audience. I want to know what you.

Okay. because you bat like not even 500 on this. Well, I'm sorry. Babe Ruth hit 3.30 or 342. I can't hit 3.42. But hitting a fastball is a lot different than just trying to figure out if a person is alive or dead. Disagree. Matter of fact, I'm going to try to.

Disagree. I'm going to go find three people right now while we talk to Cecil in the southeast part of town. Hi, Cecil. Yeah. You know, you all talking about the little rich. Of course, you're all too young. heard of Betty Wright. She was a blue singer. Who's that?

Betty Wright, B-T-T-Y-E-R-I-G-H-K-E-A-R-G-E-A-R-G-E-A-R-G-E-A. Oh, yeah, she died over the weekend, too. Yeah, but look, as far as college football is concerned, now we all know professional football is fueled by television, gambling, whatever. But I don't see the practicality of playing college football. First of all, you've got to have football players on campus, and the dorms. What are you going to do to test them every day?

Obviously, football is a contact sport. So we try to do any kind of social distance that would be futile. And most college football players would take it. You know, the atmosphere, the crowd, the stands, the band, the cheerleader, the hoopla, all that stuff. You know, I don't know if you watch today this Korean baseball, but with no fans in the stand,

It's almost like eating your food with no salt, no pepper, no seasoning, your hamburger with no mustard, no condiments. You understand what I'm saying? It's just dry. But you're still good to eat, though. Hey, Cesar, I'm tired to eat the saltines. I want a hamburger. Yeah, but you're going to get a dry hamburger with net butts of meat and bread. Dumb, would you?

Would you rather that or stars? How enjoyable would it really be? Are you kidding me? Thank you, Cecil. I would enjoy it tremendously. My options are dry hamburger or starve. I'm taking a dry hamburger. Yeah.

I'm tired of saltines. I'm tired of Triscuits. Mm-hmm. I will take a plain chicken breast on a bun. It's going to be rough. You know what? Someday I'm going to put barbecue sauce and bacon and cheese on it. But for now, I'll take the chicken breast.

we stopped talking about food we just stopped talking about food. We just been having the... What would you call the last dance? Um... I didn't count sport. Powder donuts? I don't count it as entertainment.

It's sports programming though. Yeah, you're right. But it's... I'm nothing... The weekends to me, Ross. And I didn't watch the Big Lobosca this weekend because yesterday it was a mother... You're very busy.

It's fine. It was a Mother's Day thing. And then Saturday I was doing a bunch of honeydews. So I didn't to do it. But for me, the last dance is entertainment. something on television. I can spend hours. Like I was, I told you I was trying to organize some of the pantry stuff

in our, in our kitchen. There's nothing on. I put on the Iheart radio app on my television and listen to music while I was cleaning a house. There's nothing on television right now that intrigues me. You got to find a new TV show. You didn't put on Space City Saturday podcast? Thanks. I don't blame you.

It was a good show. Was it good? We actually had a really good show this weekend. Well, what would define being a really good show? It was very entertaining. I thought it was entertaining. Well, I'll go listen to the way home. Ross made an appearance. Did you really?

Well, I was looking for my keys. You didn't call me by the way of being your show on that. That's true. I forgot. Wow. Well, I got a guess and all that. I forgot. The disrespect.

I heard you guys talk about this on Friday. Yeah, I know. You forgot less than 24 hours later? I got a guest and then Joe came on. I could have used you in the second half. I did spend like three straight segments talking about Deshawn Watson's contract. Oh, we haven't done any Texans today. Are we bad radio host?

No, I don't think so. I mean, I had Aaron Wilson on because he wrote that article on Friday. There's like one or two cuts in there if that show interests you. By the way, you know what the national people in NFL are talking about all this morning when I turned it on today? That the Dak Prescott contract has not been done yet. And that there is tremendous, why is Jerry Jones writing a contract for Andy Dalton at that money he was making? and you can't pay your number one guy the money he thinks he deserves. I feel like Dak's going to get his money,

and if he doesn't, guys, he's still going to make a crap ton of money the next two years. I think we're headed down the Kirk Cousins path. I think he's going to get franchised for two years and walk. And he'll get, he would get like $72 million guaranteed the next two seasons, and then he'll be a free agent. I thought it was $69 million, but what's $3 million among friends? Yeah. I mean, it's just in that ballpark.

I just, Ross, he's going to potentially. If he can't get a long-term deal done, in the next two years, he's going to make the average of the top five players at his position. That's a, excuse my French again, I crap ton of money. Well, isn't it like a 25% increase from the year? It's either whichever's more, the top five average or 25% increase. The year two, he'll. Yeah, so it's 33 this year and then 25 of that.

Did anybody feel sorry for Kirk Cousins because the Redskins didn't sign him to a long-term deal? Yeah, you're like about 40, right? 25% of plus 33 million. plus a quarter, he'd be closing in on 40 at that point. Maybe you were right. Maybe that's over 40. Maybe that 72 million number is where he's going to be. It's a lot of money.

And he's good. I mean, you know, Thomas Sports Enterprises found him before anybody else did. Along with John Ross. Well, we're still got a chance on that one. That's a little slower. Okay. And Thomas Sports Enterprises made a, didn't you make a declaration recently after this year's draft? What was it?

I'm trying to, well, it's your enterprise. I'm trying to remember. What was my area? It was a draft pick you said was going to be successful or somebody was going to take over or running back was going to be good somewhere. It was about a free agent signing or a draft pick. Okay. Well, I'll go.

You check the archives. Yes. Check your scouting notes. But Thomas Sports Enterprises was in on Dak Prescott the moment he played. That's true. But with that being said, he's not going to be the one that maybe he does determine the marketplace. There's a whole, it seems like a kind of a standoff. between the three.

The three names coming up is always going to be Pat Mahomes, Deshawn Watson, and Dak Prescott. Do you want Dak or DeShan? Right now. Right now. I want Deshawn,

but you look at the numbers from last year. You know there's some caveats. Offensive lines better over there. Running games better over there. Dak threw for 4,900 yards, had 30 touchdowns, 11 interceptions. DeShon threw for like 3,800 yards,

20. Six touchdowns and 11 interceptions, or 12 interceptions. Just purely those numbers. It's DAC and is not close, but obviously in any context. I don't, oh man, I could really flip-flop on this, on this. Because here's the thing, I don't, Deshawn's escapability is so awesome and fun to watch, but it's also his continued inability to get rid of the football sometimes

that drives you nuts. Dak can put you on, you know, he can carry a team for an 80-yard drive. And then just when you're about to get to the end zone, he throws that interception or throws that pass slightly behind the guy who's looking, who's wide open in the end zone. And you just put your hand on your top of your head and go, oh, what happened? I guess the argument here, because I have put a poll on my Twitter as well, because we were talking about it at length on the sports RV show Saturdays 10 to noon here in sports Saturday that's on Monday.

Saturday's 10 to noon. Okay. I said, does it Deshawn Watson deserve to be paid more than Dag Prescott? Obviously, most of the people follow me or me, Texans, fans are Houston base. 87% say yes. Still seems a little high to me. I, man, I lean to Sean. But when you get into the facts and the logic of it?

Pretty close. Very close. Mono, mono. Deshawn Watson, or the Dak Prescott's representation should be saying we need to be paid more Deshawn. In Deshawn's representation, he'd say, we need to be paid more than DAC. And they both have valid arguments, I would think. And that's why they're both going to have to wait for probably... Pat Mahomes.

Pat Mahombe get his dollars. But the problem with Dak is he's got until July 15th to accept this. Yeah, the other two can wait. And the two probably will wait. So if Dak doesn't accept what happens then after that point? If he doesn't sign the franchise tag on July 15th, what happens to him? He becomes a holdout? You know, he just can't negotiate until.

next year. Oh, that's right. He either plays for the tag. Like Javion did. You play for the tag, you don't play at all. And then he would be able to negotiate again once the new league's year starts next season, so like March 10th or whatever, 2021. Isn't he waiting for Jimma to back down like he always does? Didn't he back down with Zeke Elliott eventually? Yes. I don't think they're on the same page. Back down with Mari Cooper as well. Marie Cooper really got paid well. Yeah, five years, 100 million. It's a lot of money. All right. So we started with something off of this. Something very important we need to get to. We can do it in the next segment.

We can. 2.30 on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. If you want to reach out through Twitter, we should just write down what we're talking about at that exact moment because I always feel like we moved to a different direction within three minutes. It's really your fault, Joe. You should keep our show more on track than it is. I'll make it worse. Thank you. 713-212-2-5-7-90. Once again, a message for oops, steam cleaning.

281-8-220561 is a number that should be put into your speed dial because, look, carpet accidents are going to happen. We're talking about, perhaps, issues with dirt, spilling of wine and food, maybe your cats or dogs are creating accents in the house, and your carpets don't look and smell their very best. Do yourself a favor. Call loops 281-8220561. If you have expensive oriental rugs, you don't know how to proper to clean them. Oops does. If you've got tile and grot in your bathrooms and your kitchens and you don't want to get in there and do all that, getting like a toothbrush and trying to clean out, don't do that.

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How many shots to the head did you take? Finally, MESPN pulls the plug on Monday night football. Bougar and Joe Tessator are out. Are you okay, Matt? Are you devastated? His voice was just not great. Tessator or Bougar? Tessator is good. I like Tessator on the blow-by-blow for, he,

He does a lot of the boxing. Yeah. Watch that. Watch Booger on, like, NFL Live or something like that in ESPN the other day. Yeah. Really good in studio. Very, very different than in the booth. Just doesn't belong there.

But good, good analyst. Kind of like Alex Rodriguez, better in the booth than he is on the games. Well, why is he wearing a Yankees cap when he's doing the analysis is what I want to know? And I black. And his shirt says, go Yankees. He's got a mirror next to him that he's kissing while he's doing his analysis. Yeah.

Okay. So the leader in the clubhouse is a three-man booth with Steve Levy. Lewis Riddick is getting a lot of run as a potential analyst. And then the decision to be made there from maybe a Brian Greasy or perhaps a Dan Orlovsky. Somebody else, I can't remember all the top of my head was being brought up, but they're going to stay in-house. McAfee was mentioned, but he said that they're not interested in him. Dan Deere's available.

Why do you think McAfee wouldn't be in the mix? Because he said he's not. Too controversial? They want to... I was listening to... Like, there was a clip from his show today, and what he said is that he was told that first they wanted a quarterback,

then they wanted a future Hall of Famer, and basically they just keep making excuses for why Pat's not the guy. So he wasn't getting the respect. They weren't putting respect on his name. I think, frankly, if I was him, staying on the college stuff is good because I think you can build a cult following with that with that younger 18, 19, 20-year-olds who are starting to get into sports radio at that point.

What? Nothing. You agree or no? Sure. I was thinking about, I thought, when you started saying young 18, 19, I was wondering what direction you were going. I was going with college students that are cool college athletes that Pat McAfee gets to introduce his style. to in broadcast, and all of a sudden they become fans of his. So when these guys become professional players, if they're going to go on a TV or radio show,

they're not going to choose old boring-ass sports center. They're going to go on the Pat McAfee show. That's where I was going. I think that's a fair take. Okay. I don't understand. I mean, Monday Net Football shouldn't preclude you from getting people on your show either. But they've tried the different thing, and just, I think that's why Pat's not an option.

But Pat's a former player, too, though. I know. He's a punter. I mean, Booger McFarland isn't any Hall of Fame talent or quarterback. No, ESPN is looking to hit a home run this time. I mean, they went and tried to get Romo.

They went and they consistently throw money and Peyton Manning left and right. Yeah. There must be something in the works. If they stay in-house that they're thinking in two to three years, somebody's going to be ready to come over and do this. Jason Whitten was supposed to be the golden boy and he was a disaster

I'll tell you the truth if there was a player on ESPN that I would grab and go put them on that show Monday Night Football I think Rainy Moss is spectacular no one talks about it I was thinking the same thing they talk about how he's one of the most cerebral football players in the history of the game and he's got a little country accent maybe it's a he doesn't want to do it because he maybe because they he travels to the game side it's not like it's a question of him getting on the road and going somewhere. But there is a difference in being a part of a four or five-man studio show where you have to say one thing or two things every segment as compared to if you're in a booth with one other analysts and a play-by-play guy, having to really get deep into the two and three deep of every particular roster. Yeah, maybe don't trust him to put the work in or something like that.

Because here's the thing. When you're doing a college, and this is how I feel about when I'm calling a game, if you, if somebody called me and said, we need you to do a college or pro basketball game, I could probably. be ready to do it in about two hours. Like if somebody said, the NBA is playing today at 5 o'clock at Toyota Center, rockets against Oklahoma City, can you do it? I can do it and be ready to go. There's no way in football I could do that. Because you're storytelling, you also have much bigger rosters.

When I used to do college football on a regular basis, I would start my charts, my prep on Tuesdays of the week before for Saturday game. And so maybe that's, maybe he doesn't want to put the time in on. like that. And that would be the, but I think for in terms of a guy on ESPN, because I think they're all kind of about the same. Lewis Riddick doesn't move up, jump off the chart to me. Steve Young is nice.

But there's, I mean, none of them are just this, oh, I can't wait to hear what they say next. You know who's really good? Except Randy Moss. Kurt Warner. He's really good. He's so good on the radio. Their radio broadcast with him and Kevin Harlan is A-plus. Like that would be the guy.

Well, that's who they should just hire. And they can find a way to get Kevin Harlan and Kurt Werner for Monday Night Football. That'd be awesome. Get them away from Westwood One somehow. You could put Kevin Harlan on Monday Night Football. He can still work for ESPN and do the NBA games. But I think he's been with Turner and CBS forever. Yeah.

So. And I don't know at the end of the day how big these things are to the general public. It feels like they're way more important to the media types that cover the sports and they are the fans of the South. that's true. It's whoever's on we just want to complain about it. I think that's the way the public feels. When Buffalo played Houston the Wal-Car game, Booker McFarland and Joe Tesla ordered the game,

did we particularly care? I don't remember that. Yeah, we don't care what they said. We just remember the game that was never going to end because Josh Allen just didn't know where he was. He had a bad second half. Rossi, he didn't have a bad second half. He had a second half that made me think he was on the take.

He was he was trying to point shaving the game. Some of the decisions he was making. they were that atrocious. Buffalo Bill football. Kimee Fairbearer. Taiwan Jones. Formerly the Texans. What was your favorite Taiwan Jones

as a Texan moment? That probably got one. Yeah, me too. That one moment that he had. That's exactly what I was thinking. All right. 713, 2,1, 2, 5, 790. And the bottom one is this.

I think part of it is they want to get a sexier broadcast crew because they're going to put these games back on ABC next year, or in the next couple of years. Think so? Yep. Hmm. Yep. Who's going to make that call?

ABC or ABCSPN or the NFL? I think Chiefs Ravens is on ABC, week three. Oh, really? So they're already doing it now? Yeah. There are some games this year that are going to be on ABC, and I think Chiefs Ravens is the first one. They aren't messing around.

Because here's the thing, it's cheaper to do that than it would be to produce a television show with big salaries and have no guarantee of success. Hell, you could simulcast it right? Yeah, what's going to be on ESPN? No, I think they'll simulcast. You know, the right thing to do would be is to put a different, you know how ESPN likes to put multiple camera shots and stuff? Show us an alternative view on the ESPN side of it.

Is the all 22 or the coaches, the coaches room like they do during the national championship game and stuff? Shake it up that way. But, yeah, ABC needs these networks need, with all the different things going on, the network television rating struggling, they need those rating points back on ABC. Final segment, we'll start with Patrick and West University. The rest of you, you're more than welcome to join us. as we take you to 3 o'clock at 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90.

The time is 243. We greatly appreciate you spending some time with us here today on the Matt Thomas show with a message for who we're talking about here. Hoops! A lot of folks in the neighborhood playing basketball yesterday. What a glorious Mother's Day weekend. And we have another great day today. Get outside and shoot some baskets.

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Matt has Maddie Nation. Things are going to start happening to me now. You've made it. I'm somebody now. More Matt Thomas. Now. Final segment of the Matt Thomas show. Thank you again for making our show a part of your day.

We really appreciate that. Patrick on 7.90, good afternoon. What's going on? Oh, not a whole lot. Just living the dream out here. One, I wouldn't mind. I would love to hear Randy Moss. I'm sorry.

I just think he was at the top of, you know, he was at the top of the mountain. And what's someone going to say to him? Like, oh, you could never do that. Well, of course he could do it. I wouldn't mind hearing Andre Ware on the Monday night broadcast. I think he's got some of your mill. to him. I've heard him and Mark disagree before, you know, on what play call may come down. And, you know, that I've heard Andre say, you know, they had me fooled on that one.

I kind of enjoy that instead of having the, oh, I'm always right. I always know what's, you know, going to go down. And my question to you, Matt, being the professional that you are, seriously, can you peel back the curtain? What do you mean when you say you have a board? Does that mean, like, you go to the fourth-strand quarterback and how far do you research a guy? Yeah, good question. and I'll hang up and listen. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Andre Ware is great. Matter of fact, Ross knows his story.

Andre's first ever college broadcast was with me at U of H versus LSU. Yeah, all your partners go on to greatness. And they go on to greatness and I'm with you daily. Sorry. This is what it is. But Andre, for some reason, just doesn't, has not moved up the ESPN charts. in terms of the games. I don't know if it's because his Texan schedule precludes him from doing better games in the afternoon.

Because he does a game on Saturday, and then he flies to where the Texans are. I don't know. But he's, I think Andre's fantastic. But, yeah, he just has not moved into the super big prime. He'll do the early Mississippi State Auburn game or something like that. But he's really good. I'm very happy for him and he's just a good person. And yeah, is not ready to give you the standard pat answer.

The boards are how play-by-play broadcasters prepare their games. It can be on a sheet of computer paper. It can be on a poster board. It can be on a manila folders. I put mine on manila folders where I write their name, the position where they're from, experience, weight, and then all relevant stats. And so your boards, your spotter who is with you, either to the left or right of you, if you can't identify a player, will point to the board and point the position where the person is

your spotter. You can do it. What does it get me? Like 50 bucks a game or something? Probably more. Oh, hey. Now, I don't use a spotter for basketball, but you use a spotter for football. Spotters get between probably $75 to maybe a little bit more than that, depending on what you're,

now network guys are going to get more, obviously. If you spotted for Kevin Harling, you're probably going to get $2,300. Okay. Now you've got to stay six feet away from your spotter. That's a great. I never quite thought of it. You're going to get one of them pointy things you use on a... Pointies can work. Yeah. My first ever spotter, Tony Fitzpatrick, who's listened to the show occasionally,

was an assistant coach at U of H, and his wife wanted to always go on all the road trips, to be around the team. Maybe to keep tabs? No. I saw them in a Rockets game this year. They've been happily married for many, many years. but thanks for presuming that. So she would spot for me. So I was a spotter because it was always easier to find a spotter at home games

because everybody's in town as compared to going on the road. But she traveled with us and she did spotting for us for a couple of years. You don't use a radio spotter, right? I mean, basketball. No, no basketball spotter. Okay. In football, because there's just so many alignment. My philosophy is a football play-by-play guy,

I should know all the offensive players. The quarterback's the skill position players. They're the ones you talk about more than anybody else. I need help when I'm, if I'm watching the ball or whether ball is caught, I may not be able to see who the person was that was covering. Or who the holding penalty was on or something like that. Yeah, or yeah, somebody like that. Now, with Kevin Eshenfelder does the University of Houston games, I'm with, I do the pregame show. And then my responsibilities are done.

So I spot for him. Does he pay you? No. What? Out of control. Come on, Ash. It's called being nice, Ross. You've got to try it once in a while.

Yeah, we'll see. Okay. But it's fun. I do miss calling football games. As much as I love basketball, I do miss, because there's a lot of work involved with it. And then the pageantry of being an NFL or a college game is incredible. Especially good college games, you've not been to before. I mean, I've been lucky.

I've called a game at the Rose Bowl. I've called a game in Hawaii. I've done a game. Yeah, where you skipped on a bill? Well, that, no, we tried to pay that bill. Did a game at LSU Tiger Stadium, which was amazing. That was when Kevin Falk destroyed you guys. I think we were up two touchdowns going on the fourth and lost.

Chris Gordy was bringing that game up recently. I don't remember why. A few months ago. I was like, you know, Matt called that game. He didn't know that you'd call that game. Yeah. And in fact, Kevin Fox should have been suspended for the game. He came back after a very, very short suspension.

Yeah, I think that's what we were talking about. And he had, like, didn't U.H get up big or something? Yeah. And then Kevin Fox just took the game over. Yeah. And I think he had a return. I think the LSU scored 21 points. and the fourth quarter won the game.

That's got to hurt. If we'd have won that game, the SEC would have invited us immediately. You think so? But it was just a lot of bad officiating, I'm sure. Well, there was bad decision-making by LSU's officials to allow Kevin Falk to play in that game. That was the problem. Okay. You're bringing up bad memories.

I'm sorry. You were talking about calling a game in Tiger Stadium. Yeah. That had to be my favorite place in terms of just sheer noise. What's your favorite place, basketball or football or otherwise, number one on the list? I have to separate. Because I know you don't like MSG. No, MSG is terrible.

You think it's overrated? Oh, yeah, the world's most overrated arena. Even though Michael Jordan scored 55 there in 1995. And without any wind or breath somehow. And bled with his shoes in 1998. Yeah. Favorite. I love it, the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Just big time atmosphere. Either it's a Clippers or a liquor's game. Go take a picture with the Oscar De La Huis. statue. Yeah. That's when Snoop Dog right in front of me and I froze. Did you smell like herbs and spices? No, I think you smell like arid extra guard or something.

Rich mahogany? Yeah. And then for football, college football, Tiger Stadium, Rose Bowl. I'm trying to think we're also, I've done a college game that was really, really big time. I think that's about it. Isn't the Rose Bowl in the hood or is that L.A. Coliseum? No, it's no. L.A. Coliseum's in the hood.

Oh, my God. That's what Ed Fowler and I tried to run out of there as fast as we can. after the got dark he goes Thomas let's get the hell out of here he said

isn't there weed in the stadium yes let's get the hell out of here what's legal there now yeah that's true all right

um what else anything else we forgot about the 8 team good a little cross talk his wex are going to be on the on the Monday night meeting

are you from his porch from his driveway yeah just for those of you that aren't watching this show like I am right now, Ross says, let's preview the A team. And the look on Matt's face is an exact replica of the word no.

Then Ross suggests, should we talk about your Monday night meeting, Matt? And he lights up like a Christmas tree. Exactly. Yes, I'll be on tonight's meeting. And did I invite you? Well, I was on the text and I said in. So that means, yes, you were invited. So was I.

How did you forget you texted us, both? I don't know. Come on, Matt. I definitely didn't invite Clinton this. I'm trying to rotate it around. I understand. To like six people. By we're still working on trying to do a family feud.

Oh, I like that. But I want it to look good. I just don't think it's going to happen. We're going to get you on your whiteboard. You're going to have to make it look as good as you can. It's up to you, man. I want it to be authentic, though. You need to survey 100 people.

Eh, you get that you're going to get your survey monkey going. Survey monkey going. Already been said. Yeah, who's going to do it? You can just have your daughter do the sound effects. Like how old my kids walk in and cross their arms? Yes, exactly. name something that falls from a tree.

Orange. Pallina. In what month do women start showing their pregnancy? First. No, the answer was September. All right, that's Adam Wexer. You're going to enjoy the hell out of the next three hours. He and Adam Clinton combined are not just two great sportscasters.

We refer to them as the A team, and they're up next. Later this week, Ernie Johnson from TNT will make an appearance on this show. We'll have more people we miss hearing from. We miss all of you as well. Call us. Let us know how you guys are doing. Enjoy the rest of your day. Be safe. Look forward to the A team next here on 790.

Talk to you guys tomorrow at noon. And tonight, the nightcap at 6th, right here on Sports Talk, 790.