The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 1-8-20

Episode Date: January 8, 2020

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 1/8/20Dan Israel Joins Matt With a Kansas City Perspective of Texans v Chiefs (41:37)Watchu Talkin' Bout Bill (1:05:28)Commissioner of the XFL, Oliver Luck, joins Matt Thomas (1:44:21)

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas Show. Oh, one in H-town. What's happening, lunch-timers? Good afternoon to you, and welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Coming to you today, he said easily.

from Atlanta, Georgia, where tonight the Houston Rockets will start a two-game road trip this evening against the woeful hawks. And then tomorrow night, a lot more drama as the Rockets will go to play the Oklahoma City Thunder. It'll be the second of three meetings between the two teams. It'll be the only time that Russell Westbrook, at least in the regular season, gets to go against his old teammates in OKC. They've already played once. Chris Paul playing really well so far and they won a game last night in fact over Brooklyn and will be very eager to welcome Russ home.

My guess is Russ is going to get a very warm reaction from those that were, you know, followed him for obviously the first of what 11 years of his in NBA career. So very much looking forward to that. But first things first, we have a Houston Texans game to get to. We're going to run to Kansas City, not only today at 1 o'clock, but we'll also run to Kansas City tomorrow as well to kind of give you some perspective from two different folks that cover the team on a daily basis.

Dan Israel from the Saints and Saints, the Chiefs Radio Network will be joining us, and he'll be with us at 1 o'clock today. Bill O'Brien is having a press conference, and you'll hear that, some of the highlights of that when we play Woodch talking about Bill coming up at 1.30. And then an old friend of the show, has been on a few times. here and there. Oliver Luck, the commissioner of the XFL, will be on this radio program and he will join us today at 2.30 to talk about not only training camp coming here to

Houston, that's everybody's training camp coming to Houston and on top of that some of the new rules that the XFL will have. I don't know how impactful frankly the XFL is going to be. They are in big cities. Most of them have NFL cities. with them. I think really the exception, I think it's St. Louis. Maybe there's one more. I don't know for sure. But the fact of the matter is, it'll be good springtime football. I just don't know how hokey is going to be. If it's going to be legit, or are we going to say, hey, this is really something fun for us to enjoy in the non-NFL season. I can tell you this, and you guys have known this,

if you've listened to show for any length of time, I was a huge, huge fan of the USFL back in the early 1980s and it had a lot of stars it had a matter of fact I had so many stars that you know you could probably run through a list of 10 to 1520 significant players that played in the usFL that wound up playing and being very successful in the NFL I don't know if that's the end game for the xFL but it'll be very interesting to see what exactly they want to do and how they want to create a very fan-friendly environment mean look the NFL is the beast It's the monopoly. It's the number one thing out there.

But there are things about the NFL that do bug people. There are things about the NFL that turn off the sport. And it'll be curious to see what things that the XFL thinks the NFL is making mistakes with that they can capitalize on. So we'll see. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach the radio program today. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Nick and Ross will be coming up. up on the show shortly. They are at a little

get-together today with some other media folks. So they will join us here in just a few minutes. Joe George is back in our studio. So if you would like to call in and get an early thought on the Texans game coming up with the Chiefs, that point spread if you're so inclined to be a part of that, is still

around the nine and a half point mark. And at the end of the day, and Ross and I do argue about this a lot. He is one of those people that says you know, well, Vegas doesn't make mistakes. Well, Vegas does make mistakes. He's also one that argues with me about, he's probably in the car,

oh, man, I don't say these things. That, you know, Vegas, you know, it depends on, I don't think Vegas particularly cares who wins the game. They just want to have money on both sides. Now, my guess is they would like to have it a certain percentage on each of the side and one over the other. But I've never thought in my mind, a particular team plays an NFL game or an NBA game,

game and as a double-digit deficit or an eight-point dog or whatever and then you go well it's not really even worth watching because there wasn't a soul out there really outside of minnesota that fought the new orleans saints at 13 and three the number three see in the nfc playoffs were going to lose to the minnesota vikings but yet they did and yeah there were people that bet minnesota there were probably a lot of people that bet on new orleans but the fact is we didn't care because about the event. So if you're a Houston Texan fan and you are excited about this game coming up on Sunday,

you don't care there are a 9.5 point dog. It shouldn't matter to you. Now if you have a if you're a degenerate, which I consider myself a quasi-degenerate, although I don't bet, you know, outside of Las Vegas, but I do enjoy point spreads and over-unders and that kind of thing. It's one of those scenarios that

it just really more for sports radio purposes. If you're better, you bring it up but it shouldn't i mean there have been boatloads of teams that have been nine and a half point deficits that have gone on the road and won games the question is going to be is this texan team going to be the one that does that and i you know i have i had an initial thought the moment the texans beat the bills i had actually caught a few moments and thoughts about them as they were playing this overtime game with buffalo and then i thought about the fact that during the regular season when no one, including me,

thought the Texans could go to Kansas City and beat them on their home field? And they did. And yeah, everything is amplified. And everything is, you know, Kansas City's had the week off. Texans had to play a game with overtime. Texans have faults. Well, so too does Kansas City. We're going to try to find out some of those faults with Dan Israel from Chiefs Radio coming up at 1 o'clock.

But they have lost games. In fact, they've lost quite a few games at Arrowhead. Two of their home losses this year are teams in the AFC Sound, Indianapolis and Houston. So it isn't impossible. Frankly, I don't think it's impossible that Baltimore could slip up and lose to Tennessee. Tennessee, and look, New England's not New England, okay? We know that.

We've talked about that all year long, especially back half of the year. But no matter what you think of Tom Brady and the offense, it was a stellar defense that New England has had that helped. them win the AFC East that helped them become the three seed and that's a football team that has been ridiculously good at Gillette Stadium but they lost so while I'm still wrestling with who I think's going to win the game if you're a Texan fan and someone bumps into you today and says oh they've got no chance that's just stupid that's just somebody that's trying to hate now ultimately we're all going to have to make a decision on who we think's going to win this football game

going to have to decide if Deshawn Watson and the Texans offense can be better in the first half than they were, really frankly, in any first half this season. You can't fall behind like they did in Kansas City and expect to survive. The Texans have had serious problems all year, really for about the last four or five years covering tight ends, and Travis Kelsey is one of the best. And Pat Mahomes is healthier today than he was when he took on the Texans. But this notion of the Texans have no chance because Vegas says they're nine and a half point dogs I'm not buying it I'm not not letting point spreads to determine whether or not I think a

particular team is going to win it should be about the result that what you think in terms of talent level coaching intangibles more so than what Vegas tells me 713212 5790 if you want to get an early warrant on this win and here's a question I want to throw it to you and this is where you have to be honest with me if you don't mind When you're at the water cooler and you have been, and that's a phrase that you know we all sports radio host use, when you're at the water cooler, when you're with your buddies, coworkers, maybe you're at the grocery store, maybe you've had a church event, whatever the case may be, and you bring up Texans and Chiefs in that group. What does that group tell you?

You got a chance? Texans are going to win. or have you spent more time talking about how Kansas City just looks pound for pound to be a much better football team than the Houston, Texas? I'd like to know early on before we really get into more of the game is what is the water cooler talk with you and your friends? Send me a message you can on Twitter at SportsMT or you can dial in at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790 here in Atlanta for the right. Rockets and the Hawks, NBA conversation. We haven't talked much about the Rockets the last handful of days because obviously the Texans have become main topic of conversation.

Plus, it sounds like the Astros are going to have company, the potential cheating scandal, and it also sounds like, again, the Astros are going to find out here in the next couple weeks exactly what fate penalty they're going to be suffering from Major League Baseball if they indeed found plenty of infractions. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-2-790 on Twitter. at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at ProNic Lowe. It is the Matt Thomas show from the ATL here on Sports Talk 790.

The Rockets at Red Nation. Matt has Maddie Nation. Things are going to start happening to me now. You made it. I'm somebody now. More Matt Thomas. Now. Time is 1216.

It is the Matt Thomas show here from Atlanta, Georgia. Sports RV is back from his little chick-fil-Legger. together. How are you a sports rave? I'm well Matt. You sound like you're on a game show or something. You sound fantastic. Well, thank you very much. I'm actually a good energy. I didn't get here to Atlanta. Took the night, the last flight of the day on South West. And then by the way, that's a little, if y'all want a little secret, take the last flight of the night. They're usually the emptiest of the seats. We had 60 open seats on our flight yesterday. I take the last flight of the night almost like a 90% of any return flight. I'm taking. Yeah. I got a little bit of an airline story to tell you about. We won't do. We won't do it. We won't do. at this second because I want to introduce you and get a couple things in. But we've got a little airline bit I want to ask you about later on this hour. Plus again, we've got Dan Israel at 1 o'clock from Chiefs Radio and which you're talking about Bill at 130. All right. So the line, so now, Ross, the line is 10 points. Yeah, I heard you tell him lies on me and you were right. Absolutely right.

I was in my car saying Matt is just telling falsehoods right now. I figured you'd appreciate that. And that happens to me sometimes when I listen to your time. I'm like, I want to call Ross. You should. So what, okay, so you're, because you're way more on this than I am. Why do you think the half point spike in just the last day or so? Oh, really? I didn't know that. Okay, look, I'm not going to say that means a whole lot.

I mean, it depends. Sometimes usually early money is the public getting a hold of it, and the late money coming in would be the sharps. But a lot of times the sharps are wrong a lot, too. So, I mean, I don't put a whole lot of stock into that. But into what you were saying about, I mean, it's just a fact. If the team's a touchdown favorite, they're going to win the game more often than not. Does it mean they win 100% of the?

time, of course not. But it just, to me, it's, it's a good way to kind of get a handle on how much of a favorite one team is over the other. Because if you just look at the numbers and how often a team wins if they're a three point favorite or seven point favorite or ten point favorite, it obviously continues to go up. So there is a little bit of something to glean from the Vegas number. Is it an end all be? Of course not. But it's just a way for me to get a handle on on what people are thinking or what I should be thinking about how much better one team is than the other. But I got, but I'll be honest with you, Ross. I got suckered in last week because that, number on the Saints game started out really big and kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

And I thought to myself, there's no way that Minnesota with sucky Kirk Cousins is going to jump on a plane, go to New Orleans and win there. And then I forgot that they have got Delvin Cook, who was amazing in the game. We, I will, and I shouldn't put we. I got hoodwinked into the opening line thinking no way, no chance that the Minnesota Vikings can go and win that. I was talking. Yeah, go ahead. Well, somebody go ahead. I'll go ahead, I guess. I was talking with we were at the Chick-fil-A thing, and of course, as you know, Matt, we are crawling all over the place with LSU-S-U-Slaid fan. So I was talking with somebody who worked up here, who was a Saints fan.

And I was telling them, like, I didn't feel like that was that huge of an upset because if you look at the talent on the Minnesota Vikings, like you just laid out. I mean, Dalvin Cook, Stefan Diggs, Adam Thielen, Kyle Rudolph, and then you go to the other side of the ball with the Harrison Smiths and Everson Griffins and those types of guys and Xavier Rhodes. Like, they have talent all over the field. The Vikings are a really good football team. and certainly if Kurt Cousins is going to play well, which he did, especially in that overtime,

they can beat anybody. Well, I think the reason why the number was so big was because no one trusted Kirk Cousins. Because all the different skill position players you talked about are all pros, very successful, made Minnesota a really good, made him a playoff team. I mean, they didn't get to the playoffs because they were handed an invitation. They got there because they won a lot of games. Now, granted, most of them were against NFC. North opponents and playing a middle of Hacks schedule.

But they got there for a reason. Now, were they not very good on Sunday night or Monday night football? Yeah. I mean, the Kirk Cousins history is pronounced. But they thought, you know what? Big moment, big opportunity. Kirk Cousins usually fades. And he didn't.

And they won. I mean, how many people think that Minnesota can go to San Francisco today this weekend and win that football game? What's the line on that one? I know that Tennessee is 10 points. So we got two 10-point games in play. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, Square at seven right now.

I totally think it's within the realm of possibility of them being in the Niners. I think the Niners are better on, certainly on defense, but that's a game to me that could go either way. I mean, seven points, even if you talk about that being a big spread, it's one score. Right. So what I've done is, and the reason why we talk about spreads is because it has become such a big part of the sports. Ross, when I first got in this business, we never talked about who was a favor over and under. Not that we were avoiding it. Well, Jimmy the Greek did.

But he wouldn't even really get into the points, though. If you never go watch an old NFL today, he basically just gave you the winners. He didn't tell you take Tampa Bay plus 11 and a half at Detroit. All right, the Swami did. Was he really the first one? I thought it was Pete Axel that was the first one that did it. Well, I mean, Chris Berman as the Swami, he would definitely pick against the points. I definitely vividly remember that as a young man.

Because I didn't know what, I didn't understand how it was, I remember not an understanding how it spread worked as a kid. And like, what's going on? He's picking this team. But I remember thinking he picked a team that won, but they didn't cover. And I was like, how come he's counting this as a loss? I remember thinking. Right.

Yeah, Swami for sure has been the most consistent. But I think the first, and this is growing back again, this is about the same time. I mean, Jimmy the Greek was the most famous one because he was a, he was a handicapper that was on a football show that was used as kind of an analyst. But I don't think he ever said, tonight, Green Bay and the, or today, Green Bay, or Today, Green Bay and the Giants are playing. I like the Giants to win, but I'll take the Green Bay with the point. I don't know.

I remember Pete Axtel may be doing it on NBC when Bob Kosses used to host the show. But point being is this. In 2019, every television network has a point spread show now. ESPN, FS1. When you watch games on the Sunday NFL counten's, it's never just Lions at Packers. It's Lions Plus 6 at Green Bay. Because you know who's responsible for this, Ross? honestly is the NFL in Vegas.

I mean, yeah. You go, we've, we've asked books all the time when you and I have gone non-football season. How much money is spent? Like, for instance, they'll spend, you will spend more on one weekend in an NFL Sunday than maybe you'll get an entire month of June or July on baseball and other sports there. It's, it, football and betting has become a part of the analysis. And I used to have a partner way back in the day that would never, ever talk about a game

if the line was more than say 10 or 11 because he says no one cares because everybody thinks that our team is going to win. And I thought to myself, man, you mean to tell me that nobody that's an 11-point dog ever wins games? And that's what I think the mentality has to be for Texans fans. Yeah, this point spread has been bumped up a half points, nine and a half to 10.

I just think it just makes it more of an interesting conversation for wager purposes. It doesn't necessarily mean it should affect your opinion whether or not you think the Texans can go to Kansas City on Sunday win that football game. Yeah, I agree. It was one of those things to me. It's no real.

Yeah, I'm not saying, you know, this game's over. It just give you a little litmus test. Just a baseline of what to think coming into a game, I feel like. You and I are going to hold off our master predictions until 1230 on Friday. By the way, I went and looked at our numbers. You and I both went one and two on our picks because the Texans game was a push. And Nick went two and one. So he's got a little bit of bragging out.

Oh, I got the Texans at my eyes two and a half personally. You got him at three. Not on the MT Friday picks No, I got him two and a half Just kidding You all just Okay But let me ask you this

In your mind, don't announce Have you wavered even a little bit From your first initial thought About this game coming up on I have not I have a smidge Ooh You're a known flounder though

No because once you write it down And once we say it We have to stick with it Right no yeah I'm not going to stick with it I'm letting it. Okay. And we're talking, and when we make the bets on Friday,

or not bets, but just kind of our predictions, we will obviously say, all right, if you were in Vegas, would you take the points? It doesn't matter. And then who would the outright winner? Because at the end of the day, the most important thing is who outright wins, unless again, you've got a financial interest in it. 713-212-790.

7-1-3-212-5-790. If you'd like to join our show today, Jamaica is in Sugarland on 7-90. Jamaica, good afternoon. Good afternoon, Matt. Ross, how you guys doing? Hello. Hello.

Matt, what are you guys doing? Go ahead. Go ahead. Now, Matt, the question to ask you is this, Matt. So did you guys get to the 18th or last night or this morning? The team left early yesterday afternoon. I'm going to let you go. I think we got a little bit of a delay because of some wired problems here in the hotel.

Ross, I'll answer. I think he's, he want to know about the. strip clubs is what it says on the screen i mean that is going to tell you man that'll give you a lot of idea of whether or not to bet on the rockets against the spread what time did the team get in did they have time to go out and party uh the team arrived here around lunchtime yesterday and they went and practiced and then i have no idea what they did after that um as far as me i arrived at midnight uh ordered some room service and went to bed about 1.30 you didn't go to magic city so there you have it. I don't even know what that is.

And I'm going to stick to it. Atlanta's a top 10 strip club city, isn't it? I would probably say, yeah, that's up there. I mean, Houston's up there as well. We're going to go with Tampa, Vegas, somewhere up there? I'm not sure. Point being is this.

And I hate to tell you all this. Every NBA city has strip clubs. So if any player, if your favorite player and your favorite team has issues or like to go to strip clubs that's their own business but there are strip clubs in Sacramento there are strip clubs in Charlotte there are strip clubs in every city in America and now maybe Miami may in Atlanta may be a little different New York Chicago LA but if guys in the NBA MLB MLS European League whatever they'll

find if they want a strip club they'll find them so my guess is Jamaica was trying to ask Ross whether or not there would be if I had any news about any players showing up at some odd hour of the morning. Is that what I'm kind of guessing? Any bleary-eyed, glassy-eyed Houston Rockets showing up to the hotel room at 4 a.m. But I guess you wouldn't know that because you just said you got room surfs and chilled out. That's right. But put it this way.

If I went to bed at, if they went to bed at 3 o'clock in the morning, you can still get 8, 9 hours of rest. The game is not until 7.30 local time. Yeah, that's true. That's why they go out to like 4 or 5 in the morning, right? Yeah, because they all. All they do is eat. There's no pregame shootarounds. This, you know, veteran teams in the NBA have gotten rid of what they call game day practices,

a little what they call shootarounds, which are about an hour of just running through a few plays. They don't do that anymore. They eat around lunchtime, they watch video, and they sleep all day. That's what these players do. And then they go run two and a half miles on NBA court. That's what it's come down to. 1228 on the Matt Thomas show. 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-79. reach out via Twitter. You can do that as well at SportsMT and at SportsRB. We are with you today until 3 o'clock. We go to Dan Israel with Chiefs Radio in one half hour. 1228. Matt Thomas from Atlanta on Sports Talk 790. Hey, yo, Adrian. Um, Rocky, my name is Alexa. Oh, I like to hear sports. Then say, Alexa plays Sports Talk 790 on IHeart Radio. Whoa. How many shots to the head did you take? 1232 on the Matt Thomas show here from Atlanta GA. Ross is back at our Houston studios. Nick Lowell will joining us shortly.

Joe George is producing the first half hour of the show. Joe, is this an indictment on how much you're having fun on the show? Because you don't want to leave or you just really want to leave and waiting for Nick to show up. I'm just kind of waiting for Nick to show up. But, you know, I'm here for now. I'm here until you need me. Do we need to get an obligatory Chicago Bears information to the audience early on? No, we're okay.

nothing going on. When are we going to get into Bulls and Blackhawks talk on your web on your webcast? Never, because they're both terrible. I'm a free Asian basketball fan right now. What do you mean? Why can't you come to the Houston Rockets side of thing? Yeah, what's wrong with that? I'm probably going to.

I wasn't, you know, I was a little hesitant at first, but, you know, they've grown on me. It took a while. I don't know why. I loved the Astros right away. I grew to love the Texans once they had to Sean Watson. And, you know, the Rockets are probably my team. but, you know, it's just taking a little longer. I don't know why.

I just haven't fallen in love. What can I do to help make this happen? Hmm. I don't know. Honestly, the Russell Westbrook trade made it pretty much happen because I loved it. I loved it. I love Russell Westbrook as a player. So it had me sold.

Honestly, I don't know if there's really much. I love Eric Gordon. That's my guy. So I'm probably there at this point. I'm probably a Rockets fan, I would say. It took a little longer than the other two teams for some reason. All right. Well, if there's any Chicago Bear breaking news between now and the time that you leave the show, let us know.

There won't be. Okay. Because, you know, we are your unofficial home of Chicago Bears football here in Houston, Texas. That's not true. That's right. Chris in spring at 1233 on the Matt Thomas show, Chris, how are you? Hey, pretty good. How you doing, Matt?

Good, buddy. What's up? Hey, so in regards to the Houston Texans playing the Kansas City Chiefs this weekend, to me, this game comes. down to one huge X-factor. And that's whether or not Will Fuller can play and if he's going to be healthy. Will Fuller opens up that offense so much to the point where the Texans' offense is a different beast. I mean, they can put up, you know, tons of points on the board to where Hopkins is even

more effective and even a running game is good. I'm not really buying into what the media is talking about, how the Kansas City Chiefs Defense have been playing so well. as of late. But if you look at their opponents, they played terrible opponents. They played opponents that weren't even in the playoffs with the exception of the Patriots.

But the Patriots, we've seen what happened to them last week. So I'm not buying that the Chiefs defense is all that great. I still think that, you know, they haven't played an offense like the Texans. And so if Wolf Fuller can go next week or this Sunday, I give the Texans a huge chance. I think they can win. and pull out the game against the Chief.

I want to ask you a question, Chris. I want you to define for me what the Texans offense is. Give me the full definition. Don't give me what you saw in the last 17 minutes on Saturday. Give me what the complete definition of the Houston Texans offense is. Well, the definition of the Texan offense, I would say, Deshawn Watson improvising. That's what it comes down to.

And I get it. And Deshaun Watson, you know, the Texans win in spite of, you know, the head coach, Bill O'Brien, because I know he makes a lot of, you know, boneheaded calls out there. I get it. But we cannot deny when we see Will Fuller on the field, especially like even week one against the Saints. I know they lost against the Saints, but they put up tons of points. Will Fuller is such a dynamic player. I believe, and you probably disagree, when Will Fuller's.

is healthy. He is just as dangerous as Tyreek Hill is from Kansas City as explosive. And I'm not saying that he's the best player on offense or even the second best player, but I just think that he opens up that offense so much to the point

where the Texans will be able to match Kansas City point for point because of him being on the field. Now, if he's very limited or if he can't play, then all bets are off. I think Kansas City is going to win this game. But you know, with this, you know, he was a game time decision this past Saturday.

He didn't play. And so if this extra week or week in the day, you know, gets him an opportunity to get, you know, healthy and get on the field, I think a lot of us, a lot of people are underestimating the Texas chance is going into Kansas City and winning that game. Well, Chris, I'm going to partially agree with you. Tyree Kill is a much more accomplished NFL receiver than Will Fuller has. He is.

He's just, he's more valuable to Kansas City. and from, you know, he has more catches, more impactful plays, more highlights, and health is a large part of the requirement. He's on the field way more than Will has been during his NFL career. The part I will agree with you on is the fact that they are used the same way. They, Will Fuller, by him just getting downfield and even being just an option, I think stretches the entire defense for Kansas City or for any opponent. and that's the one thing that as good as Kenny Stills is and as good as all the tight ends have been and the fact that DeAndre Hopkins catches everything, that's the one facet of the Texans offense that isn't there.

The question I have, and you and I, Chris, don't know the answer to this, is what Will Fuller shows up, even if he puts the uniform on, even if he's less than 100%, which I'm going to presume that he is, because when you've been battling hamstring and groin injuries all year long, it's obviously a recurring injury. Think new things aren't popping up. What is that going to be? Who is that player going to be on Sunday?

Will Kansas City really respect a guy that frankly hasn't played much this season and in some of the most important games of the season? That's a fair question. And I can't dispute what you're saying. But I do think even if Will Fuller isn't all the way healthy, he's somewhat limited, Kansas City is going to have to still pay attention to him,

which I think will free up Hopkins, and I think even the running game would hide. You know, he had a pretty big game last game, last time against Kansas City earlier in the season. I think he almost had 100 yards last time against Kansas City. I think he can duplicate that this time around as well. I just don't think it's as open and shut as a lot of people are thinking that, oh, Kansas City is just going to blow out Houston.

I don't see that at all. Thanks for the phone call. Good conversation, Chris. I will say this, Ross. All of us will pipe up a little bit. We'll get a little bit more of energy when we find out that Will Fuller is active for this football game. It's completely human to think that. I think so, yeah. I'd be excited.

I would love to see Will Fuller out there. I want to see, me and I want to see Watson, Mahomes, shootout at Arrowhead. The weather is supposed to be okay, right? Even though we're kind of far out, you can never tell. Anything over 48 hours is kind of BS, as a meteorologist once told me. But we can guess that it's hopefully going to be all right. I'm not going to tell you. Okay.

Was it Cheetah? All right. You got me. It was Cheetah. No, it wasn't. But I'll say this. As exciting as I think people will get, if there's the good news, I think Ross, we've seen it before many times this year.

It's defloating in the other direction. when you find out that Will Fuller once again is hurt. That's the huge thing is, I mean, even if he does play, I guess we could, twice this season, I believe he played and then came out playing under 20 snaps because of him re-injuring himself, so hopefully that doesn't happen. Here's the reality of it, and it sucks, but the reality is this. His body is not meant to play full-time NFL football. That sucks that a player is important to the 10th,

Texans offense, you have to say that statement. Now, have the Texans won without them on the football field? Clearly. But if you're going to go against one of the most high-octane offenses in the NFL, a number two seed on their home field, you want to go in there with every bullet available to you. And that's why it will be, I think, a boost if at least he gives it a go. And I think he's going to, I have never said one word of Willford in my life. But my guess is he's really hurt. Let me tell you something, Ross. If there was any notion that he was a you know what?

You know what I'm saying? A pee? You'd find out. Okay. There'd be enough people that would bark about it. A patriarch? No. A pigeon?

Nope. Hmm. A persimmon? You know what I'm talking about. Hmm. I think he's legitimately hurt all the time. An IP sucks. Being an IP sucks.

internet protocol but it means he can't be ready for this Sunday's game and give it a go and try because that's why they pay him frankly that's why he was a first round pick and that's why they know will Fuller knows DeAndre Hopkins knows the tight ends know the running backs know that adding his

little dimension of the game whatever that may be whether it be 15 20 25 snaps is going to potentially make a difference and get some underneath stuff available to his teammates. At least now we know that losing sucks. And if anybody knows how much losing sucks, it's Matt Thomas.

I'm outstanding. This is Whitney Mercily. Back to the Matt Thomas Show. Sports Talk 790. I want to give a quick shout out to my beloved Houston Cougars. This Houston Cougar update brought to you by our friends at the joint chiropractic of the Houston Coutic. Sports RV, my cougars.

are two and oh in conference plan my friend when won their opener against UCF and then went to fill it off for yesterday to knock off those pesky temple owls. Oh, congratulations. Getting more votes in the top 25, weekend and week out. Very happy about that. Are they?

Yeah. Are they in the top 25? They're getting close. Okay, so they're in others receiving votes. They're in the others receiving votes. It's good. But they're 2 and 0, 12 and 3 on the season. And they took care of business last night knocking off the Temple allows 78 to 74. The Longhorns got destroyed over

on Saturday by the Baylor Bears and they play the Sooners tonight on KPRC 950. Wow. And you're doing the pre and pre and the post posts on that? Of course. Just from my couch. We have Rockets basketball here on 790 where I will be here in Atlanta calling the Rockets and the Hawks. Here's the thing, Ross. The Rockets can't slip up tonight against Atlanta because tomorrow night's going to be much more of an emotional bit because Russ goes back to Oklahoma City for the first time. He's not playing

tonight. He's out for rest. But they can't slip up. They have to beat the Hawks without Russell Westbrook. Right? I would hope so. I mean, Atlanta's terrible. Really bad. The youngest team in the NBA, by far. Trey Young, stud. A lot of other players, John Collins, pretty good. Rest the team, Cam Ranish, young, inexperienced, doesn't shoot very well. A lot of Duke players, too. The team's littered with ACC. players. All right, so congratulations to my cougars again. Caleb Mills with 23 points last night, 7874 Houston over Temple, and that is your Cougar update presented to you by the Joint Chiropractic, the Fisher Chiropractor of U of H Athletics. 713-212-5-790. We go to Kansas City at the top of

the hour. Right now we say hello to Cinco and Rosenberg on the Matt Thomas show. Cinco, good afternoon to you, my friend. What's going on? Not much, amigos. How y'all doing? We're doing great. Cool, man. No more Chirinos, no more Robinson? We have failed to mention that Robinson Chorinos is going back to play for the Texas Rangers. I believe it's a two-year contract, if I'm not mistaken. I know it's guaranteed for one. I mean, how devastated are you, one to ten? Tell the truth.

Probably like a three. I like his defense and stuff, but the thing that concerns me is like pitchers. They're like extremely quirky. and real OCD-ish. I'm wondering how that's going to, or if it's going to affect Burlander, I was going to ask you what you, do they just say, okay, next catcher, please. Because it seems like Eric didn't care who was behind the plate. Here's the reality.

Like Burlander wanted Cherinos in there. Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, no, no, you're good. I'm saying you're good. First of all, it's a one-year deal. We just checked on it. Secondly, and I don't mean to be.

you know, kind of let's avoid the Diva syndrome here. But Sinko, if Justin Verlander is making $35 million a year or whatever it is for the next couple of years, if I ask Sinko and Rosenberg to catch for him, he better just accept it. You know, you just, there's just going to be certain spots in the baseball team that you're just not going to spend a lot of money on. Frankly, again, it's very difficult to find any of them,

any catchers in today's world that are really big, you know, that can not only handle the glove, but handle the bat as well. You know, and so... Yeah, they're rare. They're rare. Martin Maldonado is here. I think Max Dassey's going to be around.

They went and signed, what's his name, Mourneau? So they've got some options. It just might be a... It might take three or four weeks in spring training to get everything kind of figured out in terms of what catcher fits Justin Verlainter the best. But, again, ultimately to me, you know what? If I asked Ross to catch, he should be able to handle it.

Cool. Hey, I had one more question. I actually asked it last week and never got an answer because I had that that mic drop moment with Sunny playing Christmas music in February this year. Yes, you did. But the question I had was, you know, with everything, all the pictures and stuff being gone from the Astros and now one catcher and blah, blah, blah, blah. How was that? I had mentioned. Did we lose him? And Garrett's gone. Right. I was saying that he had something up his sleeve, something real big. Okay.

And then my question was what was left. Who's left out there that he could go after? Well, the reality is there isn't anybody that's one of those kind of players talking about. When we're sitting here on January the 8th. That sucks. Well, it's... The one that's going to probably hurt a little bit more will be Will Harris, to be really honest with. you. That one might

sting a little bit. But tell me somebody else in that group that you're like, my God, we're not going to win more than 85 games with. Yeah, that's true. I mean, I kind of feel like they're going to have to do something with the closer because I think

the best setup guy for the closer was Harris. Osuna, man, he's either on fire or, man, he's just like, I don't know, I still have any confidence in the guy, you know what I'm saying? So I don't know, man.

We'll see what happens, I guess. Yeah, I think I said Max Dasty, by the way. It's not Max Dats. It's Garrett Stubbs is the guy who would be on there. Thank you for the phone call. Yeah, the three-headed... I was just looking at the roster right now. It's Garno, Maldonado, and Stubbs.

I mean, to be really honest with you, it probably doesn't mean the Houston Astros are going to win any sort of silver slugging award with those two guys, throw those three guys in that position. So I would just say, let's just hope that one through eight do their thing, and ultimately number nine, whoever that, you know, I'm presuming the catcher would be in the ninth spot or eighth spot, they build some sort of rapport. Again, I don't think it's one of those scenarios. Like, look Ross for all those years that Gary Sanchez has been leading the Yankees. I mean, has Gary Sanchez being a terrible catcher ultimately affected who the Yankees are?

I don't think so, but it's nice to have a good defensive catcher. Oh, no question about it. going to have, I mean, a lot of times, I mean, not everybody's going to be, you know, prime buster posy or something like that. So, I mean, if you are going to have somebody who's a butcher back there, he's got to hit a little bit, which Gary can do. So if Gary couldn't hit and he was doing what he was doing back there, he would be useless. Isn't there a Molina or somebody available at some point we can help out to help the cause a little bit? Or like a clone of one of them? I mean, don't, don't the Malina is so old, they have to have kids by now that are

going to be catchers? I would imagine. I feel like there's a, a, a, I feel like there's a, a, handful of family names that always have to have players in the sport. Like, there's always got to be a Plumley playing basketball, right? There's always got to be a Molina catching. What about, well, the Luz have been slacking. There was a lose in baseball for, like, ever. Is there any a lose around still? You mean, like, oh, Felipe, Maddie, Moises, Harpo, Groucho-Loo.

Mm-hmm. There's got to be a boon somewhere, right? Right? I mean, it's always going to be playing. There's got to be a long somewhere playing in the NFL or a Matthews. We got a night. We've got more your Schremski's hanging around now. We have one. K-1. But still.

Valid point. 713-212-5-790. So how you reach the show. 7-1-3-212-5-790. The Matt Thomas Show here from Atlanta. We go to Kansas City next. Dan Israel. Chiefs.

Radio Network will join us to discuss, are there any issues that worry Kansas City about this team? Is the Matt Thomas Show. As we promised, we are going to get you to Kansas City not only today, but tomorrow to get you ready for this matchup between the Texans and the Chiefs. This is the second hour of the Matt Thomas Show here from Atlanta, where tonight the Rockets and the Hawks will get after. It start of a two-game road trip will have coverage for you beginning at 530. I'll have to call at 630 from the state farm arena. Right now, Dan Israel works for the Chiefs Radio Network, one of their hosts, executive producer,

and a man who can be found on Twitter if you're looking for a Casey perspective on the game coming up at Dan Israel, Casey. Dan, a first time visitor to the show this afternoon. Dan, first of all, thanks for joining us. Give me the thought as Kansas City fans, media players, were watching Buffalo Houston. How many ways did you turn?

and spin as you were thinking about the potential opponent for the Chiefs in the second round, especially with Tennessee and the New England game following that. Well, let me tell you, I know I couldn't take a hit like John Watson. The fact that he didn't even get knocked off balance was simply amazing to me. I think the one thing, Matt, that's really apparent out of that game is that the Houston Texans are going to play all 60 minutes. If the Chiefs think they're going to put this away in the first and second quarter, they're going to be mistaken because it was very apparent that Deshawn Watson is going

to play to the very end and he's not going to stop trying until he's on top of this thing. So I think it's going to be a tough game. Chiefs were rather human this season in Kansas City, meaning I think Kansas City is a tough place to play. Seattle lost some games this year on their home field, Green Bay. But Indianapolis and Houston came in to get regular season victory. So forgetting about the Chiefs game, but the Colts game, but give me a thought or two about what you remember about the Texans matchup and how much of that has been conversation in that KC locker room this week.

You know, that week six matchup was the start of three consecutive losses at Arrowhead. So to your point, we're not used to that, man. There's one place that the Chiefs tend to play very well, and it's a very difficult place to beat Kansas City. It's in Kansas City at Arrowhead. It's just a fierce, loud stadium. And so Chiefs fans were not at all prepared to lose not only one game, but two games, then three.

And it's kind of a strange season for us with statistics. We kind of didn't have home field advantage. There were games we won, but completely got blown away in time of possession. You tend to, in our business, you tend to look at a handful of statistics, and you can kind of get a feel or a perspective for how a game goes. That just hasn't happened this season. It's been a little bit upside down with that. But despite kind of the crooked path that we finally arrived in December at the preseason expectations,

which is a team that could possibly, in my opinion, make a deep run in the playoffs. So I think the week six matchup is a little bit of a different game than what you're going to see here. You guys – or Houston finally got J.J. Watt back into the mix. I didn't expect him, frankly, to be as good as he was last week against Buffalo. You know, it takes – sometimes when guys come back from injury, they've got to get their feet under him again. That was not the case with him. He was dominating just like you would expect him to be without an injury.

And so I think on our side of the ball for Kansas City, you got Sammy Watkins healthy. You have the offensive line, healthy again. And most of all, you have a fully mobile Patrick Mahomes who was still battling an ankle injury. So I think it's going to be two different teams that meet here in the postseason versus that week six matchup. In your heart, did Pat take the appropriate time off? Was there any rushing to it? And regardless of how fast he came back and how quick he was. whether he should have come back, do you feel like he's 100% going into the game on Sunday?

He is definitely 100% now. I think, you know, probably in week six, he did come back earlier than he was not 100%. However, if you've been around this kid at all, I mean, he wanted to play back. When we took him off the field in Denver after his injury, he wanted to come back out of the locker room, go back out on the field right then and there. And he's just that kind of guy. He is so competitive. He wants to be out there with his teammates.

You can see how much fun he has playing. So week six, no, he was not 100%. But week 19, he is. He's ready to play. I think you're going to see a fresh-legged Patrick Mahomes. I think it's going to be tough for the Texans because even if you get pursued on this guy and he starts to scramble, one of the things that he's kind of sneaky fast, and he can extend those plays.

He can get out on the edge. And we've all seen he can make a throw anywhere on the field from to anywhere on the field. And I think that's going to be something new for the Texans to experience versus that first half of the season matchup. Dan Israel from the Chiefs Radio Network, one of their game day hosts with us here on the Matt Thomas show from Atlanta. Dan, and again, we don't follow the Chiefs every single week, and that's why we trust your opinion on these types of things.

Everyone's like, well, can you find an Achilles heel with Kansas City? And the thing that keeps being brought up over and over and over again, and I want to get your, because you've seen them last play, it feels like that the Texans, that they get some sort of ground game going, could really have some fun this week and surprise. some folks. Assess what has been determined by some, not all, to be the weak part of the Kansas City team, and that is that run defense. You know, as they came off the 2018 season, just a penalty away from the Super Bowl, the decision was made by Coach Reed to completely rebuild

the Chief's defense. And, you know, I'll give them credit for that because, you know, when you're that close, most coaches tweak something here or there to try to get you that extra little bit that gets you where you want to be. They completely, I mean, they changed the coordinator from Bob Sutton to Steve Spagnolo. They changed almost all but one positional coach, and they changed seven of the 11 starters on defense. Gone were Eric Berry and Justin Houston, and were Tyron Matthew from the Texans, and Frank Clark from the Seattle Seahawks.

So they did a tremendous amount of change. The problem with that was it took half a season for these guys to really get on the same page. So you have a real tale of two stories here between the Chief's defense during the the first eight games and the Chief's defense now. The last six wins, these guys have let opponents score just 11 and a half points. That's a tremendous effort. If there is an Achilles heel, and to your question, in the four losses that the Chiefs had in the regular season, they were beat in every one of those losses by a dominant running

back, Derek Henry, for instance. And I think Carlos Hyde, you know, with what he spent time with us in camp, then went to the Texans, running very well. So if he has a big day, I think if there's any weakness, it's going to be the run defense for the Chiefs. Even though it's much improved, I still think a dominating back could be very difficult for them to handle. Likewise, if Deshaun Watson is going to beat the Chiefs, I doubt it will be through the air, believe it or not. It's probably going to be with his legs. So the combination of the mobility of Watson combined with some real straight-ahead, bruising, running of Hyde,

obviously is a scary, scary thing for Chiefs fans. I want to stay on the defensive side a little bit here, if you don't mind, Dan. Obviously, DeAndre Hopkins, you know, all pro for a reason, year after year after year. If Will Fuller does play, tell me who covers whom in the secondary if those two guys for the Texans are on the field at the same time. Well, it's tricky in the way the Chiefs mix it up so much. But I think one of the things that they're so effective doing, and I'd say maybe an Achilles' heel for the Texans, is the offensive line.

they have been able, the Chief's defense has been able to get pressure on a quarterback with just three and four guys. If they're able to do that and drop seven guys, you're going to find they have enough coverage to get both of those guys, to cover both Hopkins and Fuller. And if they can do that, I think that makes it really difficult for Deshawn Watson. Because sometimes they're in that dime package, they're moving guys. You might have a safety covering a wide receiver instead of a cornerback. covering or a nickel back covering. It's just they mix it up so much. Combine

all of that with this blitz package that Steve Spagnolo has been bringing. They're getting an awful lot of pressure on the quarterback. That takes a lot of pressure off the back end of the defense. Those defensive backs can get a lot more done against really good receivers, which those two are.

A lot of folks here in town were disappointed that the Honey Badger decided to and that a question decided he got a really good contract from Kansas City. And it's obviously just one year in the mix, But I'm going to presume that money was well-spent in Kansas City bringing him there. I'll tell you, I think this guy deserves defensive player of the year for the AFC. I really do.

He has been a model player, a model, just a role model in the community. I mean, he has been a really, really big asset for us this year. He got to camp. He was a very quiet leader. He started to play in the regular season. started to produce on the field, the more he dominated on the field, the more he was able to lead in the rock locker room. And he, you got to credit, Juan Thorne Hills out with an injury now. But I'll tell you, this rookie had the kind of season for us that he did because he was next to Tyron

Matthew. And I really feel like Matthew has been everything you could dream of. The situation as it ended with Eric Barry last year where he just could not get back on the field. Some Some say he chose not to get back on the field, whatever it was. Barry was that kind of guy when he was the dominating player years prior. Matthew really was a beautiful acquisition for us because we needed that. And it's a time in that rebuilding mode. He and the tenacity of Frank Clark really have come together to shore both the front and back of that defense. Dan, final question for you.

The Texans have been a notable slow-starting team all season long. No touchdowns in the first quarter except for week 17 when Deshaun wasn't even on the football field. Is there a sign beyond the Texans scoring early that Houston fans, as they watch this game Sunday in Kansas City, by what something the Chiefs do would give some Texan some optimism that this could be a game close in the fourth quarter? Is there anything that has hurt them early that has a loud team, as you mentioned, the losing streak, the losing games at Arrowhead, that has allowed opposing teams, whether it be a home or road, to think they can beat the Kansas City Chiefs? Well, I definitely think they could beat the Chiefs.

I don't think there's one thing I would say, hey, if you see this, it's going to be a good day for you. But I would also offer that our defense, it just seems to have that kind of slow start. So if they can get out to a fast start, it definitely helps them. You do not want to fall behind against Patrick Mahomes because if the Chiefs can start running the football again, which is something that the last six games they've been able to do,

it would be a long day for the Texans. They need to keep pace. If they can keep pace with the Chiefs and make this a close game heading into the fourth quarter, I would be extremely excited if I were Houston Texans fans, because I think at that point it's a last guy that has the ball, and it's anybody's game. Dan Israel-K-C is his Twitter handle. Follow him for everything about the Chiefs going into Sunday's game.

Dan, thank you for the time. I'm assuming weather will not be a major issue on Sunday. Is that what you've heard? You know, Matt, it's a little up in the air, no pun intended. They're saying if we get snow on Saturday, that things are going to be good. If we don't, we might see snow on Sunday. But I can tell you, watching these guys play against the Raiders that day in the snow. If it knows, look out Texans, man, for whatever reason.

Patrick Mahomes, a Texas boy, Patrick Mahomes loves the snow. So I don't think weather's going to be a factor, to be honest with you, but it could be a little bit of snow. Dan, thank you for the time, my friend. We really appreciate it. Give it back back. Good to talk to you. Nice talking with you.

Dan Israel, from the Chiefs Radio Network with us from Kansas City. We'll go to Kansas City tomorrow to get a few more different thoughts. I want to hear about the stadium. I want to hear about what Coach Reed is like, how much pressure if they don't win the AFC? Because I think they got, you know, obviously they got super, super close last year before losing to New England in overtime. So more on the Chiefs as we get closer to.

the Sunday kickoff and again we'll have as much as we can in terms of player reaction in matter of fact bottom of the hour what you're talking about Bob is we'll hear not Bob Bill it actually it is Bob what you're talking about Bob it's Bill O'Brien but what you're talking about a special Wednesday edition coming up in just a couple of minutes

713-212 5790 is how you reach our show today 713 212-5-790 if you want to reach out via Twitter you can do that as well at SportsMT at SportsRV and at Pro Nick Lowe. Oliver Luck, the commissioner of the XFL, to join us as well at 230.

It's Matt here from Atlanta, Nick and Ross, back in Houston, and we appreciate you listening to Sports Talk 790. This is Ricky Williams. I may have worn a wedding dress on a magazine cover, but it still looks better than any outfit Matt can put together. Let your wife dress you, man. Texas fine, Texas five. Back to Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790.

Hey Nick, can we get rid of that liner? I think it's kind of old now. Why? Got to freshen things up. I think it's fine. So it's funny how people interpret interviews. And again, thanks to Dan Israel for joining us. Our Twitter listener, what did you just say?

Shalom. Okay, sure. J.P. Harrison. Yeah. Not that Israel. Like just regular old Greg Israel. Mark. What is real?

What other Israel is there? But I mean, he's not, there's no connotation that he's from there or has any family from there. Why not? His name is Israel. Oh, okay. So if the guy's name is Washington, he must be from the state? I would imagine. Or he's at least, okay, that's a little different.

That's not at all the same. No, it's not different. That is completely different. I just exposed you. No, you didn't. Yeah. Israel isn't named after a person. Washington is.

The state of. of. Yes. Okay, so you're telling me anybody that's named Austin is from the Austin area. It's, again, named after a person. All right. So I'm listening to Dan, Dan Israel, who's not from Israel, no Shalom. And I just think he sounds very confident. I wasn't going to ask him to predict who's going to win because he's not going to Houston.

Because he's not going to Houston radio show and say 2010, 20 to 10 Texans. Well, yeah. Why don't you let him predict the chiefs, though? I mean, what's the problem? Well, because I know what he was going to say. My guess he's going to say it's going. As a matter of fact, I'll ask, we've got another case he got coming tomorrow. Now, he's not employed with the team, so he may have a different perspective.

But I don't think the employee of the chief's network is going to say, and it may a close one, but 2322, or even predict the Texans. But it's funny because J.P. Harrison on Twitter just sent us a tweet and said, so can this guy make any more excuses for the chief's losing? I got it quite the opposite. I kind of felt like it was, he's very confident that this thing is going to be a dominant huge, dominant, uh, victory for Kansas City. He talked about the snow.

He talked about Pat Mahomes being 100%. Yes. He talked about Tyrone Matthew being defensive player of the year. That's a little much. But you know what I'm saying? I mean, it kind of, it felt like, and let me tell you something. If I'm in Dan's spot, I'm feeling pretty confident too, right? Remember, they were an overtime loss away from going to the Super Bowl last year.

They did finish as the number 2C in the playoffs. Now, granted, a lot of that was because Miami did beat New England in week 17, but they did win 12 football games. Yeah, you go 12 and 4. You've earned it. Yeah, there's nothing fluky about being a 2C when you're 12 and 4. So, you know, my guess is if Ross, if you and I are doing KC rating, we'll get a real flavor for it tomorrow because we're going to have a host on from one of the stations up there. they're going to be pretty confident, just like we would be very confident.

Like, you know how confident we were when the Astros were beating up on teams? Like, we would go on Tampa Radio. We knew the Astros were better than the race. You went on Tampa Radio? Sure. Okay. You're stunned by this? Yeah, I am.

People respect my opinion. You may not, but people do respect my opinion in sports. I respect your opinion sometimes. That's a really half-ass recommendation from you right there. I can hear it in your voice. You may be 700 miles away from you, but I know exactly what you're doing right now. I know what you're talking about. Okay.

Speaking of weird tweets. Okay. I just saw this from somebody that retweeted some Dick Vitale. You knew Dick Vitale, right? Yeah, it's awesome, baby. Say something. I got to sneeze real quick. It's awesome, baby.

Do you think Dick Vital talks about when he's going to his doctor's office and he's getting checked out? Yeah, we got your blood work, Dick. everything checks me. Awesome, baby. And then like a baby's walking in. Look at the diaper dandy. You think he does it? Yeah, I don't think he ever turns it off.

I don't think there's ever a subdued Dick Vitale moment. I did touch his head once. Excuse me? Yeah, he came into the crowd because college game day basketball was at a UT. I can't remember. I think it was a UT Kansas game. And he came into the crowd.

I used to sit in the student section. for most of the basketball games. The ozone, we called it back in the day. Have you washed your hand since? Probably thousands of times, yes. All right, I'm going to retweet what I'm about to talk about here. And I don't follow him.

Because I don't, and I think he's a great character. Not much analysis, but he's more, he's like Lee Corso was before the stroke. He's just a character. He's a caricature of himself for like the last, 30 years.

Okay. So here's what his tweet was, Rasa. Don't look at it, okay? I'm going to read it to you. I want you to close. I want you to hear this.

Like many, I've been following the news involving the attacks on al-Assad bases in Iraq by Iran. What? Okay. There's more. Have you comprehended that?

Yes. Well, you just retweeted it, so now I'm kind of saw it, but I'm going to click off. Sentence number two. Also, I've been checking hoop news. and four teams should get a tip of the hat.

Rutgers, Providence, Maryland, Boston College. All right, he needs to have his Twitter account confiscated from him. They've had Ws over Penn State, Marquette, Ohio State, and yes, Virginia. What? That's like, that'd be like tweeting last couple months, like a couple months ago. Man, a sad day is it's the anniversary of JFK being a sad. fascinated in Dallas. What do you guys think is going to happen with Wake Forest this rest of the conference slate?

What? I'm going to write the next one for Dick Bytel. Global warming is very, very important to a lot of people. And if you checked out the Pact 12 versus ACC conference basketball challenge, I mean, what an incredibly odd tweet. It's really great to see the Constitution in action with the impeachment proceedings, but one wonders how effective they will be. What do you think is going on with Stony Brook this year?

They were pretty good. I cannot wait for tonight's Democratic debate. It should be very interesting to see what candidates stand out. Also, how many teams in American Athletic Conference are going to get in the tournament? What is going on, Dickie V? I mean, I'll get it. I want to read that again. for those of you that don't really understand what I'm talking about.

Like many, I've been following the news involving the attacks on Al-Assad bases in Iraq by Iran. Also, I've been checking out Hoops News and 14 should get a tip of that. Rutgers, Providence, Maryland, Boston College. Okay. I don't know if anybody else thinks it's funny. I think it's one of the funniest tweets I've run in a very long period of time. Somebody said Al-Sahd versus 2012, Kentucky. who wins.

Somebody put, The Iranians are for real this year, baby. Sweet 16 is on the floor for this talented squad. Read some more. A dipsie do targeted assassination a rue. Any truth to the rumors John Caliperi was recruiting Soleimani and was an assassination connected to his big announcement regarding Jeffrey Epstein. Oh.

Do you think the biggie's to get three and a hundred times of the attorney and will you condemn any military actions of the unit of government in Iran? Yeah. My personal favorite is dipsy dude target assassination or rude. Someone for the obligatory, sir, this is a Wendy's. Not scared of Iran? They haven't played anybody? Any diaper dandy's in the mix to step up and fill the void left by Soleimani? Dickie, do you think the Big East can get three of the five teams in the tournament?

And will you condemn any and all military actions of the U.S. government in Iran? What is he doing? I don't know. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. He's an American treasure. All right. What you're talking about, Bill, is next.

713, 212, 5-7-9-80. I mean, I don't mind him talking politics. It's to each his own, but to mix in those two and one tweet. Gosh, the replies are just gold. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. The morning sports. show for those who partied in Midtown way too hard last night. The Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790.

133 on the Matt Thomas show. Sports Talk 790. We take this program today until 3 o'clock. We go to the XFL and we visit with the commissioner Oliver Luck coming up at 2.30 this afternoon. I'm going to ask him how Andrew's feeling. It's only right because sometimes you ask about your kids. He can ask about mine and I certainly will ask about. his. But that will get

that going as a rough necks. We'll get their season starting in February. The training camp's coming up in the not too distant future. And on top of that, there are some new rules innovations that I think are going to be as fan-friendly as humanly possible. Right now, we don't normally do this on Wednesday, but we're in playoff mode.

And that means a special postseason edition of this. What you're doing, what you're job about? Coach O'Brien. Nicholas, you have assembled these audio bytes. My computer is a little slow right now, so I'm going to have you lead the questions into Ross, and we'll see how successful Ross was. He was very good on Monday's edition of what you're talking about Bill.

Monday, I should just retire after Monday. That was an all-timer. You're like a tournament of champions kind of thing. You would not want to risk all the success you've already had. I get it. I get it. Okay, Ross. These should be not much different.

All right. seven seconds, O'Brien was asked if he sees Deshaun having better balance in his decision-making. Like since early in the season or over time? Yeah, it's this season in particular. Better balance. Look, I think everybody's getting better. I mean, Deshaun, obviously, I mean, he's a special quarterback. I mean, you look at the plays that he makes and he's a guy who's growing and progressing and getting better.

and I'm learning about working with him and I'm getting better at play calling and playing for him. So it's something that we're all trying to get better at. And I think Deshaun has been a guy who has progressed in his career and he's a special, special player. Yeah, I've been asked that question a lot. I think there's a fine line. You know, I think that one of the things that makes him a great player

is that he's got excellent instincts for the game. So, you know, I think at the end of the day, you need to let him play, you know. But I think there's certainly times that you point out. out that, hey, you know, maybe you can make a better decision here, but not very often. You got to let them play the game. You got to let them see it. You got to let him, you know, do what he does best.

Zero. Get the damn buzzer on that one. Horrible. You know, I will say this. I told you I should have retired after Monday. Well, here's the thing. Nick started you out with a very difficult question. That's true.

That's fine. We'll see if you can get you an easier one here. This was a Brian T. question. How important is mental and physical toughness for a franchise quarterback? It's very important. I mean, there are

so many traits and things that we look at when evaluating a quarterback. You have to be mentally tough. You have to be a hard worker. You have to be a guy that's first in the film room, asking a lot of questions, and then you have to apply it when you get on the field. So you have to know having the knowledge

and then having the physical toughness as well to take to hits here and then the National Football League going against the best athletes in the world, it's absolutely important to be both mentally and physically tough in the NFL. I mean, I think that the way that you become, you know, whatever you want to call it, a franchise quarterback, whatever you want to call it, is by being there every day. Being there every day, every game, you're available to your team day in and day out, game in and game out.

You know, that's big for your team. That's big for your organization. Yeah. So I think that durability, the ability to get up after taking a tough hit and to take care of your body the following week and get ready and get up and get ready for the next game is all a big part of it. And he spent more time on the physical than the mental. I'll give you three and a half on that one. Okay. These are tough.

For midweek Bill O'Brien stuff, this ain't easy. Yeah, he's much more mute. He's like he's more calm and cool in these. Because, I mean, if you said described Pat Mahomes, I mean, that's a leg up drill. these are like these are like philosophical B-O-B questions here's another one for you great 31 seconds has anything you have seen from

Carlos Hyde this season surprised you oh this is good um hmm no I wouldn't say we've been surprised I mean we knew that we brought him in here that he was a good running back and he's done a great job for us Since day one, obviously with Lamar going down, that was huge, and we needed somebody to fill that void and be the every down back.

And he has done that, and Carlos has been great. Could not have asked more from him. I mean, over a thousand-yard season, special season from him, and he's been great for us. No, no, I've watched Carlos for a long time. You know, like I told you guys before, coached against him in college, and, you know, I've seen Carlos for a long time.

So, no, he's a guy that runs behind his pads, tough runner, good out of the back field and the passing game. game. Good pass protector. He did an excellent job of pass protection in the game the other day. He picked up at least two or three safety pressures that were important, especially in the fourth quarter. So, yeah, he's, no, there's nothing he does that surprises me. Dang. I mean, I thought he was going to say a thousand-yard season for sure. There is something I just heard that I think I want to hear on the show once per day.

Runs behind his pads. Yes. as opposed to running in front of them, which would be physically impossible. Well, first of all, it's physically impossible. But metaphorically, Ross, think about this. That would mean he is sticking his head out and looking at the field of play.

It would be like a turkey neck, right? Turkey neck? Yeah, when you... That's what like the librarian at your high school had. What do you... Okay. If you're playing in front of your pads, That means your neck

and your face are in front of your torso. That's what he's talking about. Right? I don't know. To leading with the helmet? He means he's just, I think he just means he's physical and lowers his head and gets in there, run behind his pads as in, like, using his pads as a shield to create contact.

I think that's what he means. I like my interpretation much better. I think you're right, but I just like mine better. Okay. All right, let's do one more. all right 42 seconds he was asked

what do you look at when you're evaluating quarterbacks not sure why they asked him this but they didn't yeah 42 seconds is this from training camp

yeah uh look obviously there there's a lot of things that we look at when we're looking at quarterbacks I mean first thing we want is a guy who's going to be

a hard worker and a leader of men I mean somebody who's going to be willing to learn and look at the tape a smart guy a guy who's willing to listen hard worker and just one of those guys it's the first one in and the last one out second thing of course is

a guy who is going to have the voice with the locker room and just be somebody who can lead our team when the chips are down and we need someone to show up in those big moments somebody who can do that and then of course then you go to the other traits staying in clean pockets reading progressions

and strong arm all those types of things go into us looking at quarterbacks Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, I think you have to look at their injury history. You know, that would be something that you would definitely look at. And, you know, take that into account relative to what you see on film when you, you know, when you watch the tape or relative to, you know, when you're talking to trainers, doctors, or whoever's worked with them in the past. I think that the other thing you look at is when you watch film and you think about, you know, phrases like playing strength and things like that, you know, how they play the game and how they're able to, you know,

would stand hits. You know, that's one of the things to be an NFL quarterback. You've got to be able to stand in there and deliver the ball and take a hit. And that is definitely a factor when you're looking at quarterbacks. I thought he was going to talk about, like, draft prospect, like what he's looking for, not like somebody who's, whatever. Give me a zero. You know what?

Screw you, Bill. As a complete partisan judge, you got screwed on that one. Thank you. When I want a quarterback, I want him to take a hit. That's what I want my quarterback. whatever. You know what, Ross, I figured something out. Midweek B-O-B is going to be a little more metaphorical than you probably would have wanted to be.

Yeah, see, I'm not used to this. I got to recalibate. Now, we're going to give you one more chance on a Friday B-O-B. We're going to one more special edition of which I'm talking about Bob on Friday and Bob. B-O-B, Bob, that's fine. Bob Bill O'Brien, and the same difference. You know what? This bit is so good in my mind.

I'd love to do this all the way through the Super Bowl. Can we do this in, like, January when there's, like, just like regurgitate old sound bites. Just get ones from like training camp or from like week five or something. Yeah, yeah. All right. 713, 212,

5-790. I was about 7-19. I was about to switch to what you're talking about Jim Harbaugh or something like that. What you're talking about Dan Tony? But Mike doesn't like playing those games. By the way, Mike Dan Tony on the show tomorrow at 2 o'clock. Yeah,

Mike is actually honest, which in my opinion makes it more difficult to figure out what he's going to say. Yeah, because I think Bill O'Brien. is nothing but 100% coach speak. Mike's... Yeah. That's why we started doing the bit

is because he coach speaks and speaks in generalities. It's a little easier for me to predict what he's going to say. Yeah, if you play which time with Mike Dan Tony, he would give you the answers that the questions you'd want.

You know, like, what do you want Clint to do to be better? Well, I wanted to be a good rebounder, a good defender, and I want him to stay upright. I want him hit his free throws. Damn. We just figured it out.

Hmm. All right, Mike Dan Tony, with us tomorrow, 2 o'clock, here on Sports Talk 790. Ross, Nick, many of you listening to my audience, we all compete in fantasy football, right? You win typically money, it's in theory, but sometimes if you lose, you have to suffer a massive consequence. I'm going to present to you what one fantasy football league did to its loser, and you're

going to tell me if you could handle such an event. Fire slamma jammy. Yo, what's up? This you boy, Bumbie, the Trillo, OG, with the whitest man in America. Matt Thomas. You are now tuned in in Sports Talk 790, man. And your moorset, ready to go. It is the Matt Thomas show at 150.

We've got Oliver Luck joining us at 230. We have, believe it or not, in 252. And we will recharge and get the final hour started about whether or not you have change your opinion about what's going to happen Sunday just in the last 48 hours. We'll recharge that starting at the top of the arm. Nick and Ross, have you either one of you ever finished Dead Last in a fantasy football? Yes or no? I have, yes. I don't think I have. I've been doing this for 25 years. I've had to have finished Dead Last at least once. I'm going to go

and say yes, I have. I can check the records if you'd like. I don't need to. Well, there is a Fantasy League. out there. And I don't know. And I got this from my buddy of mine, um, who got it from Barstool. There was a fantasy league out there that they were playing for money and they also were playing for dead last place. If you finished dead last place, you had to serve a punishment, gentlemen. The punishment was you had to enter a waffle house. Sounds good, right? You finished dead last in our league last year. Okay. Well, then thanks for bringing that up.

in 2018, the year before this past year, I mean. Correct. So when I say you enter a waffle house, it usually means goodness, right? Mm-hmm. Well, the rule is this. You have to go to the waffle house, and you have to stay there for 24 consecutive hours. Hmm.

Go on. Okay. The only way you get out is by eating a waffle that subtracts an hour from that 24. Or you can just wait 24 hours and hang out. But let's think about it. 24 hours in a Waffle house. Yes. It's a claustrophobic restaurant to begin with. Yeah, that's true. Did they have Wi-Fi? I believe so. Can you eat a whole All-Star and like subtract three hours? No. The rule is this. For every waffle you eat, you subtract an hour. Now, I love me some waffle house.

We've talked about this before. It's just an American treat. It is. But I don't know if I could pound five waffles. In theory, it sounds like you could. Yeah. Those waffles aren't that big. Yeah, I could crush at least 12 of them over 12 hours, and then I'm out.

Well, so too to the guy that exactly what you're talking about right now. All right? He's like, oh, I can do this easy, right? Well, his tweets were like, yeah, one down, I'm good. He says, gave myself an hour to settle in and work up an appetite. I just placed an order for six waffles. Then he shows the picture of the six waffles. Next, two waffles down, no butter, separate plate from minuscule dipping.

See, this is not enjoyable. You're not enjoying a waffle when you're doing that. You're basically in an eating contest. You're not enjoying after about Waffle 2. You're probably not enjoying that. That's why I'm saying you can say, well, I can knock back 12. I don't think it's nearly as easy. So let me continue.

I didn't say it's easier. I said I could do it. Three down. Next tweet, five minutes later. Oh my God, I'm going to die. One hour and this is another 33 minutes later. One hour and five waffles down, 18 hours left on the clock. He tweets six minutes later.

what do blood clots feel like asking for a friend next i am learning that as waffles get cold they change flavors not for the better next my faithful waffle house staff went on a break and i'm not in a good place and he's basically showing like he's going about to hurl then he tweets i'm straight up not having a good time next he says this is a war of attrition but i can't say enough how supportive the Waffle House staff has been. Hashtag team together. I would think if you're working at Waffle House, Ross, you better get along with your coworkers

because there is no space to hide from them. Because the woman who has taken your order is screaming at the guy cook, and there better be good communication between the two of them. You can't have them fighting because if they fight, you get to see it, then you video it, and then you get them fired. What's wrong with that?

well we don't want people that are working hard to get fired over the fact that if you're fist fighting in front of the grills you probably don't serve me working there he goes then he changed it up later on he said and he puts sprite and waffles together he that's that's that's that's later you got to lubricate those waffles okay you using the word lubricate in the show is no longer acceptable he's butter and syrup for lube next took me one hour 45 minutes to eat six waffles It's taking me two hours to eat one more. Yeah, you got to pace yourself. I think you go like two at a time every 30 minutes or something. After the first six, you take a nap. That's true. Next, just ordered a blueberry with the hope of shaking things up in Flavor Town.

Blueberry Waffle? Yeah. What other kind of waffles do they have? I don't know. I guess he's just trying to go flavor. Next, it is 4 p.m. I arrived at Waffle House at 9 a.m. My whole body hurts.

My efforts are futile. He's been there for seven hours. Also, this is two hours later. Nine are down. I feel good. I feel like I can go right into 10. There you go. See, he's getting there.

Now, two hours later, I feel great. Nothing can stop me. Hashtag March to 12. So do you want to make this a rule for our fantasy league? Because I went to more of the history. You've been the last place multiple times. Well, here's the thing. Can we do Denny's?

Because their booths are more comfortable. That's right. They don't have like cushioned booths at Waffle. For every pancake? That's what's an out, though. But that's 24 hours. By the way, we can't do Denny's because there's multiple. There's a big location.

There's a big locations. They have room to move around a little bit. Well, it doesn't matter how big they are. If you're in your booth, you're in your booth. I mean, what are you trying to do some wind sprints inside the Waffle house? Well, I'm just looking for diversity. So I guess the question. would be does anybody have any stories of what the worst person has to do like we've we've done like you have to wear a hat or you have to put a particular uniform on i mean i i could see guys putting girls clothes on or having to carry something for an entire what's wrong with that man

well i'm just thinking well i don't want the guy to die in a waffle loss because he's got to knock back waffles to get out of there what happens if he doesn't complete it is my question well he just he just kicked out of the league That's a great question. But I mean, I'm theory, no one's ever going to die by staying in a waffle house for 24 hours. It's just going to be just not the most glorious experience of your life. Well, you know, when we got our championship belt, we did have like a pink sash and a crown that's at last place. I thought it was stylish, though, so I would wear it. Okay. So just want to tell you, if you've thought about things to do to embarrass your last place contributor to your fantasy league,

one of them might just be going to a waffle house and making them eat their way out of the waffle house. Well, there is also that league, like somewhere in the Midwest, because that's usually where bad ideas come from because they don't have a lot of us to do. Right. Right. The guy had the, like the loser, the champion gets to pick your tattoo or something like that.

And the guy had to get a thigh tattoo. The guy had to get a thigh tattoo of like a My Little Pony unicorn or something like that. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. Nothing permanent. I would also make sure this guy has to turn in his reception. seat to make sure he actually ate the time off. That's got to be a rule too. This isn't a Waffle House sponsored event.

This is just the, I wonder why they chose the Waffle House of all people, of all places. Just because it's open 24 hours. That's actually probably the reason why. You can go to other places. Yeah, final out, yeah, I'm sure. Final hour of the Matt Thomas show here from Atlanta, the home of the Waffle House, actually.

713-212-5-790. I asked this question a couple of hours ago. It bears repeating. Have you changed your mind a little bit from when you first thought of Houston versus Kansas City about what you think might happen? That could be for the better or could be for the worse. Yes is the Matt Thomas Show. Here we go.

204 on the Matt Thomas Show final hour here from Atlanta. Tomorrow I'll be in Oklahoma City where the rockets will wrap up the road trip. Tonight, first things first, the Hawks. 530 with the launch pad 630 the tip I'll have the call here on Sports Talk 790 713

212-5-790 7-1-3-212-5-790 Ross Nick I'm not even asking you because I know your answer you're just a negative Nelly somebody can bother with you lubricant would be the answer whatever you're going to ask remember you're on a segment suspension now here is the question

do you feel any when we found out after Tennessee beat New England on Saturday. We knew the Texans, or excuse me, on Sunday. We knew, no, Saturday. We knew the Texans were going to go to Kansas City as compared to playing Baltimore in this AFC division around. I had an initial thought about how I think the score was going to go

and how the events of the game were going to be played out. I've watched more of the awesomeness that was the Texans and their overtime went against Buffalo, even though Josh Allen I think was clearly concussed. So from that first thought of who's going to win the game and how it's going to play out and what the final score is, have you changed your opinion even one little bit? My answer was a smidge. Ross, have you changed your thought at all about what's going to potentially happen between 2 and 530 on Sunday in Kansas City? I have not wavered much.

I'm considering it, I guess. Why are you considering it? I'm considering having the Chiefs win by more. Is that because Dan Israel gave you a compelling argument an hour ago from Chiefs Radio? Yeah, I guess in just things I'm reading are higher on the Chiefs than I was originally thinking. So what Dan israult, we had the, we had, Dan, Dan's on the Chiefs Radio Network. He said last, he said last hour, as we thought, you can run against the Kansas City defense. does that can Carlos Hyde get you a hundred and ten yards i mean but that's actually not fair

Ross because they that's not typical of a Texans offense let me tell you this if if Carlos Hyde and duke johnson and maybe even now Taiwan Jones ironically enough if they can give you between catches receptions and rushing a total of 150 yards between the three of them Is that enough for the Texans to win the football game? Rushing and receiving between those three cats. Okay, Rush, say that again? 150, 150 yards. Between the three of them?

Yes. No. So you're thinking, hide by himself's got to get 100 yards on the ground? Or do you not even think that O'Brien's offense would allow him to get that kind of day unless he was to get one big burst of, say, 40 or 45 on one particular character? I mean, I guess with that, how much is Deshaun passing for? Or you're not going to tell me at all?

No, I'm just throwing it one little, layer of it. If Kansas City's run defense is where you can actually split them, do the Texans have enough from a offensive line run protection and enough running backs to use those guys to gain

five, six, seven yards every time they touch the football? I don't think so. I don't either. Okay, I'm glad you're on the same page. I try to argue with you, but I can't. I think honestly if the Texans are going to win this football game, it's because

Deshaun and DeAndre have the games of their life where it's one 25-yard catch after the other. I mean, if Taiwan Jones is the difference between the Texans winning and losing against Kansas City, that would be a storyline that you couldn't possibly comprehend or conceive, right? Kenny Stills maybe making a catch. Hell, Will Fuller, if he plays, which Bill O'Brien said last hour, signs are leading up to him playing.

Now, he's being very, very cautious because hamstrings and groins can be picked, you know, can very, very, very tough to guarantee, especially because it's going to happen in practice. They still have to have a full day of practice tomorrow and a full day of practice on Friday. There's no reason that Wolf Fuller can't hurt himself there, right? So that's why he's being so hesitant because he doesn't want to guarantee that even though it looks good today that another day of practice could force him to be hurt again.

And that's what sucks about not having Wolf Fuller. Is that you just, here we are midweek of the most important game, the next most important game in Texans franchise history, and you can't rely in your number two wide receiver and your former number one overall, number one draft pick. Yeah, I don't think

Carlos Hyde is the difference between the Texans making a legitimate run. Now, he can help. But if he also ran 14 times for 42 yards, it doesn't mean they're guaranteed a loss. Because there have been nights where the Texans' running game hasn't been overly that effective, and they've still won football games. 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-790. D, Southwest Houston on the Matt Thomas show. Dee, how are you? In a while, Max, that's here, front. Thank you, friend. Quick comment. I think Houston and Kansas City pretty much marry each other, except on offense Kansas City might have more speed, but neither one of these teams have great defense. And the best philosophy going in this game, I would think Houston's the fourth Kansas City

to get into a Russian game with us and try to use their clock. Because if we try to out of power, I wouldn't want to get into a shootout. I try to force them to run the ball most of the game, which is played out of favor. That's what I think. And the one question I have for you, if you flip coaches, put Andy Reed with Houston and Bill O'Brien on Kansas City, and I hang up to listen. Who will win the game did? That's an interesting question. Ross, you want to go first?

I miss the questions. I'm having headphone issues here. Sorry. D, just called and said, if you flip the coaches, could the Texans win if Andy Reed was coaching the Texans? and Bill O'Brien was coaching the Chiefs. I think I would pick the Chiefs still. How much are the coaches, because right now the point spread is 10 points.

When Vegas is sitting there trying to figure this game out, as they did, how many points does Andy Reid contribute to the 10-point advantage? I really don't want to hear any BS about clock management. I really don't want to hear it this week. Well, I think Annie Reid's probably saying the same thing to Kansas City media, right? Yeah, it's going to be an interesting clock management bananza on Sunday. What did you tweet?

Rarely you give out good tweets, but go and give yourself props on one of your tweets earlier. At Sports RV. That's what I said. It was going to be. I think it should be, I said Andy Reid versus Bill O'Brien should be a real clock management, Bonanza. Okay. Because both of them, really more so Andy Reid, because he's played in way more high-profile games. If you think Bill O'Brien gets crucified for his lack of timeouts and two-minute management,

Andy Reid might have, if there's a spot in the profile, Football Hall of Fame for ineffective time clock management? He gets it. There's a plaque with his face on it. I think he's getting better every week. Who is Andy Reed? Sure, why not? Just saying.

713-212-5-7-90. I think if you flip the coaches, Kansas City, because, I mean, look, Bill O'Brien does not have a bad innovative mind offensively. No one's, it's not elite, but it's not porous. He would have, he would have Pat Mahomes, and Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelsey and every, I mean, in Sammy Watkins, Ross, he'd be fine, right? He'd have plenty of things to do. He could create an offense.

It's not like he's not creating, he's not sitting there in the war room with his quarterback and his receivers going, I don't know what to do for you guys. What do you want to do? Let's drop a play on the sand. Bill O'Brien has created offenses and has done so at both the collegiate and the professional level. He's not inept. Now, when he decides to use these plays, it's certainly up for conjecture. But I don't think he's, he is some, you know, guy that's overmatched or how did he got that title?

That's ridiculous. He does know what he's doing, drawing up offensively. So I would think some of the parts, Kansas City offense, home game, even with Bill O'Brien at the coach, would still give the chiefs to be a significant favor in the game like they are right now. Right. Half the workday is done. Celebrate with Matt. Hey, Matt. Love your show.

Look, what was I talking about? By the sound of it, some of you started the party at breakfast. Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790. Oliver Luck, Commissioner XFL at the bottom of the hour. You're on the Matt Thomas show here from Atlanta. Ross, we'll go back to phone calls. I got one quick question for you about airline etiquette. Are you okay with this right now?

Yeah, I am. Now that you can hear the show again. It shows better when I can hear it. Yep. So yesterday on my flight, I was working on my game notes for tonight's game between the Rockets and the Hawks. And we had nobody sitting in the middle seat and the guy on the window. And he kept peering over to see what I was doing. And every time I would turn on my left to look out to the window to kind of see what was happening with us and, you know, where we're lights and whatnot, he would quickly shake his neck the other direction.

Like he didn't want to see what I was doing. He didn't want me to catch him doing it. So are you typically nosy on an airplane? Yes or no? And I wasn't bothered by it. I mean, it didn't bother me that he was looking. If he would have asked, I would have been glad to tell him what I was doing. Yeah, you are Mr. Nosey, so I'm guessing you are yes.

That's one of the reasons that I like to get on a window seat. I like to just get into my corner, go to sleep, and not be bothered by anybody. I don't care what anybody's watching or doing or reading or anything like that. I don't want anybody talking to me, put my headphones on, and try to take a nap. Let me tell you who I am at 220. You okay with this? I am. I'll sitter, sitter.

No window. I'd rather sit in the middle than the window. That's how much I get quasi claustrophobic on the window side. Quasi, not much, but just a little bit. I do not like to speak on the plane, but I would engage. that you would get more claustrophobic in the window than the middle? I don't, because there's a wall. Okay, I don't know.

Just stay with me on this. Okay. I don't necessarily, I like conversations on planes, but I will not go out and look for one. Does that make any sense to you? So you do like to chat? You're chatty Kathy on the plane, aren't you? No, I would say more times than on, I'm not. But if somebody asks me question, are we engaging in a conversation,

I'm not going to be a douche and go, no, I don't want to talk to you or put sunglasses. on. But with that being said, I am airplane nosy passenger. If somebody's typing on their computer, I will give a two, three, seven

glances to see what they're typing. Really? Yes. That doesn't surprise me, I guess. And it's not because I'm trying to find out their important information. I'm just curious what they're typing about, especially the guy who was being nosy to me

watching me put together my charts for my games, tonight, he was typing away like a mud on his computer. Okay, I'll say this. I'll be on board with you a little bit in that I'll probably glance once or twice just out of curiosity. But if you said five to seven times? I was embellishing a little bit. I might give like

one glance and then I mean I just try to stick to myself. Normally, the second I'm settled into any airplane, my eyes are shut. I will say this. I am probably an on average of three to four glance. I want to see what you're watching on your phone or what you're typing on your computer.

Do you start giving them tips on what they should be writing? Not really, no. But it's not one of those staring being obnoxious. I mean, it's a fast. Point five glance. Now, one time, it did hurt me. I was embarrassed for the guy. It was flying from Houston to Tulsa.

Okay. And we were sitting in first class. This is one used to get upgrades occasion on Continental. The guy pulls a hustler out right next to me. Oh, really? Yes. How did that hurt you? Because I was embarrassed.

Why are you embarrassed? For the guy and for myself. Well, you're reading the articles, weren't you? Well, I wasn't, I didn't hold the magazine. He had the magazine in his hand. You didn't ask if he could use it when he was done? No, I did not. You're also suspended for this segment.

And then head to the lavatory? No. You're suspended for this segment. Okay. Thank you, I got out of her luck coming up in a matter of moments. Let's just change a job. topic. Ray Ray and Kingwood on 790. Ray, Ray, what's a good word, my friend? Oh, I got to, I should punch him up here. Hi, Ray, Ray. What's going on, MP? What's got on, Ross? Thanks for my call, man.

How are you doing? All right? We're doing great. Thank you. Yeah, I think a heavy dose of the run, you know, I wouldn't run high to death, but he mixed it up pretty good last week using both of them. And then Jones came out of nowhere. But I think it's going to be, I have a bad feeling, not a bad feeling, but a feeling we're going to have to keep up with their offense, which is expected, which I think we can do. I think we need to take, keep Mahomes off the field and see whose defense, I think, whatever defense gets the most stops wins the game. But they have a guy, Thornhill they lost last week, one of their best dudes in cover. You know, I think we need to test them deep, especially if we get Fullerback.

I wouldn't be scared to, you know, go deep on these guys, see what they, you know, test them a few times. But heavy dose of the run game, I think we can pull it off. It's going to be a close one, but it's going to be a really tough game because Mahomes is healthy. He's going to be out for revenge. I don't know, MT, what you think. You know what's funny, you brought up, thank you for the phone call, Ray, very good to hear your voice. A lot of people say keep the chiefs. or keep the great other team's offense off the field.

I mean, Ross, that sounds too simplistic, does it not? I mean, meaning that if Deshawn Watson sees soft coverage and he thinks he can exploit a one-off, you know, Deshawn can go one-on-on-one or DeAnd one-on-one against somebody, they're going to try to go for Payterturt, right? They're going to try to go for a score. I can't imagine that they would say, okay, it's first and 10 at the 20-yard line.

If we can keep our team on the football field for 15 plays, Take eight minutes off the clock. We're going to win this football game. I think there is some of the wanting to compress the game and wanting to not necessarily give the Chiefs that much. But, yeah, I mean, if the quick strike opportunity is there, you're going to take it. But I think there is going to be something in Bill O'Brien's game plan

because it's been happening every single week where he will be – he's going to be running on a lot of first downs. The only offense – Here's the thing. The only offense in my life I've ever seen where they don't try to score in every play is the triple option. that's when you grind out 15, 16 plays, take 8 minutes off the clock, aka Rice Football of the mid-1990s.

So is that what you want to see? You want to see some Colin Galaspia dived down the middle? But I mean, to my point. To my point, which I'm not arguing with you. I'm just saying that it's first in 10 at the 39-yard line, and they hand the ball up to Carlos Hyde. What do they want Carlos Hyde to do? They want him to go 61 yards and score a touchdown.

Yeah, well, that's what they want the triple option, too. It's probably not going to happen. Yeah, but the thought of triple option, and scoring on a 64-1-yard touchdown run probably isn't nearly as likely as it may be getting one burst from Carlson. All I'm saying is in theory that makes a lot of sense, and I understand what you're talking about, of less of Mahomes than a field means more pressure when he's on it.

But I don't know if you could ever go into a, if they go in the room and they shut the door and say, look, guys, let's just nickel and diamond for five-yard completions. Because guess what good defense are going to do? They're going to play up to that, and they're going to eventually those nickel and dime five-year-up plays aren't going to be there. And that's why you've got to stretch the field with Will Fuller or anybody

to at least give them some sort of home run threat over the course of the day of a particular series. The bottom line is you have to score when you get the ball. It doesn't matter how you do it. And then, of course, just continue to onside kick every time and hope that you can recover. That's right. Give Pat Mahomes a short field occasionally, but then sometimes get the football.

Andy Reid's kind of coach that I think what it could onside a game to open up. Didn't he onside open up a game one time in the playoffs? I'm not sure on that. With Philadelphia, maybe? I don't know. All right, let's talk to Oliver Luck, the commissioner of the XFL. He will join us next. It is The Matt Thomas Show here from Atlanta.

This is Sports Talk 790. Good news. It's the Matt Thomas show for lunch. Let that boring brown bag lunch rot in the employee refrigerator. Oh, what's that smell? The Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790. It was just yesterday that Oliver and some of my coworkers, we went and had breakfast at the corner bakery, to talk Dynamo Soccer.

Actually, it wasn't just yesterday. It was 10 years ago. And look where we are now. I'm still doing the show here. And Oliver Luck is the commissioner of the brand new XFL. Oliver joining us here on the Matt Thomas show. Commish, good afternoon. How are things?

Hey, Matt, I'm doing great. I love the old Dynamo reference. That's awesome. Hey, is there anything that from your time with the Dynamo? that you have brought, I'm just talking about MLS, from a marketing standpoint, have you, anything that you sent and brought to the XFL that you learned from your days running the

dynamal organization? You know, I think you learn lessons from every stop along the way and if I look back on my career in the sports business, you know, 10 years with NFL Europe was, you know, very educational for me in terms of, you know, both

sort of the football side of things as well as the business side. And I took a lot of those lessons and tried to apply him, you know, to the dynamo when the team moved down from San Jose. And I'm sure, you know, subconsciously I brought a bunch of those learnings or those experiences to, you know, to the four. I think the thing that you have to do in a startup, and this would apply probably across the board, not just to sports, is you've got to be decisive.

You know, you've got to be decisive and aggressive. And, you know, because you just don't have a whole lot of time. And, you know, ideally you make very good decisions. But the fun of it all is just the speed. with which everything happens and the fact that, you know, if you think you've got it all buttoned up, there's always something you forgot. And, you know, making sure that that doesn't derail you yourself. And that, you know, I think back to the early Dynamo days, it was a hell of a lot of fun.

We had a great time, great response from Houstonians. You know, and still, you know, a lot of things went wrong behind the scenes. Thankfully, people didn't see too much because we had such a, you know, a good team that, as you remember, went on to win two consecutive MLS cups. well you are working for a great marketer right now and I'm just curious how often do you get on weekly conference calls is Vince text you at 2 o'clock in the morning 1 30 in the afternoon I mean how much communication I'm assuming it's more now because the season is just around the corner how much how much is he involved because he is sitting there running not only this brandy adventure of his but he's got a multi-billion dollar company known as WWE yeah I mean he's obviously got a day job with WWE a hugely successful publicly traded you know company So he spends the vast majority of his time on that. We talk, communicate probably two, three times a week. I'm much more focused on the football side of our operation, training camps,

for example, down in Houston right now with all eight of our teams. Vince has given me, you know, quite honestly, a good bit of rope, right, to kind of structure the football side the way I want. I would say he's probably a little bit more involved with our business side folks. I mean, that's his strength, right? He's an incredible storyteller, incredible marketer. But he's very engaged. He loves the game.

He just loves the game, and he knows how important the game is to people. Although he's not a Texan, he was born up here in the Northeast. He'd be a great Texan because he's one of those guys that just has that inherent love of football. You brought, as you mentioned, all the teams have training camp down here. Obviously, weather-wise and Houston's going to be very conducive for that, especially if you're going outdoor. What was the reason? Is it like drill to drill?

Are there eight different, different areas that the teams are separating? I mean, how much togetherness is there and how much separation is there between position players, teams, and coaches? Right. Each one of our teams has their own practice facility. We're using Rice, for example, U of H, TSU, H, HBU, Del Mar, and then a number of high school. facilities, Del Mar and Tully and Taylor, Thorn.

So they all have their own facilities. They will, you know, spend time practicing on their own, and then we'll do a bunch of joint practice sessions, you know, what old-timers would call a jamboree. And the reason is, I think, relatively simple. You know, these are brand-new teams, right? We started from scratch. Coaches built their rosters, you know, from ground up. and really the best way we can ensure that everybody is doing well

and there's a certain level of parity is to see teams, you know, train against each other, right? Everybody looks good when they're playing against air. So we wanted to make sure that, you know, the D.C. defenders who are training at Rice could get together with, you know, the roughnecks who are training over at U.S. and spend, you know, two or three or four days with joint practices, joint drills, ultimately, you know, sort of scrimmages, if you will, so that we can really get a good beat on where our team may need some help. Because, you know, obviously we want parity as best we can, you know, create it

and want to make sure that, you know, as team, we go into the season, you know, week number one, season number one, that, you know, ideally we got one-score games in the fourth quarter across the board because we have, you know, teams that are recently met. Oliver, like the commissioner of the XFL with us here on the Matt Thomas show. The big news this week coming out of your organization was the rules and the things that you guys were going to implement. I'd like to know who was in the conference room when you all sat down and said, let's try some things.

And we're going to have some fun with some of your new rules as part of one of our end of show games. But was there anything that was out there that you maybe can even tell us that was so preposterous that you said, you know what? We just can't go with that. Was there anything so crazy that you had to think about? Oh, yeah. There were a number of things. There were a number of things, Matt. We left in the cutting room floor.

thank goodness. Yeah. So first to answer your question, you know, we brought together a bunch of, you know, very, I think, qualified people, former coaches, guys like John Fox and Jim Caldwell. We brought former players in current coaches, Jim Harbaugh, you know, played a role with us and all this. We brought some tech people in, some health and safety people, medical officials, because, you know, 20 years ago, nobody was talking about brain health and football.

Now it's, you know, very important topic. We brought, you know, some TV people in as well because, television is a, you know, certainly a part of our ecosystem. So we went through all kinds of ideas, really brainstormed. And, you know, there were things that we quickly dropped. I mean, you know, we had discussions about what if you make tackles, left and right tackles eligible to catch passes. What would that do to the game?

How would you defend that? Is that a bridge too far for most folks? And the answer was, yes, that is a bridge too far because it would sort of really fundamentally change the way, you know, a defense is. is structured. And then there are some small things. You know, one of the things we looked at for our punt is to do what the CFL does, which is create a five-yard halo around the punt returner.

You know, you can't just, you know, get right in the face of a punt. Do you have to give him five yards to catch the ball and then allow him to at least begin to start, you know, our return? And we tested that with a bunch of junior colleges, with a bunch of semi-pro leagues. And it turned out that it is really hard to teach American players, you know, guys who've grown up in our high school system and our college system with the NFL. It's very hard to teach them that, right, because it's hard to judge, you know, where the guy is and what five yards is. It's also very hard to officiate.

Dean Blandino is our head of officiating a name that many NFL fans would know used to run the NFL's officiating department. But Dean said that's just a really, you know, a tough thing to officiate. So there were a lot of things that were left on the cutting room floor, so to speak. All right, I got two minutes. I want two questions. So first one, give me your favorite rule that we don't see in the NFL that we will see in the XFL, that you're like, you know what, this is going to be a game changer. My favorite rule is the three options that a team has after they score a touchdown.

Touchdowns worth six points, right? We're familiar with that. And then you've got a one point, a two point, and a three-point option. They're all plays from scrimmage, the one-pointer. from the two-yard line, the two-pointer from the five-yard line, and then the three-pointer from the 10-yard line. That's pure strategy, right? Which is why I like it. You know, your first quarter, what does a coach do? You know, do you play it safe and go for the one-point conversion from the two, or do you roll the dice a little bit? I just think that'll add strategy.

And you know what? As football fans, we always second-guess our coaches, and I think this will lead a whole bunch of second-guessing. And that's fun. That's part of why we, you know, enjoy the game so much. That's probably my favorite rule change. All right, Oliver. Last question. How is the most famous? I guess he was the valedictorian of Stratford High School 2008. How's he doing? He's doing fine, thank you. He and his wife had their first child. About six weeks ago, he's enjoying his retirement and having fun and doing well, but thanks for asking.

Architect or sports broadcaster or both in the next five years? I'm more likely to pursue his sort of chosen field, which is architect, than he is to be a broadcaster. I wouldn't rule that out necessarily, but I think he's more likely to – his wife is an architect as well. They both graduated from Stanford. So I think they're mulling over where they want to spend their time and their energy. And remind the folks where I let you go when opening weekend is. It's right after the Super Bowl, correct? Yes, the weekend right after the Super Bowl, February 8th and 9th.

The roughnecks are at U of H that weekend for their home opener against the L.A. Wallachats, if I'm not mistaken. So June Jones, the head coach, the team. So we're very excited. I feel real good about what June is doing. That guy's going to score some points. He's going to be fun to watch. As he always has been, whether it's at the old gamblers or up at SMU or Hawaii or

with the falcons, he's going to light up the scoreboard. All right. Oliver, it's a pleasure to visit with you. Congratulations and all the success. publicity and positivity is running around a lot. Good luck, and you know where you can find us have been anything from us. Thanks for the time, and good luck for the start of the season, my friend. Thank you.

Thank you, Matt. Great to talk to you. Appreciate it. You got it. That's it. That's Oliver Luck, the commissioner of the XFL, former older quarterback, and one of my favorites when I was during the early days, the last days of Blue, and obviously now running things with the XFL after a run with West Virginia, Houston Dynamo,

work for the NCAA for a while. he has been all over the place and now has a brand new adventure. Rockets, Basketball. Rockets PA announcer and sports talk show host. One might get the impression Matt Thomas loves to hear Matt Thomas' voice. Go ahead, Matt, talk for us. Time is 3248, 348 here in the east. I'm here in Atlanta.

Rosson Nick are back in Houston. Rossi, tomorrow on the radio program, we are giving away Royal Rumble Tickets. Really? Yes. I'm guessing that's good. It's the second biggest wrestling event

in the WW unit over the course of the year. Oh, okay. Behind what? WrestleMania. I know. I knew that one at least. Thank you.

There's not a beach brawl that's any bigger? Nope. Not any various Smackdown or what's the other one? Well, Smackdown is weekly and so is Raw. Oh, raw. You get a raw Smackdown?

That sounds weird. No, raw is one day, Smackdown is the next. Okay. So you're raw and then Smackdown. Correct. Smackdown's on Fox on Friday nights. That's how big this, it's, it's, become. Is that big?

I thought Friday night was a throwaway night because people were out. I don't know. It's on commercial television. I know, but I mean, that's when, like, Urkel was dominating Fridays, because nobody was watching TV. Well, Urkel, Full House, Smackdown. All the same boat, yes. All seem to fit perfectly together.

Okay. We go to Kansas City tomorrow. And what else we're doing tomorrow? We've got a couple of things happening. Oh, Mike D'Antony show starts tomorrow. That's right. 2 to 2.30. That's wonderful.

And if you got any questions, and here's a little. Wait, he's doing it tomorrow? Yeah. Hmm, okay. When did you want him to do it? Pre-game show is set. No, I'm great.

You're awful. What? You think people want to hear me spout out game notes, or they want to hear from the coach? They want to hear from the coach. Well, they want to hear the Woody Ripartee between my coach and myself. If you have a question for coach that you want me to ask him, and I'll put this on Twitter later, it's hashtag AskMDA. But things I don't want. Is hot dog a sandwich?

It's not. It's a hot dog. You know, does he crunchy or smooth? I'm a smooth guy. Oh, I'm crunchy for sure. But I'm not asking MDA that tomorrow. Nick, are you? Crunchy or smooth, Nick.

I'm either or I'm good with either. Yeah, I can do both. One was it? Both of them were in front of you and you're making a sandwich. Which one are you using? Crunchy. Okay. You're no longer suspended.

Five minutes left to go on. the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports game show. We simply call it Believe it or not and here's how it works. You'll call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe It or Not is brought to you by

Woodhouse Day Spas. Print out your gift car for the gift of relaxation at Houston. Woodhouse Spas.com. Category today is, Is this going to be a rule in the XFL? If it is, you'll say this. Believe it. If Ross made it up and it isn't, you'll say this.

Not. Two, believe it or not, it's on all things about whether or not these are new rules in the XFL when you prize. Ross, what's the prize? Matt, I've got a pair of tickets to see Adam Ant, the friend or foe tour, April 29th, at the Revention Music Center, LiveNation.com for tickets and information. Favorite Adam Ant song? Hey, Jude?

No, that's the Beatles and Paul McCartney. I'll let you think about it. Matt on 790, Matt, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. There will be no coin tosses. The home team gets to choose that they want to receive or defer. This will give all teams more of a home field advantage. Believe it or not.

Matt. Statement number two for the win. Teams get only two timeouts per half. Believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it. There you go. congratulations you're going to see how to that 713 212 5 790 Donald on 790 you

ready to play believe it or not believe it double forward passes will be allowed as long as the passes are behind the line of scrimmage believe it or not believe it statement number two for the win there will be tiered extra points converting from the two-yard line is one point five-yard line is worth two points and 10-yard line is worth three points. Believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it. Dang.

Sorry, Nick. Actually, this is Ross's fault. No, I think everybody read these. Fair enough. This is on you. Sure, why not? You asked me for a topic I gave it to you. Let's go do line number five. Kelly on 790. Kelly, you're ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. There will be no kickoffs, Kelly, each team will start with the ball at the 30-yard line. If the team wants the ball, they can choose to take a fourth and 15 at their own 40-yard line. Believe it or not. Not. Statement number two for the win. Only one foot is required to be in bounds for a completed pass.

One foot, believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it. Another winner. People couldn't run them this fast, could they? I think so. Line three, David on 790. David, your favorite part of the radio show. This second.

Overtime will be in the style of a hockey shootout. Each team gets five chances to score from the five-yard line. Most scores wins. Believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it. Statement number two for the win. Every player will have a headset connected to their coordinator to eliminate stolen signs. The headset cuts off with five seconds left on the point.

play clock. Believe it or not. Believe it. Oh, finally got a wrong answer. I do feel better now. I do feel better. That one wasn't going to be on me. Oh, okay. You take credit for that one at the very end. By the way, can we talk about the hockey shootout overtime? I like that.

I think that's interesting. So let's say the Texans and the chiefs go to overtime. The Texans get the ball at the five, five plays in a row. how many times they score is, it's like a hockey shooter, or will they alternate? I guess they'll alternate. It'll be like penalty kicks in soccer, except you're trying to score from the five. Well, the alternating part would be very time-consuming, would it not? I guess they could just run on there real quick.

Or you could have one side of the field, have one offense versus one defense? And you could just, yeah, they just wait while you go and do it on the other side. Sure. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm curious. I don't know if I'll watch every week. I do like the fact there's a Houston team, but I want to see if some of these things that Oliver is put into play

actually can resonate and do make some sense. Okay, yeah, it will be alternating attempts. So they're going to do on different sides of the field or the same side, do you know? Probably different, I'm guessing. Okay. Let's remind you about improvemy erection.com before we get you out of here. Let me remind you that you have someone in your life, maybe it's you that are having troubles in a bedroom.

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That's improved by erection.com. Four neck in for Ross. I'm Matt. Thank you so much. Hey, keep it right here to 790, because the... The entertaining a team is up next, and then I'll have Rockets basketball for you from Atlanta here in the State Farm Arena at 630. Talk to you tonight at 6.30 and tomorrow at 12 noon from OKC on Sports Talk 790.