The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 11-15-19

Episode Date: November 15, 2019

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 11/15/19Good Morning Strippers!! (0:00)Myles Garrett Lost His Mind (11:46)Vernon Maxwell Joins Matt Thomas In Studio (30:59)Myles Garrett's Apology Statement (43:38)Beat The Schmoes (51:11)Brian T. Smith On Texans v Ravens and the Astros Cheating Scandal (1:23:14)Nestor Aparicio Gives A Baltimore Perspective of Texans v Ravens (1:43:58)

Much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas Show. 12 H-town. And welcome to a Friday edition of the Matt Thomas show. We are on location today on the north side. FM 1916 Cutting Road. And basically the greatest.

man cave options you can find in America here at billiard factory this is actually above and beyond my expectations were high they have far surpassed this billiard factory matt i mean this is kid in the candy sort this is like this is like you know when you were a kid and you beg your parents to take you to toys or us yes this is exactly what that is but for adults well let me tell you this i have said this before the number one place i like to go and just walk around is like office depot office Max because I love pens and office supplies. Weird like ballpoint pins and felt tip pens. This is like 1A.

Pool tables, foosball, card tables, Ross, I feel like we need to play. Shuffleboard. We need to play a game of Hold'em, like in between segments of the show. I'll take your money. No problem. No problem. So if you are on the north side of town today and you're thinking,

hey, I should go peruse and see what's available to me potentially. Yes. This is a place you need to be. and we're going to frankly entice you with a couple of things. We've got great stuff here. First and foremost, we're going to feed you lunch from Papa John's pizza, where they have the new Parmesan crust, which apparently is amazing. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm about to in about 10 minutes.

Yes. And then, because we love you so, we have five pairs of tickets for tonight's Rockets versus Pacers' Flashback Friday game. Sounds great. You know what? First of all, you're going to get in the building. Yes. Second, the guys are wearing the old, old-school ketchup and mustard. uniforms.

Beautiful. And it's a good matchup with the Indiana Paisers, and there might be a chance the rockets might need you because they are, let's say, full of injury ailments. It's going to be a good game. So if you are north side, come on by. We'll be here until 3 o'clock this afternoon. 1916, Cutting Road. 19.

The Target Shopping Center is kind of your landmark. You see Target, we're not, or just down the, down the, you know, what do we call it, the strip shopping center here. Come on by, five pairs of tickets for tonight's game. If you want to go to tonight's game, come by and see us. Come by, go to the Rockets game. We've got pizza, and then they have just, like I said, it's just like Toys R Us for adult men. Yeah, and we can play dice.

We can throw dice if we need to. Yeah, they've got a marble chess table as well if you want to play some speed chest during one of the breaks. Yeah, we can, seriously, we will play some serious blackjack in between breaks if we have to. I cannot wait. All right, let's get to the issues of the day. I originally, when I went to bed last night, about, I don't know, 10 o'clock or so I had no thought, no aspirations of ever talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers versus the Cleveland Browns. I'm going to assume that you were in the same position.

No, I went to bed. I knew the controversy that spilled over the end of that game by the time I went to bed. I go to bed much later than you. Yeah, well, I'm saying, but not at 10 o'clock you weren't thinking about it, right? Oh, that's true. Okay. So I go to bed and I wake up and I got a bunch of texts mainly from my son, who apparently is watching Pittsburgh Cleveland as compared to studying a Texas Tech,

but that's on here nor there. And I think by now everybody has seen it, or at least the video clips of it. I'm going to assume that very few Houstonians stayed up and watched to the final play to see it actually happen alive. But the NFL has come down in just the last few minutes and has announced some punishments. First and foremost, the Steelers and the Browns were both fined $250,000. Okay. Slapp on the wrist. Seems fair, though.

Basically, behave yourselves on the sidelines. Yeah. Miles Garrett The former I guess you're not The Aggies will always say you're never a former Aggie, you're an Aggie for life And I actually really should be the same way

With everybody, everybody's school Yeah, punched Delaney Walker in the head week one And now this He's had numerous personal foul penalties For the otherwise mild-mannered Aggie Now he's a fighting Texas Aggie He literally is a fighting Aggie This fight in Aggie has been indefinitely suspended

by the NFL Yes, going to at least miss this season and all of postseason. As if the Browns are making the post. Well, they helped their cause yesterday. Strange as it may seem. That's true. The AFC is pretty weak.

Yeah, the AFC. That's what I'm saying. If the Texans can really win this division and really maybe even sneak in that number two spot, they might have a chance to maybe actually plan an AFC championship game for the first time ever. Okay. But we were putting the cart well before the horse on that. Markies Pouncey, the alignment for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who came to defend Mason Rudolph, his quarterback. He basically was kicking and beating the hell out of Miles Garrett because he was pissed.

His quarterback was getting the helmet thrown in him. He has been suspended for three games. And then Larry Ogobo Jobi. Sure. Yeah. Bless you. Of the Cleveland Browns, the one that pushed Mason Rudolph from behind, he has been suspended one game. Mason Rudolph has not been suspended.

I don't know. I did not see the full release. Has he been fined at all for his actions? I can't find anything. I don't either. I don't either. That's the only problem I really have with any of these suspensions and fines and all that type of stuff. Mason Rudolph is 100% culpable in this. Now should he have gotten the response that he got from Miles Garrett? No, but he was definitely an instigator and a part of it and should be suspended. Yeah, I think looking at all of these and watching it on instant replay 500 million times so far today,

yeah, I think he probably should have got a dinged for a game because he went for the helmet too. Yes. It wasn't like he was as, hey, I'm this quarterback laying flat on the ground. Right. Please help me. Please help me. That wasn't the case at all. Although maybe they're thinking it's more of a punishment for the Steelers if he continues to play.

He did throw four interceptions last night. That is true. Steelers, your punishment, Mason Rudolph is not suspended. So you'd like to have him gone for a week, huh? Nope, not on our watch or not. He's going to play. In fact, he's going to start even with Ben Rostersburg against him. next year. That's your punishment.

Okay, so, and I did a number one taboo thing today. I watched the local, the national TV shows. No, no. Because I wanted to see the replays over and over and over again. And I wanted to get the different opinions. And of course, I never agree with Max Kellerman, who continues

to be the most obnoxious loudmouth. He's getting at Skip Bayless level. And I didn't watch Skip in the other show today. I don't have time for that one. That one I'm done with, but good job. I do like Stephen A. Smith a little bit. He just, I'd find him entertaining. And so, Kellerman comes out and says, this is no big deal.

Miles Garrett's, or, I mean, Mason Rudolph started all this. And then Stephen, I just crushed him and all the other people that were on the show with him, crushed him, too. So it was just another embarrassing normal day on television sports commentary. So as I saw all this, Miles Garrett, Rossi, he lost his MF in mind as what he did. Yes That was When I first saw that

That is one of the more jaw-dropping Oh my goodness NFL I can't believe What I just saw moments And I really couldn't think of a second one Until I saw a couple people on Twitter mentioning The Albert Hainsworth

Stomping of the face of the Cowboys players In years back That's about on the same level I could not believe what I was looking at I could not believe that Miles Garrett Swung a helmet at a guy without a helmet on. And it connected.

And to Mason's credit, his noggin's okay. Yeah, well, he threw his hands up right after that happened. Then a little bit after that, when he got pushed to the ground, he looked a little bit dazed. Again, the appropriate punishment for him is to continue to play. Yes. So Pouncy, good for him. Good to go get his back of his quarterback, even though his quarterback sucks.

Pouncey just went in there and just went straight gangster and started throwing. Well, Miles Garrett was on the ground, and then he started throwing punches and haymakers and kicks. Like, he was not messing around. Now, I'm going to give you a little bit of opinion. Now, you and I'm not even talked about this before. We've been here for half an hour. Can I, and you can say, Matt, you're wrong about this? Because I can accept this.

You're often. I'm not buying this assault charge thing. Yeah. I agree. I don't. And again, every situation is different because you can say, well, maybe something you said a year ago, said that this guy should have been arrested. I watched it.

I saw a bunch of here the moment really pissed off athletes getting into a nasty scrum on the football field. I didn't think the Cleveland Police Department should have been called to arrest Miles Garrett. He's going to get his suspension, but this whole thought of whether or another there should be criminal charges put up. To me, the only way you criminally charge an athlete like that is if that athlete is defenseless,

I mean, Miles Garrett and Mason Rudolph were amongst other people there was. Again, obviously using a helmet, which is absolutely one of the most barbaric things you could possibly do. But at the same time, it wasn't like Mason Rudolph was sitting off on a loan by himself, just kind of sitting and chilling, and then all of a sudden this premeditated blindside attack that permanently injured him. That was the only way I ever think about whether or not they should literally file any sort of criminal charges against him. this is the thing. And I try to be logical about everything. So if you were out, let's just say they were playing football out on,

it was a peewee game or a semi-pro or whatever. And this happened. And anybody swings a helmet at another person's head, and they don't have a helmet on, by every definition of the law, that's assault. That's what I'm saying. You should correct me if you think I'm wrong. I don't think that police should get involved. I don't think Miles Garrett needs to be arrested.

But what he did, I mean, you could even argue it was attempted murder. We don't know what's in his head. You could argue he's at that point. He's so crazy. He's trying to kill that guy. He went insane is what he did. Yes. He temporarily insane.

That would be a defense. F and mine is what he did. That's what he did. By every definition of what assault is, that is what Miles Garrett committed. But you're operating within the rules of a football field. And for whatever reason, we just say, you know what, hey, that's football. Boys will be boys. but I will say this

I'm not going to call for him to get arrested or for assault charges but if they do them's the brakes I mean my guess is there is some precedent for it in other sports certainly there was the hockey guy what was that guy's name though oh you're asking a wrong person yeah there was two zes in his name somewhere

that's what a Rizzy that's like 40% of NHL players all right let's get your thoughts on this what did you think after seeing the reply I know you've seen it 100 times today I know you've seen a turtuzzi Todd Bertuzi Oh yeah, there have been criminal complaints against acts of violence in sport in an event. So that would be without, that would be certainly a precedent for that.

713-212-5-790. This is Craig Ackerman. The rockets are certainly popping the polypropylene. I know Matt Thomas all too well. Hey, by the way, this is my new catchphrase. Nothing but nylon. Oh, a little, uh, song. appropriate music for Miles Garrett.

I mean, seriously, what the hell was that last night? With Full Lombardi, what the hell is going on out there? Yeah. It was crazy. I don't know. Miles Garrett went crazy. And he asked, he talked to the media after the game. I mean, everybody was like, yeah, kind of goofed up.

Yeah. I didn't do the right thing. And then, frankly, Baker Mayfield's like, man, we can't have that in our locker room. He's right. I mean, as crazy as he is. No. Uh, bad, bad, bad. Yeah, tweet from Zach Massey.

If this happened on the street, the DA would definitely have to consider aggravated assault, not just simple assault. I mean, yeah, this is just. But the thing is so this isn't the street. It was a football feel with guys wearing helmets and gear, so. Well, only one guy was wearing helmets. That's true. The other guy took up his helmet and tried to beat him with it. Yeah, so today, as Twitter tends to do, we are not going to say this is a horrible thing.

Everybody should be punished. It's Miles' fault. It's Baker Mayfield's fault. It's Mason Rudolph's fault. It's Commissioner Goodell's fault. It's everybody's fault. I mean, the problem with this is when you have a story like this that is centralized over one event,

everybody is trying to figure out an interesting different angle. Right. You and I are like, that was barbaric. He should be suspended, cut and dry, done in the NFL did the right thing today. Yeah, I mean, if he's going to be suspended for the indefinitely in the playoffs, if he's going to even miss a few games going into next season, Okay, he deserves it. What he did, there is no call for that.

And you can, there are also people, I mean, somebody just tweeted me during the break or tweeted both of us, Matt. Oh, well, Mason Rudolph is culpable in this as well. I agree with that. Yeah, I agree. But I also, I mean, shoving matches happen in basically every NFL football game. Right? You always have guys going after each other after the whistle and stuff like that and he also was trying to get all the type stuff.

He was also trying to get Miles Garrett off of him. Trying to get Miles Garrett off him. That happens in every game. You know what doesn't happen in every game? Somebody ripping the guy's helmet off and trying to beat him with it. Yeah, I get. Do I think, frankly, that Rudolph got away with something? Yep.

I can't believe. Yeah, I totally agree that. I think he should have been spending for a game, too. I think if you're a part of this, whatever you want to call it, and I know there's a cute term for it or not, I just thought it was a disgraceful way to into a football game. Yeah. It was keep as simple as that.

I mean, pretty much. I mean, I could go scream and yell and get a little. microphone and just yell the top of my lungs and make up a bunch of hot takes. But fact is, y'all are smart people out there. You all saw the highlights. You saw what I saw. There's no need to reinvent the wheel. There's no need to start adding blame to others.

They did what they did was right. And Mason probably had, not probably, he did have a part of this as well. If he doesn't go for the helmet, which I know why he did because he's trying to get this big bear off of him. But you can't do it. You can't go for the helmet. You have teammates around and they can help you with this. Mason Rudolph messed up a couple of times. He messed up by trying to take his helmet off.

He messed up by going after him, and that's when he's got his helmet ripped off. And then even when his helmet was off, he went after Miles Garrett again. But his hands up in the air. Yeah, well, he started like pushing and shoving. Like, dude, don't have your helmet. It should be like when your helmet gets ripped off in any NFL field, you should just stop moving. And then Larry Ogajolubi pushes him down. Yeah.

And then he turns around and goes, bitch. So Ross and I do sometimes on the show. And then Miles Garrett just started getting kicked in the head by Marquis Pouncy. 713-212-5-790. Let's go to some phones. We're live at Billiard Factory, where this is like our favorite place on Earth. 1960 and Cut and Road, pizza and Rockets tickets. And then you could say hi to Matt Thomas.

Yeah, in terms of importance, I'm like third. Yeah. Did you bring your stack of 8 by 10s to sign? No, I brought Rockets tickets. Okay. Rockets, tickets, pizza. We also have other tickets for other things. We got Joe Rogan tickets as well.

Joe Rogan, we've got XFL very first game tickets ever. I mean, all we want to do is give you gifts today. Come out and see us at FM 1960 and Cutting Road at the Billiard Factory. Let's say hello to Matt and Tom Ball on 7-90. Matt, good afternoon. Hey, thank you for having me on, and I enjoy your show. It's listened to it often during the day when I'm driving around Tom. In 1967, Wayne Mackey, who was in the same little, playing for the St. Louis Blues in an exhibition game club, Teddy Green over the head with a hockey stick and a stick fight.

And you don't see stick fights anymore and you really never saw them often, but they happened. And he got a half year of suspension. If that would happen in today's world, I think that he would be suspended for a year. I don't, or maybe life with this. But last night, I just get set up. with the over analysis of stuff. I mean, yeah, you know, I like what you said a few minutes ago, about there's a scrum in every football game.

You're right. And, you know, this guy lost his cool. He went nuts for a few seconds. And I truly believe that he regrets it. And I think the quarterbacks and Hagenang's a little bit, but, you know, just to spend the guy for the rest of the season and playoffs, maybe you'll just make a statement, a firm statement. You can't do that.

That's not going to happen again. And I know that some people are rolling their eyes saying, hot time. It's just, it's the first time it's happened, you know, for in decades. And it was a really bad visual, but it's not representative of the NFL or NFL football players or NFL ownership. And, you know, they make a big deal. I mean, it's horrible. I know that I shouldn't say, you know, they're making a big deal of it because it has got to be dealt with swiftly. And the NFL needs to step in probably today and just do whatever they have to do. to move on the new business, much like the NHL did. And ironically, when Wayne Mackey, this was full circle, when Wayne Mackey played his first game back, it was against the Boston Bruins. And he took a beating that game, and they just moved on.

And I think that it's got to be clear that's not a representative action of football players. No, it's not. No, thank you, Matt, for the phone call. I appreciate it. I got some other folks on when I get to. this doesn't happen a lot this is not an indictment against the game I know that there are people that are saying that Freddie Kitchens

is running out of control team because the Cleveland Browns were also one of the most heavily penalized teams in the NFL this was not this is not an environment where the Cleveland Browns is an organization said hey at the end of the game we're up big let's take a couple of pot shots that's not what happened yesterday yesterday was just a ticking time bomb or a guy that just temporary temporary insanity yeah and people want i mean if they were squared up people are making the

well oh come on they don't this is an assault remember when andre johnson went after courtland finnigan they were squared up corlin finnigan kept chucking him in the neck over and over fight yeah that was a good old fashion yeah that's right we're squared up we know we're going to get in Fisticoffs and we're about the fight. Mason Rudolph got hit in the head by his own helmet. That wasn't on the script. Andre Johnson and Cortland Finnegan were on script. Those guys were going to scrap.

You could tell that whole game towards the end when the Texans were beating the Titans that there was going to be a fight and that they both knew they were in a fight. Now, Mason Rudolph definitely shouldn't have gone after Garrett the way he did, but he didn't know he was going to be shoving and then have a helmet to come firing back at his head. Yeah, there were some folks today on TV that were trying to make this a racial thing. and is anger management. I was like, guys, last time I checked, an NFL game is physical, it's emotional,

you have guys screaming at each other, yelling at. I mean, there is going to be some times where, you know, you're just going to lose your blank, and I wish I could swear to it because I'm going to come in a good swearing mood mode. You know what I'm saying? Last night was a swear mode. That's where people were just losing their blank is what they were doing. And Miles lost it.

you're going to accept us when you can't control yourself, you're going to get heavily punished. And he did. Yeah. I don't think this is not reinventing the wheel on this. This was a football player who lost his mind. And thankfully, as he hits Mason Rudolph in the head, that it didn't cause a serious problem. Because we would be having a much different tone to this. If Mason Rudolph gets clocked in the head, he falls down and gets carried off on a stretcher.

then we're talking about police and we're talking about arrest and we're talking about the Cleveland Browns not being able to control its organization yesterday was just I don't want to say heat the moment because that seems kind of oh well that was just something he can apologize for later it was calculated he grabbed the helmet he swung but there's nothing more to it than me than just a man who lost his mind And when you lose your mind at your place of business, at a restaurant, at a bar, or an NFL game, you're going to have to pay a punishment. Yeah, I don't get the shrugging this off and the, oh, this boys will be boys, because this would be happening every week if this was just boys will be boys. And yes, there's the intensity of the NFL game. Yes, you're talking about these guys.

But like you said, Miles Garrett is a huge hulking human being who could with such brute strength. He could have seriously injured Miles, I mean, Mason Rudolph, Miles and Mason, whatever. Are we talking about the Plumlee's or what? It's confused, yes, very confusing. God. And then we got Pouncey, Marquise and his brother.

Marquise, Miles, and Mason. Oh, what a bunch of Gen X names. Holy, why wasn't there a Carson in the group? Or Cameron. You shut your mouth. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-5-9. 790.

Real Texans talk H-Town sports all day. On Sports Talk 790. No other radio station set on my pre-section. Home of your rockets, your Astros, and your talk. We are a guest of Ryan and Larry Stick, who have run this operation here at the Billiard Factory. This is like our, if we were like like a get away from our families, we'd come like spend the night in here.

You know how Tom Hanks spent the night at the airport? Yeah. I'd like to spend the night in here. Or like in Home Loan 2 when Kevin McAllister stayed in the toy store, this would be us staying in the toy store. Yeah. Because they have coax for us and waters. We already have pizza.

We could just put in their refrigerator. Check. And we could play in one corner of the foosball. I could just beat you in every single game here. That's a lot. Fuzzball, billiards, shuffleboard. And next year, we're having a pool tournament. We are?

Yeah. You don't know this yet. Yeah, I did know that. Okay. We're having a pool tournament. So we're going to have such a good time. Billion back. I'm going to have to sharpen my skills. I used to play back in the day. Do you play better with a couple of cocktails?

Well, I started, no. I was probably at my peak when I was 15, so I didn't have a lot of cocktails. Because I think I play pool better, and I think I bowl better when I've had a few beverages. I definitely shoot darts a little bit better after about two drinks. They have the dartboard's here, too. FM 1960 and Cutten Road. They've got four Houston locations. We're here at this one today, and we appreciate the stick family having us out. It's like a palace in here. One thing before we get back on the phones.

Yesterday, Alex Breggman finished second in the MVP voting. That's a shame. Can I give you a little... Uh-oh. There's a small part of me that was kind of glad he finished second. I mean, like a 0.1%. Why is that? Because of the...

Because guess what winners do. Trash can bang? They have press conferences. And they have conference calls. Well, did Verlander have anything when he won his scion? Yes. And I don't know if he was asked about that. But he was pitching.

So that's going to be a little. little bit different than when you are hitting. So I'm just saying it is, and again, I wanted him to win because I'm, first of all, I'm a huge Alex Breckman fan. Second of all, he put together some amazing numbers in the month of September to further justify why he should have won. But it's not like it's a gross misjustice that he didn't win. No.

He didn't get robbed. But you know if he would have won, knowing that there had been more stories out and more videos and more people on the internet that have lots of time to go back and look at old Astros games. Ross, you're a busy man. I mean, you don't have kids in marriage and all that kind of thing. But do you have time to go back to listen and look at hours and hours and hours of baseball games? No, but apparently the Internet. I mean, there's infinite hours available by people in the Internet, right, if you piece them all together.

Yeah. And everybody has gone, they're going back to, there's this guy that Adam Clanton is getting all mad at. His name's like John Boyer or something like that. He has gone, sifted through apparently, like, hours and hours of Astros' footage. Like, yeah. Don't. You kind of want to tell him to get a life.

Well, here's what I want to do. I want to say, look, having a girlfriend is kind of cool. Having occasional sexual relations isn't a bad thing. Right. Whoever that dude is, what is it, you call him John Boy? John Boy? John Boy? I don't know. Ask Adam.

John Boy is not having sex with girls because he's spending too many hours watching videos of old Astro games. let Major League Baseball do the heavy lifting If they're going to catch the Astros, let them catch him You as a fan, especially because you are Apparently if you're noted Yankee lover It makes you not the most impartial person out there I think I agree with that, yeah And so now we don't have to hear about it as much

Because Alex Bregman did not win But you know he would have been asked Multiple times about it if he had won yesterday I mean, do you think he, I don't think he would have gotten in front of microphones at a press conference No, he'd had to He had to go into a conference call, just like Verlander did. Okay.

You can't avoid being the MVP and say, well, you know, you can just release a statement. No. I don't think so. I think that's what I'm saying. That's the point, one of me, that's like, you know, thankfully he didn't win because he would have had to have answered at some point. And it had been very awkward. That's just the truth of the matter.

713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Vernon Maxwell is going to join us in a few minutes here. It's flashback Friday. Rockets and pastures tonight over at TOTUS Center. Dwight, Northeast Houston on 7-90. Hi, Dwight. Hello, thank you for taking my call.

I was just calling to make a comment on what happened last night at the football game. I definitely did think that it was out of line for you to snatch another player's helmet off. And then not only snatch it off and hitting with it, you know, sometime when you're on a big stage such as the NFL, you've got to understand that, you know, you got a bunch of, minor leaguers watching you and young kids watching you and that was totally unacceptable what he did and i do think he need to probably have some time to to think about this maybe some suspension time and some fines to uh to get a clear understanding what the nfl is all about but i don't

think what he did represents the nfl at all because that was i think was you know wasn't a good decision that he made on his part Yeah, no question. You have to pay a penalty for irrational, dangerous behavior. And he is. I mean, basically, Miles Garrett has eliminated any hope of the Browns making the playoffs this year. It's just the truth. He's going to lose game checks.

Everybody's paying a fine for this. The Browns have been fined $250,000. Yeah, I mean, this was Swift and it was done properly. Well, except for the Mason-Roodoff show you got something. But, yeah, Miles Garrett apparently is going to be subject. to further fining as well. So not only is he going to miss game checks, I think he's going to get fined on top of that.

Yeah, I mean, this could cost Miles Garrett $5 million, maybe even more. Probably more than that, right? Game check split into 16, plus an additional fine, plus we don't know if he's going to miss some time even starting next year, too. That's one expensive helmet swing.

I think helmet swings, though, Rossi, there's no, there's no, it's pretty concrete. you go to a swing and you are, you don't need to be on a football field for a long period of time. Yep. I mean, I understand a push. You know, I understand maybe, you know, if you want to clip somebody, if you just, if you were, but you take that and you take that helmet of him and you use it as a weapon against him. Yeah.

Yeah, there's any number of ways that could have gone. There's any number of ways that he could have acted differently. And like I said, that happens every week. Miles Garrett has been in a shoving match with an NFL player, probably every week since he's. he's been in the league. I think he's had a handful of personal foul. He hit he hit Delaney Walker in the face earlier this season as well.

I believe Delaney Walker had a helmet on at that point. Maybe he didn't. I can't even remember. I saw the video last night, but yeah. He's got a history of this. But so does every other player in the NFL and he's the only one I can recall that ripped the dude's helmet off and tried to hit him with it. Why didn't we stand?

That's I mean, think of it. That's how the NFL now we're going. I mean, it's crazy to say this, but This is not the NFL got its ratings. Did America watch Pittsburgh Cleveland last night? No, that game was 21 to 7 at that point of the game. I had it on. I had it on the background. I wasn't actively watching the game.

There was nothing on. Actually, I watched more of Dallas and New York on NT&T last night. NBA basketball. Because I'm an NBA sicko. And then Christops Porzingis. Yeah. By the way, he got boot every time he touched the ball. Nick's fans were right on cue on that.

As they should be. To no surprise. 713, 212. 5-7.9. 713-212-5-7-90. We're at Billiard Factory FM-1960 and at Cutton Road. We will be here until 3 o'clock this afternoon. I think all our rocket tickets are about to go away right now.

So we still have some other great gifts, and we got the X-FL tickets. Yeah, if you like comedy and you, you know, remember, how about the guy, John Boy? Take a girl to see Joe Rogan. Maybe get a chance of getting a little something-sum. Comedy always makes girls in better moods, right? I would figure. You would think, right? FM 1960 and Cutton Road, one of the four billiard factory locations.

Come on by and see us. We're here today until three. Hey, it's Eric Gordon. Gordon for three in the lead. Matt Thomas is my favorite voice in Houston. EG for three. You're listening to the flagship. Sports Talk, 790.

Home of the Rockies. Every time I get to talk to this guy, whether we're in the arena together or on my radio show, I always like to proclaim him. as the man who guarded Michael Jordan better than anybody else in the history of the NBA. Matt, Max, you know what problem is saying that every time, do you? Right, and they all fell down together. And Rudolph done through, he done through four in inception. All right, I don't think he's ready to go on the air yet.

He was mad. Yeah, he's talking to somebody. All right, we'll get to burn in just a couple of seconds. I think I was here and talk about Mason Rudolph. We should get his opinion on the matter. We don't, Matt. Yeah, let us know. Max had some run-ins here and there with some people.

Yeah, let us know what Mad Max is ready to go. All right. You don't get the name Mad Max without getting into a few scuffles. That's all right. He won them, no. 713, 2-1-2-5-7-90. Let's go to Dave and West Houston at 1248. Hi, Dave.

Dave. Gentlemen. Dave. Yes, go ahead. Gentlemen, hi. Long-time listener, first-time call. Thanks for taking the call. Nice to hear from you.

Can you talk me off the ledge with the Astros? How long does this last? Does it severely hurt the organization long-term? for free agents, for anything. I'm having a bad sports week. Well, how long are we knowing each other? Well, I've been listening probably a couple years. Thank you very much for that.

Dave, since we've been friends for a long time, I have to tell you the honest truth. I think the Astros are going to get dinged, and they're going to get dinged hard. Yep. I don't think this is going to be a fine and don't do this again. Slap on the wrist.

I believe there's going to be. to be heavy fines, and I believe they're going to be suspensions. I believe there's going to be forfeitures of draft picks. They actually got it. There are too many people that are too many people that are just putting themselves out there saying they want blood from the Astros. And unfortunately, Dave, when Major League Baseball wants blood and other teams want blood, they usually go get it. I mean, are they really the only ones do? I know the evidence is out there.

Are they really the only ones doing this? Not that it makes it right. But, you know, I moved to Houston in 2006, started watching the Astros probably full-time in 2010, met my girlfriend, who's now my wife, who has access to tickets, let's put it that way. So we would go to multiple games every year, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, those were tough years. And it became easy. It became an Astros fan in 15, 16, 17, 17, 18, and 19. So my heart has been tied to the organization.

I've met multiple players. I've met front office people. Well, that's not supposed to change. It's rough to see. I know. Dave, don't let that change. You still love your Astros. I still love the Astros.

I grew up when I first moved to Houston and watched them in 1979. That's not going to change. But sometimes the people we love and the people we like and we adore, they do bad things. And sometimes they have to get punished for it. And I do not believe the Astros are. innocent in any of this. And they're going to get a punishment. Whether it be appropriate or not,

we don't know. I don't know how severe it's going to be. I don't know how many people know. And we're going to be disappointed, Dave. We just are. But I refuse to let it believe that it was the number one reason why the Houston Astros became a 100-win baseball team for three years in a row. I refuse to let them believe it's an organization that wasn't going to be able to achieve the success.

But when you artificially try to cheat and you get caught, you have to pay a penalty. Ross, am I missing anything on this? The question originally was long-term ramifications of, I don't think the free agents are going to shy away from the Astros. The biggest long-term thing is going to be the draft picks.

And Jeff Luno, above just about anybody in baseball knows how much those matter. So it'll be interesting to see how many draft picks are taken, where they even go, because the only really precedent for this is when the Cardinals hack the Astros, they had to give their second and third round picks of the Astros.

Yeah. So we'll see what happens with those. I think draft picks are going to hurt. I think suspensions are going to hurt because we're going to miss our friends, whomever they may be. All right. Is Mad Max ready to go? I will presume that as a no.

All right. Let's continue on the phones then. Oh, now he's ready. Okay. Vernon Maxwell, part of Flashback Friday inside at Toyota Center tonight. Max, I was telling the audience just a minute ago, no matter when you talk to me in the arenas or we visit here on my show. that I always like to describe you as the greatest defender on Michael Jordan.

Are you ever going to get tired of hearing that? No, I ain't going to get tired of hearing that. I appreciate that. That's why I like to hear. How are you doing? Congratulations to your son, by the way. Thanks a lot, man. Yeah, we just signed this deal Tuesday.

Got a full ride of Georgia Tech. I'm proud of him. Basketball scholarship. So look forward to seeing next year in 2020 in the ACC. ACC. Now, who else was in on him besides Georgia Tech? We had Georgetown, Temple, North Carolina State, Gonzaga. We had over 30 schools, so he's a decent little ball player.

I can kind of, come on, Dad, you can brag on a little bit. You can do more than that. Now you've got to do more for me to do that. What's this? How tall is he? How big is he? What positions he play? No, he's my height.

He's 200 pounds, I'm about 180. He's 200. He's a big boy. Yeah, so he's a shooter. And does he have the outside shooting stroke that you used to have? I was telling somebody the other day, I think he might shoot it better than me. I know he's a better, he's a better score than me. I don't know about a better athlete, but I know he's a better score than me.

Do you try to, can he defend you to this day and vice versa? Well, he probably can now, but I can't guard him. No, he's got too much Steph Curry stuff going on with me. What's the last time you all played one-on-one? Oh, probably about two years ago. I got beat pretty bad. And that's what you said I'm out? Like swung, not throw a punch, but tried to form him and knock him down,

and I couldn't get to him. That's when I knew it was over for me. You know, when in doubt you go to the Red Fox. That's right, you've got arthritis and you can't compete anymore. That's what you got to do. That's right. That's right. Hey, I heard you in the studio talking about Mason Rudolph.

What do you think about all this stuff going down with Miles Garrett. I know you're a football fan too. Oh, yeah, well, I mean, I feel for both of the guys, I mean, Rudolph, I feel it was, I mean, he had some part in it too. He was an sagator at the beginning

trying to pull the guy's helmet off, but don't make it right what Garrett did. I mean, went overboard. I mean, 15, 12 seconds left in the game. I think, I mean, the game was already over. Rudolph probably was a little bit upset because he had through four inceptions, had a bad game and they were losing.

And Garrett, I don't know what happened. It was kind of funny the way he tackled it, tackled him, and they went down to the ground. And I don't know what happened then, but it's just like Rudolph got upset and tried to pull his helmet off, and Garrett just, like, he lost it. But I've been there before. Like, I've been on that side of the spectrum.

Like, I was Garrett, you know, when I ran in the stand. And the next day I can say, you know, it's not a good feeling. And, you know, I mean, you think about, man, why would I just do? I shouldn't have did it. But, you know, it's too late now. But, you know, I mean, hopefully this year go by for him and he live and he learned from him

and get some counseling because it might, I mean, the man probably might need some counseling. You know, I mean, so, I mean, so. But hopefully. Yeah, I just think it's one of those situations that, Max, you know, we don't know how long he's going to be gone. And I understand heat of the moment, you know, y'all are, when you're playing a basketball court or baseball field or a football field, it's not like walking. the streets you're in this intense highly emotional millions of people are watching every movie you make so it's not just a nine to five desk job but at the same time when you when you put

the uniform on you got to know you got to keep your cool right what how bad the situation and i agree that's what i was saying earlier uh on the radio or radio station that you know the guy's got to be held up to you know you've got to be professional about it you got kids watching this game you got kids want to play this game and i mean you got he's got to be a more professional But, I mean, it is what it is. And it's what, I mean, he just got to, I mean, he's got to deal with this problem now. And hopefully they go ahead and do what they're going to do to him

where he know what's going to happen to him. He won't have to wonder. And we don't have to speculate like everybody's doing the day. And he can go ahead and move on to the next chapter in his life. The great Vernon Maxwell with us here on the Matt Thomas show. We're here at Billiard Factory Max is back in our studios. The catch him and musters are coming out tonight. Not like the quasi-retro.

I mean, these are the legit retro. Have you seen them yet? Yeah, I've seen them. Very nice uniforms. It's going to be, I mean, I like the uniform. I wish I'd have a chance to play in them. So I'm looking forward to seeing it. How about today's NBA players?

They have like nine different uniforms, Max. When you played it was you wore the whites at home and you wore the dark colors on a row. What is all this with different colors and statement and association jerseys? Is this crazy or what? Yeah, I like it, though. That's where the games then came. You know, I mean, I wish we could have played in a lot of uniforms, different uniforms, and had different looks and things like that and wear different color shoes.

And, you know, when you put on a different uniform, you got to put on different shoes. So, I mean, I wish we could have did all that. But I like it, and I think it's wonderful. I mean, to see these guys in different, and the throwbacks and whatever you want to call them, I like it a lot. Well, again, this is one of the first flashback Fridays, and we're great to have you back in town. Give me a thought or two about what you've seen so far from Russ and James on the floor at the same time. Well, everything I envision, Russ playing with all the energy. And, I mean, it's just a dog out there.

I mean, I love him so much. He reminds me of myself so much he brings the energy for the team. And I guess the fans, I'm sure they get it too. And then James being James. And I just feel like the guys just have to hold on until everybody get back healthy. And Eric Gordon can get back and Capella can get back off the protocol. And I think they're going to have a great year this year. I mean, you got you got two starting all-star guards on your team in the back court.

So, I mean, you got great things going to happen for this city this year, I think. I mean, I just, you know, I always tease you about this. I said, yeah, I think you put the uniform on and give us 15 minutes. I really think tonight we may need you for 50 minutes. There's nobody left that's healthy. Daniel House has got that bad back going. You've got, you mentioned Clint and Eric. I mean, there could be some time for number 11 out there.

Well, tell them and give me a one date in. One day, then. Could you imagine one-day contract in 2019 could pay? Oh, man. That's what I was just talking to somebody last night about a 10-day when I saw Camilla Anthony getting a 10-day contract. And I know when I was getting 10-day contracts when I was back playing in the 90s, 99, 98, I got a 10-day. And it paid about 30, 40,000 for 10 days. I was like, I wonder what a 10-day pays now.

It has to be over a high-cent-th. It has to be about a high-thous. We'd be very jealous. I think I will be too. I need to do another 10 day today. All right. Well, you're doing the first shot tonight at the game. Is that right the first free throw?

Yes, I got the first free throw right before the game. So I need everybody to come out and see this. It's going to be wonderful. Max, we haven't had one made in like forever. We need you to make one. Okay, I got it. I put it in the books. It's already made.

Mad Max. All right. Flashback Friday tonight. Rockets, Pacers. Mad Max is going to be there for the first shot before just before the tip time. Vernon, it's always a pleasure to have you on my show, my friend. Take care of yourself. Congratulations to you and the family on the sun going to Georgia Tech.

Oh, thanks a lot for everything. I appreciate you, buddy. You got it. Vernon Maxwell with us here on Sports Talk 790. Yeah. Is the Matt Thomas Show. All right, second hour, the Matt Thomas Show from Billiard Factory. We've had lots of nice people come by.

All of our rocket tickets have been given away, by the way. That's a shame. Well, I mean, only had five. I didn't have 5,000. I would have love to get away 5,000. Gordy's parody is locked and loaded, and coming up in 15 minutes, you're going to hear it. We haven't had a Gordy parody since the playoffs. No, that's not true.

Now, I'm talking about the Astros playoffs. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's been forever. I thought, yeah, I thought you're talking about MLS playoffs. No one's talking MLS playoffs. We have Beatish Mills come up at the bottom of the hour. Okay. We have Brian T.

Smith at 2 o'clock and nestor apparicio from w nstt radio avaricio i don't think it says mr apparicio all right so we're going to read the miles uh garrett statement okay great are we going to do it in the southern voice i don't know does it we have the music ready nick if you don't the music ready it's no big wood but if you have it ready we'll take it miles garrett suspended it definitely by the nflb and came out with a statement a few minutes ago now the question's going to be after you read it did he really write it yeah or did somebody else write it for him and how much that he mean it. Oh, that's even better. 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-790 if you want to join us on the phones.

Twitter is at SportsMT, at SportsRV, at pro-nick-low. And without any further ado, Miles Garrett apologized to all of us today in the voice of One Sports RV. Last night, I made a terrible mistake. I lost my cool and what I did was selfish. unacceptable. I know that we are all responsible for our actions and I can only prove my true character through my actions moving forward. I want to apologize to Mason Rudolph, my teammates, our entire organization, our fans, and to the NFL. I know I have to be accountable

for what happened. Learn from my mistake and I fully intend to do so. Sincerely, my You know, as you're reading this, I wanted a two-piece extra crispy. There's really no reason for it. I'm more of an original recipe guy myself. As am I, but I just want to go to a KFC for some reason right now. That was perfect. There was so many words. I want you to walk in there and say, I'll have a three-piece original recipe,

green beans and the mashed potatoes with extra gravy. With a biscuit. And my apologies to Mason Rudolph. And the person's going to be like, what? And then, and true Kentucky fried chicken, it'll be 19 minutes. What? Man, you're always taking shots at KFC. I love KFC.

They're never have the chicken ready. I swear to God, y'all go to a KFC in the next half hour. You walk up and say, I'll like four pieces of chicken. They'll say 14 to 17 minutes. Maybe. Better than waiting an hour for a chicken sandwich. Oh, that's true. By the way, do you see Frenchie's got a chicken sandwich now?

I saw that. We keep talking about this. We need to do post-show-show taste test. Chick-fil-A, Frenchie, Popeyes. How about we just do them all one day? Okay. We just get on, like, Westheimer. Yes.

That's a big central located. It's going to have all of them, right? Sure. Frenchies, Chick-Fillet. I know there's a Frenchie's on 1960, actually. So we can go hit that Frenchies, and then there's a Popeyes. Yeah. And then a Chick-fil-A, yeah.

And then we go to KFC with a Southern Drawl. Yes. And they'll say, 11 minutes. And then we say, would you like some tickets to the XFL roughnicks? I will trade you XFL tickets for a two-pieces. You're ready right now. That's what we can do.

All right. It's the musical. We're going to stop playing that music. We're going to do the whole show like this. It's like we're Pabloff's dogs. Yes, you're right. We see the dog tree out. We hear the music.

We're starting to talk there with. I can help it. Oh, goodness. All right. 713, 212.5.7.90. Okay, first of all, who wrote the statement? Cleveland Brown's PR. Correct.

How genuine 1 to 10? Two? Well, wait a minute, wait a minute. Like Max said a few minutes ago, he might walk up and said, what the hell was I doing? Maybe. Maybe. Do we have the quote of him after the game, though, Nick, where he's just like, well, you know, I don't think whatever happened in the last eight seconds, the second.

should overshadow a win. He wasn't an apologetic at all. All right, yeah, let us know when he gets that soundbite. Because what we'll do is we'll match, we'll play the soundbite, and then we'll see if you woke up this morning, feeling really horrible about what he did in the fact that he's on every ESPN and sports platform as a guy that probably never should play again. People wanted him arrested.

Yeah, that's a little much, but. I think indefinite suspension absolutely fits the crime. Good. That's what he's getting. And apparently Mason-Reed-all is not going to be suspended. minute, but he will be fined. Yeah, there's a normal instigator in a fine.

Because he didn't throw a punch. No. He didn't swing a helmet. No, he tried to rip off the guy's helmet though and went after multiple times. Yeah, I could see a suspension of a game. He could have kept his cool as well. Yeah, I don't think he deflated it. I think, and he also

Ross got caught up in the moment. I don't think he was instigating because that's stupid that a journeyman backup quarterback would try to instigate it or against a former one overall pick. Miles Garrett would break Mason Rudolph in half. If they were just, if this were an MMA octagon, Miles Garrett would be about a minus 10,000. Yeah, he wasn't instigating. He was also pissed. He had Miles Garrett on top of him. He's trying to figure out how the hell do I get him off of me. Well, how can I do that? I try to peel his helmet off. Instead he got mine. And he used

it against me. And then when I put my hands up in there like, what I'd be? Then the guy, his teammate, the other teammate from there, what's his, I always butcher his name. Larry Ogojolio. Bless you. He pushes him down. Then Mason turns around and says, bitch? That's like when you and I fight.

Totally. Maybe we don't have that quote, but we do have this one. A win to win. I don't think it's overshadow fire. And what happens in eight seconds. Play a hell of a game on defense. Offense came out firing. And we held it down from there on.

What we did on the field of play. for the rest of that game for us, for the first 59 minutes, that shouldn't go unnoticed. Yeah, it's going to. Here's the reason why. That was the quote I was looking for. Yeah, that's exactly what we're looking for it. You know, the reason why it's unnoticed?

Because no one noticed the game. I mean, I'm going to be really honest with you. I am paid to talk about sports. But as I get older and I get wiser, I choose what I choose. Like, I watched Dallas in New York last night. I wanted to see Chris Tabbs, Porzingis going back to play against the Knicks and getting booed.

I chose that over that crap that was Pittsburgh, Cleveland. Yeah, Mason Rudolph versus the Browns. On a Thursday night isn't really getting the juices falling for most of the people. All right, 7-13-212-5-790. One, two, three, Texas. This is Deaconess of Tackle, DJ Reader. The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790. Real Texans talk here.

Joe from Million Factory at FM 1916 Cutton Road. Our friend Doseki's is here. He's already had about five pieces of pizza. That's fine. We're not judging him. That's what we're here for. Yeah, to feed you. We still have some pizza left if you want to come by and say hello.

We've got tickets for XFL and Joe Rogan if you would like to pick those up as well. I just beat Ross in a game of backgammon. That's not true. We haven't played a backgammon since 85. I haven't played a game of backgammon. I don't think ever. I think it's a great game. I do.

I just don't remember how to play it. I don't know. the rules. But there's ping pong, there's shuffleboard, there's... There's rules. I just know I would beat you. There's theater seating, there's bar stools. This is like if you're going to get stuck and get lost in somewhere, this is where you want to spend the night.

Yes, for sure. Because you've got plenty of place to lay down. Not that they want you to spend the night here, but, you know, they want you to come by at least for several hours. They probably don't want you at all, but... Probably it's true. To spend the night. All right, let's do this. Ladies and gentlemen, during the course of this early part of the season, the Chris Cordy parodies were epically good.

Just fantastic. I mean, the best thing ever. Yes. Well, the Astros happened, and so Gordy checks out for several weeks. He took a long hiatus. And then LSU plays, and so there's always excuse. We present to you, and we're so honored to do so, the return of a Chris Gordy horrible football Friday parody.

has got it going on Deshawn Watson has got it going on Deshawn Watson has got it going on Ravens do you remember when you had Ed Reed Had Enn't read us in the second round when you were the two seed were the two seed But since that time we both found different quarterbacks The MVP could be Deshawn or Lamar Jacks. Lamar Jackson.

You know we're not the crappy team that we used to be. And on Sunday at noon the Ravens, they are going to see. Deshawn Watson, it's got to be wrong. Sean Watson. Tearing up over this foosball table over my right here. Oh, my God. He takes names and he takes names. jams him into syllables.

Sometimes the rhymes get a little stretch, a little bit of a stretch. And hasn't he done that song before, by the way? I don't remember. I think he has. All I know is that I don't want you ever to take shots at it because they're just...

What was that noise? Wait a minute. Nick, why are you being such a hater today? I just, I don't think he lived up to the rest of the season with that one. Yeah. Deshaun Watson has got it going on.

Yeah, you're going to be singing that walking around town today. Huh. Let me tell you something, Gordy. I love you like a third cousin. You did an amazing job, but never stopped being who you are. I'm proud of you. That was good. Come on.

I've seen better, but yes. Solid enough. All right. 713-212-5-790. Let's go to Matt and Deer Park on the Matt Thomas Joe for and anything goes Friday. Matt, good afternoon. Hey Matt, how's it going? Wonderful name you got there. Thank you.

First off, shout out to Gordy. I enjoyed that one. That was outstanding. He doesn't ever disappoint me, ever. Absolutely not. So I wanted to point out something. I know Mason Rudolph has acted Mr. Innocent here, and a lot of people have tried to wonder what's going on with my old Garrett for him to be so out of character because he's, you know, super calm and whatnot. What he did last night was unacceptable and he definitely warrants the rest of the year's suspension. But under the Cleveland Brown's statement from Miles Garrett on their Twitter account, there's actually a fan posted screen caps that leads up

to the point where Miles Garrett hit Mason Rudolph with the helmet, during which you see Rudolph, of course, as everyone has seen twisting the helmet. But then there's another point While Rudolph still has his helmet on, Miles has a hold of it. He kicks Garrett in the growing. And then another one right before he gets hit in the head with the helmet, where Miles Garrett gives him another uppercut to the growing. Rudolph gives Miles Garrett an uppercut to the growing. No, he doesn't.

I think those were... I think those were superimposed by somebody else. Those were screen captured and adjusted that way. Yeah, I watched the whole video. Miles Garrett had no... I mean, Mason Rudolph at no point goes for Miles Garrett's groin. I don't know. I was looking back to it, and, I mean, they look like they're pretty convincing to me.

I'm literally watching it right now. He doesn't, no, he doesn't. He didn't provoke him or anything. There's no shots at all? No shots to the groin, no. Well, if I'm wrong, then I'm wrong. I'll admit it. But I don't know.

I'm still, don't excuse it whatsoever. He deserves the suspension he got. He's still kind of wondering what caused a guy who's known as a super calm chill guy off the hill of a little not quite like that. No, but the problem is he's not super chill. He's had multiple personal foul penalties called against him. He was fine in week one

of the season. Yeah, was he super chill when he was hitting Delaney Walker in the head? Yeah, I mean, that's the problem is man. He doesn't have this reputation. He has a reputation of a guy that is having problems in the field controlling his emotions. Oh, see, I've seen the... Yeah, I know. That's a definite moment for sure. Thanks, Matt, for the phone call.

Again, I like your name too. Appreciate you down on in. Now, I've got people wanting to fight us here at the billiard effect. We don't fight here. We get along with each other. Yeah, what apparently is, are there videos out that have, that people have made, like, those are like Photoshop or something. I don't know.

It doesn't make any sense. There's no, at no point, especially, look, look at this. Go ahead and give us a play-by-play, man. This is the angle. The play-by-play is you got. He's getting sacked. Yeah. And he's mad because Garrett is on top of him and won't let him go.

He starts to grab his helmet. Yeah. He has his hands above his waist at all times. Right. Then Miles rips his helmet. Then he goes after him, which he shouldn't have done. Right. Then he gets dunked in the head, and he throws his hands up, and he's totally out of the situation.

At no point did Mason Rudolph grab for his groin. He never grabs it. He does put his foot on his crotch as Mason Rudolph's helmet is being ripped from his head. but I think that's just a reaction, and he's just trying to push Miles Garrett off of him. See, you know what? I'm going to take a 20-second time out here. They don't have 20s anymore in the NBA, but I'm going to take one.

This is exactly what I didn't want to do. You don't want to break this down? I didn't want to break down to every single frame of what this was. You know what it was? He does kind of kick him away, I guess so. But he didn't put his hands on him. This is a player that took a helmet and swung and hit another player. Stop!

If you want to suspend... If you think Mason Rudolph should have been suspended for a game, I'm in agreement with you. But the end game is a human being took a helmet and used it as a weapon to hurt another man's head who didn't have a helmet on. That's the story. And the fact that Mason Rudolph turned around after he got pushed down and said,

bitch! That was actually kind of funny, actually. And the story is that Mason Rudolph is okay. The fact that Mason Rudolph is going to get fine, probably, is to some an appropriate penalty. To others, maybe he should have been in a one-game suspension. But nothing more than that.

This is about Miles Garrett. Period. End of story. This is Miles losing his MF in mind and swinging to hurt somebody. On a football field where he has been, and that's how he makes his living, he lost his blank.

And when you lose it, the NFL had nothing to do except and definitely suspend him. Now, is Mason Rudolph going, well, I'm a quarterback, I'm a pretty boy, I can get away with things, maybe. Did he go after the helmet first? Yes. But again, if you were on the side of defending Mason Rove, you can say, well, it's because you've got this large human being

that won't get off of me. I need to figure out of way for him to get off of me. Right? Yeah. Obviously, yeah, what Mason did was much more understandable than what Miles Garrett did. Mason escalated a little bit And it's like

He was just going to talk Not talk things over But he was going to go argue with him And then all of a sudden he's just got a helmet flying at his head His own helmet It just escalated He just like it was going up in baby steps And baby steps and then Miles Garrett just blew the whole

Do you know how I'm a new clear? You know I'm a fan of? Markese Pouncy He went there and said I'm going to go kick that guy's ass He kicked him in the head Mike you don't hurt my little quarterback He's not a little Well that's true

Little being a figurative turn. All right, we're going to play Beat the Shmows next. Ross, we've got to tell the audience what's going to happen in Sunday's game between the Texans and the Ravens. And our predictions this year on the Texans? Yeah, they've been pretty bad. Not pretty bad. They have been absolutely atrocious. We have that.

Brian T. Smith at 2 o'clock. We'll go to Baltimore at 2.30. This is the Matt Thomas Show. Ross is with me here at the Billiard Factory. We're at FM 1960 and Jones Road, where Charlie Hustle has had all but about an entire pizza to himself. How are those Instagram girls going to look at you like, way, if you get in all that pizza? Come on, hustle. 713-212-5-790.

This is a Matt Thomas show, and we appreciate you listening to Sports Talk 790. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for one lucky listener to beat the schmows. In Your Dreams. We've been playing beat the schmose for almost as long as the show's been around. You know that? It's been around for many, many moons. We've given away lots of prizes. We are just, that's why people should always want to play us to beat fish modes.

We suck at this. Yeah, it hasn't been the best. And you were really bad at the Big City Wings' Big Pigs. Oh, so embarrassing. But now I've rallied, and now we've given away a lot of pizza this year, thanks to Papa Johns. They came and brought us lunch today with a garlic parmesan crust. Apomijian. And Apatamijan.

And now we're going to have a chance for one of our lucky listeners to pick up either dinner for two, dinner for four, dinner for nothing. Here's how it works. Ross and I are going to pick four games against a spread. So our contestant. His name is Wade. He'd get $10,000 as well, Ross and myself. If Wade Tizer beats both of us, he gets dinner for two from Papa Johns.

If he tiser beats one of us, he gets dinner for one. If he tiser beats none of us, he gets nothing and likes it. Minimum bet is $1,000. Max bet is $5,000. And all three of us must predict and make a bet on the Texans game this Sunday. without any further ado. Wade is with us. Wade, are you ready to beat the schmose?

I'm ready to beat the schmows, Matt. Wade, good luck to you, my friend. What is your first game, please? I'm going to take the Jaguars with Nick Foles for 2,000 M.T. bucks at Indianapolis. The Jaguars. All right, that is Jacksonville getting three at Indianapolis. By the way, Jacoby Percette is supposed to play that game. Is that correct, Ross?

Is that what you said earlier? Yes, Jacksonville, plus three, Indianapolis, and he said 2000, right? All right, game number two, please. Game number two, I'm going to go with the Patriots, minus three and a half at Philadelphia for 3,000 M.T. bucks. All right, game number three, please. Game number three, I'm going to go with the Chiefs south of the border against the San Diego Chargers, minus three and a half for 2,000 M.T. bucks. That leaves by my U of H math, 2000 on the 10th.

Texans and the Baltimore Ravens. And unfortunately, I'm going to take the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson against the hometown Houston Tech. Over. That's four points, by the way, Baltimore over Houston for $2,000 M.T. Bucks. Wade, thank you very much, my friend, and good luck in your attempts to beat the Shmose. Thank you. All right, buddy. That's, all right, thank you. That's Wade, our contestant this week, and he's going again for Papa John's Pizza. Ross, are you ready to go? Do you want me to go? You can go.

All right, here we go, my friends. This is a lot of scientific research, in-depth analysis, thoughts, beliefs. Yeah, okay. I will start with the fact that the Atlanta Falcons are feeling pretty good about themselves as of late. I will take them in a small wager. Atlanta plus the five at Carolina. Not that I'm thinking I'm a big Atlanta fan, but I think Carolina's going to come down to earth a little bit. I'll take Atlanta plus four and a half for 1,000 M.T. bucks.

Next, Minnesota is due to have a little bit of a letdown after the impressive win against Dallas. I think they're going to beat the Broncos. I just think maybe Denver getting 10.5 is a scoge too much. I will take Denver plus 10.5 at Minnesota for 2,000 MT bucks. Next, I believe the San Francisco 49ers are going to get fat and happy off of Arizona after their disappointing overtime loss. Last week on Monday football and a fantastic game against Seattle. I think the Niners bounce back. I like the Niners minus a 10 at home over a minute over Arizona, and I will do that for 3,000 MT bucks.

Which leaves me 4,000. Wow. Empty bucks on this one. every single week. I get the Texans predictions wrong, but I feel like this is the week that I'm going to finally be right. And I'm going to be right when the Texans are wrong. I will take Baltimore minus the four over Houston for 4,000 MT bucks.

4,000 M.T. bucks. Okay. You know what? I'll hold off on my Texans one. But let me start off with the New Orleans Saints visiting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, giving the five and a half. Yes, they lost last week to the Atlanta Falcons are going to bounce back. I'll take the New Orleans Saints for 2,000 MT bucks.

And next, this is what I call a little bit of a fade MT. Matt Thomas is going with Atlanta on the road against Carolina. I think that game last week was more of an aberration than anything. Carolina takes care of business at home. for 3,000 M.T. Bucks. Next, let's go with the L.A. Rams. Rams. Richard Trubrisky bounced back a little bit with three touchdowns last week, but still the Chicago Bears are not very good. I'll take the Rams at home on Sunday night, minus the six and a half for 2,000 M.T.

And I'm a U of H math. That means you have 3,000 in the Texans. Every instinct about the Texans has been wrong. Even last week when I went against my instinct to go George Costanza. Again, two straight weeks of Castanza, the Texans getting four at Baltimore. I'm going to hashtag fade MT. I'll take them for how much over how much we have? 3,000 Lentie bucks. Texans plus the four.

Now, are you doing this? Contrarian play. Are you doing this just going to be contrarian or are you doing it? Tell you because you're really thinking they're going to win. I think they're going to cover. They don't have to win. Okay, so they're going to cover the four. Yeah.

I'll think they'll lose and cover. Okay. And there you have it. Those are beat the smallest picture this week. Justin Tucker clutch time field goal to win. Is he the best kicker in the NFL now, not named because Adam Derry has kicked with the curb? Yeah, he's been the best kicker in the NFL for like five years, I feel like.

If you were to ask people, I need a kick to win a game. Not counting this year, Adamentary's name would be brought up. Maybe Steven Goskowski's name, too. Tucker's been good, though. Goscowski's on IR, yeah, Venturi's done. Tucker's number one. Justin Tucker. He is never go.

Maybe if you needed somebody for the last five, 10 years for a 10, but the last five years for a 60-yarder, you're going Tucker all the way. I'm going with any kicker that is in it that plays in a dumb stadium. Okay, well, I will say it's outside. Then Justin Tucker. Okay. All right, there's our beat the Schmows picks, and we'll do that every Friday at 1.30 here on Sports Talk 790.

One of the things I do want to ask when we have Nestor Apparicio on for WNST Radio next out. Nestor Aparecio. I wonder if they're, like, what do you think the general excitement level is for this game in Houston right now? I'm really excited about it. I think, as you said, this is going to be the best game of the weekend. Yeah, there's no better game. Paper it is. Yeah, for sure.

Because the Rams' Bears game does nothing for me. New England, Philadelphia, two obnoxious fan bases. Why don't I care about either one? I wish they would play into a zero-zero tie. And I think what happens here is that the person that outperforms in terms of the quarterback spot, whoever does the best job, probably eliminates the other person from MVP consideration. Would that be fair? I can't imagine both guys

throwing for $3.50 this week. I mean, it's possible, but... It could. But do you think it's going to come down the way? Well, Mark Jackson doesn't get a ton of passing attempt, so he probably won't throw for $3.50. But do you see this one being last one on the field to win? Yes.

I mean, could. So maybe both teams could have put up some bigger numbers after all. I think they both have elite offenses and mediocre defenses play the over. 3531. Okay. 35-301. 35-31 is not a cover.

It's a push. I know. 35, 20. 35, 20? That's not happening. I can see that happening in the Ravens. 273. No. It's going to be high scoring.

Kimee Fairbairn, does he miss an extra point? Maybe. Yes. He misses a field. He'll miss a 48-yarder field goal as well. Yeah, that's true. That's true. All right.

So more on the game coming up. 33-30, Ravens. On the last second, Justin Tucker, field goal. Boom. It's a cover. Yeah, that's what I picked. But nobody wants cover. People want a win.

If you're at the sports book, you want to cover. But most people aren't in the sports book. We don't live in Las Vegas. That's how I think. People would like for them. This would be, you ready for this? Here comes grandiose, hot bacon take. This is a bigger win than Kansas City.

I'm okay with that. It is. If they go, it's a bigger victory than Kansas City. Sure. Time of the year. The most wonderful time of the year. And on top of that, it does give you the leg up if you're to get in a tiebreaker come playoff time. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. So this would be the biggest road victory in Houston, Texas. Wow, is it going to happen three times in one year? The biggest road victory ever? No, first of all, you know the daily charger game was not the biggest road victory ever. No, I was telling me biggest road victory ever. Yes, you were?

No, I told you that win against the since I was bigger. When they weren't defeated. Yeah. No, only the Hawks were selling that one. The Kansas City game, that was a big win. Even though Pat Mahomes less 100%. Still, very few teams go to Arrowhead wins. So that's, at this point, the biggest road wins in Texans history is at Chicago, at Cincinnati, at Kansas City.

This will be right there with him. Okay. Chiefs has lost that o'head three times this year. Well, that's because maybe those other teams are just stepping up to the occasion. Could be. Just think of place to win. All right, 143 is our time. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. It is in anything-goes Friday. Ross, explain the essence of anything goes Friday here, please. Well, Matthew, Monday through Friday, or Monday through Thursday here on the Matt Thomas show. You get a longer leash than anybody on the phone lines. It's 7-13-1-2-125-79. The leash gets even longer on a Friday.

Whether you want to talk about, of course, what happened last night with Miles Garrett, when you have the rockets on the back-to-back this weekend, we can talk about that. If you've had various structural bone injuries and you need some advice on handling that, well, I've never broken a bone, so maybe don't call me about that. I've never worn a cast before in my life. Me either. Does that mean we're wusses?

Yes. Because don't real grown-ass people have cast at some point in their life? Yes, I've had too. I don't think so. I mean, I can't believe that I lived the way that I did, especially having an older brother and us wrestling and fighting and jumping off the roof. I used to jump off our balcony on the couch and all this crazy stuff, and I never broke anything.

I just really can't believe it. So answer that question. Am I a lesser man because I've never had a cast? Well, you're a lesser man for many reasons, but maybe not that one. Hey, it's Jeff Blum. Blum Fact number 14. I was on the White Sox in 2005. Yeah, sorry about that sweep, H-Town.

We're all good right now, right? Back to your lunchtime champion, Matt Thomas. Listen, baby. Ain't no mountain high. Ain't no river water. The crowd is filtering in, Matt. Yeah. We get people like openly challenging us to play foosball.

Well, some people who have deluded themselves into thinking they can win it stuff. Yeah. Like I said, we're going to have a pool tournament in I think February next year. I can't wait. February, I got to start playing now. I used to be actually fairly decent at the old. billiards. A little pool table

action. We'll have food, drink, we'll tell stories about our on-air staff members and everything. Ex-employees, current employees, we'll do all of it. Let me run it. Can I play you in the tournament?

Or are we going to play random people? You play whoever you want? I'll play you so I can have a chance at advancing. Like, if I'm playing some actual, like these people who enter these tournaments, they don't mess around. That's true. Like, I've been to pool halls

while tournaments are going on. And those, like, they bring their own little hand, what do you call this? Glove. A little hand brace and their own pool stick and all this other stuff. And then we'll... And then I'll get some really good dice,

and after I lose to you, we'll throw dice in a corner. Okay. Thanks to the billiard factory. Thanks to the... They got everything here, by the way. They got... They got this... I want this marble chess set, by the way.

Like, again, I'm a grown-ass man. I don't want to leave here. It's that good. When's the last time you played a full game of chess? I've never played chess for my life. You haven't played... Never one time? You've never played one game of chess in your whole life?

No chance. I have no idea. What? Yeah. It's the game of game. Why is it so good? I don't know. It's just a good intellectual, fun game.

It's a board game. It's fun. Last time I played on it was when Hurricane Harvey happened. No, I do love me some checkers. We didn't have TV. All right. Let's get to... It explains a lot. 2-1-2-5-7-90. One thing we've not talked about this at all this week that we'll do for the very first time today before we talked to Brian T.

What do about Colin Kaepernick's workout tomorrow in Atlanta? Sounds like 12 teams are going to be there. Has it played since 2016? I don't know what his agenda is. I don't know what his agenda. I think this is the NFL. I don't think he has an agenda. The NFL came to him.

I think the NFL is trying to say, hey, we've got court cases. We paid off a grievance and all this type of stuff. We're trying to show that we're doing what we can't. Can I tell you, and you know how much we don't talk politics on the show. Yes. It is a travesty that he's on an NFL team because there are so many awful, awful backup quarterbacks. Mason Rudolph. I'm Brian Hoyer.

Yeah, I mean, are you going to- Ryan Fitzpatrick? I mean, hell, anybody that's ever been a Texan, not named to Sean Watson. Hey, Ryan Fitzpatrick's gritty now, Matt. No, he has cereal on his beard. That doesn't make you gritty. The point being is this. He should have been on an NFL team yesterday, a month ago, a year ago.

I'm not a big fan of how he became the social media, whatever or whatever he wanted to call himself, Social Justice Warrior. That's neither here nor there. Because, again, I disagree with what he did, but I moved on. Like most people were supposed to move on with things. When you don't agree with someone, you don't, like, condemn them for the rest of their life. Well, some people do. Well, I'm not that one of those kind of people.

Good, Matt. Good on you. but my point is that there are so many people trying to figure out why a Saturday, why Atlanta, why now, and I don't know the answer to those questions. All I know is that Colin Kaepernick, if he really wants to be in the NFL, he should go in tomorrow, have a kick-ass workout, be happy with a backup role, or be happy with a roster spot period, and then in 2020, he can go fight for a starting quarterback job. People are trying to figure out whether this is only if it's a starter,

what does he want a certain guarantee an amount of money, when we only play for a certain number of teams. How about we just build this bridge one step by, one brick by one brick here, and get it back in the NFL because I'm not saying that I miss Colin Kaepernick playing. I'm just tired of seeing garbage getting five and six opportunities in the NFL. He should be given that chance. He should be given a chance to be a backup quarterback in the NFL.

We'll see. I'm wondering what's going to happen on this. I'm definitely going to be watching with a keen eye because I'm with you. I mean, he's much better than probably not only like every backup quarterback or at least in competition with every backup quarterback. He's better than some guys who are starting every single game. So he definitely should be on an NFL roster on the merits of his talent and abilities. Is he better than Mason Rudolph?

Yes. Is he better than Brian Hoyer through three interceptions last week? Yes. Yes. So he should be given an opportunity to be a starting quarterback. Or a quarterback in the NFL, I should say starting. And we'll see what happens with this. All right.

So we got that's going on tomorrow in Atlanta. College football this weekend. Your beloved Texas Longhorns are playing at Iowa State. Huge game. My Houston Cougars are home for the Memphis Tigers. Game of the weekend. They're great. You really want to go out and enjoy real college football with grown-ass men.

You go to TDCU Stadium tomorrow. Memphis top 20 team. Houston will upset them. Continue the pace towards getting to a bowl eligibility. There's no game of the day tomorrow, is there? Yeah, I just told you. Texas and Iowa State. It's the second game of the week.

Auburn, Georgia. That's probably true. That's probably true. Hear more about it tomorrow on the college football preview show at 11 o'clock from Twin Peaks, 290 in Pinemont. God, you have just gone, you're never in studio anymore. And by the way, starting at 2.30, speaking college football, I'll be watching the Texas game. You've got the U of H game. A lot of big games at 2.30.

I'll be watching those at Time Out Sports Bar on Fuqua, starting at 2.30. What are you going for one bar to the next? Basically. I'm club hopping tomorrow. If you're around 11-1, 2-9 in Pymont, come see me at Twin Peaks. If you're around 230 to 4-30, watches some college football. Fuguey 45, I'll be there. All right.

And I'm at Billiard Factory right now. Now we've got Ross's social schedule all knocked out. Let's get you back to the sports. Thanks to ice cold, refreshing. Oh, Jesus. Dos Eccis. You're like a human billboard. When it's time for college football, reach.

All right, enough. So Alex Bregman finished his second MVP award yesterday. And as I said it about an hour ago, there was a small little part of me that was somewhat glad because the conference call would have been littered with, yeah, I know that you won the MVP, but can you talk about this hitting the trash can thing? Ross, this thing has taken a life of its own. You have everybody in their mother shooting videos of them watching the Astros play. You have people spoofing it. And that's what I think the long-term element is this going to be, is that you can't take the 2017 World Series away.

You can't take away the individual accolades. You can't take away the victories. But the Houston Astros, especially if this does come and become apparent that this did happen, is going to be the laughing stock of baseball for a short period of time, if not a long period of time. Are we prepared for that? I don't know if I'm prepared for it, but, I mean, is what they did, of course not excusing what they did. How is this worse than what the Boston Red Sox did with the Apple Wall? It's not.

Because Major League Baseball said, we're going to come down. giving everybody a warning. If you do this again, we're going to come and lay the hammer on. But do we know that they did things after 2000, the trash can thing and the mic fires bit and all that stuff? That's from 2017. Yeah. That's why I think they're an investigation. So do we know what happened in 18? We don't have a 19.

No. I think got ramped up. Okay. No, but we will find out there will be a long exhaustive report that will be, that will detail everything that Major League Baseball found out about this, this organization. And the hardest thing for me on all this, and I've told you this on air and I'm telling you this off and I'm telling you right now again on

is how much involved in AJ Hinch had if he had any that's going to be the hardest pill for me to swallow because I'm such a fan of his I don't know that he would I mean we don't know right we're just this is me and you're talking

we're conjecturing I'm speculating that he wasn't involved but he knew about there's no way this could have happened without him knowing about it and as a field man as the second most important decision maker in the organization on the baseball side. He has to go in and say, cut this crap out now. You have to say, guys knock this off.

Not because of integrity or anything, because if we get caught, it's going to be bad. That's probably the number one reason to tell them not to do this. And he very well could have said that. Right. And like I said, there's going to be numerous eyewitness and numerous witness reporting on this. We'll get up pretty clear. Again, Major League Baseball is no hurry on this. There's no deadline to it.

I'm just afraid that there's going to be And the question is going to be is If you're the Astros, do you come completely clean And say, we'll take our medicine on this Or do you try? Because here's the problem is if you don't tell everything And your stories don't Aren't consistent

They're going to throw everybody out of the bus That's there's so many unknown layers to this Because of that and all those interviews And how long it's going on And all these questions we have And the MLB is going to try their best to get to the bottom of it. Is the Matt Thomas Show.

Here we go with the final hour of the Matt Thomas show. We are at Billiard Factory at FM-1960 and Cut in Row. We'll be here until 3 o'clock this afternoon, but if you can't make it out today, we understand. Come on, check out either one of their four locations, billiardfactory.com for the one near you. This is really a man cave heaven for those of you that like to partake in foosball, ping pong tables, shuffleboard, Anything, bar, stools, home entertainment furniture is really the essence of what can be found here at the billiard factory. And again, we're in that location here at FM 1960 and Cutting Road. Our weekly Friday visit is with our good friend Brian T. Smith.

He is the columnist for The Houston Chronicle. And here with us on Sports Talk 790. So let me punch him up here while I can do that. And that is happening right now. BTS, good afternoon to you. We got a Texans game against the Ravens. In a season, it's already had some pretty impactful road victories. I believe this would supplant the win at Kansas City if the Texans can go to Baltimore

and beat Lamar Jackson on Sunday. Agree or disagree? Fully, fully agree, Matt, 100,000 percent agree. The win at Kansas City was impressive. It was also earlier in the season. There was a bunch of steak. Patrick Mahomes was 100%. The Chiefs weren't 100 percent.

and they were sort of finding their way while dealing with some key injuries. This win could become a season changer for the Texans. And if they lose it, it should not be doom and gloom. They're the best in the AFC South, although Indianapolis is getting Jacoby percent back. But this should be a very interesting test for the Texans. I mean, on paper, I think 99 percent of people would be picking the Ravens, Lamar Jackson, along where Russell Wilson looks like the MVP candidate. But, I mean, what if the Texans go up there after the by week

and they really have their stuff together? And Deshawn Watson is brilliant. And they find a way to win up there. I mean, if they do that, they are in the consideration for being one of the top two teams in the AFC and they still have to play the Patriots and they'll have the Colts during a short week. The following week, after the Ravens game. So it won't define the season if they lose, but if they can win this game, we will very quickly start to talk about the Texans in a different way.

And here's the thing. I guess we're going to start doing that. And I think everybody has done the next three games or everything for this team. Because the last four jokes, Denver, two Tennessees and a Tampa Bay. These next three. So let me give you the scenarios. They go 3-0, 2-1, 1-2, 0-3. Describe how we should feel about them in those particular scenarios.

Well, I mean, look, if the Texas go 3-0, and I don't see that happening, I'll glad to be wrong on that. The Texans go 3-0. The Texans are going to be the hottest team in the NFL. I mean, they have the Ravens at Baltimore, Indy on a short week, which are Kobe percent back, maybe T.Y. Hilton back. I don't know you stadium. They have Tom Brady and the Patriots. That's not a joke. I mean, if they go to 3-0, they will be the hottest team in the NFL, and everyone will be talking about them.

and it'll be like, oh my gosh, Bill O'Brien, King O'Brien, this is working. DeShon Watson will be the MVP favorite, along with maybe Russell Wilson and the NFC, on and on. If they go two and one, that's still a huge positive. They're still in, you know, they're still in contention for trying to find a way, especially if they can be Baltimore, to being one of the two teams in the AFC this season that receives the first round by. The Texans have been playing football since 2002, Matt. never had a first round by. It's always been a wild card game, even when they've been playing at home. And if they go 0 and 3 or 1 and 2, that will bring us back to what we normally do

for the Texans is, you know, it's up and down, it's one step forward, it's two steps back. This will be very interesting to watch. We're starting to see the next stage of Deshaun Watson, maybe the next stage of Bill O'Brien. We're going to find out a ton about this team in the next three weeks. Well, here's the thing. And again, my audience is only a small segment of the Texans fan base. So I can't say it's representative of how general Texan fan feels. But last year at this time, as the Texans were putting together this 11-game winning streak,

I kept saying to the audience, hey, you've got to start believing in this squad. Look what they're doing. And granted, they weren't beating tough competition, but wins are wins. They're never easy to get in the NFL. So I'm of the belief that I think I've been saying that a lot again, this goal around, this time around, it will be better competition. It'll be a first play schedule. It'll be better quarterbacks.

But the problem, Brian, is even if they go, say, 2 and 1 or 3-0, I think there's still a certain group of people that are either listen to my show, reading your paper, or just fans around. They're like, you know what? I don't care about November or December success. Give me something to chew on in the middle of January, and the Texans with Bill O'Brien have not been able to do that. Yeah.

Okay. Let's be clear about it. this. If the Texans go 3-0 the next 3 games, they don't automatically win the Super Bowl, correct? If the Texans go 3 in the next 3 games, and you live in the city of Houston,

and you are finding some way to hate on that team with Deshawn Watson, you have serious life problems. I will not say, if they go 3-0, they're going to win the Super Bowl. Of course, we're not bleepin idiots. They will have to

prove it in January. And it's Just because, if they do all this, just because they end up with the first round by and they're not playing a wild game, but let's say they have a divisional round game at home. And they lose that game. That will define their season. But we have to, on some level, Matt, live in the here and now, live in the present moment. Last year was different. They started a very bad 0-and-3. Their season was almost over after the third week.

And they didn't play a lot of good teams. And when they had a shot to really prove it at Philly, they fell short. But here's one thing that should be remembered. The way we value look at teams changes weekly in the NFL. Tennessee looks a lot better after beating Kansas City last week than they did a couple weeks ago, and Ryan Panny Hill makes them a different team, and Mike Brable gets something out of them. And the Texans have off and on never really been great in Nashville.

So they stopped to play the Titans twice. I wouldn't overlook either of those games, especially with Tanny Hill at quarterback. but these next three games will define the Texans thus far, and then we will reevaluate them in January. But if they go 3-0 and you're hating on them, go do something else with your life. All right, let's get to the baseball side of things. This has been very hard.

I'm almost taking this more personally as a fan than I am as a broadcaster and a talk show host because this is the team I grew up with, and I got to celebrate in my own way a 2017 World Series after watching the Astros for four decades, either get close or not get there at all. And again, I know A.J. is going to be interviewed. I know that Carlos Beltron, I don't have a relation with Beltron or with Cora, so I don't care.

But AJ, I do. We all do. We feel like he's a guy that is about as forthcoming as a manager you'll find in baseball. The Astros front office department has had a reputation the last few years that people have been trying to knock down, and now the ammunition is there. So I'm going to step out for a second and just kind of let you just speak to what has turned out to be a very, very tumultuous time when we should still be celebrating a fantastic run of Astros baseball recent history. Matt, you set it up perfectly there. And look, I've just begun to write about this in The Chronicle.

I've written about the Astros a lot since I moved to Houston. And I think it was September of 2012. I covered them at their lowest of lows. I covered, you know, game seven at Dodgers Stadium and pretty much the entire last three playoff runs, also 15 as well in a disappointing 16 year. I also, you know, I think we all do. If we're around the N's Rose and you're at the park and you put in the time, you do start to feel like, and I won't even get a lot because everybody loves Jose Altuve

and everybody loves George Springer and Alex Burtman and Burlander and Cole, et cetera. but Hinch appears to be has to be in the middle of all this if it ends up being what it could be right and that's going

to be very odd and very interesting I will always say what I think pretty much about anything that's what I get paid to do I take a lot of pride in that I'm not gonna I'm not stupid enough Matt to come out right

now and say a bunch of, you know, volcano take stuff acting like I or anybody else knows what really went on, if anything really went on. I don't care what the videos show you. There's a reason there is an investigation going on. There are actually two investigations going on right now. It's not that much more different than if the government was investigating you for, you know, whatever, IRS fraud or some type of serious life issue, you can't come out and put it in a tweet. You can't come out and say anything definitive when this thing is this lives and in the real

moment. So I will fully be on board, and if things get really bad, it's going to change everything. But they could also be cleared, and it could be jealousy, and it could be a bunch of BS, mixed in with everybody else doing it on and on. We just don't know, Matt. So this is a very, very tenuous time right now for the Astros, for this recent legacy they've built, for AJ Hintz, for Jeff Luno, for Jim Crane. And, you know, you know who's going to get this right?

History will, right? Not in a tweet, not in a dumb column, not saying, you know, oh, the world, it won't affect the World Series, or, you know, there's still the aster's no, if this thing is really bad and really ugly, it will change everything. And if it's not, then at some level, the rest of Major League Baseball needs to shut the bleep up because if you can't nail them now, I'll kind of like the Patriots, like if you can't nail them on this, then they're doing what everybody else does.

And, you know, people are always bending the rules in baseball, let alone the NFL. We'll just have to watch this play out, but there's nothing. Nothing, Matt, definitive that can be said right now because there is an investigation going on on a national level. Yep. And let the investigators, they're going to interview everybody. They're not going to be very diligent. They're not going to not talk to some people and talk to others because this is, if the allegations are serious, and major league baseball people are doing it, and other general managers are bringing this up,

they better interview everybody and make sure stories are accurate and not just people going off of well I heard this or I heard that BTS and I'm going to talk again go ahead yeah let me just say real quick I hope this is done the right way like if you're going to go down this path you're going to open up Pandora's box

I hope it's done the right way and I hope that every angle not just the Astros whether it's the Red Sox the Yankees other team I hope every angle is looked at baseball went through this with a Mitchell report and it took them way too long to get to this stage. Major League Baseball, no matter what the outcome is, they have to get this right.

Yep. Well said. BTS will talk to you next week. Thanks for the time as always. All right. Thanks for having me all, Matt. Take care. You got it. Brian T. Smith from The Chronicle with us here. You can catch him on Twitter at Cron Brian Smith. Let's make you some money when it comes to football. That is up next. We'll go to Baltimore in 15 minutes to get a perspective on the Raven side of things as they get ready for Sunday's tilt with the Texans. If you want to join us, you can do so right now. 213-21-2-5-790. 7-13-21-5-7-90.

The Matt Thomas Show today here from The Billiard Factory, FM-1916 and Cutton Road on Sports Talk, 790. Good morning, strippers. Shower with the Matt Thomas Show. Wash off the glitter and daddy issues. Time is 2.20. It is a Matt Thomas show from the Billiard Factory. We'll go to Baltimore coming up in 10 minutes to get a perspective on the Ravens-Texins game for the Baltimore side of things. Right now we say to our good friend Paul Nolan, freewinners.net, the show on the college football slate, 10 o'clock on Saturday mornings here on Sports Talk 790.

Sundays you can catch it at 10 o'clock as well. Good Paul. Thanks for joining us as you always do on Friday. this Texans Ravens game, I think opened it four and hasn't moved much. A, surprised, and B, what you lean in. Well, actually, I think it opened it five and a half. Open the five and then bounced to five and a half and came right back down to four. And I'm seeing four and a halves out there.

You know, I see Houston with an upset here. I love them in this spot. I really like the fact they got that running game going. They get that running game going, and it's a different animal, as far as I'm concerned. I like the coaching matchup as well. I know that you guys have been real hard on O'Brien down there. I just think it's a little bit more than, you know, I think he could use a little bit of help from the ownership down. I still think he's a good coach, and he's made the necessary adjustments to get the ball out of Deshaun Watson's hands.

And, you know, we still are so bullish on Deshawn Watson. We feel like outside of Mahomes. We still feel like he's one of the top quarterbacks in the game. And, you know, and I know he's going to have a little bit of chip on his shoulder here in this game. And I think this team is Baltimore is ripe for the team. As much I love Marcus Peters and Jimmy Smith's, what they do in the secretary. I love the fact that, you know, Wolfullo is going to be coming back to Hunter Alpich. Kenny Stills, this good matchup in this position.

They haven't faced, you know, a wide receiver set like this. And on the other side of the ball, I just love McKinney and Tishon Gibson and what they do. They take away tight ends better than anybody. And that's really been the strong part of the passing game with Lamar Jackson, getting the ball to Mark Andrews and Nick Boyle. So I get, in my opinion, the better quarterback. back. I get, you know, a team that's really playing hard, and, you know, and I'm getting four and a half points. I can see this being close one way or the other, and I like Houston's

chances to win this game on the money line. Oh, so forget even the four points. All right, I like how you're boastful. You are. That's our good friend Paul Nolan from freewinter's.com. Saturdays and Sundays at 10 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. All right. The other matchup probably of national interest is New England at Philadelphia. The last time the Patriots went on the road, they lost at Baltimore, the team that the Texans are facing. Philadelphia, I don't think, is nearly as good as the Ravens are. But what are some thoughts behind this game?

What are you thinking right now? Well, you know, Baltimore in that game, through everything they had at the Patriots, we talked about that was a team from the opening snap to the last play, they played like it was their Super Bowl. They played like it was the most important game. And then people would talk, maybe they'd be a letdown in Cincinnati. obviously there wasn't, but the yardage in that game was a little closer than it was, and there was a couple defensive scores and some big plays. And, you know, again, like, I'm, I love, you know, Jim Hallbar as a coach.

And, you know, and I, you know, he did a terrific job. But this guy, you know, somewhere along the way, you know, I feel like, you know, good coaches bounce back. And I just feel like the data just completely proves to us that this is exactly the case for the Patriots. They're 45 and 8 straight up in their last 53 regular season games. after a loss, like it's staggering. The 30 wins and two losses against the spread in those games were not favored by more than six points. You know, there's 64 and 15 straight up and 55 and 24 against the spread going back to 2000

when facing the team they lost to in their previous meeting, including 43 and 14 against the spread. We're not laying 7. And, you know, and 12 and 0 in that situation, awful loss. Like, there's so much thing, so much here that tells you that, you know, Belichick and Brady respond to a loss real well. But the physical matches here are pretty good for the Eagles here. You know, I see Lane Johnson. I think he'll nullify the really the best edge Russia, the Patriots having Kyle Van Nuoy. I think that there should be a really strong matchup, especially if Jason Peters comes back.

You know, that'll show up the other side of the offensive line because Andre Dillard has been a sieve. and, you know, he's been a bit of a turnstile. And, you know, and I think that we can really expect to see Zach Earth's really getting involved this week. I think this is one of those physical match-up games that I don't really love this game, but if I had to give a free pick, I would go with the under because I do know this. Here's what I know. I know we're going to have 15 to 20-mile-on-hour wins. And I do know both teams are going to really have to rely on the run.

And both teams have some vulnerability deep in the best. past, I mean, in the run game, especially to the right side, I just see this one grinding and out, but I really don't like this game other than to watch it as a football fan. I just don't have any, my numbers say the line is right. It says the totals, right. The free pick, I would say, would be Houston plus the four and a half. I can see them winning this game. All right.

Any movement in that Jaguars Colts game now that we have Jacoby Percept playing this Sunday? Yeah, there was a little bit of a bounce, oddly enough. It went from three and a half down to two and a half. I don't understand the movement there. I think it was factored in right from the jump street, only because most people knew Brissette was going to play. Hoyer was just, you know, he was missing wide open guys, and he just looked like he was completely out of sync.

And, you know, that team, I mean, in general, it just didn't look right. I expect to bounce back from them, but the problem is, you know, Nick Falls is really going to give this team a jump start. I don't like India in this spot, really. I think this will be a good game. I kind of expect Jacksonville to have a bounce, just to really rally around Falls being back, as good as gone to Minsh did for a while.

Once the league saw him, I had enough film on him, he was a little bit exposed to what he's not capable of doing, and I think Falls will really air it out in this game. Man, I'll tell you what, if Jacksonville wins this game and the Texans lose, it will make the AFC South as unpredictable as ever. And it always is, right?

And it always is. And that's the reason why no one ever legitimately considers any of these teams in this division to become a true Super Bowl contender. Now, if the Texans do win this game, it'll be the biggest road win ever in probably in Texans franchise history. If you do believe that Jacksonville beats Indianapolis there because of the change of quarterback, then it gives them even a further stranglehold of the division. And then maybe you start thinking about Texans as a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Paul Saturday and Sunday is the Sports Investors Weekly. show and freewinners.net is your website.

Hey, thank you very much for the insights. Have a great weekend. I look forward to catching both the shows this weekend. Thank you, sir. It's always a pleasure to speak with you, Matt. You got it. Paul Nolan, freewinters.net. It is absolutely, when you're out doing honey-dos, and I told us to Paul many, many times, that show is must listen to radio.

Saturdays and Sundays at 10 o'clock on Sports Talk, 790. And again, Paul, you can find him at his website at freewinters. Let's go to Baltimore next. find out what the Raven is thinking about this game. Time is 228. The Matt Thomas Show continues here for the Billiard Factory. FM 1916, cut in road, right here on Sports Talk 790.

No fear, no worries, and no hair. It's the Matt Thomas Way. Houston Sports Talk continues with the Matt Thomas show. Is the thrill going? The thrill just started. 2.30 on the Matt Thomas show

from the Billiard Factory. at FM 1960 and the cut and roll will be here until three o'clock. 18 takes you three until six. Rockets basketball tonight against the Indiana Pacers right here on Sports Talk 790. Nestor Apparicio is a radio legend WNST in Baltimore. Nestor is at the appropriate way to introduce you. Yes or no? Oh, I don't know, 29 years next month or whatever that entails, you know. McLean and I, he still got me beat by a good decade, you know. Yeah, but you got more hair than he does, I'm assuming, correct? Well, he loves this part of the country, so, you know, this is a great game now.

I mean, you guys, we've been at this a long time, and I don't know if your audience knows, but I'm an old-school aller fan. So, you know, I love the Houston Oilers and the Steelers and the rivalries and all that stuff, and now this is finally a pretty big football game here. We don't have a whole lot of seven and two in our history. We had a lot of chasing the Steelers and them losing and all the mess on Thursday night with Miles Garrett. But to be out in front is a little weird and sort of be chasing the Patriots and chasing a buy and really having a heck of a stretch in the next four weeks with Lamar Jackson and the teams we're going to be facing here. I want you to be honest with me, Nestor.

When Lamar Jackson was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens, what was your first thought? What was the initial game plan of how much he was going to play? is going to play. And tell me, are you honestly surprised at his development, or are you like, you know what? Just give the kid time. John Harbaugh devise a strategy for him offensively, and he was going to thrive. So take me where he is now to what you thought he was going to be originally. Well, what I thought originally was they drafted Hayden Hurst very late into that evening after 11 p.m. Easter night dozed off and woke up and saw Lamar Jackson and a green jacket standing next to Roger Goodell with a purple bird on the screen.

So I said I fell asleep on him that night. I haven't fallen asleep since. Look, this is the transition for anyone to see the Joe Flacco offense and to see a guy who won a Super Bowl here. And obviously a bit of a shell of his former self now out in Denver and physically and all of that. The Ravens needed an option. I was kind of shocked they traded back.

Not shocked at the deafness of what has happened over the last 18 months, which is this is an organization with a real plan, a real strategy. Eric DeCostas sat around a dozen years now behind Ozzie Newsom turning down every team of the league knowing that this turn would come and the last draft of Ozzie Newsom was the tradeaway one of Eric's first picks, quite frankly, to get an extra year out of a quarterback, which is what you get when you draft him in the first round. So it was a developmental year last year that turned into something when Flacco got injured. I remember the first night he ran the ball, was out in the Canton, Ohio. Hall of Fame, that goofy game they play out there.

Ray Lewis went into the Hall of Fame that weekend, and I watched him run into linebackers, and every time it happened, I just sort of shivered and said, how long is this going to last? And then he went away for eight weeks other than a few gadget plays, and then he came back, and the offensive this time last year, Harbaugh was under fire. He was going to get fired, right? The team was losing. Flacco was on the bench. Here comes Lamar Jackson.

How are they going to do it with this rookie quarterback and this completely different office? I said it looked like the magnet game we played back in the 70s. You turn the thing on and everybody just sort of moved in one direction. And yet they kept winning and they kept putting defenses in second and two. I mean, they just kept getting six, seven, eight yards on first down. And it really tilted the field and changed everything. Now, that being said, he wasn't accurate last year. They didn't throw the ball a whole lot.

He looked at the run first last year. And then this year, all offseason, everyone was in full praise, what you should expect of any organization. You guys have been through that with five or six different quarterbacks in your 20 years, right? So, but everybody got behind it. But more than that, it's when Marshall Yandah's buying in. And when you start to see from the minute at training camp, he looks like a different dude. Like his body's a little different, his sets a little different, his dates different.

Certainly his release and his footwork. I mean, all of the technical things that you would want a quarterback coach to work on, James Urban has worked on. So, you know, that's what you. where we are right now, but this is an organization that has, you're going to see, Pat Ricard playing both sides of the ball, Nick Boyle running around like an H-back tight end, and really like a sixth lineman, and the way the communication now on the ball handling, I mean, Lamar was a little sloppy with the football last year, you know, Matt Scoura, who did my show this

week, the center, I mean, the ball security, when you're flipping the ball around and nobody really knows where the ball's going until the minute it goes there, um, you know, you usually put the ball on the ground, and they haven't done that. And, you know, that's really where it's at. So at any point could old habits happen to the ball hit the ground? Sure. Can he get hurt? Absolutely. But he's been better at that. He really has been better at that. So, you know, we crossed our fingers around here like you guys do.

You've got a quarterback that occasionally runs into the linebackers as well, right? Right. Well, yeah, we're all saying a small prayer before every time he takes a snap, especially with the Texans' offensive line, which actually has performed better than I think people would have thought it would. Nester Aspericio with us from WNST Radio, a Baltimore radio legend with us here on the Matt Thomas show. Earl Thomas's impact, as much on the field as in the locker room, or are you seeing some things that you were even surprised at, but now that he's worn your team's gear? Well, I mean, let's start with this. Earl's known as a rugged individualist, right?

And, you know, the Ravens have imported, quote-unquote, mercenary players that sign up and come in for six months and play and, you know, some more guys like Steve Smith that have hung around and Derek Mason. They've always, you know, they've always imported players, you know, in their 30s to come in here. They imported another one in to Montepa this week to come in and sort of bolster them. And they brought in Marcus Peters, again, back to Eric DeCosta. But it wasn't good enough, right? Like, I mean, Earl Thomas, the first month when they were struggling, they were struggling in all sorts of ways. I mean, Jimmy Smith's not on the field.

Payvon Young, they gave a big contract to be their nickel, not on the field. Tony Jefferson's on crutches right now, who's a guy they gave a lot of money to two years ago to be a safety. So in the back end, they drafted and they replaced and they signed guys and gained branding car money and, you know, went out and dealt draft pitch to get Marcus Peters. They've done everything they can do on the back end. I think Earl's getting more comfortable. And I think part of it is just getting the no guys. And Marlon Humphrey's the first round draft pitch from two years ago, who's their best player.

I mean, Lamar Jackson aside, okay, I'm out there. I should say that. If you would ask me six weeks ago, I would have told you Lamar Humphrey's their best player, not Lamar Jackson. Obviously, sort of otherworldly now with Lamar being an MVP candidate. I mean, our best player's been our kicker the last five years, and he comes from Texas, as you guys know. We know Justin Tucker very well. Yeah, I mean, he's been our literally the MVP of the team during the whole 8-Nate Flacco era, right? You know, sort of this struggle that we've had with 54-yard field goals six times a week, right?

That hasn't been the case here. But I would say that defense is, it really struggles when the D-lines a mess. I mean, giving up the run. And this Michael Pierce injuries, this is going to be a test for the Ravens this week to stop the run, to contain Deshaun Watson. The pass rush hasn't been so great. But they play great on the back end. And quite frankly, Lamar keeps them off the field to some degree, you know? Yep.

What does your gut tell you about a final score this week? I keep waiting You guys ask me about my level of confidence I keep waiting for them to kick the ball around Literally you know At some point when you play this style Things happen in the ball gets cold or wet Or icy in Buffalo or whatever

It's going to be a very cold chilly sort of 30 something semi-wintry afternoon here I'm interested to see how they work in those elements And I'm working at home this week I mean I just think they're due for a game That doesn't look like the Patriots or 40 point victories over the Bengals and the

Dolphins, I see a tight game, and I know there's real concern here about Deshawn Watson and whether they're going to be able to contain that this week. So 24-21, I'll give the Ravens a nod on it by a shield goal, but I, you know, I see this being a really good football game. Nestafar let you go.

You've always called me once a year when the Astros and Orioles have played to kind of give your audience a perspective of what's happening with the Astros. So I don't know that you enjoy baseball. I know you have enjoyed much baseball because of the Orioles for utility. And again, you don't have to pull punches, you don't have to embellish, just kind of tell me from the heart, when you hear of the Astros and all the problems that they are potentially in right now with the video cameras and the stealing of signs from a man that's a thousand miles away who enjoys baseball, what do you, not necessarily who do you believe, but when you hear of these stories, what's going through your mind? All right. So first off, I got thrown out of Major League Baseball 13 years ago after having a press credential for 21 years.

So, you know, from 1986 through 2007, I covered Major League Baseball, I traveled, I've been to 50 or 60 World Series games and all-star games, all that stuff. So my last thing's Apparicio. So I got a cousin in the Hall of Fame. So, I mean, I'm very, very near and dear to baseball. I mean, we're 23 months out on the least in my town, right? We're losing 110 games a year where we're, you guys are very familiar with that. The thought that anybody's cheating in Major League Baseball, I mean, it's as nefarious as it gets in regard to sign stealing and, you know, brushback pitches and police self-policing and all of that and corks, and Albert Bell and, you know, steroid milkshakes and Brady Anderson hitting 50 home runs. And, I mean, come on, you guys have been through all of that. If you're a baseball fan as long as we've been baseball fans, we just had a parade down the street for a franchise that, quite frankly, we built Camdeniard. So that never existed, right? So for my town, any of you Springsteen fans, you know, it's brought a death to my hometown.

The Orioles losing 110 games and what it's meant to my community. I live two blocks away. What it's meant to every brick here, the violence and the problems. We've had 300 murders in our city. We've got corrupt leadership. Our former mayor stole $800,000 and she's going to prison. So, I mean, we've got an election next year. And the baseball team's going to lose 100 games.

So in that environment and knowing that the guys that they have, have said are going to steward this thing, are now somehow connected to a systemic Belichickian sort of operation that everyone apparently was in on and they thought that players were just going to keep k-fave and keep the code when they left. It was kind of like thinking that all these guys are going to be sticking needles in their, in their butts back in the 90s and no one was ever going to out them. And Ken Caminiti was never going to say something. and Canseco was never going to say something.

You know, whatever the code is, whatever the fine is, whatever Sigmidel and Mike Elias' role in it, shame on all of them. You know, I mean, shame on them for cheating, but, you know, we've had impeachment trials all day that I've been sitting here until you guys called me. So, you know, you're lying up until the point where they can convict you. So, you know, good luck to whoever forensics, all this MLB stuff. but the internet the first three days with trash cans and banging and codes, you know, I would think that Mike Elias and Sig my Dell are going to be asked of, you know, a few questions. You have some explaining to do, Matt. All right, just to confirm for my audience, I mean, a lot of people on Twitter are asking me,

you've had less than 12 cups of coffee today, correct? Oh, no, dude. Damp, DeCath, man. Listen, brother, I'll be honest with you, man. I do 40 hours a week at my own radio at the end of the week. haven't done radio in two days. You know, there's a lot going on here, right? You know, we got a first place football team.

It's exciting. And, I mean, if you're not excited about seven and two, you know, go back to bed. You know, I don't need, I don't need to be a half at seven and two, bro. Perfect. Come on. Nestor, great hearing your voice again. Please call me next year when the Astros and Orioles play. And I hope this is not a huge type of conversation, but I'm afraid it might be.

Thank you for the time, as always, my friend. I'm going to call you after the game, Matt. See you, Buck. All right. See you later. Esther Asperishio with his WNST Radio, one of the most demonstrative sports radio hosts you will find in the country. Always breaks great insight and really loves and represents his Baltimore area very well. And I thought it would be a good guy to get on to talk up of the game.

But the 7 and 2 Ravens, Texans win the game. They would have the potential tiebreak if the two teams ended the second set to top spot in the AFC. Thanks again, Nestor for joining us from WNST. This is Ricky Williams. I may have worn a wedding dress on a magazine cover, but it still looks better than any outfit Matt can put together. Let your wife dress you, man. Texas five!

Texas five! Back to Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790. Final segment here for the billiard factory, where Ross and I are going to play a ball between three and seven. I might not be able to make it for tonight's Rockets game. Yeah, you might be out of money. I know. You're going to try to pick a cool pool stick over my back, though,

so I don't know if I want to play. That's a legendary moment. That's what friends are for. For those of you who don't know, I was underage at Slick Willey's many, many years ago, and a buddy of mine decided to take a pool stick and hit a girl's run with it because he liked it. Which is very ill-advised. Very ill-advised, especially when the boyfriend is right next to him. Oh, boy.

So the boyfriend comes after my friend, and I hit the guy in the back of the pool with a pool stick. I don't snap the pools, but I definitely hit him. Okay. And then we ran because I was underage. smart was it 21 in order at that point oh yeah for sure okay yeah well they got a number of nice pool cues here that you did not you would not want to no i would i would want to play with them not hit with someone with them over the back of the head this is a nice place it is it's like i also want to get like a little cotton

take a nap in here and they go play all right rockets tonight against indiana i don't know about russell westbrook's so playing because i know there's a thought of him missing some black-to-backs problem is if you miss us tonight, that means it would be no Gordon, no house. Well, we don't know about house. House is doubtful. Clinica Pella, by the way, got concussed apparently in the game against the Clippers a couple of nights ago. So he's under protocol.

So that is one of the situations where this is a, if you like you, some Gary Clark and Isaiah Hartenside, you might get an opportunity here today to see them. And don't forget the other big basketball game in Texas tonight, Matt. Oh, BYU versus Houston. That's a great call over on 950 KPRC. That's not at all what I was talking about. Texas versus Prairie View. In all seriousness, do you know who's playing tonight

that if we were any sort of a real college basketball community we would actually give to you know what's about? Do you know Gonzaga is playing A&M tonight? I had no idea. In college station. Good for them. Is A&M good this year? Who knows?

If they up the payments for their recruits? Oh, that's not very nice. I'm just asking. Point being is that when, you know, Gonzaga has been, for 20 years, has been a national. power, right? Yes. And when national powers don't, I mean, that's

every bit of sizzle of A&M playing a, you know, legitimately top ten football team. Not every bit of sizzle. You mean in theory? In theory, it would be. Okay. Yeah, in theory, but in reality, no. But I'm curious, why would Gonzaga come play down here? I wonder if they, do they owe

A&M a game? Or usually sometimes kids have recruits that are from Gonzaga that are from Dallas, or I should in college station area, but that's a huge game for them. And it will get no attention. Because, you know, frankly, anybody that's a state of Texas basketball fan is going to have their eyes and ears on BYU versus Houston's night. You mean Texas Prairie View. Don't think so.

It's the Battle of 290. Is that what they're calling it? Yes. Wow, I didn't realize there was such a thing. Yep. But now we do. Tonight's night. We've just self-glossed.

The Battle of 290 at Frank Irwin's Center. What's the crowd going to be? 8,000 or less. Oh, please. You say 2,000 or less overrunner. That'll be more than accurate. Shock and trouble? No, they got a good squad this year.

He's going to be fine. And at some point, we'll talk some college basketball, probably, I don't know, March? The weekend before the tournament starts? March 8th. Maybe the week the day of it starts. Yeah. You know, look, I love it, but I know that I'm in the minority on these things.

It's not a pretty game. The one problem with college basketball is it has zero fluidity to it. I mean, if you hate whistles, then you definitely don't want to watch a college basketball game. If you think the NBA refs are bad, whew, constant stoppages in play. These college reps are horrible. Yeah, it's not good. College football, you've got South Carolina versus A&M. You've got Texas versus Iowa State.

You've got Memphis against Houston. The big national game this weekend is Georgia and Auburn. And I think nobody else, right? Bama's got a big one against Mississippi State. big is a relative term. Any letdowns anywhere? I mean, is there any point? I don't think Alabama can do anything to improve their standing.

Speaking of letdowns, how about this? Navy is hosting Notre Dame is hosting Navy. Navy is a ranked team. That's apparently going to be the first time in like 273 home games that Notre Dame hasn't sold out. You know, I saw that note a couple of days ago. Are they giving it a reason for? They're saying because they have, well, this is if you hear,

the Notre Dame side is saying, well, We have three home games this month. It's hard for people to make it because you have to commute. Nobody lives in South Bend outright. That is true. You can't go travel up there. That's true. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You can't get 77,000 on Notre Dame fighting Irish fans in there for Navy, a ranked team. Well, clearly the answer is you have before the previous 250 games, right? Right. I saw a story that it was because they were having a tough time with group sales. Who worries about group sales at college football events? You get the Catholic priesthood done down there with all the kids from Sunday school or something? No, my guess is that just financially you're just not going to pay crazy money for college football, especially when it's not just right around the corner.

I have been to several Notre Dame football games, and it's a good place to go, but you do stay in Chicago, and then you have to drive the rest of the way to South Bend, and that it becomes an ordeal, especially if the weather is not great or whatever. I don't know, I'm not trying to make excuses here, but it is a little of a story. startling number that one of the great college football venues, which has always been known as a place that was very difficult to find a ticket, you can clearly get one coming up tomorrow. You can get one for about $12. It's 273 straight games.

They have not had a game not sell out since 1973. There's got to be, I really want another real reason for it. Because it's not like Notre Dame is bad, right? No, they're good. They're 16th. And Navy's good, too, right? Navy's ranked as well. Notre Dame's 7 and 2, number 16 in the country.

The Navy midshipmen are 7 and 1. Very slowly, by the way. They're number 23 in the country. All right, before I wrap things up, we'll remind you about Hoops Basketball Goals and Sporting Equipment. Keith Tait and his crew over there at ProDunkhoops.com of a great website for you to look at, navigate, and find a basketball goal that fits your needs.

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They have rust-dum of protection, absolutely. They have also temper glass backboard, so you're going to get the true rebound as well, just like playing on a pro-goal. Do yourself a favor. Check out that website, ProDunkhoops.com. It's a great family holiday gift, and what a way to play some basketball today

outside in a gorgeous day like we've had. And you should do it with a basketball goal from Hoops, basketball goals, and sporting equipment. That's ProDunkhoops.com for all the information. Thanks to the crew here at the Billiard Factory for being great host for us. Thanks everybody that came by, picked up those rocket tickets, had some lunch. We'll look forward to seeing you at Toyota Center tonight for the Rockets and the Pacers. I'll be with you tomorrow as well on the radio from Minneapolis for Rockets and Wolves. A team is up next and we'll visit with all of you to recap a Texans game against the Ravens Monday at noon right here on Sports Talk.

everybody.