The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 11-06-19

Episode Date: November 6, 2019

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 11/6/19Rockets host the Warriors Tonight (0:00)Joel Klatt Joins Matt To Talk LSU v Alabama (37:26)Ross' Rotten 5 (57:58)Non-Florida Stories (1:34:52)

Much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 1202 and H-Town. What's happening in lunch timers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 7-90 alongside Ross and Nick. I'm Matt. And tonight, Ross, Nick, we may need to have some build-up music.

on this. Oh, boy. You're going to sell this? I'm going to try to sell this to you very, very hard. Well, it is literally your job to sell it to the fans that are there. Well, and I'm going to at approximately 6.30 tonight. Wonderful. 6.30 tonight. Actually, no, let's

6 o'clock tip-off tonight. The tip-off of the Rockets Warriors, oh, perfect. Is in one hour. They're doing the happy hour thing, right, to try to get their people early? Yeah, $2 hot dogs and $5.00 beers. For a

Warriors team. I mean, why can't they do dollar dogs? That's what the Astros do. That does not feature Stefan Curry with a left hand fracture. Draymond Green, sprain, left, index finger. Guard Jacob Evans

the third with a left abductor strain. Who? That's the same. We need that snoop dog. Yeah. Who? Center. Kavanaugh-Luny. Don't call him Kevin. It's Kavon. Who? He is.

He is neuropathy. He was dropping 15 rebounds on the rockets in the playoffs. What is neuropathy? Uh, something with the brain, right? That doesn't sound good. I mean, a neurologist is the brain and neurons are parts of the brain. Forward. Alan.

Smell logic. Right. Stop. His name is not Smellogic. S-M-A-L-G-I-C. Smellogic. That sounds like a YouTuber who gives you life hacks on laundry tip. or something.

Clay Thompson left ACL rehabilitation. And the latest within the last hour. DeAngelo Russell, right ankle sprain. What?

Also out. Sing it, Van Halen. Oh, it's crystal Pepsi. Me too. I do like Pepsi. I know I'm in a minority on that. Really? Yeah. Over Coke. No, I didn't say that.

Okay. Oh, I mean, I'll drink Pepsi. It's like, I love mayonnaise and I love mustard. I love Pepsi. and I love Coke. Yeah. What are your thoughts on Jolt Cola?

Oh, no. It would seem to be probably the most unhealthy, not colas are healthy, but that would be like a super... They don't make that anymore. They brought it back? It's hard to find. You got to go to, like, specialty shops to find it, but they still make it. You know, they still make Tab, too? Do you ever have Tab back when your kid?

TAB was horrible. My mom loved Tab. And there would be times, you know, like, there's nothing in the house but water or tab. And then as a kid, I was into soda, so I was like, okay, I guess I'm drinking Tab. because I refuse to drink water. But now, as an older person, I go water. But anyways. Yeah.

So all of those people are not playing tonight for Golden State. I have not looked at the projected starting five, but I'm actually Rossi going to have to do some research because I don't know who those people are. Hmm. And thus, you might want to do some research on them too for today's edition of believe it or not towards the end of the show. Okay, good.

I was going to say, I'm not doing the pregame, I don't think. No. Michael Connor, good luck with that. Oh, my gosh. So the sexiness factor of having the defending Western Conference champions in town is 0.0. That's why you got to get out there and enjoy the $2 hot dogs and a $5 beers. I'm totally okay with that because the Rockets haven't been playing like they need to play Western Conference champions. So, yeah, the Rockets are catching a break.

Eric Gordon's got a bad hammy. I don't know what his situation is, but it doesn't sound like it's particularly good. So he might miss the night's game. But Russ missed the last game because of rest. I'd love for my show to have load management. Russ with rest. What are you talking about? You miss like six weeks a year.

Spring training, various rockets trips, Astros trips. I just want to like, I just want Brian to come in and say, you know what I'm taking off like the entire last two weeks of the year. I'm over there looking at the calendar. I'm trying to schedule my own time off. Correct.

And, you know, obviously they're not going to let us both off at the same time because somebody's got to carry this heritage great program that is the centerpiece of Sports Talk 7-9. It is heritage. I will give you that. I'm like, okay, I guess I can take two days off at the end of the year. Like, what's going on here?

Matt Thomas is going on a full-on gym room. I'm taking the whole month of December off. Well, I mean, I did work all throughout September and October in the playoffs. Yeah, we're proud of you. You know what? I will give you this, Matt. You're certainly a grinder and certainly compared to Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler. God.

And they have a short shot again today. Although they are in a Rockets grind. Now, no, there's, but they're splitting rockets. Yeah, I was going to say it's not. When you split some in and grind. 713-212-5-790 if you'd like to join us on the show today. We've got a variety of not piping hot topics, but stuff I do want to get into. A smorgasbord, if you will.

Joe Klats can be with us at 1 o'clock today. And he is the lead analyst of Fox, and he will get into, we'll talk about LSU and Alabama. Yeah. I mean. Wait, you're not going to talk about the big matchup of the weekend? Texas, Kansas State? Yeah. Why has it been?

The nation's eyes is turning. to Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium at Joe Jamail Field as Kansas State invades Austin, Texas. Kansas State beat Oklahoma, right? That game's at 230. There's nothing else going on at 230, right? No, it's LSU, Alabama's at 230. No, there's nothing else going on at 230, is there?

I'm very confident telling you two reasons why. I will be the only one watching that game. That game's on Fox, right? Oh, my God, Joel's going to have to sell it hard. No, it's actually ESPN. no one's watching that game. Nobody. Okay, maybe the Manhattan, Kansas metropolitan area is watching it.

Maybe. And parts of Austin. Dan Snyder, the Snyder family. Yeah. Not Dan Snyder, Bill Snyder. I mean, Dan, in theory, could watch it. Yes, true. I don't know how much he'd be in it.

Maybe he's looking for draft picks. All right. So we've got some college football, a lot of it early on, including yesterday the announcement of the college football first set of rankings. And maybe it's because my beloved school, is not involved in the rankings, thus because of the record three and six. Yeah, I scanned for Texas as well. I couldn't find them. So our schools aren't, but I just wasn't like in one of those moods to go, oh, I'm so happy this turned out this way, or I'm so mad, because there's still about six weeks of determination.

This is not even, this is just to get people talking about it, right? If you want to get somebody fired up about these rankings, go ahead and get Chris Gordy down the hall because he's all mad that LSU is number two in Ohio State's number one, even though like you said, it doesn't matter. And most importantly, it doesn't matter. But it does, but it will matter to those that have SEC radio on their minds that can't get enough of this 24. I mean, there's a segment of the population, 20% of the country, probably from what Baton Rouge East. Yeah. That is like, oh, my God, what the hell's going on? But there are so many matchups.

I mean, why would LSU fan be pissed when they've got Alabama this week? They will be able to improve on their status with one win. You're number one if you win this week. Case closed. Yeah. So, yeah, anybody that's really overly upset about it, you know what it did do? What it did do is it once again got another person involved in the, hey, why are we doing this? Let's just do it a different way.

Let's really have a college football playoff. And everybody has their own thoughts and ideas. And really, when Joel and I talk about this on a weekly basis, he largely shoots every one of them down. My grandiose would be an 18 playoff. You have your five power champions. You have your group of six, the best record or computer module of the six of those six. And then you have two wildcard teams. And you let a committee decide those.

Two committees. You let the committee decide the best power six or the group of six and then the five conference champions. You play an 18 play if you call it a day. Well, Jim Harbaugh has something a little bit different. he has the top regular team in the five power conferences. He has the best team in the non-power fight, which we would include Notre Dame when that mix. And maybe Notre Dame most years would have that spot.

And then he would then open it up to six more additional wildcard teams, or five more for a total of 11, and do an 11 team term it that way with the number one C getting a week off. And then you end up with five winners. And then so you have six teams. and then what? Somebody else gets two more teams get a buy? Yeah, he calls them five at largest.

You have the power five. You have the six who's your highest ranked group of six, which Notre Dame would be in that group because they're not technically in a conference. Yeah, I would say best eight. I like eight. No matter what. I mean, no automatic bids or whatever, just the highest eight ranked. Because, I mean, some years, Notre Dame, like you said,

but what if the highest non-power five is somebody who's just not very good and not deserving of being in the playoff? Just take the top eight. Yeah. Okay. I think eight, no matter how you get to it, would probably be better. Four is not bad, but eight would add another week and some more, frankly, late December interest to college football. Because right now the best non-power five is Cincinnati at 20th.

You don't want the 20th best team automatically in the playoff. But isn't Notre Dame above that? Oh, I'm sorry, yeah. Okay, if you want to go with them, Notre Dame is 15. It's almost like Notre Dame is a de facto. So you're de facto jumping from 15 to 8. And I don't like that. So I just say top 8.

Because some years there are teams like a UCF who are in the top 8. Right? When a couple of years ago when they were national champions. There have been group of sixes involved in the pot. So then they would have gotten a bid. They would have been deserving. Yeah. I couldn't argue that much either way either.

713-21-25790. Rockets tonight at home against Golden State. This is as vulnerable as Golden State's been in a long period of time. We'll get into that. we will get into the college football stuff. We also have the Rotten 5 coming up today at 130. We have the at 2.30 today. We have the non-Florida stories, which are back as well.

So we've got a fairly busy show. It is off-week time for the Texans, which gives us a chance to breathe. And if you want to chime in on the asteros, too, everything is fair game because we are a show that just doesn't beat you over the head with the same topic for three straight hours. We'd like to move it around. We'd like you to help us move the topics around. 713-212-5-7-90. 713212-5-790 The Matt Thomas show continues

On Sports Talk 790 Joe Clatt will talk some college football with this We've got the rotten 5 at 130 It's sad that I can predict the rotten 5 Basically off the top of my head of thing at this point Go ahead Well, the New York Jetapolitans are in the mix Cleveland Browns are in the mix

Possibly The New York Giants have got to be in there Washington Yes. I mean, that's why you're going to have to really sizzle it hard with the Rotten 5 at 130. Bingles, too. And the Dolphins. Yeah.

So it's going to be how. They've gone bad. I just have you do it. But it's the sound effects. It's the wonderful things that. They draw flies. Ooh. Now do I put the, I think the dolphins are a worse team than the Bengals, but the Bengals are 0 and 8.

So who do I put at the bottom? You'll have to find out at 1.30 this afternoon here on Sports Talk 790. Rockets tonight against Golden State. Again, at this point, we know that Gerald Green is out. We know that Nene is out. And you know what? We are the worst hamstring city in America. Do you think that every other market in the country that does sports radio has as many hamstring problems as the city Houston has?

They need to get those things massage. They need to work them out. Anti-awomeness is Aryan Foster used to call it. Remember when he put his MRI up and that caused a shockwave on Twitter? But yeah, you're right. Hamstrings are definitely a bugaboo for Houston. We need to call Boston and say, hey, how often you all talk hamstrings on your shows? Yeah, because we had a number of them this year.

We always have the Texans have four to five. The Rockets with Eric and his hamstring. The Astros had a fair number of hamstring injuries. Pallemus Diaz. Did Springer have an hamstring issue as well? And then Correa had a rib issue, but that's something else. We should have like a contest with our 790 listeners. We should just run back and forth.

Hamstring or not? Did this guy have a hamstring injury? No, I think it should be a survival of the fittest. How long can you run before you pull your hamstring? I'd go at least 40 yards. Well, you have to warm up. We're allowing everybody to warm up. Oh, great.

Okay, 50 yards. Yeah, I'm thinking I could probably go about one race, as long as a second race involved, a stop, a walk, and a drink of water. When's the last time you were in an actual real foot race? Real foot race? Maybe in college? Really?

You got a foot race? with somebody? It may have been just for fun like on a fat flag football or something? Oh, you're drunk, weren't you? Well, that might have been the situation. But people in their 30s don't go on in foot races? Foot races? That's true. For the most part. I think sometimes you foot, you think you foot race on a concrete near a bar? Unless you're Chris Johnson. Like if you're running and racing towards like a food truck after having nine or

10 Budwisers? That's true. You know what I'm saying? Okay. Just throw these things out. I had to complete a physical fitness test in the Navy. Yeah, but that was the Navy. When was the last thing you just said, hey, let's go Hey, well, your buddy's name is John and Mark. I don't know. He's a Luke or a Mark. Yeah, you do. It's like hanging out with the apostles.

Okay. I saw what you're going with it. Nobody just has foot races. And if they did, we'd all pull our hamstrings. Oh, I guarantee, you know, I guarantee you who pulls hamstring? Softball guy does. Yeah, softball guy. I absolutely pulls his hamstring over the course of the year.

For sure. He's got like, he's got like four knee braces on. Now, let me ask you. this. Is he pull him a hamstring trying to slide into second base or is he out in the outfield trying to grab a line drive to left center field? He's out there trying to go all full-on Josh Reddick, Robin home runs on you and pulls a hamstring. He's got a beer in his right hand. He's got his glove on his left. I got this. I got this. And then he dives, falls over. The beer spills on the ground, on the outfield grass. And he gets up and he starts to walk. He's like, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. I can do this. And then he wants to take it back because he's

second in the order in the next inning. He, hits the ball really far. But he can't run. But he can't run. Wow. Tell me that hasn't happened with your softball. Our softball league's still hot. Oh yeah. I think so. Not with me, but... Not with me either. But I'm just curious. I'm just, you know, because back in the day, when I was single in my 20s, we'd go to the, we'd go to the soapball parks. We'd play, and you'd either have a league with your coworkers or people that went to college with or high school with. Our softball league still a fun thing, because the last time I did softball, I was umpiring in St. Paul, Minnesota, and they were very abusive, and they all had ankle bracelets on, and I'm like,

you know what, I'm not doing this anymore. I think for the most part, the kids are doing, like, kickball or trivia. Like, you go out with the work for people to, like, trivia night or something. Oh, so done or softball nights now, you're just going to trivia instead? Yeah. In less physical activity, more beer drinking. Well, the same amount of beer drinking. We work at Iheart.

We have two floors of people. Yes. I can't, I've been, this will be 10 years to second go around. The first time I was around, they had kickball teams. And that was drink, kickball, and hook up with coworkers. Should we get a kickball team going? I don't know if we did a desk kickball anymore. But now, this is 2019, we have young people on the third floor.

We've got young people here on the fifth floor. We don't have a softball team. Maybe they do, and you're just not invited. No, I would hear about it. They'd be like company-wide emails going on. I know for sure that there had been work people on a kickball team because I got invited, but I think I played so poorly I never got invited back. How long ago was that?

This is like two, three years ago. Okay. So there's nothing consistent around these parts. That's what that's what's wrong with America. We're not playing kickball and hooking up with our coworkers. We're going to trivia nights and then hooking up with our coworkers. I don't think there's really anybody to hook up on that team, but. I'm talking about any general companies here.

Like the young 20, like what's the new, there's a bar. It's in Montrose that does, not beer, not bong, but it's. Flip cup, shuffleboard? I'll think of it later. it's a it's uh it's like a throwing like a bean bag type game no it's not a card game it's a real semi-athlet oh okay when you play referee you throw your beanbag for fumbles there you go you mean cornhole no i'll think about what it is what i just don't stop asking because i don't i don't have it offhand i'm trying to envision it right now high lie 713 212 570 719 7190 you don't ever give up

anytime i can get you to roll your eyes at me i'm just so happy well that you know what let me tell you if the show is on it 18s, Eastport and you'd see me rolling my eyes at you twice in one half hour. All right. Bocci ball. That's it. See? It's not a beanbag, though.

What is it? You just described it so poorly, but I still think it's like a rubber ball. I've never seen it actually in perform. I just know there's a bar in like Midtown or Montres that plays Bocie Ball. Yeah. Do you have you ever play Bocci Ball? Yes, I have. Is it fun?

It's okay. It's a drinking game. Yeah, you've got a beer. I don't think it's any kind of athletic. event. Beer in my right hand, botch a ball on the left. If you're out, if you have an alcoholic drink while, you can perform such event. Right.

Like, for instance, people try to sell me on playing, that bowling is a sport. No chance. It's a skill, but it's not a game. It's a game. It's not a sport. Because if you go in anything that you can compete in athletically that you get better as you drink or smoke or eat Frito Pie, that's not a sport. Friedo pie makes everything, but okay, is golf a sport?

Yes. How's golf more of a sport than bowling? Because you actually have to walk the course. I guess. You got to walk to the lane. You have to have some athleticism to hit the ball a distance. Signed John Daly. I'm not saying that they're all great athletes,

but most professional golfers are good athletes. That's true. 90% of them are great athletes. There are 10% that have large man boobs. But that's only a small percentage. Yeah, was VJ Singh out there just, you know, just like a cat-like quickness and leopard-like. You're asking him to run sprints on the golf.

You're asking him for the endurance angle of it. Does golf still qualify as a sport when it's a pro-am and John Daly is hitting balls off of, you know, tall boys? Pro-am answers your question. Amateur. No, there's pros, too. But he's the pro. No, that's what they like to call the business an exhibition. Okay.

But you can have exhibitions in sports. But you're not playing a gust on a Sunday with a beer can on a base in a golf ball. Some people might. Well, those are the ones that don't make the cut. 1227 on Sports Talk 790. Rossi, we have the Warriors and Rockets in town. And it's a hard. Some of the Warriors.

It's the Santa Cruz Warriors. Yeah, exactly. It's like the backup warriors. Let me tell you. How? Would the kids say booji would that be? If I said the Santa, ladies gentlemen, welcome to the Toyota Center for tonight's game to the Santa Cruz Warriors and the Houston Rockets.

I'd get in so much trouble. You should do that, actually. It's not going to happen. That's like saying the temptations are coming to town. and like none of the originals are there. It's a bunch of like 30-year-old dudes. The Warriors are technically coming to town. The temptations are technically coming to town,

but it's really not them. It's like when Chicago comes here, and Peter Satera hasn't been a part of the Chicago for like 20 years. Ladies and gentlemen, the starting lineups now for the Warriors of Santa Cruz, the D-League All-Star team. 713-212-5-790.

To join us on the radio program today, Half hour from now, we get you a preview of LSU and Alabama. This is Sports Talk 790. It's live and local. It's uncut and unbiased. It's Sports Talk 790. The best coverage of your teams continues. And now it is official that Eric Gordon will not play tonight for the Rockets

against the hated Santa Cruz Warriors. The Rockets launch pads. starts at 5.30 tonight, 6.30 for the tip time. Wonderful. And again, a reminder that there are $2 hot dogs and $5 beers up until tip off. And reminder that the Houston Rockets are 15 and a half point favorites. Are they really? Yes.

What is that like during the normal course of an NBA week? That's really high. That's about the high, around as high as you'll see all week. Usually 15 or 16. Here's the problem. Not that I particularly have complaining about it, is that the NBA has loaded up Golden State with a bunch of national television games.

And they suck. And they're probably going to suck all season long. You know that the Christmas Day game, Rockets and the Warriors, it's at like 430 on Christmas Day. That's in that prime sweet spot of NBA basketball. Or is that game? In San Francisco.

You're going to be out of town for Christmas? Yeah. That's unfortunate. Well, it's okay. Can we go bring some presents over to the family? I want you staying away far from my family. Far, far away from them. I can go hang out, have some eggnog. You first of all, you get mad that I live in King,

one. Sing some carols. Stay away. For comparison, the second highest spread tonight is seven and a half. So it's over doubled the second highest spread tonight. Well, tomorrow you're not with me, but I'm not going to get in on the show and say, hey, everybody, the Rockets won last night, but they covered comfortably? Or are you concerned they didn't cover the 50 and a half?

I mean, that's what's the game within the game, Matt. That's how you make it interesting. This game's not that interesting unless you're betting on the spread or the total. I'm just saying for someone that loves to bet on sports like I do, I don't like betting on basketball. I just, and I know you always sell me as, hey, Matt, these things tend to level out. But I have. You keep getting screwed in the last second free throws or something? Duke is playing like, let's say, Clemson.

And they're a 15-point favorite. Typically Duke has been over Clemson over the years. And they're just crushing along, 21, 22, 23-point lead. and then Duke gets to put the four guys in and they've only played four minutes the entire season because they only get to play against, say, non-conference team that suck earlier in the year. And then that 22 or 23-point lead

winds up being a Duke 14-point win, which is, you know what, Mike Scherfsky's like, that's the greatest thing in the world, 14-point winning conference. Love it. I don't love it when it's a 15-point spread, and I take Duke minus the 15. We'll take Clemson.

You love it if you bet Clemson, don't you? Yeah, but I don't like to anticipate blowouts that become much closer than supposed to be. You've got a factor in the blowout rally. That's why I say. You got a factor. in the blowout rally tonight. Is Chris Clemens going to show him,

is going to flex his muscles in the fourth quarter when the rockets are blowing them out? You know, Chris Clemens, in his first game against Miami, granted, it was a complete another blowout, scored 16 points. Could you imagine in your first NBA game if you're not like a, like how many non-drafted players in the NBA score 16 points in their first NBA game?

Now, Kendrick done, the new guard in Miami, undrafted? technically rookie literally had a I mean literally a cup of coffee of Golden State but that's the kind of way you know his he's been averaging almost 20 points a game but for a guy that got in the fourth quarter of a blowout game and was just told by Mike Dan Tony jacked the ball up as much as you can he did it's got to be fun not fun when you're down 30 or I mean I'm sure he had fun scoring 16 he literally is the definition those who've not seen him before he's literally the definition

of a chucker. He takes that ball right at his chest and just launches as high as humanly possible in the air. And quite a few of them went down in a game that was largely a blowout after about the five-minute point in the first quarter. Will he shine tonight? That's what's on every Las Vegas betters tonight, mine tonight. Yeah, what is tonight's Wednesday? So there's no NFL until tomorrow. There's no Wednesday night football yet. There'll be some eventually. You'll get your, you'll get your bowling green versus Miami of Ohio before you know it. Was there any matchion on tonight? that's when you know you're in a sucky conference when people like yourself say

Maction. We all know what that means. You are watching a middle of the week college football game only for the reason to bet on it. It's a big one. It's a rivalry game tonight. Is there really one? Miami of Ohio versus Ohio. Are you telling the truth? In state rivalry. Yeah. Ohio's seven point favorites

for those of you playing at home, 55 and a half total. So let me, let's do the little roll. playing here. I'm the coach of Ohio, the Bobcats. Okay. You're the recruit. Son, you're getting an opportunity to play on national television five, six times a year.

Yes. And it'll be on ESPN or ESPN, too. It won't be on the CBS Sports Network that nobody sees or NBC. We'll put you on the ESPN networks. And it'll be in prime time. And you're like, oh, this sounds great. So what time should my mom and dad arrive on Friday for the big Saturday

a game. No. Okay, well, that's fine. I know there's been some Thursday night games and there's always been a staple on Thursday night. I'm the coach at Ohio. No. Okay. I know that Friday night is a big high school night, but now college football is on, no, we play primarily our national TV games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. You get the weekend off. Recruiter walks out and says, I'll go play somewhere else. Thank you. And they have to have, they're fielding teams. So somebody's agreeing to come to play. I can, you're telling me, I can play a on Tuesday and Wednesday night with every degenerate America betting on how I do. I'm in. You get your weekends off.

That's nice. That's not how you sell it, is it? Yeah. That's how I guess you have to sell that way. You can go home for the weekend. You know, while all your buddies are better than you are playing on Saturdays on a national stage, you get Wednesdays all to yourself. 51 degrees tonight for some action.

That sounds good. Problem is, are you, if you play those Tuesday Wednesday games, do you have to go to class the next morning? I hope not. I mean, that Thursday, 8 o'clock class after a... I mean, imagine how, where is Miami of Ohio compared to Ohio? Or how far are you from each other?

Yeah, do they get tutors and people who take tests for you like they do with the big programs? Does that still happen at Miami of Ohio? Yeah, but I would think probably the test-taking guys make a little more corn at Miami, Ohio, because they've got more midweek games. That's true. You got to negotiate. It's all in a, it's open, it's an open market, man. I see.

I see how that is. 713-212-5-790 if you'd like to join us on a variety of things. Rossi, I'm still filling this Astro Hangover. Me too. I think the Texans can take over the Astro Hangover if they win two of the next three games. Two of the next three games, Texans win the Hangover might go, actually, I don't know, we'll even add do it. Maybe a deep Texans playoff run can incur the hangover. on AFC South appearance?

You'll wait until January. You'll be over this in a couple weeks. Until Garrett Colson goes somewhere else. And then you're back to a further depressing mode. More Matt Thomas. Now on Sports Talk 790. Time is 1248. It is the Matt Thomas show.

Joel Clatt, 1 o'clock. 1.30. Ross is Rotten 5. Pro Nick Lowe, our producer. His favorite segment is the non-Florida stories. Where is your story coming from today? Do you have any said story? Yeah, mine's going out of India. There's always weird stuff going down over there.

The international game is strong. International game is strong. 713-212-5-79. I got a little bit of a scratchy throat, so Audrey from our news department just sent some cough drops over. That's wonderful. What a sweetheart. I've got to be in full throat tonight as I try to be as savage as I came to Santa Cruz Warriors.

Like the only guy I can make fun of is Steve Kerr I can't really do that he's the coach the team Steve Kerr You're going to drop one of those I don't know actually Can I feel a little bit sorry for him he's got no players left Poor Steve Kerr And coach the Warriors Steve Kerr

He's gonna actually try and coach This is where you learn like if Phil Jackson could ever coach When he doesn't have Kobe and Shaq and Michael Jordan Scottie Pippin Yeah, don't you like that when the Bulls? It was like, oh, Michael Jordan's leaving? Yeah. Phil Jackson's like, I'm out.

The second time, anyways. He stayed the first time when they won 55 games in 94. Yeah, it's funny when Tyrant Lou loses LeBron James. Off to a lousy start. They fire him big season. He got fired within like six games. Yeah. I just, they got to win this by 15, even if EG can't play.

And Eric's just struggle from the field this year. There's no other way to say it. Yeah, get him some days off. That wasn't it last year. He was struggling with his shot early. He had a lower leg injury. He took some time off and he came back and he started shooting well again. Let's just have that happen.

Well, I think everybody's going to play better. I don't think that. Now, Russ might be in that same shooting percentage, but James is shooting about 14% lower than his career average. Eric's about 12 or 13% lower. So if you get, what do they call the regression to the mean? Regression, yes. Or progression to the mean?

In this particular case, progression. Then they're going to be average and they're going to start scoring 140 points a game as compared to scoring 125. Question is, are they going to give up on the defensive side? 158? No, no, intensity's going to kick in. When? Soon. I would like it for it to be sooner rather than later.

It's the good teams. Okay. They can play lousy defense the next three. I don't think they want to, but, you know. Okay. Like tonight, that's how you sell Rockets Warriors. Hey, you don't know the Warriors, but you know your Rockets, I want to score a bunch.

Nobody wants to go on an 85-81 game, even if they win. I mean, was it fun being a spur fan when you in the mid-90s when they were scoring 90 points and winning by 11? No. The NBA sucked during that time. I know. That's why they freed up the rules. Honestly, people talk about how they left the game and it's not exciting anymore. It's exciting as it's ever been.

And it's wide open and there's talent everywhere. Give me the Haymaker 123-19. That's a game that I grew up loving in the NBA. So this guy here you're long talking to, I ain't hating on the defense or like thereof. AD on 790 and 1251 Aggie Doug, what do you got today? What's up, fellas, how are you all? I would say it was slightly above average. Yeah, same.

Just I wanted to point out something. Looking at the Texas schedule, do they have a chance to really? I mean, this is just being conservative, 11 and 5? Absolutely. Because, I mean, you look at the next three games. games, right? And they're going to hopefully win one, maybe, possibly two out of three. Mm-hmm. And then you got garbage the last four games.

Yeah, the garbage is Denver, Tampa, and two Tennessee games. Garbage. So you win three out of four, and one out of two that makes, what, 10 and 6? And that's, I mean, that's conservative, right? Here's the crazy thing. If they don't win 10 games, something went badly, badly wrong. Well, if Deschang got hurt if they don't win 10 games. Yeah.

Yeah, okay, because even if they lose the next three, I can't imagine them, because look, Tampa Bay is going to be trying to go for a top seven draft pick. They don't want to screw that up with a win. Denver's in the same position. And Tennessee's going to try as hard as they can, but they're not as good as the Texans are. So if they lose three, they win four.

That still puts them a 10 and 6. So ending less than 10 and 6, I can't believe what I'm saying this to you would be a massive disappointment. right I mean I just remember about what two or three games in and everybody this guy's falling again Bill O'Brien doesn't know what he's doing now wait a minute no but yeah and I hate I hate that we get well we get put in the position where we have to defend a sorry coach and that and that's what there's a different there's a different to that just because you win 10 and 6 doesn't mean you're a great football team or a great coach you how Bill O'Brien gets defended is by this team doing things they

don't know what I do, and that's when playoff games under his watch. That's how he gets rid of this stigma that people don't like him. Well, I mean, honestly, if you win 10, if you go 10 and 6, you're probably still hosting the wildcard game. If you go 11 and 5, you have the potential to get into the top two, right? If you're 10 and 6, you're winning the AFC South and you're probably no worse to 3C, which means you'll get the least of the wild cards. I'm probably going to lock in. I'm probably locking in Patriots and Ravens 1, too. Me too.

So I'm ready to lock in in. I, D. Thank you for the phone call. I'm locking in. Patriots 1. Yes. Ravens 2. I'm going to...

Gotta be Texans or Chiefs. They had a tiebreaker, right? They do. So I'm saying, yeah, if they're going to seating, they go to head to head, yeah? Go look at Kansas City schedule real quick before I go to go to the top. Kansas City. We already know the text. I have the Texan schedule memorized.

You have at Baltimore. home Indianapolis, home New England, home Denver. Something like that, yeah. And then at Tennessee, at Tampa, and then back home for Tennessee, don't close out the season. They could very well drop one to Tennessee. I mean, Tampa's actually, I mean, they're two and six, but they've been a wily bunch. Wiley. But let me just say, I just ran off the last seven games.

Okay, well, you want Kansas cities? I think that's 10 and six going under your parameters of they're not going to win all the next three or lose the next three. and they're certainly not going to win the last all the last four. I think 10 and 6 and 11 to 5. 10 and 6 is good. Honestly, they could shock and go 12 and 4. All right. So I'll give you kids.

You just tell me wins, and I'll count those. Okay. At the Titans. Win. Home for the Chargers. Win. Home for the Raiders. Win.

At the Patriots. Loss. Home for the Broncos. Win. At the Bears. Loss. Home for the Chargers. Win.

That's 11 and 5. So if the Texans and Chiefs, They both think of 11 and 5, and the Texans have the head head. Texans have the head to head. But, I mean, that's just what wildcard team you're getting. They're probably not going to get a buy. Don't is possible. And then the wild card becomes very interesting because it could be Indianapolis.

Yes. It could be Pittsburgh who's back in the mix. It could be Buffalo, who's certainly in the mix. Oakland's in the mix. Yeah, Buffalo is looking good. And they got a, I think they got another soft matchup this week. Well, let me tell you, we ran through this a little bit yesterday. all you got to do is to at least get people to start feeling a little bit better

is nothing in the month of December. It's win that first playoff game. The NFC is crap. What happened to the AMC? I mean, the wild cards possibly right now in the NFC are going to be the Seahawks and the Vikings. And then in the AFC you would have the cults and the Raiders or the Colts and the Bills? Yeah, no wild card team, regardless of how it ends up, is going to scare anybody in the AFC. That's why when the Texans win the AFC South, you better beat them.

AFC South champions, four out of five years. That'd be a pretty good run. Oh, and then we've got to get rid of the Bill O'Brien comment to Brian Smith. He might go ahead and get up in the ring of honor. Brian T or Bill O'Brien? They're going to put him in the ring of honor if they win the AFC championship this year. I mean, perennial AFC South champions. All right.

Joel Clatt on the college football rankings and the big game this week between LSU and Alabama. 1257 is the Matt Thomas show Hour 2, just three minutes away. Let's go. And now we're talking college football with Joel Clatt. Brought to you by Dos Ekes, official beer sponsor of the college football playoff. It is one of our favorite parts of the week as we lead the conversation in the college football with the lead analyst from Fox Sports, doing the big 10 big game at 11 o'clock, and then later on in the afternoon,

the other network will have, I don't know, someone interesting game between LSU and Alabama. Joel, how are things? First and foremost, did you sit in front of a television to see the first rankings come out, or you're like, I'll catch it later? I did sit in front of the TV. I had my two-year-old with me.

He was watching a little paw patrol on the iPad, and I was watching rankings. come out. And when you saw them, you went, me, or like, okay, that's, that looks good. Tell me what your, your first blush observations were on it. Yeah, I mean, I actually thought that they were about as good as they ever have been, to be honest with you. I thought that this committee balanced out what they're supposed to, which is, you know, equal parts, kind of eye test, football acumen, dominance on the field, and resume and data and analytics. And they gave us the correct number one team because by any metric, whatever way you slice it, Ohio State, not only from a data analytics standpoint would be the number one team in the country, but also if you were just watching and you saw how complete and balanced and dominant they've been, you'd put them as number one.

So not only that, but I thought that they did the right thing kind of with the Bama, Clemson. The only thing I thought maybe was Georgia was a hair higher than they should have been? Oregon should have been in that spot. But that being said, I actually thought that they did a really nice job. All right. So for the 2.30 game coming up in Tuscaloosa, LSU and Alabama, how many times have you envisioned in your mind how this thing is going to go down? And do we have different results or do you think there's still a clear favorite in this game?

I don't know if there's a clear favorite. I've been saying for ever since, too, it went down with that injury. You know, for me, it all depends on his health and his ability to be. I don't want to say explosive as a runner, but to have your lower half as a quarterback is very important for your ability to throw with touch, your ability to drive the football, throw accurately. And so his effectiveness in this game, I think, is of paramount importance because the reason being, I really think that LSU is going to be able to score points. I think that Bama's defense is susceptible this year with all the youth that they have. And I think Joe Burrow in that passing game is really, really tough to stop. They shot themselves in the foot a couple of times inside the red zone against Auburn

or else they could have scored 30, 35 points pretty easily. And I think that that's a total that they could potentially get to even against Alabama on the road. So because of that, Bama is going to need a healthy Tua. They're going to need some semblance. of balance, even though they're not a great running team this year. And those wide receivers are going to have to have one heck of a game. I think at the coin flip right now, I'm leaning a little bit Bama as Tua becomes more healthy, as the reports are that he's healthy, and with that game being in Tuscaloosa.

And that's the last I wanted to talk to you about. I mean, does the home field in this particular matchup mean so much? Because if you were to take 10 articles and look at this game, most people would say this is the best LSU team that's ever gone to Tuscaloosa in many, many years. The best quarterback, you've got a good solid defense on that side of the football. Why can't LSU

go to Tuscaloosan say we are better, whether Tua is at 50% 100% or 0, and win this football game based on the fact that we're pretty damn good? Yeah, they might. Listen, I'm not putting that past them. There's no doubt. In fact, if Tua is not healthy, you know, if he's

hobbled at all, I think LSU is going to win the game. And what the committee told us last night, at least in my estimation, is that Alabama has no room for air. Matt, I really believe them at three was kind of a shot across the bow of, hey, you can't lose and just get in because your family. Your schedule is not strong enough this year. And I think that became very apparent last night. So, listen, is that true? Yeah, maybe.

You know, I think this is a great LSU team. Now, I will say this. this LSU team is not exactly the rushing team or defensive front seven that you've seen in the past. I think you would agree with that. Yeah. But, but I will say this, like, what teams would just stand toe to toe with Alabama and win anyways? Even when it's been Clemson beating them or Ole Miss a couple of years ago, what have teams been able to do? They've been able to throw the ball.

They've been able to have dynamic quarterback play. and they've been able to score points. It's gotten in shootouts and beaten Alabama that way. So you could make the argument that is this the overall best team LSU has had? I don't know, maybe. Is this the correct LSU team to potentially go and win this game? I think you can make an argument that it is. Is the Big Ten beating its chest today?

I mean, Florida State number four, you've got Minnesota that's undefeated. You've already got Ohio State in the mix. I mean, I wouldn't say resurgence because that's not fair, but Ohio State's been the mix. But that second classic team in the Big Ten, it's kind of rotated in Michigan a little bit until they lose Ohio State year in and year out. How is the Big Ten feeling right now

about where things are in terms of their college football playoff standings? They've got to feel good because I know that the sentiment is always, and rightly so, because of their strength at the top, that the SEC could get two teams into the playoff, right? But I think that there's a scenario, Matt, and this is what's wild. I think there's a scenario where, The SEC gets to and the Big Ten gets to. If the two road teams and these marquee matchups down the stretch, Penn State and LSU,

lose really close games, well-played games, no injuries, like really close on the road, don't you see a scenario in which, let's say Clemson stubs their toes somehow, some way, and loses the game? At that point, I really think that there's a chance. that you could get two Big Ten and two SEC teams in the playoff. How is Clemson supposed to build its resume right now? Well, they can't. That's the problem.

They just have to win all their games. If they went all their games, they're going to go. They have zero room for error. And I think what the committee is saying with them at five is we're acknowledging the weakness in your conference. We're acknowledging the weakness in your schedule. That being said, with teams, two of them ahead of you, for sure, losing at some point, I think that Clemson will go, there's no

doubt, as the fourth or third place team if they're undefeated. But rest of sure, I believe that they have zero room for error. They will not get a mulligan, just like I think Alabama may not get a mulligan. I think that the mulligans that are out there for non-champions might go to

Penn State and LSU based on where they're ranked, or maybe Ohio State, based on where they're ranked. Joe Clatt, Fox Sports with us here on the Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk. There was a report out of a highly reputable ABC station in Tallahassee, Florida, that had Bob Stubes close to taking the Florida State job, and he rebuked that pretty early. But with the names that I'm seeing, at least early on, at the Florida State spot,

why wouldn't Bob Stoops take that job if he wanted to get back into coaching? I just don't think he wants to, right? So the assumption that you're making is that he would want to get back into coaching. I don't think that he wants to. I think that this Dallas gig in the XFL is something very different than taking over the reins of a college football program. I think that if you wanted to coach in college football, he'd still be doing it in Norman.

He loved coaching there, loved coaching there. He loved who he worked for in Joe Castiglione. He was comfortable there. His family was there. His son was on the team, Drake Stoops, or entering into about to be on the team as a walk-on. So if he wanted to be in college football, he would be. And that's why I don't think that this is real.

I texted with Bob. He said that it's absolutely rumor. There's no intent there. There's no accuracy there. And to be honest, this is the exact wrong way to go about it if you're Florida State. You've got to be in control of the narrative when you're hiring a coach. I'm not saying it has worked out since.

But what I'm about to say is that I thought UCLA's process of hiring a head coach was very good. Why? Well, because no one, quote, unquote, turned them down or had to say publicly, I'm not interested. The more times that people publicly say they're not interested, I think, starts to, at a point, chip away, devalue the strength of your job that you're trying to sell to somebody. So from that standpoint, I think Florida State is up against it. They need to circle the wagons. You cannot have rumors out there. You need a very small search party. You need to target somebody

and you need to go get it done. And that being said, you know, it looks like this is going to be fairly wide open. They said that the boosters are going to be involved. There's this large search party, so you're not going to be in control of the narrative. Because guess what boosters do? They talk. Why are they boosters? Because they love the illusion of power. Yeah. They love the illusion of power. That's why they're boosters in the first place. They do what do you think they're going to do? They're going to talk. They had power. They found $20 million to buy out Willie Taggart. $20 million for a coach to go away. That my friend is power. That's crazy.

All I'm saying is in the form of narrative. Yes, they do have power. That's why they're involved. 20 million is crazy. A couple of years ago, there were five power five coaches that were paid to not coach, and that total was somewhere in the $74, $76 million range, which is just wild. I think it's irresponsible, these contracts that are given with these massive guaranteed buyouts for these coaches that are totally unproven and have no track record of success. which was the case for Willie Taggart. I think it's fiscally irresponsible of these schools.

It's from a business standpoint, really poor form. So, yeah, now the boosters step in. They provide the $20 million. They gained access to the table, right? They gained access behind the closed doors. All I'm trying to say is those are the wrong people you want behind the closed doors. Why? Because as soon as they step out of the room, what do they want to do?

They want to talk about the fact that they're in the room. That's why they gave the money in the first place is perception and illusion of power. Yeah. Wow. Last question. Can Baylor end the year three and one at TCU, home Oklahoma, home Texas at Kansas, and playing the Big 12 championship team? The Baylor Bear is a team that two years ago didn't win a game. I think that they've got a shot.

I'm actually calling for, if I had to pick an upset this week, I believe it would be TCU. the way that Baylor played against West Virginia, as the pressure mounts on Baylor, they don't have their best player on defense. I think those are really tough things to overcome. So I think that TCU's got a great shot. I think as Texas gets healthier, they're probably a better team than Baylor.

I think Oklahoma is a better team than Baylor. I hope it's not the end of their run, but this may be kind of the calm before the storm for them and for Minnesota. And Joe, we'll leave it that, my friend, Grace of as always, you'll have Maryland versus Ohio State this week. As you would know in the business, you may have to have your film material ready by May, maybe mid-second quarter. Got my laptop open right now in the car.

I love that. I'm doing that work. I love that. Joe will talk next week. Thanks for the time, friend, as always. You got a button. All right. Let's see you.

Joe Clatt, Fox Sports. On the trail, it's hard. And it drops it down with a left-hand hammer. This is Coach Dantone. Matt Thomas is a great guy and I always listen to the radio show on mute what a shot

Rossie that is not nice why is a coach doing that to me I thought it was funny you guys have fun with each other you're the only one that's not true people across the city were laughing at that quip

all right 713 212 577 Ross has a control the television here. We've got some soccer game going on and featuring a zero-zero tie at this. Oh, no, excuse me, one-one. Do you like being wrong all the time? Because it seems like you do. They've run around for

67 minutes, and two goals have been scored. It's been a pretty good game. And a rainstorm. It's, yes, it's Juventus versus some other team. This is Champions League. You don't even know who the other team is? They're like Russian or something. I don't remember. And yet you're still on to watch

it. Why is TNT putting this on when there could be another fresh edition of Charmed on or something. Yeah. Or maybe, what's that one? Bones. The only time I ever catch bones is when I'm waiting for NBA on TNT to start. Here's what it has.

I think Charmed is on like for three hours in the morning. It's a locomotive Moscow. That's who that is. Okay, thank you for that. On Friday mornings after a TNT doublehead or night, you turn the TV on, you know, it's the last thing you watch. And there's like Shannon Doherty and Holly Marie Combs girl. And Alyssa Milano before she went whack job.

Yeah, I usually catch the bones. Oh, they're putting Ray on. going to put on Manchester City? Terrible. I'm rep in the city today, so. So shameful. Surprise you didn't want to make a road trip to London, check out the Texans and catch a little world soccer.

I could have, but I can't afford it. It is rather pricey, isn't it? Yeah. I'm telling you, people in London, at least when I've been there one time, so I'm not a great indicator, but I didn't think they were particularly nice. Really? Yeah. I got called an a-hole

on the second deck of a double-decker bus. Well, you probably were being an a-hole. What'd you do? I got up and waited for Kim to get out of her seat. And I did not allow the gentleman behind me because you let ladies go first. And he goes, in the British accent, he goes, well, he goes, a-ho.

Really? Yeah. You sure he didn't say arse? No, no. I definitely knew what he said. And it was the meant towards me. And I played stupid young American. He didn't call you a wanker?

Mm-mm. I don't even slang on this show. A cheeky tossa? Okay. How do you know all this stuff? You watch a masterpiece theater? I watch it watching Peeky Blinders. Is that a British show?

I think there are, where are they in Peaky Blinders? Are they in Ireland or England? I can't remember. Like the last British show that I would watch was, of course, Benny Hill. Because 12-year-old Matt Thomas wanted to see girls in lingerie with an old man trying to make funny jokes talking really fast. Yeah, they're in Birmingham, England and Peaky Blinders. That's a good show, by the way. I will recommend it to many.

others. You haven't seen it. Well, I'm taking your recommendation. Okay. All right. 713-212-579. If you're just joining us, A, where the hell have you been? B, we're dang glad to have you. Rockets and Warriors tonight at Toto Center. Clay Thompson, not available. Dramon Green, unavailable.

Kevin Durant wouldn't be here. He's with the Nets. He's hurt and not with the team. And eating snake on YouTube with Sergei Baca. Are you doing that? You're going to running on a Kevin Durant rabbit hole? I saw, yeah. I thought it was made national waves.

Serge Baca has this, apparently this crazy show that he does on YouTube where he cooks people food and then he just converses with them. But at the end of the day, do they know what they're eating? Yes.

Because I can't imagine Kevin Durant, like, hey, we're going to have some snake tonight. Yeah, that's what happened. Well, no, no, they don't know until afterwards. And he actually ate it. He's like, because if you're a snake, if you're a snake, you can't eat snake.

That's what Serge said. So he's like, he's not... That was your Serge Bokke impersonation? Snick, don't eat snake. Yeah, that was it. That's all I got. I think it sounds pretty good. Okay, thank you.

And then he asked him, who's better, Russell Westbrook or Steph Curry? He said, Steph Curry. Oh, now he's just trying to... Why would you ask you two former teammates trying to throw shade like that? Well, I mean, is that breaking news? Well, who would you rather have on this team? Turn it down, whatever that is. Oh, that shocked me.

That was your computer there. trying to pull up a story here and get you on your laptop horrible video i'm not getting bringing the laptop in here all right uh there is a los vegas before we get to the rotten five there is a las vegas casino that is suing san jose shark forward evander cane oh no what happened according to the las vegas review journal the cosmopolitan of las Vegas which i've never gambled in i've been in the cosmos is it good i've eaten there actually i don't know if i've gambled it's a little pricey it's a little high end i'm i'm i'm I'm more of a, let's say, an Orleans guy, more than I'm a Cosmo guy.

I'm more of a craps player at the Hooters Hotel. Yes. I'm more of a hard rock casino live at the Hard Rock Casino. Yeah. The Cosmopolitan filed the lawsuit against Kane saying he took out eight separate credits. That totaled $500,000 in mid-April. Kane and the Sharks were in Las Vegas when he allegedly used the markers as San Jose played the Knights. The NHL team did not immediately respond to the review.

journal's request for comment. This seems to be fairly cut and dry on this, right? Evander Cain, by the way, I looked it up. He makes $6 million a year. Okay, so you're borrowing $500,000. There's a signature involved. I don't care how famous you are. Yeah. I don't care if Chloe Kardashian walks in and she wants a million dollar market, they'll give it to her. Yeah. But you've got to sign something. And there's cameras everywhere. Your bodyguard can't sign for the marker. your business associate can't sign for the market. Your spouse probably can't even sign for the marker. Casino credit.

Oof. I've gotten casino credit one time in my life. Really? It was for about $3,000. Were you uncomfortable? Did you get shaken down? It was as absolutely as an uncomfortable as a moment I have ever had in a casino. And the person said to me that wanted me to do this is like, hey, you only live once.

Yeah. I have, I mean, I obviously had $3,000 they could have found in my credit cards or my debit account or whatever. case may be. But he says, go do it. They'll treat you really well. And they do. When you ask for a marker, they like you. Okay, good.

They'll buy you some meals. If you wanted a concert ticket, you wanted to get a room if you didn't already have one. Man, three Gs. Matt Thomas. But that's $3,000. I'm calling you Minnesota Fats Matt. That's not $500,000. Oh, the Cincinnati kid.

Mm-mm. I was uncomfortable. Okay. Now I just, I say, can I turn this dollar and change into a chance I can make one bed on a, on a, on a craps table or something? I think of sir, it's a minimum about of 15. Oh, darn it. But this is not even worth debating, correct?

This guy owes this money. And how does he make all the money that he makes thinking that he can shake off a casino that's got 50 million cameras and all sorts of video and probably written documentation that backs up the fact that he asks for these markers? Yeah, it seems pretty cut and dry. I don't know why he's going to have the sue. Maybe he can't pay it.

He does live in San Jose, so half of that $6 million is going to the state of California. That's true. That's bad. All right, let's get to the Rotten Five coming out of this. So timeout here. This is where, I mean, I'm going to be truth-free told on you. A lot of radio shows give you the easy stuff like, hey, here's up, power rankings, and here's who's cool. Hey, Deshaun Watson is awesome, and the Texans are great.

That's understandable. And we agree. But it takes some skill to give you the five worst teams in the NFL. Listen for the Rotten Five. It is up next. Left side to Westbrook. On the baseline for the tie. Makes it, and he's fouled!

This is Russell Westbrook. One thing is for sure, I did not get my amazing style from Matt Thomas. Oh, hammer job! Why are these liners ripping me? It's my show. You should rip other shows during my show. I hadn't heard that one. That's good.

That's fine. I see how you are. Okay. So Mike Dan Tony listens to show on mute. And Russell's style does not come from the styling. musings of one, your buddy sports empty. 134 on Sports Talk 790, 713212-5-790. Ladies and gentlemen, it takes absolutely no skill, desires, research, thought, analytics

to giving us the five best teams in the NFL. It tells us for the five worst. So we present this to you. They've gone bad. Hey, they draw flies. Ooh, it's wrong. This is rotten five. This don't smell quite right.

Ah, it's good to be back on the Rotten Five, folks. And let's go ahead and get it started with the Atlanta Falcons, as they continue to be one of the more puzzling stories of the season. Although he did miss their last game, you'd think with Matt Ryan at quarterback and a number of offensive weapons, the Falcons wouldn't be one of the worst teams in the entire league. By the way, he will be back this week or is he is expected to be. That, however, is not the case.

the teams are scoring 31.3 points per game against the Falcons, which is good for 30th in the league, and their minus 11 turnover ratio, second worse in the NFL only to the lowly Miami Dolphins. The Falcons head to New Orleans this week, so things will probably get worse before they get better. But as of now, they are the fifth worst team in the NFL. You suck, you suck ass. It's actually a miracle. The Washington Redskins are not lower on this list because they have all the ingredients of a team. deeper into the Rotten 5.

They've already fired their head coach. They've had multiple starting QBs. They've had injuries at running back, and their interim coach has no idea what he's doing. You got at least tipped your cap to Bill Callahan for getting the games over quickly because each of his last three losses have clocked in under three hours.

They play the Jets this week, so maybe they can actually get another win. But as of now, the Redskins, they are the fourth worst team in the NFL. It's going down to tubers. Thanks, Donnie. All right, normally for any football team, appearing on the Rotten 5 is cause for embarrassment or shame. Not the case, however, for the

Miami Dolphins this week, as they should be proud of what they've accomplished as they've climbed all the way to third on this list. The dolphins got close a couple of weeks ago against the Washington Redskins, and now Ryan Fitzpatrick kicked the door down as they avoid this stigma and infamy that comes with being an 0-16 team. They do play the Jets again and face the Bengals later on, so when it's all said and done, we could be talking about a three- or four-win team. Congratulations, Dolphins. You're the third worst team in the NFL. Oh, no, it's bad.

It's real bad. And on to those previously mentioned Jets. When Sam Donald came back from his bout with mononucleosis, he said that the Jets were going to win some games and show some metal and all that type of stuff. Well, so far that has not been the case. They've reached a new low by losing to the Miami Dolphins a historically bad team. Ryan Fitzpatrick, Mark Walton, and the bunch beat the Jets convincingly, and you have to wonder how things broke down so quickly for a team that had so much preseason promise. The Jets' offense that added Levy on Bell is last in the league, and the defense is mediocre at best, and the New York Jets are the second worst team in the NFL.

They can't stop a noseble. And last but not least, the Cincinnati Bengals, they've been a staple of the Rotten Five for years, and now with the Dolphins winning a game, they have seized the Rotten Five crown. Usually it was Marvin Lewis that would have the squad down here, but the more things change, the more they stay the same, as Zach Taylor has yet to notch his first win as an NFL HUD coach. Andy Dalton has been benching the Rions, the Bengals turn to fourth round Ryan Finley, who at least will be have AJ agreed to throw to. Pour one out for Dalton, though, who has the Bengals as the worst team in the NFL. Sucky, sucky, sucky. And that's your run five.

What is it like being a Cincinnati Bingal fan? Because here's the thing. He had to deal with Marvin 9 and 7 or worse or 4 and 12 Lewis who can never win a playoff game. Because I think there's a lot of people that are of Texans fans that are like, wo is me. I can name five teams right off the top that have been just as depressing, if not more than the Houston Texans have. But at least if your team's going 4 and 12 every year, you can stop paying attention to them. The Texans always try to reel you in. I don't know.

I don't think three and six, two and seven gives me cause. Well, at least I can get rid of them after nine weeks. I'd rather see how this Texas adventure ends. That's what I'm saying. I think there's a familiar ending to it. They pull the rug from under you. The Texans get your hopes up. At least if you've been with a Bengals fan or a Browns fan in years past,

you're like, you know what, what are you doing on Sunday? Oh, I'm going to trim the hedges. I got some work to do around the house. Yeah, I'm not going to watch the Browns. So let's do this. I want you to say the very first sentence you just said. I'll repeat it. The Texans get your hopes up.

Yes. So let's ask the question right now. Are your hopes up? Yes. 713-212-5-790. That may be the easiest question I've ever asked the audience in the history. And I'm not saying, are they going to win the Super Bowl? Are they going to get to the AFC championship game?

I'm not saying are they going to finish the year 11 and 5 or 10 and 6 and losing the first round of the wildcard, team like they normally do. I'm asking you a very simple question. So I can gauge what y'all are thinking? Are your hopes up on the Texans? Because the resume Ross this year at 6 and 3, honestly, it's pretty good. You went to London, which isn't easy for any team and won a game. You won at Kansas City where no one in the world would have thought you would have won that football game. What else has been impressive so far? Those are probably... You stood in with the Saints, if not for the field goal.

You would have won that contest. What was it? A 57-58 yard or whatever it was? Dang, Will with one L. Lutz. Let's see. I mean, scoring 50, the Falcons aren't a good team, but scoring 50 in any game is impressive. Yeah.

I mean, they're doing it, again, with a battered-up defense and an offensive line that has been fixed, but is hurt and you know Laramie Tunsel didn't play you're doing it with two guys that were not Kaffstov's other team well Carlos Hyde sort of was Duke was

not and you're doing it with frankly the tight end being the second most important pass catcher on the football team whatever that tight end may be fails in particular do we have Will Fuller injury updates what's going on with him it's IP injury prone to matter

and Kiki Kuki Kutia he's in the doghouse. Yeah, what happened with that? Oh, it's a dog. Last year, when he was on, when he was on the field, they were doing jet sweeps and using him in screens and utilizing his speed and making and weaponizing him on the offense. You would think of all the players this week that absolutely need to get in the work

room, work out and film room and on the field when the guys are relaxing. It's Kiki QT because he is out of the rotation. Right. He was only one of two players, I think, last week that suited up that did not see the field. I think AJ McCarron was the other one. You know, I mean, that's got to be a pretty tough blow, eagle-wise, for a guy that was given every opportunity to play a lot last year, but is in the Bill O'Brien Doghouse. And the question is, once you go in the doghouse of B-O-B, do you ever get out? How many players have gotten in the doghouse that got out?

Let's think. Who else has been in his dog house? I know there's people got rid of him. That's true. Clownie. Jady Clowny seemed like he was maybe in the doghouse. And where is he now? He's being very successful as a Seattle Seahawk.

Okay. Yeah. So if you're Kiki Qutin, you're like, wait a minute. He keeps telling the media like you did yesterday that all it needs is some work and he'll get an out of his got opportunity.

But is that lip service? Or do you think that once you go in the B.O.B. Doghouse, you don't come back out. I'd like to come out. I mean, you've seen like DeAndre Carter was getting more regular snaps and he was crazy. That's true. All right. So I ask a question and we'd like to get your input on this at 713-212-5-790. What was my question again? Oh, are you hopeful? Are you hopeful?

Or the Texans have your hopes up? Yeah, that's it. That's better. Do the Texans have your hopes up? First of all, he's a great guy. He's a hardworking guy. It's Matt and he's back. Brings his lunchtime Houston sports talk. The Matt. Matt Thomas show on 790. 150 on Sports Talk 790. Coming up in 10 minutes from now, I want to tell you about a vote that is still being counted on in a sister state of ours. Not like right next door, but close to us.

What is the sister state? Sister state would be the state next to you. Is that right? I've never heard that phrase. That's not true. That's not true. Neighboring state. Okay.

Sister state would be among this. There's no such thing as sister state. So forget what I said. Neighboring state. A close to neighboring state has a vote that is very intriguing and it's come down. It has to do with sports and it's come down to the last percentage. You know how you have like election day was yesterday. Ross, you go vote yesterday?

No. My streak of never, ever, ever voting is alive, folks. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. I refuse to participate in this corruption. It is a right of yours as an American to get in there and go vote. and let your voice be heard. Okay. How dare you do that?

Which corporate lobbyists do I want to vote for? Okay. So wrong that you wouldn't take a little bit of time to do that. Yeah, got no problem. I don't want to participate in a system that is broken as the one we have here in the United States. Not to get political on you. Thank you, Nick. Nick, do you vote yesterday?

Nope. Apparently only 300,000 people in Harris County voted yesterday. Oh, wow. about four and a half million in the county somewhere in that range? I mean, four and a half. Politicians all bought and paid four years ago. Don't participate. Sorry.

Wow. So bitter. God bless America. Yeah. Land that I love. All right. I mean, I love her, but she's got issues, you know? That's true.

Like most of my exes. I asked you guys in the last cycle, and ladies, too, are you hopeful the Texans are going to do something fun between now and the end of the year? All they did last year was win game after game after game. again, we kept trying to sell it, and then they fell completely fun on their face. And everybody came back at me and said, Matt told you so. So I'm going to ask again. Six and three with some pretty impressive wins, a very, very winnable final four games of the year.

Next three, pretty difficult. But winnable certainly lasts four. Are you hopeful this team can get to 10 when the AFC South and do some damage? 713-212-5-790. Chef, Northwest Houston on the Matt Thomas show. Hi, Chef. Hey, how you doing? Now, is that a nickname or is that your given name?

Well, my real name is Chef from him, but, you know, my whole life, people mess it up all the time, so I just tell me to call me, Chef. Are you, what do you do for a living? Well, merchandiser, and I had like a little barbecue business as well, I just ain't built it up to where I need to, so. I understand. Man, well, let me tell you some. I would like to try your barbecue sometime.

You definitely love it. Okay, what do you got today? Do you have faith? Are you sharing in some optimism about where your team is after nine weeks? I mean, I have a little faith in them, but, man, as long as O'Brien is there, I mean, that pretty much wipes it out. We always been a pretty good, you know, regular season team, but, you know, in the playoffs come, you know, when it gets down to, you know, those six teams and you got Billet Check,

you got, you know, the coach, Andy Reid from Kansas City. Even the Indianapolis coach, for me, is better. When it comes down to that, I mean, I think that's where the good coaches, you know, that's when they, you know, make their mark in. But right of the track record of definitely not winning the coaches battle, you know, when it comes down to those playoff game. So the answer is no. Yeah, I have to say no.

I mean, we got Watson now, and he's definitely a game changer. I mean, he is kind of like, like, you know, his college coach said, he does have, you know, the Jordan-type challenge that can carry a team. But, I mean, I mean, Billi-check got all those rings for a reason. I mean, maybe Brady gets hurt somehow and we have a chance, but, I mean, I mean, it's going to be hard. That's all I like to say, especially with Billichick with O'Brien over there. Thank you, chef, for the phone call.

Don't be a stranger. Good luck with the future barbecue. AFC South Champions. Ross, we did this a year ago at about this same time as the Texans were winning game after game after game. No, I shouldn't say nobody. Most of Houston that considers himself a fan of the Texans does not trust Bill O'Brien to lead this team to a deep playoff run. It's not Matt. It's not you.

It's not even Nick with the awkward soundbites saying this. It's the fan base. I think that's true. I think though this year there's multiple wins. And I'm not going to say I got a whipped into a frenzy in Texans fever last year, but I was selling that, hey, the Texans can go out and they can compete with anybody and they can go and win a playoff game and there's no reason why they shouldn't. And then they laid an egg in the wildcard game, unfortunately.

But I think there are a couple. of wins this season that are better than any of the wins on that winning streak where you could really just kind of downplay it because of the competition. I mean, they didn't have a win last year like they do with winning at Kansas City with Patrick Mahomes, although he wasn't 100% he was playing. If you go and went up there and beat Matt Moore, that's a different story. You went up there and beat the Kansas City Chiefs who at that time are a top five team in the NFL on the road in Arrowhead.

How many times have we say in the offseason, how is this team going to win as many games with all the quarterbacks they were going to face. That's why I had him winning 7 and 9. I didn't envision, first of all, well, they lost to Carolina, so that really hurt the cause. But I thought Cam Newton was going to give him the trouble. I certainly thought that Drew Breeze, and he did. Andrew Luck twice.

Andrew Luck twice. That didn't happen. Hell, man, I didn't even see, well, we'll probably see Jacobi percent the second time, but his ankle is not 100%. This was supposed to be the, there's no way in the world this team's going to win 10 games because the quarterbacks alone they are facing and they're so far very close, well, I'd say very close, but they're on their way to pacing at least 10 of not even more than that. Yeah, if they win fewer than 10 games this season, I mean, this last stretch has,

they have failed in some way. If they only go four and three down this stretch. No, it'd be three and four. Is there at six and three? I'm sorry, yeah, three and four. But I think chef's call is largely indicative of the fan base that doesn't, that that isn't the completely blind fan base. If you were to take the three sports teams in town, What's the blind fan base on the, no matter what they do, they're the best team ever. I think the Texans are the tops of the three teams in this community. I think Texans, Karen, and traveling Texan thinks they should go 60 and no every year, and they think they're going to win every single week.

I think Astro Twitter is not far behind. I think probably Rocket Twitter is a little more realistic. Now, I'm not talking about volatility and getting mad. I'm talking about who are they as compared to what their record really is. I think Texan Twitter right now thinks they're going to go 13 and 3. I think Texan Twitter is hardly even a thing. Less than so than the Rockets and Astros.

Do you get that feeling? I do. Of the three. I'm not talking about size. I'm talking about if you were to go run the Texans Twitter and find out what they're thinking. They are thinking that Bill O'Brien has had one of his most amazing years

as a coach and general manager and that this team is going to go from city to city and win a bunch of football games. I think optimism among Texans fan base is significantly larger than the other two. It's hard to put your finger on because there's nobody's 100% are in agreement on anything. So I don't know. All I'm saying is the Bill O'Brien hate and among those that are non-Huston Texans' Twitter

is so strongly that I think you just doesn't give you an opportunity to actually celebrate what is there so far. And that's six and three in first place. All right, 713-212-5-790. Is the Matt Thomas Show. Happy post-election day, 203 on the Matt Thomas show. Are you hopeful in the Texans? It's a very simple question.

It's 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Are you hopeful the Rockets can cover the 15-and-a-half tonight against the Golden State Warriors? Speaking of sports gaming, How do you all feel about Proposition Double D? I'm in favor of it, probably. I think it's a grown adult heterosexual man. How could you be opposed to Prop Double D?

Do you have any details? Yeah, I do. Yeah, keep us abreast of the situation. Sure I can. Proposition D is not in Texas, unfortunately. Oh. It is a measure in the state of Colorado. And Colorado has legal weed.

legal weed. Rocky, beautiful Rocky Mountains. A lot of Ugg boots. Probably quite a few barisas with men with long hair and man buns. Thin air in the high altitude. Yeah. Kind of an eclectic, we're not California, but we're cool in our own way, Colorado vibe. Okay.

Well, 1.36 million ballots have been counted. They're still not done. there's 162,000 left in Proposition Double D. Mm-hmm. Proposition D is to legalize sports betting in Colorado. Ooh. Oh, good. How close may you ask is this vote?

17,089 votes in favor of it. And that was as of about a half an hour ago. They still have 162,000 votes. So it's literally 50.1 to 49. Okay. Legalized sports betting. They already've got casinos up in the mountains. Might have to move to Denver.

Casinos and sports betting? The state's 17 casino operators would be allowed to apply for licenses for physical or online sports books and pay a 10% tax on their net proceeds. That money would go towards Colorado's water plan. Let's get together, Texas. How come all these other cool states are getting everything legalized except for Texas? I'm going to ask a really simple question that I think I know the answer to, but maybe I need affirmation from the two of you. Okay. Why don't we have it?

We have a lottery. Yeah. We have, uh, there's some, uh, there's Indian gaming with slot machines play some places. We have a, we have a racetrack. We have, we have horse and dog betting. We have bingo. That's true. We are.

Yeah. If Gladys can get down on her, uh, bingo game gambling on that. We are two hours away from Lake Charles, which has multiple gaming opportunities. There might be your answer. I want to bet on sports. The NBA wants you to bet on sports. Adam Silver is not hiding it. The networks now want you involved in it because they're taking millions of dollars in advertising from them.

Every time you see an NFL game or a college game now on the preview shows and on the recap shows, it doesn't just show the score or the schedule or the time of the day or the TV channel. It shows you the line. Yes. Rossi, in 2019, we as America are not afraid of gambling anymore. It's just as bad of advice as eating too many sweets, smoking too much weed, drinking too much booze. There's Popeye's chicken sandwiches. Cholesterol and high pressure, blood pressure be damned.

It's time for Texas to get it going. I know there's people driving around in cars saying, well, the conservative nature of our state's not going to let that happen. Why? I thought our state liked liberty in letting people choose what they want to do and not being restricted. And by the way, while we're here, why can't I get liquor on a Sunday?

Blue laws. Tough to get those off the books. What does that even mean? I don't know. They've been there since. I got another one for you. I don't know, 18 something. If I want to go buy a car on a Saturday,

and buy it on a Sunday, let me do it too. You can't do that right now. Out of control. If I want to get sloshed with some hard liquor on a Sunday, I got to go to it. Because I can get at a bar. So that doesn't make sense, right? That you can buy it at a bar, but you can't buy it

in your home. Someone explain that to me. It's more safe drinking at home. Like 1984, the state legislature was, you know, Braxton Tilbury living in 1884?

Do we need your old music? Yeah, let's get the old. get the old Texas music in. Something inspiring of God blessed Texas or something. I don't care. But the old guard of 1984 living in Waxahatchez says we don't need the

heathens drinking and smoking and gambling on their phones. But you can go to a bar on Sunday. Why is Colorado doing it now? It's going to pass. I hope I think it's going to pass. How come I can slam tenet

mimoses at ten a.m. on a Sunday as long as I'm having food with it but I can't go to the liquor store and drink it home. Louisiana's going to do it pretty quick. Mississippi already is. New Jersey is. Colorado's like... Here you go. Here we are the Texas Tumbleweed.

The Texas legislature. I say, I say, I say. You will not bet on the Chargers Packers game this week. We in Texas. We have morals. This is not your granddad's Texas. You need to spend... Sunday reading the good book.

We're not in Clocksville, Texas, having a glass of country time, eating some chicken fried steak and reading the scriptures. We need to know if the bucks are plus or minus the full points against the Raptors tonight. I'm sick of these archaic law. I love Texas, but they got some problems. We're going to lose business, right? Yeah, you're losing business to other states. You're losing business to Louisiana.

I mean, I understand you're going to have to. bite the bullet if you're Tillman or whoever Pinnacle Gaming or whoever owns, I think they got bought out by somebody else. Whoever owns LaBers Right. They're going to get bought out. You can build some other, you can build a multi-million dollar facility in Galveston, which is probably

maybe a flood risk, so built it up on stilts. Or flood proof it. Get the final cell phones that had the apps. Can't you just add some slot machines and some gaming tables to the pleasure pier? Oh, I'd go there. I'd go down there every week. Yeah.

Same Houston Race Park. When's last one of the same Houston race park? When's that last time anybody went to same Houston Race Park? I've been for 50 cent beers

here and there. Okay, so you're going for the cheap beer. Yeah, right. I don't necessarily go. I mean, on the big races that people are throwing down over there, the Kentucky Derby and whatnot.

How big that complex is? Yeah. You put craps tables up there? Yeah, you'll never see me. I'll be at three places. My home, Rockets games, and the craps table.

In the studio? we could do shows live from there Oh, I'd do the show there We could do shows live from the blackjack table Yes Matt just stayed on a 16 against 20 Said he had a lucky feeling No, I don't ever do that, you know me

You've been playing cards with me for a long time I never do that always at the 60 I don't care what it is Well, it depends on it mean if the deck is really hot With 10s I'm keeping a count If your card counting Well news headline

Ross no longer involved in the same I'll get barred, it's fine They don't really don't do that. Do they really stare at the cameras and see what you're doing? Not me. No, I'm betting 25 a hand. They don't care about me. Oh, they're worried about the encounters that are spending a thousand a hand. That seems to make sense. Keeping a plus minus isn't

that difficult. All right. I'm running to sports bet in Texas because if Colorado's doing it, so yet another reason why people are going to go there. Weed sports gaming and two crap tables. Rockets and nuggets in two weeks up in the Mile High City. Matt's going to have Matt's going to be mile high up there.

Matt Thomas. Not feeling so well today. I can't. Ross, you're going to do the show for me. Uh-huh. I could see that happening. I'd be very mad Thomas of you. That's not true. How many times I called in sick in 10 years? Like maybe three times? Yeah, it's been pretty low. Thank you very much.

Hey, let's get back on the phones. Optimism about the Texans. Optimism that we're going to someday get gaming in our state and sports betting because it feels like every other state in the country. It is getting it. 713-213-5-790. 7-1-3-2-5-7-90. Believe it or not today is how well do you know today's Golden State Warriors.

Houston's Sports Talk for lunch. Matt Thomas returns on Sports Talk 790. Non-Florida stories coming up at the bottom of the hour. Ross and I both have stories from the state of Louisiana, which if you were to go to the de facto, if you couldn't do Florida stories, I mean, Louisiana's top five, right? It's definitely up there. Mississippi, it's really the Gulf Coast, to be brutally honest.

Yeah. Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi. Oh, don't sleep on Portland, though. California, too. Yeah. Probably more towards the... Ohio. No, no.

Not Ohio. Yeah, a lot of trashy people there. Wow. Stereotype, do you? All right, so non-Florist stories at the bottom of the hour. Let's go to Joe in the Galeria 2.20 on the Matt Thomas show.

Hi, Joe. Joe! Hello? Hello, Joe. Joe? Joe, my name is Matt. You can't hear me? Yeah, turn your radio up as lot as possible.

No, I'm one of the ones that think the decisions will go far. I agree with Ross that last year was different. Last year, most teams we won, you could have said it was luck. This year, I think only one game might have been luck.

In fact, New Orleans was lucky that we didn't beat them. Also, just look at this last game we want. It should have been 33 to 3. And a lot of national sportscasters were picking Jacksonville. Even some of them by two touchdowns. They said they were going to sack watch them seven times because they had they had done eight sacks the game before.

So, yes, we're different and we're going to go. If we play in New Orleans right now, we can beat New Orleans or anybody. So I'll let you guys talk about it. Thank you, Joe. Appreciate you. I think, I mean, that game was so close. Now, is New Orleans better today than they were week one? The answer is yes?

So are the Texans. I don't know if I'd call that a call. What would New Orleans and Houston be if the Vegas odds makers put it out to the point. Neutral field? Yeah. Saints by four or five. Doesn't mean the Texans can't win the game? Of course not. I wouldn't say the Texans and Saints play ten times that the Texans would win five,

but all it takes is one. And maybe that's in February down in Miami, Florida. Hold on now. That's the next time they could play. Okay, that's true. I think Joe feels that way, clearly. Yeah. They're the third best team they have.

F. They're better than Kansas City. If Patma Holmes comes back and is healthy, which we don't know that to be the case, these power rankings

can shift just like the Rotten 5. The Rodin 5 shifts. It's week to week. Third best team in the NFC right now is Houston, Texas. You have scoreboard. You beat them.

But I don't know if they can maintain it. We'll see. We just have to get, I would call it gathering more evidence. We have to see them play more games and then we'll go from there.

Because they have been so up and down. Because here's the thing. there will not be enough people in the Houston area that will rally to this team unless they do something special like go two and one or three in the next three games. I think this, and I'll mean to continue to harp on this two and one bit, but I think the next three games will give you a proper barometer of who they are. Because let's say Ross, they lose two of the three. And they win three of the four. That's 10 and six. But in that group of 10, there's probably at least five AFC South Carolina.

wins, which as we know now doesn't mean much. It doesn't mean a meaningful win against Baltimore more than likely. Or New England. One of them will not be that. What if they win one of those? They still have two losses to two other good teams. They're taking on three legitimate good football teams. Two great ones probably and one good one in Indianapolis.

That's what I'm saying. I think that even though I'm trying to ask for optimism today, it probably won't come until that Sunday night game against New England Patriots. And by way, the Patriots can lose games on Sunday night on the road. Go ask Baltimore. It's feasible. It's going to happen. And by way, this Patriot team isn't perfect.

Yeah, Tom Brady hasn't been great. They have question marks at the wide receiver position. Running back health has been a problem for them. Correct. So this isn't 15 and 1, New England, in theory, coming to Houston, Texas. It's a very good team. It's probably the best defense in the AFC coming in. And frankly, that the Patriots have had the Texans, they still.

they still the lunch money every time. Because Bill Belichick outcoaches him about Bill O'Brien every time and they outperform him. And Brady's just hard to beat. I mean, that's what the Texans have been in their history, especially under Bill O'Brien.

That's the analogy I always make is you would have, to make a boxing analogy, you would have the Sugar Ray Lennards and the Roberto Durans and then there's those second tier guys that they beat to get where they are. the gatekeepers. And that's what the Texans have always been.

They're good. They're solid fighters. Like, oh, he's going to give him a good, tough fight this weekend, but he's not going to win because he's not elite. He's not that top tier. And that's what the Texans have been. They're good. They can beat up on worst teams.

They can beat up on the Jaguars. And they can maybe surprise you here and there and go win at the Chiefs. But when it comes to the elite top of the top, then they fall short. And how do you want to shake that stigma? You beat the Colts for sure. and you split either the home game against New England or the game at Baltimore. Going one and two with the only win being

on a short week at home against Indianapolis may get some people excited. Texans Karen's going to love it. But the two teams that are in front of you, you lose both these games coming up. Then people are like, you know what? Beating Tampa and Tennessee, no big whoop. Go beat somebody that we think you can beat in January.

That's why I think the next three games are pretty important. Let me go to John on the west side on 790. Hi, John. I wanted to talk about sports gambling and casinos in Texas at first. There are some freaky people in Ohio. What kind of a weirdo do you have to be to put chili under spaghetti noodles? Done. Absolutely right.

That's ridiculous. That is just insane. I don't think that floor can touch that. Not even the panhandle can touch that. Sports gambling. I know you know this, Matt. I don't know why he didn't mention it. There's no gambling.

there's no of any, you know, more worth mentioning in Texas. There's no sports gambling in Texas and no real casinos in Texas because all the casino owners in Louisiana and Las Vegas pay lobbyist. Tillman Prozita, our rocket owner is probably one of them because they don't want all the customers from Texas staying in Texas. It's just a fact.

We've got one of the biggest states. A lot of people go to casinos in Vegas. A lot of people go to the two-hour drive to Louisiana. They don't want to. cut off that conveyor belt of cash. So Fratita and all the other casino owners are just paying lobbyists to keep it out of Texas. Man, I hope that's not true because I wouldn't mind keeping the money in the state, if you know what I'm saying?

I mean, I don't mind losing casino money in Houston, Texas. I got zero problem with that. I don't care where I'd lose it. Well, I think Fetita tried, but when it got cut down previously, now that he's got a casino in Louisiana, he's probably against it. I mean, I'm guessing. I mean, you've got that much invested in Louisiana. Louisiana, you probably don't want to ruin that.

Even though he could probably take advantage of it when it comes to Texas, he's probably submitted now in Louisiana. So I'm guessing he's probably against it now. I'm not sure that it'll ever happen because just too many lobbyists from Vegas and too many lobbyists from our neighbor in Louisiana. I don't mean, I even think that that's not an issue. That the casino, I mean, in theory, right, if Texas casino got casinos, I'm not even talking about casinos per se.

I'm talking about, let's just, can we bet on sports? That's not going to perturb us from going to Louisiana to bet on the, on the craps table and the roulette, right? What is Louisiana going to get sports betting? I think they're going. They're not far behind. They were voting on it, I thought, or it's been slow going. They can't be far behind.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, we need your help here in the next segment of the radio show because we are going to each come up with a story, Nick Ross, myself, of a story that is so sensational and crazy that it can only happen in Florida, but yet it doesn't. We do non-Florida stories. We need you to give us your thoughts on the best non-Florida story, and we'll do that next. 713-212-5-790, because your votes count on who it brings to the table

the best non-Florida story. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Ride, half the workday is done. Celebrate with Matt. Hey, Matt. Love your show. Look, what was I talking about? And by the sound of it, some of you started the party at breakfast. Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790.

Every wacky radio show does Florida stories. Hey, did you see what happened in Tallahassee today, or Gainesville, or Ocala, or Fort Lauderdale? We here on the Matt Thomas show give you the other 49 states, 48 of which, 47 of them are which are contiguous. Can you name the two states that are not contiguous? That'd be Alaska and Hawaii. For those of you're playing. I would hope so.

So with that being said, we also allow the world. And that's where Nick, you open up our non-Florida stories this week. And by the way, we will each read our stories. And we need y'all to help us decide who brought the best Florida story. All right. Well, my story comes from India, as I said before. But it actually relates to an American movie. Have you all ever seen Cool Hand Luke?

I have not seen that movie. Nor have I. It is an older film. I know. I've heard of it. But there's a famous scene where Paul Newman actually bets that he can eat 50 hard-boiled eggs. I have seen that scene, actually. And he achieved it, just barely making it in under the, I think they give him an hour to do it.

Well, over in India, a young man, this is a tough name, Sabha Shiaav, 42 years old, was talking to a friend, and they got to do a little argument, and they decided to place a a bet and he bet his companion 2,000 rupees, which is approximately $28, all right, that he could down 50 eggs just like Paul Newman and Cool Hand Luke. Well, they went over to a vendor who happened to be able to sell them 50 hard-boiled eggs, sat down, and Yadav got to work. He was doing great. He got to 41. Then he placed the 42nd egg in his mouth and fell on. unconscious. Well, they rushed Yadav to a local clinic where he died a few hours later.

Of too many eggs? Doctors ruled that Yadav's death was due to overeating and weighing in at approximately six pounds. That's how many eggs he ate. Significantly more volume than an average human stomach can possibly accommodate. And this is not the first time that this kind of thing has happened. In 2013, Sharon Dixon. known as Big Shaz

was participating in an Easter egg eating contest and she actually choked and was rushed to a hospital but died two days later after damage to her I guess esophagus Okay And in 2012 Ziao Fat Nassi

Why are we running through a list of people That died of too many eggs? Trying to down 28 raw eggs in a single go All right So yeah eggs are dangerous So you're saying The theme of your story this week is don't eat raw eggs but if you do keep it to a minimum well these were hard boiled the uh

the ones in india but he just ate two damn many so we'll just call it hard boiled egg death yikes yours are always gruesome you that's why you don't win he wins sometimes i went off on i told you he goes with the three ds death dismemberment defecation okay mine is about a young Matt Thomas, who would have absolutely done and adhered to what a service was available to him in Evans, Louisiana, if a young Matt Thomas was going to school in Evans. You ever been Evans, Louisiana? Never heard of it. Me either.

There is a woman named Belinda Fondren, and when you see the police report, you always find out their middle name. Her middle name is Gayle, ironically enough, but I'm sure she just goes by Belinda. She's 52 years old. She works in a clerical position at a local clinic. authorities said that miss fondron who worked at a medical clinic had been arrested for selling fake doctor's notes to high school students so they can get out of class news reports out of evans say that miss fondron would charge twenty dollars for medical excuses two students at evans high school in evans received excuses on 14 different occasions

Wow. Deputies said a physician received a call from Vernon Parish School Board about the absence notices. And notes, he told deputies that he didn't treat the students, nor did he authorize the excuses. It's unclear whether Fondren has an attorney. I think it's a masterful, brilliant game of trying to find someone looking for a little side cash. And frankly, she's being generous by only charging $20 per excuse, right, guys? I think that's pretty reasonable. You could probably get away with 50 easy.

Evans, Louisiana, Ms. Fondren writes excuses, but got caught. Does it say how much she actually pulled in in total? $10,000. Do you claim it on your IRS? You don't get a 1099 or whatever. That's a cash-only business there. So the theme of my story is medical employee writes excuses for Evans' high school kids. You didn't think, whatever.

That's not very bright. They are in Louisiana. Sorry, Gordy. All right. Well, you know what? Speaking of Louisiana, Matt, I'm going to Louisiana, and I ask for a special production value, baby. Oh, no.

This is the worst. Oh, now going out of Louisiana now. Let's see. Police arrested on this past Saturday a man named Jeffrey Falls after receiving a call from a homeowner, homeowner in Brownsville, Louisiana. The homeowner was saying that there was a nude man in their chicken coop, and he was tearing up, said chicken coop. When the officers arrived, they found...

Oh, the man's name is Jeffrey Falls. That's not the place. He was naked, and he was attempting to clean the chicken coop floor with his bare hands. Police spoke to the homeowner who said he did not know the man and did not want him in his chicken coop. When the man arrived on the scene, he turned over a few people. plants on the porch before heading to the chicken coop. Officers examined Jeffrey and noticed he had dilated pupils in erratic, jerky body movements. When they interviewed him...

In the chicken coop. When they interviewed him, he admitted that he had done, quote, way too much meth. And then attempted to have a conversation with the door of his vehicle. When the door did not answer him back, he became upset and took his anger out on the chicken coop letting out a pair of birds before damaging the floor of the enclosure. He was taken into custody

and booked in charge with criminal trespassing, simple criminal damage to property and disturbing the beast. I don't know if it'll be another story like that ever again. Naked man goes into restaurant, yes. Naked man goes into hardware store, sure. Naked man

on meth into a chicken coop? On quote, way too much meth tearing up a chicken coop. And I'm not He's getting in an argument with his door. I'm not so sure, Matt. Meth and chicken coops tend to live very closely to each other. That's true. All right.

So let me give you the three choices you have this week on the best non-Florida story. Hard-boiled egg death in India. Woman writes fake medical excuses for teens in Louisiana. Naked man in a chicken coop. On meth. On meth. You're winning. I don't even have taken any votes.

Let's just get the instipole music going. We get this out of the way. Rosset, you're going to win this for nothing. We don't know that. I must give praise to those who deserve the praise, and you deserve the praise. Line two, what was your favorite non-Florida story? Hey, you know, Matt, usually out of loyalty, I go with you, but today, just like Chris Brown, you pose loyal, I got to go with Ross. Yeah, I'm going with Ross, and I don't even read the story.

I do like the medical, because all, didn't you all have, like, when I was in high school, I used to bribe the attendance officer with one of McDonald's. I told you all that before, right? I'd go by McDonald's where I worked in high school, and I'd scoop up four or five bacon, egg and cheese biscuits and chicken biscuits and egg with muffins and hotcakes, taking me in tenants office, and she'd always let me miss my first two classes. But the medical excuse card to miss a whole day of school,

that's genius. I'm not winning, though. I get it. Line one, who's got the best non-flora story? Look it on me. Look at it. I got a vote. Nick.

Oh, Nick, you got one nice, Nicky. I'm proud of you. Line three, who's got the best non-Flority now? Well, Nicholas. Who has the best non-Florida story, line three? I like how Ross almost said he took them into Kentucky. Yeah, that's what you did. You're trying to go all south, aren't you?

Is there much of a difference? Kentucky and Louisiana? Could you imagine if a fan of Kentucky married a fan of Louisiana State? Oh, that sounds horrible. The breeding. Line four, who's got your favorite non-Florida story? Oh, real quick, I ate 14 X one time, but Ross's story kills it. Yeah, it's going to say it's not even close.

All right, line 5 on the next to pull. Who's got the best non-flora story? Matt, yours was excellent, but Nick was more excellent. He win. Nick, did you win? That's only two. We're two tied to two right now. I got three to two in favor.

We need one more person to come in here and break this semi-tie. Wait, who's got three? Me? You got three. Nick's got two. That guy just wanted to get his egg pun in. Yep. What's the most eggs in your life?

I've had a four egg omit one time. I think I've eaten probably four or five as a kid. There's no way I've had five. I've eaten a half a dozen eggs before. In one sitting. Yep. Scramble fried. You know what?

I'd probably had a brunch. At a brunch buffet, I probably had about six worth of eggs, I'm sure. I've eaten them hard boiled. Like, and if you're at a party with deviled eggs, I think you might, you know, lose count.

I do love. I do love. Just don't hang out near you the next 24 hours. I do love deviled eggs. It wasn't yesterday. And egg salad is good, too. Let's go. Line two, who wins the non-flora story instipole.

Go. I don't know. Bye. Yeah. Thanks, Bill. Bill trying to get him for believing or not. Yeah, he was trying to get in for believing. Line one.

Who was the best not in Florida story? Definitely Ross. All right, there we go. Let's close an inch to pull off. Rossi, I can't. I hand it to you. That was excellent, excellent work. Hey, it's Coach Dan Tony.

Step back three, and the quarter is good. Matt Thomas, my favorite voice in Houston. Now, that's the Lord's eyes right here. Back to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. It's really odd that I love that man, yet he rips me twice on my own show. It's okay. So you have no rocket responsibility all tonight? No, not until Saturday.

I will be on Saturday's pregame against. No, we're in Chicago. Chicago. I love Chicago. Great town. It might be a little chilly. Yeah. It's snowing in Milwaukee did.

I got a buddy mind. Yeah. That's nice. Good. Yeah. Say what you want about Texas weather. It ain't snowing right now. Let me tell you about Texas.

Okay. I've lived in three places in my life. Texas, Utah, Minnesota. Best-looking women in the state of Texas. Yeah. Check. Friendliest. Yes.

Amazing barbecue. Oh, Minnesota Nice. I thought was a thing, though. No, it's actually passive aggressive. Oh, really? Yeah, that's what Minnesota nice is. It's past. And it took me a long time for people to like me.

Not because I'm not, you know, it's bubbly and warm. I mean, you're just lovely, Matt. But I'm not from there. Right. Like people don't go to Minnesota intentionally. Right. Most people that are from in Minnesota are like, you know where a transient state. People are from all over the place.

Minnesotans are from Minnesota. Utah people don't usually leave the state ever. I like Utah. I mean, I like all the places I live. But we're friendlier. We have better music. We have better food. Yes.

We have better looking women. How would you compare the weather? And significantly better weather. What about Utah? What is Utah? Is it super cold or what's that? Four seasons. Okay. Four seasons. The best part of Utah is in the summertime where the setting sun will hit the mountains of Louisiana of Utah. And it's like a purplish glow to it. It's magnificent. Stunning.

Utah is a very underrated state for all the jokes about the Mormon religion. The B-5 state. Yeah. It's beautiful. And it's so, we used to do Thanksgiving every year at, at, uh, Sundance, Robert Redford's, literally his resort. Absolutely amazing. So if you ever thinking about getting... Are you partying with Robert Redford? Well, he was at a table next to my one year, one year, many, many years ago.

Hmm. You hit on your wife? He's quite a womanizer, right? I don't know that to be accurate. Did he offer you a million dollars for one night? A, my wife wasn't there and B, you'd offer me a million dollars. Let me guess. He wanted to go on the road with me to help me become a better news anchor. Is that what you're also going to ask you next? I don't see that.

I don't know that one. Oh, yeah, you do. Up close and personal. I never saw that movie. You did too. Up close and personal? Can you name the song? Can you name the movie from that song?

Don't say it. Nick, play the song that is with, that accompanies that movie. I have no idea what you're talking about. Oh, look, up close and personal. and find the song that is the definitive. Let's give them something to talk about. Uh-uh. What movie was that from?

I don't know, but that's not it. We'll play the up-close and personal theme song. Oh, I see it. It's your wedding song. It's the wedding song that everybody used for like 10 years. This is Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer making out. Wow. I just imagine Doey Matt Thomas with hair dancing to his wedding.

Oh, my God. I'm like, Kim, what the hell are you thinking? She's got to be thinking future economic potential. Future voice of Houston radio. Future voice of everyone. And hopefully several... NBA championships. Oh, God.

Maybe I should go to be the voice of Midway Airport in Chicago. I'd like to do that. All right, let's throw this off. Can't go O'Hare? Dream big, Matt. Small steps. Five minutes left to go in the show. What should we do?

Believe it or not. We should play America's fastest-scoring sports game. Shall we simply call it? Believe it or not, and here's how it works. You'll call 7-13-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe it or not is brought to you by Houston Woodhouse Day Spas.

Bring out your gift card for the gift of relaxation at Houston Woodhouse Spas.com. HoustonWothauspaws.com. Category today about the Golden State Warriors and players you have no idea who the hell they are. I'll read you a statement about it in a warrior. Statement's completely nutterly accurate. You'll say this. If it's erroneous full of monkey, man, up, you will say this. Two, believe it or not to a row win your prize.

Ross, what's the prize? Matt, I've got a pair of tickets to the inaugural game of the new XFL team, the Houston Roughnecks, where they take on the Los Angeles Wildcats at T-D-E-CU Stadium. Tickets on sale at XFL Roughnecks.com. John on 790. You're ready to play, believe it or not? Oh, yes, I am. Kai Bowman was a standout wide receipt.

in high school and even committed to play college football at North Carolina before deciding to focus on basketball. Believe it or not? Believe it. He was a three-star recruit at a wide receiver. Nice. Neil on 790, Neil, your favorite part of the radio show today? Believe or not. While growing up, Eric, is it Pashel? Is that how we're pronouncing it?

Pascal, I don't know. I better know for tonight. Yeah, you got to. Paschal has childhood friends. and AAU teammates with Donovan Mitchell, the Utah Jazz. Believe it or not? Believe it. Statement number two for the win. Damian Lee's first professional basketball team was Fenerbach-Beco of the Turkish Super League. Believe it or not?

Not. I just wanted you to say a Turkish. Why don't you want me to read a Turkish league name? I actually picked an easy one all things considered. Thanks. Neil, congratulations. Let's go to line number three. Nick on 790, Nick, you're ready to play Believe it or not? You bet.

Willie Collie Stein is second cousins with fellow NBA player Javelle McGee. Believe it or not? Believe it. Not a chance. And get your phone fixed. Robert on 790, Robert, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Let's go for it. Almari Spellman has struggled with weight issues throughout his life.

He lost 40 pounds between Summer League and the start of this season. season. Believe it or not? Believe it. Good for him. That's pretty quick to drop 40. It's probably about in Vegas, doing a lot of walking. While in college, Jordan Poole had his own YouTube channel where he would interview teammates and pull pranks on friends. Believe it or not? No.

Damn, how's good one. Two winners today? Nick hates you. I'm sorry, Nick. Could get a third. Matt on 790. What was your favorite part of the radio show today, Matt? The Dantone drop, totally roasting you. Glenn Robinson III was born three months premature, it was only three pounds and four ounces. He spent the first two months of his life in an incubator.

Believe it or not. Believe it. Statement number two for the win. DeAngelo Russell was high school teammates with Ben Simmons in Florida. The two-won back-to-back national championships. Believe it or not. Not. I leave it.

Karma's going to get you when you like the Mike D'Antony roast drops. And that, my friends, wraps up the show. A reminder, As Rockets basketball early tonight. I believe Adam and Adam are at the TOTA center where they will pull in a full two and a half hours today. Way to grind it, boys. I'll talk to y'all at the arena tonight for a 6.30 tilt with the hated Santa Cruz Warriors. And I'll be with you tomorrow right here at noon for a Thursday edition. among our guest here on Sports Talk 790.

Ross, see you in a couple of days. Nick Lowe, great job. All of you listening, thank you very much. A team is next.