The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 12-19-19

Episode Date: December 19, 2019

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 12/19/19Happy Birthday Ross! (0:00)Dr. Roto's Fantasy Football Feature Week 16 (22:09)Dating The Texans (39:37)Ross' Rotten 5 (1:09:07)Tom Krasniqi Gives a Tampa Bay Perspective of Texans v Bucs (1:17:13)Non Florida Stories (1:30:03)

Much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 12-0-2 at H-Town. What's happening in lunch timers? Good afternoon to you, and welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790.

I'm coming to you today from Los Angeles, California. Award tonight. An epic NBA memorable. Won't soon forget showdown will take place between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Clippers. Have I sold it well?

I think so. We could sell it a little more, I think. Would you like to do that? I think we should. I think we should sell something else first. First of all, it's an excuse for you to play a Beatles song. But then it is a... sports RV's birthday.

It is? You're 30-something. I won't get out the number. I'm 35. It's okay. I'm not embarrassed of my age. Oh my gosh. You're almost at middle age. Well, you know what happens, Matt? If I'm older, that means you're older. Yeah. I'll never gain ground on you. That means I

started in this business when I was, I believe, 23. Yes, you're a 12-year season veteran. Woof. And I just got all the millions I've made just tucked away in savings. Well, you got a new mattress, so at least you got that going for you. I got one. It got delivered this morning. The best sleep at the best price, Texas matchmakers.

Hashtag ad? No, hashtag it was a great sleep. Hashtag birthday present? Well, I haven't slept on it yet, but I laid on it. Would you tell the audience what I got you for Christmas? I think it's a goat gift, actually. You think so? It's got to anger about 90% of the audience, but it's fine.

Let's see. I can't even remember. A gift card? You did? When? On Monday? I'm messing with you. Yes, Matt Thomas got me a gift card to In-N-Out Burger,

which I will not be able to use for six months because the lines are too long. Why? Yeah, that's the thing is, is it because there's millions of Californians in Houston? Or are there people that just don't want to? to admit that it's okay to enjoy more than one burger at another establishment. I don't know. People are upset. They're talking about how, I mean, all the Waterburger Nazis acting like it's going to be

them in fritz. Like, you can just go to both. Like, you don't go to Waterburger for every one of your meals, I'm guessing. I let me tell you something. I love you Waterburger. I love you Chick-fil-A. Yes. I love you in and out.

Yes. You know what I am, Ross? I'm a lover. I'm a food lover. I'm a fighter. Yeah. I go a little Jack in a box. I'll go a little Sonic burger.

like we talked about, that's what I would choose if we were eating at one fast food place for, what was it, 114 days? Yep. Takabana, you're on the list too? Oh, yes. If it's unhealthy, it's me. I'm there. If there's high levels of cholesterol and salt and it's cooked on some kind of greasy

grill that probably hasn't been cleaned in 15 years, I'm there. Carb count be damned is what we're thinking about. Saturated fats, trans fats, give them all. Oh, sodium levels. Oh, just, I mean, calories. We love you all. We do. We do.

It was gone and it came out. Thanks, Donnie. That's what I think about in and out. I think Donald's got enough issues. Donnie's going to be fine, right? Yeah, it'd be fine. I checked the Vegas odds. It's not going to happen.

Let me tell you some. You are fake news. So yesterday, we went to Farmer's Market and had a great dinner in Los Angeles. Oh, you're in very much anti-Trump area. Yeah, but that's fine. I mean, this show is anti-Trump. Trump area because we don't tend to Trump area. Did you go to an impeachment rally while you're out there?

I did not do that. No. But, and then came back to the hotel and I just flipped back as the, you know, when you're on West Coast time, the late game is really the regular time game. Right. The Celtics were beating the Mavericks, so there was really nothing to watch there. There was no other games. I understood a little bit of college basketball.

But I flipped back and forth between MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News. And it's funny. two of those three networks had the same viewpoint on what happened yesterday. One did not. Huh, really? Yeah, no, it's a stunning. But as a media consumer, and again, I'm not going to tell you what I feel one way or the other, I just love that you have these big national platforms that are seeing things completely different.

Not necessarily the anchors, but the people that own these networks are like, okay, here's what we're going to do to attract that segment of the population. I just think it's interesting It's it's you know regardless of Ross you and I are We don't talk politics because that's a good thing It keeps our friendship strong and alive But it's interesting how This country after what happened yesterday

Remains 50-50 split and it's always going to remain 50-50 split And that's today's political talk Okay It's going down to tubers Thanks dotty T So here's what we're going to do today Because it's Rons's birthday and there was really nothing piping hot We do have again

I'm here in Los Angeles for tonight's game between the Rockets and the Clippers. We'll have it for you here on 790 beginning with the launch pad at 830. Am I correct on that? Yes, with Chris Gordy, who is taking over for me since it's my birthday. Thanks, Chris. Oh, so Chris is feeling guilty. He's actually putting a few hours in between his breakdown of the LSU National Championship playoff. I mean, is it just you and me talking about?

Do you want me to be 100% real with you? Go ahead. Be 100% real. Well, yeah. I took a Sunday for Chris like a couple of weeks ago, and I think he tried to wheeze a lot of out of getting one back from me. And then I was like, no, I'm not going to. to let you forget, Gordy. You need to do this one for me as a return favor. Because, you know,

we swap these sometimes. You've got things going on, et cetera. Right. So just know that when Gris Gordy is doing the Rockets launch pad today, he doesn't really want to do it. But it's a great game, though. Oh, my God. It's, I mean, it's a great night of basketball, period. It is. If you're an NBA junkie, watching Lakers Bucks, then Rockets Clippers, I mean, oh, hell's you for just good old fashion NBA basketball. Right. If you're somebody who says, I don't pay attention to NBA until it's After Christmas, just start a week early. Tonight, you got the Lakers and the Bucks. They're both 24 and 4.

They got the two best records in basketball, and then the Rockets and the Clippers as the nightcap should be amazing. Yep. And the Rockets and Clippers have played two amazing games. Remember the second game, which was one out here in Los Angeles last month. Lou Williams doesn't score a single point in the first half, and then he goes bonkers. Paul George makes big shots.

Kauai Leonard make big shots. Lou Williams made a bunch of shots. So the Rockets got to hold them, don't you think? Yeah. It's revenge time. Is that what you're saying? I'm not saying it's a must-win game. It'd be a nice win game.

It's not a must-win game, no. No. All right, so here's the bit today. It is Ross's birthday, and he is as much of a part of the show as ever before. But today is a special day for him. So we're going to let him kind of lead the topics of conversation. I think you should frankly call him and wish him a happy birthday. No, it's fine.

You don't want that? You don't have to make it about me. It's okay. Oh, come on. One day a year we can make it about you. The rest of them can be about me. It's a 364 about you. I get it.

Okay. So we do have some guests along the way. We got Roto coming up at the bottom of the hour. And Roto is going to, and Ross is just going to take notes because, unfortunately, Ross is playing in our fantasy football league championship game. Why is it unfortunate? That's amazing. Because I don't like when you have success.

I'd rather you be in the doldrums, just like I am usually. Well, I haven't won that. We've been doing this league since when, like 2010, I think. Yeah, this is about eight or nine years of it, for sure. I've gotten second before, but I've never won the league. So I'm trying to win the league. for the first time in 10 years. Can you let me have that? Not really.

Dr. Roto joining us 1230 to 1 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. So if you would like to get some advice on your fantasy football, it's coming up at the bottom of the hour. Later on today, we will go with, and I've been trying to practice this guy's name all day because I'm just scared of death. Tom Krasnicki is with our sister station, WDAE, the Sports Animal in Tampa, Ross. He does the pre and post game shows of the Buccaneers So we'll talk to him about How exactly how healthy the Buccaneer wide receivers are

And what the hell has gotten to James Winston For him throwing $4.50 and back-to-back week So we'll talk with him on that We have a rotten five to get to We also have non-Florida stories to get to today Because we didn't do it yesterday because I was off Wow, jam-packed And then we have our handicappers

We'll make some money for us In today's edition of Believe it or not We'll be all things about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers I know we've done it maybe once over the years, but the Bucks and Texans only play every four years so we can freshen it up there. But if you have a, we'd like to wish Ross happy birthday. Ross, if you'd like to lead with some topics on the show today.

In fact, we've got our segment, next segment coming up next. And I don't know what we're going to do because you're going to lead it. So whatever you want to talk about, we're getting to in the next segment of the radio show. Okay. How about Ross at 713-212-5-790. Wish him a happy birthday. Send him some hot sizzling takes about Tom Hurt. and double rotting the video during recruitment day.

How about that? He explained what happened there. It's fine. Oh, of course it's fine. We're going to break down the big Manchester City, Leicester City matchup this Saturday next. And we're not going to talk about U of H having to give up three victories. Oh, I talked about it yesterday while you're gone.

You know what? What? The lead topic on the Matt Thomas show since it's my birthday. Oh, no, you wouldn't do that to me. would you have university of Houston Cougars, the cheaters of the southeast. That's not nice at all. Not nice at all. And more

importantly, not accurate. 713. 21, 2-1-2-5-790. 7-1-3-212. 5-790. Let's go! Houston's official sports cliche translator. I'm working hard. I'm trying to be a good

teammate. I'm trying to go out here every day and do my job. Matt Thomas. Taking it one day at a time. 1218 on a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show. The birthday wishes are pouring in for sports RV. It's only 35. We'll do a bigger party for you when you turn 40.

Am I still going to be hosting with you then? I mean, that's really up to you. Okay. I mean, Topeka's offering. That's true. I mean, you could be Monroe, Louisiana's top sports. Sports dog. I'm just telling you. Flagstaff, Arizona is on the table, Matt. By the way, Chris Godwin officially ruled out for the Buccaneers of wide receiver for the game Saturday, 12 noon from Tampa.

That's a shame for a while. Speaking of you brought up my fantasy team, I do have James Winston going in the championship this weekend, so it wouldn't hurt my feelings if he threw five touchdowns to Bresad Perryman. Okay, so this is your birthday show. We got Rodo coming up. So this is the next segment is yours. What do you, what we've got here? Let me just give you a variety of different plethora of topics. Okay. We have Texans, bucks. sure we have Rockets Clippers we have Lakers Bucks kind of an NBA mega Yeah it's Lakers Bucks not Texans bucks Matt Is it the Lakers and the Bucks? Okay I thought the Texans and Bucks were playing

Lakers Bucks, Rockets Clippers We have The Pro Bowl announcements of yesterday Or the day before which I really hope You don't choose that one Oh why not? You don't talk about how DJ Reader was snubbed Because no because that's a stupid topic

12 Ravens, that's pretty interesting. But that means 12 open spots when they go to the Super Bowl, right? That's true. We can also talk about the key to Garrett Cole signing with the New York Yankees. What was the key to it? Well, again, you're a segment, so I don't want to. Oh, let's talk about that. Well, first of all, let's talk about Matt.

Your thoughts on the University of Houston Cougars having three wins vacated from the 2017 football season? because they're a bunch of cheaters. And also there were volleyball infractions as well. Why are you guys cheating on the volleyball team? Come on. Get it together, you of age. We have made a coaching change on that. Is the volleyball team even any good?

They made it to the NIT of the volleyball this past year. Oh, nice. So it's not bad for a first year coach. Yeah, like Longhorn Basketball, who are the national invitation tournament champions. Comparable. UT Basketball equals Houston volleyball. I'll fully accept that. Oh, boy.

I don't want to hear that. Okay. And then what else? Oh, oh, yeah, there was one player that decided he wanted to pay a tutor to write his papers. That's okay. As I mentioned on the show yesterday, I'm not saying that I know for a fact it was happening at the University of Texas while I was there. I'll just say I had a class with Vince Young and he was never there. And even on test days, he showed up maybe with 10 minutes left in the class, if that. Realistically, how much did Vince really go to school? I'm going to tell you, I had a class. class with him, Monday, Wednesday, Friday was an hour class, and he was there maybe 10% of the time. I bet he graduated

with honors, too. Yeah, I think he was I think he was a big 12 honor roll. I'm not even kidding. Did you see the, um, there was some, I don't know if it was a Reddit or a website or whatever, but they were, they were going through the greatest college football games of all time. Yes. It was

the football ball association. Yeah. In Texas, USC was the greatest, which you and I have talked about, nauseam, is the greatest college game I've ever seen in my life. Of course. Yeah, number one. So my rule is this, if you play in the greatest college football game of all time, then college really isn't mandatory.

It's like in the words of the great Cardell Jones, we ain't come to play school. Is that what he said? Yeah, maybe he tweeted that out when Cardell Jones, when he was at Ohio State, he was like talking about classes are pointless and we ain't come to play school. Okay. You remember that? That was great. No, and I wish I would have remembered that.

That is an epic line. Here's what he said. Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play football? We ain't come to play school. Classes are in all caps pointless. Well, is he with all caps? That is to accentuate the point. And I don't know if Vince knows what accentuate the means, but that's not the hearing of.

Hey, hey, hey, is he still getting his, does he still have his cush job as a quote unquote ambassador of Longmore football? No, what he's got is he's got his storage unit that's going to be up for auction, Ross. I'm thinking about buying one of his awards. You're going to go buy one? Which one you want? The opening bid, like one of those awards is like 50 G's. Like the Rose Bowl MVP ring or something is $50,000. Yeah, really?

He gets an MVP, he got a ring for that? I don't know what he got, but there's a bunch of Rose Bowl. You were the, you know what? Two-time Rose Bowl MVP. I think he was the first and only two-time Rose Bowl MVP? I'm not sure if that still holds up. I don't know. I'd have to look that up.

When I was a kid, it was always, you, It was always Big Ten versus Pac-10, so I don't even know who plays in the Rolls Bowl anymore these days. Okay, so that's a topic. Vince Young's class attendance could be a topic. So here's the Garrett Cole thing I want to bring up. So, you know, Ross, he signs a nine-year deal, right? We're $324 million. Yes.

Well, Major League Baseball.com is looking for fluff stories to take the talk of the money not being the biggest thing, which is complete hogwash. Okay? The money was the end game. If the Miami Marlins offered 9 and 324, he's going there over the New York Yankees who pay would have paid him 7 and 250. I'm just telling you the truth.

Because athletes are driven by money in 95% of the cases. So here comes this puff piece from MLB.com about how impressed he was about the New York Yankees because they knew what he and Mrs. Cole liked to drink in terms of a bottle of wine. Okay. Okay.

So the story, and I'm not going to run into all of it because it's like five paragraphs long. We got Roto coming up. Apparently that the visiting clubhouse manager got to know Garrett Cole when he was a pirate in an astro and they started talking about wine and there was a certain vintage that he loved.

Hmm. So then this visiting clubhouse guy goes to the, the traveling secretary of the New York Yankees and says, hey, when you guys wine and dine Garrett Cole, you know, I know nine years and $324 million is pretty cool, but why don't you give him a bottle of his favorite wine from Italy? And that's what Garrett Cole spent a lot of time yesterday after his press conference talking about how classy the Yankees were, because he knew the bottle of wine he wanted. So if they didn't have that bottle of wine, he would have, he would have looked at the contract

offer, stood on the table, and then just urinary. on it. Yeah, they're called the vintage, and I don't mind a wine drinker, you know that. Mazzetto of a vintage of 2004 and 2005. Oh, wow, that's one of my favorites. The 2004 is the version that he and his wife had in Italy.

Quoting, wine advocates Robert Parker. The 2004 Mazetto is all silk and elegance. The 2004 is arguably the most finessed silky Mazetto ever made. How do you spell that? M-A-S-E-T-O. Find out the cost of that, by the way. That's what I'm looking up.

Bright floral notes add lift and precision to... Listen, hold on, but let me read this first. Bright floral notes add lift and precision to a core of sweet red berries and spices in this supple, exceptionally polished wine. This is the height of elegance and polish with Massetto. Yeah. 680 bucks. I see one for 1,200. The 2004, I found it for 680.

I got a deal. Okay, you've got a deal because S-I-Story here says, as a bottle of it's 900. So let me take you something. If you are drinking anything that is described as bright floral notes with lift and precision, you need to hand over your man card. Wait, hold on, why? Because that's ridiculous.

You can join a wine with some bright floral notes. I don't disagree with you on that. But Robert Parker of Wine Advocate is going to describe something that you put down your throat. with floral notes and lift in precision with red berries and spices well i talked about this yesterday we i think we were talking about wine because i think because of garret cole with uh with michael and nick and you know nick is uh very privy to uh wine dining and and say that word again nick

well where i was the person the wine expert oh somalii samolier yeah steakhouses have them typically or samolier that's a scam job by the way yeah it's basically yeah pretty much you know what a samolier has to do i can join me some fine wine though go to go to a google and type a bottle of wine and memorize what the google research says i'm partial to the charles shaw vintage i'm let's all in a little secret once you get past about a hundred bucks a bottle you're paying for labels hmm okay you know what i like boons that's my wine yeah a little mad dog a little night train a little strawberry hill and the phronsia or

whatever it's in a box thunderbird thunderbird is my jam Let's get one calling before we get to a good Dr. Roto here on Sports Talk 790. Let's say how to Adam and Cyprus. Hi, Adam. Hey, it's your day, though, Ross. Happy birthday, Ross. It is Ross's day. Thank you, Adam.

I appreciate that. No problem. I heard from a little birdie that Connor and Michael Conner and Matt were taking you out to Vegas. Michael Connor and who? Matt Thomas. They're taking me out to Vegas. Yeah, how'd you know? I don't know.

I heard from a little bird. Yeah. That's true. I wish it was true. Awesome. Let me tell you what I did, Adam. I decided to go to a Vegas wedding and one of my dear friends. But my wife puts me on a leash when it comes to Vegas, Ross.

What you don't know won't hurt her, Matt. We didn't go to a football weekend in Vegas. And it's, I'm having like nervous twitch. I just am. Real fast before we get to Roto. Let's say how to Randy in the West Side. Hi, Randy. Hey, Matt.

Hey. Like talking to you. As you guys are talking about Gary Cole. I know you guys during baseball season, you have Jeff Luno on, you know, Jeff Luno on your station. And I remember him saying that long-term contracts hardly ever work out. So without being said, that money that the Yankees gave Gary Cole, is that, is that, is that, is that, is that, Darren money? I mean, is he getting all that money? Because the first

long term... Yeah, the first five years of them are as guaranteed Rainy, from what I understand. I've not looked at the intimate deal. It tells of it. Thank you for the phone call. Rossi, I think it's first five is guaranteed. And then he has an opt-out or what? I don't know if it's mutual or one side of the other.

But I'm going to tell you something right now. It's Scott Morris's his agent. I don't think it's probably probably the Yankees can't just say, hey, we're out. Yeah, I think it's probably more on the... I'm going to opt-up because I can make more money in 2025. And I've got to give me the news I really Championship weekend. Matt Thomas with you on Sports Talk 790.

You've got a question for the good doctor. Get him running. We're going to get them in the final segment of the show. All right. So let's do this honestly, Roto. First of all, happy holidays to you and yours. Secondly, how many leagues are you in and how many are you playing for a championship?

Tell truth. I have six leagues where I can win a championship. And I think I was in somewhere around 15, 16 weeks. Okay, that's not a bad percentage. I think your head is spinning, but that's fine. Six championships. So let's get right to it. We'll go in no particular order.

I do want to give the Texans game of the Buccaneers in our second segment. How nervous are you about Dak Prescott and his availability to be successful Sunday in Philadelphia against the Eagles? And how does that affect his wide receivers and his running banks? Not worried in the least. Doc is it will be there. This is the game of the year. this is it. Whoever wins is going in. So, I mean, Jerry Jones

has been banking on this game all year. I think he do this. Where are they going to be? And I like that this game. I'm playing in a middle league. I need them to win for me. I'm going in with full confidence. I like Michael Gallup in this game. I like Cooper, but I like him a little less on the road than I do at home.

I like Zeke. On the other side of the football, this kid Greg Ward, you guys know him very well from the area. He was a quarterback. Yeah, and now it turned out to be a good receiver. So somebody to look at, Miles Sanders is starting to play at a very high level. So I think this could be a very exciting fantasy game. Okay. Let me get to, and again, this is, you know what, we're playing for championships here.

So every game is fair game. Are there some nuggets in the Giants Washington game? Is there a nugget or two in the Cincinnati Miami game? Because as many interesting matchups there are this weekend, there are also multiple games, Roto, with two dog opponents playing each other. Right. that's not what you look at. What you look at is the over-unders.

That's the key. So, for example, Pittsburgh and the Jets, that's under 40. Buffalo and New England, that's more of a dog fantasy game than Cincinnati, Miami. See, Cincinnati, Miami, Joe Mixon, good play. Tyler Boyd, good play. Devante Parker, good play. So you can find that. The key to finding the good games and the bad games is looking at the over-unders,

and when you see a game under 40, run. All right. Let me ask you this. Did the snow affect the fantasy performances from Kansas City Chief Players? And how much are you watching weather over the next 72 hours? Yeah, I love that question. It's a great question. So, listen, how many people out there probably benched Mahomes last week because they were worried about the snowstorm? It was a monumental mistake. Bad weather always favors the offense. They know where they're going. The defense can't react as quickly.

So unless you throw a ball like Billy Kilmer, you know, ducks in the air, and unless it's like 30-mile-an-hour wins, I don't worry about weather. And I think that is one of the big mistakes that new fantasy owners make. And anybody who bench Mahomes, I get it, I understand it,

don't ever do it again. All right. Dalvin Cook, sounds like he's not going to play from Minnesota this week. How does that affect that side of things for Minnesota? and I'm just curious about these two teams playing for an NFC North championship in an indoor facility where weather will not be a factor. Yeah, so this one is a very precarious situation. So you've got three guys in Minnesota who are all very good.

Dalvin Cook, we know, is tremendous. He's going to prepare like he's going to play, but you're hearing different reports. Adam Schefter saying he's not going to play. Other people saying he is going to play, they don't want to tip their hand. Guy number two, Alexander Madison, big fan of this. guy, but he didn't play last week due to an ankle injury. Is he going to be 100% this week? Then door number three is Mike Boone, who's a really good runner that nobody knew about last week except for crazy people like me. And, you know, would they be better off as Boone started?

Probably because at least he's the one healthy guy and it's not really going to make a dent in the playoff decision, but who knows what's going to happen? And the worst part is it's a Monday night game. So look, here's what I would do. I would go out right now if I own Dalvin Cook and I get Mike Boone, put him on my team, because even if Madison plays, he will split carries with Boone, and you've covered yourself. All right, let's get to the Saturday games because they're all intriguing for different reasons. We'll skip the Texans one of the very last one. Buffalo at New England, this is Buffalo's greatest chance to dethrone the Patriots as the

AFC East Championship. Do they have enough firepower against Stefan Gilmore, who is going to be probably the defensive player of the year in the NFL? Yeah. Take a look at the numbers. The statistics are when the bills go to Foxborough, it doesn't end well. I mean, it's really bad over the years. It's epically bad. So the problem is I think they're getting closer, but they're not there yet. The Patriots defense is so good that they're going to keep Josh Allen in the pocket. Keeping Josh Allen in the pocket is not where he wants to be because he's not the most accurate guy. So I think they really struggled last game. I mean, he really couldn't do anything. So you've got Gilmore covering John Brown. That's a problem. You've got Cole Beasley, who I do like for the bills. I don't like Josh Allen.

I like Devin Singletary. But, I mean, I think he's the key to the game. If Singletary can play well enough out of the backfield, maybe the bills have a shot. If he doesn't, it's going to be tough. Now, here's the interesting thing. Julian Edelman's hurt, right? He's hurt too. So I think the Patriots absolutely need this by week.

They want the win. I just don't even know if they have the offensive horses to do it. This game is under a 40, according to Vegas. I think it's to be very low scoring. All right, let's get to the Rams and the Niners. The Rams are on life support for the playoffs. The Niners are in a dogfight to win the West, maybe even try to secure home field throughout.

Maybe they may be a wild card. So, I mean, plenty to play for in this matchup on both sides. Right, plenty to play for, and the 49ers are going to run the ball all day long. Mostert is turned into a star, and I think he needs to be started. After that, Bride and Coleman, you just don't really know. No. The Rams defense has been good at times, and then at other times it looked terrible. I mean, the Cowboys really had a great game against them.

So you play Emmanuel Sanders. You play Debo Samuel. You play George Kittle. On the other side of the ball, Jared Goff has really been bad on the road. He has been terrible. The only lucky thing here is that the 49ers have so many injuries on defense that I can't imagine that Gough has a bad week. But there are a lot of people out there. I've been getting it on Twitter. Dr. Roto, should I start Cooper Cup or Breshaude Param.

I think right now I'd start for shot paramed. Wow. Okay. Now, we're going to take a short time out. Come back. He's going to give us his thoughts on the Buccaneers because we need to know a lot about Tampa, not only for watching the game,

but for fantasy implications because of what James Winston's in the last couple of weeks. We'll take a couple of phone calls too. If you have a question for Dr. Roto, 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson here. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. All right, here we go, 1247. Another segment here with Dr. Roto.

Everybody else standby? Roto, our buddy Ross, is having a birthday today, and he's also on our fantasy championship. So I thought we'd give him an opportunity here to get a free Dr. Roto gift with some fantasy vice where he can win his championship. Oh, wow, what a birthday present. Sorry, Matt.

Matt didn't make the playoffs, by the way, Roto. I'm sorry for him on that. Get back. It's coming, Ron. This is just the first of your gifts. Thank you. All right, so I do have Winston, and I did have Godwin. So I'm in a bit of a pickle here.

I did pick up Perryman, but I also have at wide receiver. I just need to know who to sit because I do have Paramon. I also have Lockett, Alan Robinson, DJ Moore. Which of those would you sit? All right, so DJ Moore has got Indianapolis. I'm playing him. So when Michael Thomas did. Alan Robinson did the Chiefs.

I kind of like that matchup, and then Lockett just Arizona. Ooh, I like that matchup, too. I know, but how do I sit Paramount? I have Winston, too, for the stack, so it's kind of tough. Yeah, you're not sitting Paramount. Maybe I know this is going to sound crazy. I'm not sitting Robinson at all against Kansas City.

I guess it could be, you can't sit Lockett. Maybe it's DJ Moore, and the only reason it would be is because Will Greer. We don't know who Will Greer is. Is he good? Is he not? And I know that Indianapolis is going to run. the ball there. So that's, I mean, he's been tremendous, but that probably, as of the second,

that's the guy. Yeah, that goes into my flex as well. Would you play Mike Boone over any of them, half PPR? If I knew he was starting, yes. Okay. We won't know that until the very last minute. But if I know, if Mike Boone is starting, you start off. All right, there you go. So there's Ross's gift. I hope y'all are taking notes. Let me get a couple of people, and we're going to mix in emails and phone calls in his final six minutes here. A.J. Brown, Diggs, McLaren, Slayton Chubb, two of those five people play. Who goes? This is from everybody old school, Mick. I'm going to go Chubb because Chubb's a real great player,

and I never said him. I don't play McClure. I really like him. He's against a giant defense. I can't imagine that he's not going to have a big week. All right. For those of you on hold, do not ask us how we're doing. Let's just get right to it. Everybody's doing fine. Roder you doing fine? I'm doing fine. Ross, you doing fine? I'm great. A little stuffy, but I'm okay. Okay, I'm great, too.

Jason and Magnolia for the good doctor. Fire your question away, please. Andrews or Oertz or Moster? Fine, I heard Chubber Moster. What was the first one? Repeat the first one, Jason. Andrews or Outs? Andrews or Ertz? Oh, Ingram or Ertz?

I'm going to play Zach Ertz. I mean, right now he's the key to that. And Dallas is terrible, terrible against tight ends. I play Dallas Goddard and Zach Erz. Oh, the other one, Chubber Moster. Man, Chubb is such a good play. Baltimore's a tough defense, but do you want to be a... I'll go chub, but that's a close call.

All right, let's go to Manuel, out here in SoCal on 7-90. Go ahead, Manuel. All right. Hi, Doctor. How about I have Rogers and I have Tanna Hill. And a PPR. Yeah, that's a much closer call. I think we're going to actually go Aaron Rogers this week, and here's why.

Ryan Tannahill has been sensational. I have nothing bad to say about him. The Titans should sign him long term. Really, they should. But the Vikings past defense is weak, and the way to exploit them is through the air. And Aaron Rogers is the one guy who knows how to do that. And he's confident, and I think this is a big week for him. All right.

Thanks, ma'am, all for the phone call. Let's go next to Mission Bend and say how to Brian on 790 for Dr. Rodo. Go ahead, Brian. Hey, guys. I was wondering, should I start Melvin Gordon, Kenyon, Drake, or Carri-on Johnson this week? Well, you know, it's funny about Carry-on. Johnson. He has made arguably the best matchup. I mean, it really does.

He's gone up against the Denver Broncos, who some weeks are good on stopping the run, and some weeks are terrible. You know, if you're feeling lucky, I have no problem with that. I think Drake is a good start, not a great start. But if they say that Johnson really

looks good this week and looks fit, I think you can risk it on him. I got an email from Cliff, Rodo, about any free agent wire pickups that would be, especially if your team that's lost, chalk, and Godwin and Evans, and all the folks that are earned, anybody that were worthy of picking up on the waiver wire? Yeah, I mean, let's start with Tampa Bay. I think you're looking

at Justin Watson and Breschard Paramount. James Winston is, you know, doing a great job right now. So, I mean, why would you not want to have a part of those guys on offense? If you're looking for more running backs, I'd look at Mike Boone, and I'd look at DeAndre Washington. Josh Jacobs has been ruled out, so I think that Washington is a great start this week. Let's go next to and say hello to Corey in the Med Center on 790. Hi, Corey. Hello. I got a standard league. This is a flex position between Singletary and Marcus Brown. Yeah, I don't think Singletary is a very good player and I'm a big fan. I really am. But he's not a goal line back and you know when they get in by there they bring in Frank Gore, which is a mistake.

So I think Hollywood Brown has a week, and I think Cleveland is going to get killed this week. So I'm going to use him. We talked about the Tampa side of things. On the Texans front, Kenny Stills a worthy play this week. What do you think? I mean, we all don't know the regular guys of play, but would he be a guy that caught two second quarter touchdown passes? Could he be a sneaky pickup this week or add-on for a playoff roster? Well, look, you can't run on the Buccaneers.

The Bucks run game is really good. This is not a Carlos Hague. So when it's not a Carlos Hyde week, you've got to look at those other players. And we all know about Hawkins, right? But this becomes a Duke Johnson week. This becomes a Kenny Stills week. You've got to get those guys in play because this is not a Carlos Hyde week. That said, I think this could be a wide open game.

Vegas-sized this game like at a 15-a-half. I think it could be even higher. I think it's made a lot of points scored. What about Duke Johnson if we're not using Carlos Hyde? Yeah, yeah. Like I said, Duke Johnson and Kenny Stills come into play when Hyde is out, those guys come in, and I think that if the way the Texans win this game

is if Watson is distributing to a bunch of guys, Duke, Fuller, Hopkins, Stills. If he goes just to Hopkins, they win. Tight ends? If he goes all over, they win. Yeah, tight ends as well, I'm assuming? Not as much. Not as much Tampa-based decent against tight ends.

I mean, I like to play. I don't love it. All right, let's go to Kyle quickly in the woodlands. Go ahead, Kyle. Yeah, I got one people. PR league with two running back, two receivers and a flux. I got Derek Henry,

Aaron Jones, Boone, and Moostert. All right, so we want to know who to play? Look, I mean, Aaron Jones has 17 touchdowns, and Derek Henry is pretty much unstoppable. I know that Boone and Moostert are playing very well. I get that, but I don't

know how you sit, Henry or Jones at this point. Now, if I was to sit one, I would sit one of them for Boone, only if I know for sure that Cook and Madison are out. If Cook or Madison, if there's even a thought of them playing, you cannot play Boone. But if those guys are ruled out, you can bring Boone into the picture. All right.

Last one of the year, we ask for Dr. Roto to give us the one fantasy player that's going to help us in this particular case win at all. It's Dr. Roto's lock of the week. MT may not like this one, but James Winston, man. He is on fire and Bruce Derry. is all about the record, and I think that James Winston is on target for at least 52 to 50, 300 yards. He needs 425 of the yards this week to get 5,000.

He might just do it. And I didn't say they're going to win the game. I didn't say that. I'm just saying that he's going to throw the ball. And if you are starting him in week 16, you might be a fantasy champion next week. Ross, are you hearing this right now? I am. You've already counted your money, haven't you?

No, I haven't, man. I'm a little nervous, but that's okay. That, my friends, was the final. Dr. Roto. Lock of the week. All right, Roto, working people find you. You could always find me at Twitter, D-R-R-O-T-O. You'd find me at Sports Illustrated, s.i.com, backslash fantasy, and at full-time fantasy.

M.T. and Ross, Merry Christmas. Happy New Year to you and yours. Dr. Roto, same to you. And expected great health, my friend, from you in 2020. I'm hoping, okay, my friend? We're thinking about you. I'm hoping for it, too. Thank you, I appreciate it.

Dr. Roto with us here. on a sports talk 790 always a great visitor to the show we look forward to having him with us in the fall yeah is the mac thomas show here we go at the second hour the mac thomas show on a sports rb birthday for all he wants for his birthday is a big day from james winston look you can you would accept 400 yards passing four touchdowns in a houston 4745 win. Is that accurate? I would accept that. I would accept

47-45 Buccaneers win. I'm not really a big Texans fan. I root for them. I do. But I don't live and die by the results of Texans games. You and I are kind of in the same boat. And we welcome you here. We've got the rotten five coming up at 150 today. 45 minutes away from Ross telling us who the five worst teams are in the NFL.

It takes zero skill to give you the best five. I mean, listen to every jabrani that does, hey, give me it next. at a radio show, we're going to give you the five best teams of the NFL. Oh, thanks, genius. That's got to be really entertaining. I'm more entertained by the soundbites that Ross plays with the five worst teams in the NFL. But that's just me.

Thank you, Matt. So here we go. You don't have great memories of the Oilers. I do have some, yeah. Some, but not a lot. I mean, you don't have, like, a decade's full. No, I mean, I remember the Buffalo game. I remember really that being a gut punch.

You know, I also remember my dad screaming at the TV. and the Oilers defense on that one. I have Oilers from, say, 79 to the day they went away for good. Like, George's last game and Steve McNair and all that. But they were my first love. They were my young love. And then they left. And, you know, I had a couple of quick rebound girls in the Titans and the Cowboys,

but they just nothing stuck. And so now it's just, you know, I'm content to live alone. So what are we going to do, you and I? Because there's this girl named the Texans that sort of is interesting. in us. Yeah. Every time I ask her out, she says she's busy. She says, like, yeah, we'll go out, but I can't do it this and this and this and this.

And then I've heard from other friends that sometimes going out with this girl, meaning, i.e. the Texans, that it's a really good time and that you go and you really, you know, it's a good date. Everybody's hugging. There's kissing. There's good wine. there's good conversation. And then other times you go on the day, and I'm talking about Kansas City Victory,

I'm talking about New England Victory. Frankly, last week against Tennessee. That's the good day, right? And then sometimes, Ross, you go out with this girl who you've been chasing after, and you go out with her, and it's Denver. It's Carolina. She doesn't want to talk.

She's on her phone the whole time. She can't figure out where she wants to go eat. She won't tell you what kind of movie she likes. So, why? are we so interested if this girl is just so inconsistent with us you know what's funny matt you know because uh kyle bran on good morning football brought up uh basically saying that how he had dated the texans before would you like to hear that audio i would love to here you go how about uh let's go with this just consistency k i want to like them i like flirting with the texas i do they're

fun to flirt with i i've dated the texans before like i think we all have um it's just too wild and You go back over the thing, it's like, okay, so they beat the Chiefs. Yeah, she does karaoke and not likes her mix-a-lot. Like, cool karaoke, but then they lose to the Colts. She's got kind of a weird laugh. Then they beat the Jags in London. Meads a big deal in the AFC South. She loves margaritas, that's it.

But then they lose to the Ravens really badly, and you find her checking your email. I don't know if I can do that. They beat the Patriots. She got a great family, great family. But then they lose the Broncos. She has 12 cats. It's up and down. And then they beat the Titans.

It's like she got me this incredible Christmas present, and I'm back. It sounds like a lot of fun. But I just can't put a ring on the finger. You know what I'm saying? I can't. It's too wild. I'm 40. I can't do it. There you go.

What do you think about that, Matt? I think that's, and you would say, Matt, you're a bit stealing, but I never watch NFL network except for games. Well, I only saw that on Twitter. I don't watch it either. But that's outstanding. Right. Because he actually's dating her.

I'm trying to figure out whether or not we should date her. Uh-huh. So here's a question I would not normally ask on the radio. Oh, boy. Would you like to? to date the Texans. I never thought I would ever phrase it that way. I mean, sometimes you know, you're a little older.

You're getting longer in the tooth and you just got to settle, Matt. Maybe I would just settle with the Texans if I had to. Does 53-year-old guy date young Texans because she's young? So we can tell all his buddies? No, this analogy is not working. Does 38-year-old Texan date the Texans because 38-year-old hasn't dated much? and is quote unquote socially awkward and mom keeps asking them for

grandchildren does 30 soon to be no not soon to be his 35 year old birthday boy date the Texans because you know it's time for him to settle down I'll pass I'm young I would like to ask the question

that no other radio show in the marketplace is asking would you like to date the Texans because man, I think the highs on a date would be really good, right? Because look, Deshaun Watson is when he is in his comfort zone and he's thrown those 35-year-five-year-yard bowl, you know, those little passes to DeAndre Hopkins, he's running the run-pass option, he's scrambling, he's avoiding being sacked, he's keeping plays alive, Ross. That's really good, you know what I mean?

That's satisfying. Deshawn Watson you said? Yeah. Deshawn Watson. Going to be a great NFL player watch. Where's Deshawn? Hey, fellas, is he that good? Tell me, you better believe it.

He's going to be fantastic. Our show can't go 40 minutes without at least one Trump soundbite. And that's something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do. Okay. So then, Ross, we just gave you the best of dating this girl. Yeah, right. Deshaun is escaping five to five. defenders, he turns a 15-yard second to a 41-yard completion.

And now we're going to give you the worst. We're going to give you bad play calling Bill, controversial plays in the red area, not red zone. He calls it red area. Yeah, that's weird. The red area sounds like something you need to get checked out. Well, it's something that you'd like penicill in defense. Right. That's what I'm saying.

Are you feeling okay? Yeah, my red area is not great. Here, take a couple of these bills. I get tested for your red area. It's true. Brian. Okay. It's Kimey Fairbear.

pricing an extra point. Oh, geez. It's Jonathan Joseph being five yards behind coverage. Laramie Tunsell offside. I mean, it's false start. It's Justin Reed, you know, using his shoulder, get himself injured again, you know, while trying to attempt to tackle. I really don't want to hear any BS about clock management. I really don't want to hear it this week.

Okay. That's the bad date, right? That's the one that's like, I can't marry this girl. The sex isn't that good. It's usually in London. I need to do better. But this is the thing, Matt. As Chris Rock once said, a man is only as faithful as his options.

So, I mean, what are your other options? It's not going to the Cowboys. I'll be damned if I'm letting you become a Cowboys. That's what I'm saying. Your other options are your crazy neighbor, the Cowboys, or celibacy. And by the way, New Orleans is not an acceptable option. Yeah, you'd have to pick up and move for her. And you might get a disease there.

Yeah, but she's a really good. cook. The food would be good. Yeah, but they'll be vomit on the streets. Well, welcome to bourbon. I don't have the patience to jack with you today. Yeah, you don't want to deal with the crazy girl that lives up north. Get your damn act together. All right, thank you, Jerry. So here's the question. Are you prepared to date the Texans in good times and bad, or are you willing to pick up and go somewhere very far away to root for something else. Because the options within five hours of Houston are rather limited. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. We just took a segment on the Texans getting ready for the Buccaneers and turned it into an addition of what's that crazy show that's on Bravo now that used to be on Blind Date. That's what we did. I used to love watching Blind Date back in the day. No, it's back. You know it's back now. What was that guy's name?

Roger Lodge or something? Yeah, yeah. He doesn't host the show anymore. Is he doing okay? Yeah, he does. I think he does sports radio out here. Does he? I like for the Angel Station.

Didn't he, wasn't he, sick or something? Was he okay? We're all sick at some point, Ross. Would you recuperate? Battling a cold for three weeks. I sound great today. Yeah, you have been sickly as of like, get some vitamin C, young man.

You know what it is? It's the weather changes is what it is. Now I'm here in warm Southern California, so I'm very happy. The Most Awful. Nooner you'll ever be a part of. This is the Matt Thomas Show. Time is 119. It is the Matt Thomas show here from Los Angeles. Ross, I'm going, Craig Ackerman and I are going to lunch with Greg Tooey from the Colin Coward

show after the show today. I'm going to try straighten out Collins' hot bacon he takes. Really? Yeah. My favorite probably is the Rockets aren't going to make the playoffs. How is it? think he's feeling about that one? I don't think he's even thought one second about it.

Yeah, you're right. I think the national people, when they say the hot bacon he takes, they don't write them down and say, man, I hope I get this one right. Garbage in, garbage out. Well, the thing of it is is that when we make hot bacony takes on the show, we tease each other about them religiously. Yeah. When we get them wrong.

That's part of the charm of, you know, Houston's number 19 most popular radio show. Let's see. What was the, what was like the hot most bacony take from you recently, man? I can't even... Um... That's a great question. What's a hot bake? I think probably I would have said no chance, no way, know how the Astros aren't one of the World Series.

Usually every year you saying that the University of Houston Cougars are going to go undefeated is pretty funny. Not only do they not go undefeated, they get wins taken away. Well, the problem is in those games, there was horrific. Of course, if we had gotten better officiating. My friend Ben Dubos would back me up on that. Better officiating means more victories. True. What is hot?

Yeah, the hot baking take would be, for me, Astros aren't losing a World Series, which didn't work out particularly well. Got close, game seven. But we don't do a lot of that. In your case, I don't, I mean, I don't know if it was anything about Texas, one of the big 12. I don't think you said that. No, I wouldn't get crazy. I mean, let's not get nuts on that.

I mean, I'm dumb, but I'm not that dumb. Yeah, I got one for you. I was just checking my Nostorongus file. You said George Springer was going to get an extension. this year. Well, he will this off season. Yeah, he's going to. It didn't happen. You said it was going to happen during the year. Oh, okay. Well,

I stand corrected. I did tell you that Gary Cole wasn't coming back, but so everybody else did. Yeah, that was obvious. All right, let's go the phone. Yankee fan forever, as he says. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Chris, would you like to date the Houston Texans?

I have been dating the Houston Texans. Oh. Here's a thing. Houston Texas is the first football team ever followed. like the first girl that ever touched my weiner, I just married her, stick with their through it all. Now, the good thing is. Okay. Oh, there's a bad thing?

Okay. Go ahead. So when it's bad, there's just no love and going on. Then you beat the Patriots, you get to have the rage sex with her. Oh, well. You get all pumped up and it goes good. But she still doesn't. She still does it.

She still does it think for me. It's all good. So don't be neat. Don't date the first girl to touch your wiener. All right. And see. That was good. That worked out good.

Yeah, this is, once again, Matt, as is off to the case, you did this. No, that's fine. But there is a certain, there is a certain of, if you were born to it and you have been around it all your life, what else are you going to do? I mean, there are a number of people who marry the first girl they ever have. Yes. Yes. It happens. So that's, so honestly, I wouldn't have been nearly maybe as graphic as he might have was,

but I think there's a certain segment of that. If you're, like, for instance, if you're a traveling Texan and you have kids, those kids have got no shot of being anything but a Texan fan. Because mom and dad have been bumping around this country going to watch your team playing. They put the face mask on. They put the face paint on. They put heavy chains around them. My kid's mom's a Giants fan, unfortunately.

Your New York Football Giants? Your wife's a Giants fan? Mm-hmm. Like how big of a Giants fan? Like sort of big or like big time? Where's she from? Jersey City or something? No, she's originally from Missouri.

What the hell? Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. I mean, did she love like Phil Sims back in the day or what? No, I mean, when she got introduced to football with a group of friends, they were all Giants fans for some reason, and then she just locked on to that and stuck with it. Good honor for being a good fan, I guess. Yeah, again, I don't, I'm not asking y'all to go find another team because this is our team. right? How much fun is it to be a fan of the Seattle Seahawk? That would suck to be a fan

of a team a thousand miles away. And you can't, and Ross, you can't bandwagon. You can't become a Patriots fan or Chooks fan. Because bandwagon sucks. Banwagon smart. No, it's not. I'm raising bandwagon fan. Yeah, exactly. I'm not proud of that. Yeah, so I was going to make that point as well. It's one of my least accomplishments as a father is raising, hey, dad. This is young Cameron Thomas. Brett Farb is a Viking. I want a Viking jersey. Okay, son, go ahead. Hey, Tim Tebow's quarterback at the Broncos.

I'm going to buy him a jersey. Okay, go ahead. Uh-huh. That's on you, though, Matt. Oh, no question. Yeah, wasn't your son all in on Lonzo Ball being one of the guts? Still is. He thinks the Ball brothers are going to be magnificent the NBA.

All of them. Well, one of them is going to be a lottery pick. Yeah. La Angelou, Melo, whatever. Yeah, La Angelou or whatever. Yeah, I can't remember his name, but he's going to be a lottery pick this year. But he was talking about how Lonzo was like, one of the goats. Does he still have

big baller brand gear now that they're out of business? No, he took the L-O-M-R. Oh, that's a shame. Because the specialist's other companies out of business. I need to talk to him about. I need to talk to your young man about a lot of things. Well, are you going with us to Vegas when he turns 21? Am I invited? Absolutely. Oh, boy. Yeah.

You're going to chaperon. I told me that you bring three. We've been talking about this. So you're going to a sapphire or the Spearmint Rhino? Here's what we've been talking about. We've been talking about this for three or four years now. We're treasures. And I told him, I said, for your 21st birthday. I will fly you to Vegas and I will get you a room and you and three buddies can stay in that room.

And I will take care of food, drinks and whatever what I need to do to make sure you behave yourself. Let's not get crazy on this. So his rotation is always changing the three guys are going. His rotation or is rotation? Rotation. Not rotate. Rotation.

He's like, well, who you bring it? I's like, well, your mom doesn't like Vegas, so I'll bring Ross with me. Yes. So it's going to be in October. Me, this is October 20, 21. Okay. My mom's birthday is the 19th, so. Me, you, Cameron, and his three buddies celebrating his 21st birthday. Wow.

He should just have like, well, what if one of the buddies hooks up, like, four in a room is a little much? Are you buying two rooms? I probably will buy two rooms. Okay. Because, you know, I'm getting my own room. I'm not staying in his room. Yeah, the sock of the door situation. It could happen with one of the four.

I want them in a different way. I don't even want to know about that. Why not? Because I just don't. you don't want to be like hey you don't be the first one congratulations your son for getting a Vegas piece you should probably put him in a different hotel he'd appreciate that yeah that's true that's actually a bad colnic on your part put in a separate hotel yeah just you'd be across the street like put or you know kind of a general here's we'll do you and i will stay at

caesar's and we'll put him in like circus circus okay because my first Vegas trip I stayed at Excalibur so no no that's not true the tropicana I got sick at the Excalibur well how about that bally's in Paris are connected so how about one in ballet you put you put him in valleys and you'll be in Paris. Just a little nicer. Okay. I got you. We get a year and a half to figure this out. Or the Venetian and the Palazzo.

No. Palazio is Austin. No. He's at Harrah's high-end max. That's as high in as it goes. Harris is, hey, people downgrade Harris. It's cheap. It's a smack dab in the middle of the strip. I'm down with some Harris. Hey, you and I've been to Harris many times. Absolutely. They've refurbished the rooms as well. That's right. So how do we go from dating the Texans to my son's Vegas trip when he turns 21? I don't know.

God, this show moves in different directions. If Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her. Thanks, Donnie. That's actually my favorite one. No, you know what my favorite one is, how awesome Game 7 of the 2017 World Series was and how bad Donald was trying to pronounce Jeff Linneau's name. Game 7 of the World Series was one of the greatest baseball games

anybody has ever seen. That's just why. Jeff Lou now AJ you become very famous I have to tell you that was a great job of skippering Skippering I don't want a new

I don't want him out of office because that means less sound bites from him well they're already working on his 2024 campaign aren't they and that's something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do I dare you here's a challenge for

Why don't we do this? You get the rotten five coming up in 20 minutes, right? Nothing but Donald Trump's sound bites on your rotten five. I'm with it. I'll stop wasting them. Yeah, so no more. They've got to match the awfulness of the five worst teams according to sports RV.

All right, 713, 212-790. 7-1-2-790. Our time is 128. It is a Matt Thomas show here from Los Angeles. Rockets and Clippers, Ross, I'm going to throw an NBA question at you. We've kind of briefly discussed it, but we'll get a little bit further in it. You know, when you watch the Clippers, you still have Pat Beverly doing his thing.

You got Montres Harold doing his thing. You got Lou Williams. It's been just magnificent. If you could redo the Chris Paul trade of a three years ago and not make the deal and have those guys wearing your gear, would you do it? We'll discuss that next. 129 the Matt Thomas show Sports Talk 790. Hey, this is Gerald Green.

4-3! Yes! Listen to Sports Talk 790 at home on your smart speaker. Just ask. Alexa, play Sports Talk 790 on IHeart Radio. Get the game, then talk about it here. Sports Talk 790 is Houston's home for Rockets Basketball. To 133 on the Matt Thomas show coming to you today from Los Angeles, Ross and Nicker back at our studios. It's Ross's birthday.

So you all just calling him a little shout-out. It makes him feel good. Man's of incredible wealth, knowledge, thoughtful, provocative, and becoming a media legend right before us. And there's almost a 10,000 Twitter followers, Ross. So congratulations on that. I was a treading water there for a little bit.

We're gaining at Sports RV. Yeah. I mean, again, I'm looking for 20, 22, 23 when I get to 30,000. I'm just not pushing. It's not a big agenda. but give the gift of a follow. That's what Ross wants for his birthday. At Sports RV. And then, you know, the person's holding this party is me, so you can follow me too at SportsMT.

Okay. So Ross, every time the Rockets and Clippers play, there are irritants on the Clippers side that bug us. And they're former Houston Rockets, right? Yes. So we'll start with Pat Beverly, who is not much. much of a score. I think is a tinge overrated defensively. I mean, gives full thrall

effort. Love the guy. He loves my wife, and that's neither here nor there. But I'm just a Pat Beverly guy. But he is he's just level replacement, right? There's nothing extraordinary about Pat Beverly's game at this point in his career. And on top of the fact he gets hurt quite a bit,

maybe he isn't a guy that you can rely on for 75 games a year. Would that be fair to say? Yes. That would be fair to say. Okay. Montrez-Harrell is playing out of his mind and has done so since wearing a clipper jersey. In fact, he's going to really, I think he's going to be a free agent this year. He's really going to get paid if he decides to go somewhere else. He's 6-7, but Rossi, he plays way taller than 6-7.

Good rim protector. Block shots. His outside game has gotten better. He still dunks like a mother. Free throws are okay. but a perfect off the bench low post threat. Could you imagine having Montres Harold backing up Clint Capella on this basketball team? I think that would be very nice, yes.

Okay. Then you got old Lou Williams. Lou, I almost went to the Wade Bailey. Lou Williams. Say sweet Lou Williams. Sweet Lou Williams and I could be playing. We could play cards until 4 o'clock in the morning. And I'd say, Sweet Lou, I'm glad we're spending some time together.

We never played cards with each other because he plays at a higher level than I do. Yeah, I don't think he can afford getting into his game. I don't think Sweet Lou even knows who I am. But that's not here, no. That's okay. He was here just a short period of time. Sweet Lou, all Sweet Lou does is score 20 points a game. Now, he'll chuck it up like a mutter.

Yes. There isn't a spot on the floor that he doesn't want to shoot a long-range shot. But Sweet Lou has been doing this for a long period of time, one of the best six men, multiple time winner, if I'm not mistaken, and just has been able to carve out a nice NBA career with that. Plus, at one point, he was married to two women at the same time, or at least allegedly, right? Well, they were both his girl. Were they married? No, they were both his married?

That would be frankly illegal. Yeah, they're not in Utah. But he was, he had two women in his house and they didn't have a problem with it. Yeah, they're all friends. Is that still happening? Well, Charlie Sheen and him and probably some others. I would say 1% of our audience has two women in their house at one time. Maybe less than 1%, but that's not here nor there.

Okay. So, Ross, I'm going to give you a trade. And I want you to tell me if you want to do this. Would you like to trade, Lou Williams, would you like to trade Pat Beverly, Sam Decker, and a 2018 first round pick for Chris Paul? I say yes I mean because those I mean

the Rockets should have won the championship in what? 17 was it? 17 they went to game 7 no 6 no 7 or Chris Paul they should have won that I'm gonna I'm gonna that's that one's gonna hurt for a while until until or if the Rockets win one in the James Hardin era

I'm gonna be thinking about that one how he went down with that hamstring injury and they were just one win away from getting over the hump of one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history. Especially because didn't 16 end with James having

that terrible game against San Antonio? Yes, it did. Thanks for bringing that up too. I remember doing the postgame show of that one until like 1 a.m. people angry. When you have a loss that is so pronounced like that one, it's almost like you've got to shake things up.

There's something has got to be something dramatic that has to happen. Right. That's the thing. So, James Hardin needed a Robin or if you want to say they're I don't know Superman and Batman together I don't care what you want to say he needed a 1A to his one and that wasn't there and that's what you went for with Chris Paul I'm totally okay with the with the

trade and Montres Herald's a nice piece and so as Lou Williams is a little bit of a gunner he's I think I like watching Lou Williams play more than I like watching him play for the Rockets if that makes sense because you're only seeing the best of him unfortunately Kind of the way I felt like Russell and Westbrook before he came here. But, hey, let me tell you, Russ is playing really good as of late, really, really good. Okay, I'm just saying it can be a little frustrating sometimes.

It's easier when he's not on your team. Okay. So I'm going to answer the question. I'm going to go with I would have still made the trade. Because I think you needed something. First of all, Chris Paul, up until the back half of last year, was the Chris Paul that we had seen in both New Orleans and Los Angeles. There was a drop-off in his play back half of the year. I think James lost some

confidence in having his Robin. I think that's where some of the chemistry issues started to come into play because I just think the trust factor wasn't there. But that entire season, despite the fact he got hurt, because Chris, even in his head, A Ross, was the guy was getting hurt every year. That was just, it was death taxes and Chris was going to miss four or five games for some reason. That's just who he was. But when he wanted to takeover games, when James was struggling in the playoffs, he could do that. And he damn well almost did with the Texans, or with the Rockets playing the Golden State Orgas in the Western Conference Finals.

So I will say that even though we can recreate history, in this particular case, I am not going to do so. And the main reason why is because Chris, when healthy, made this a better basketball team. Secondly, the Rockets haven't used drive picks in forever. And frankly, most drive picks between, say, 22 and 30 don't pan out. are some that do, but most of them do not. They want up in the G League or not even playing in rotational minutes. And then lastly, you needed to do something to get the stench of that San Antonio

series off of your jerseys. You know what I mean? And that's why I think it's too easy to say, oh, look what Montrez is doing now. Look at how Pat Beverly is thriving in Los Angeles. Look what's going on right now with Lou Williams. That could all be the Rockets. I still think at the end of the day you make the move. I completely agree with you.

It's something had to be done. Something was done. It didn't work out as far as, I mean, championship, but you won 65 games. You were this close to winning a championship. Those are, that was one of the great rocket teams that I always remember. It's just unfortunately, unfortunately, kind of almost like what the Astros did this year, as far as possibly arguably one of the greatest teams in the franchise's history. They just didn't get it done.

And that was also a 65-win team, right? Yep. 65-win team, first and offense. sixth, I think, in defense. Just a great all-around team. You had the one-two punch of Chris Paul and James Hardin. Click Cappella was playing well. I mean, it was just a really good role.

Trevor Reeson, filling his role. Yeah, it was really Clint's biggest move up the NBA. And by the way, wasn't Eric Gordon's sixth man the year that year, too? I think so. I don't mean a meshing season together, but that's just what I'm thinking it is on that. Yeah, that was a really, really good. Maybe Eric won the year before that. I'm not completely sure.

But point being is that that might have been, what, the fourth greatest team ever for the Rockets? I mean, you think the two championships, the 86 team with Dream and Samson, and then maybe that one there? Although that team won more games than anybody else did. So I don't know. I just, it does, when you play the Clippers, it does, because you're so much Houston ties to it, you do think about whether or not the Rockets were better off doing it. 713-212-5-7-90.

That's how you reach our show today. 713-212-5-790 Ross is going to give you the rotten five next and it's going to include nothing but Trump sound bites It's probably going to anger some of you It should frankly make you laugh no matter what Because I cannot wait to see how they mesh Trump sound bites into the five worst teams of the NFL

Because we don't talk politics That makes it part of the radio program They've gone bad Hey, they draw flies Ooh, it's Ross is rocked in five. This don't smell quite right. Oh, yeah. Remember, when a radio host says,

hey, I'm coming back to tell you who our five best teams are. You're like, okay, lazy MF, let's go. No, you don't want to listen to that. You want to find out who the five worst teams are. That takes time, preparation, analysis, and sound bites. I present to you, the birthday boy. Thank you, Matthew. you. I appreciate you giving me this opportunity to get some rotten five going and let's go ahead

and get it started off with the New York football giants. Eli Manning got a hero's welcome as he yet again started a game at home in the Meadowlands. And yet again, he let down the home fans as he threw a number of interceptions. Of course, they did get the win though because they were going up against the Miami Dolphins who are just not a good team at all, and you might see them later on this list. And Eli Manning will get a chance to start at home again later in the season, as long as Daniel Jones doesn't come back. But Eli Manning is terrible.

The New York Giants are worse. Hopefully, Sequin Barclay scores a lot of points for my fantasy championship. But right now, the New York Football Giants, the fifth worst team in the NFL. You are the best. I know, I know. All right, let's move it on to a new team here on the list. The Detroit Lions, they've scratched and clawed their way onto this list. Now that they've lost 10 of their last 11 games, including the last seven in a row.

Matthew Stafford has been shut down for the season, and David Blah, I think that's what his name. Blow, whatever his name is, hasn't exactly been. D-L-O-U-G-H. He's more like, I'm calling him David Blah, because that's what he's been on the field for the Lions, as they are now 3, 10, and 1 on this season. apparently Matt Patricia isn't going to be fired by the Lions, but look for him to be on one of the hottest seats in the entire NFL as we go into next season. But as of right now, the Detroit Lions are the fourth worst team in the NFL.

We have some bad hombres here, and we're going to get them out. All right, thank you, Donnie. Let's move it along here on the list. Much like the story of Icarus, Miami Dolphins, they flew too close to the sun when they reached all the way to number five on this list. They fell back to third this week as they got trounced by Eli Manning and the New York Giants. They should be happy that they got as many as three wins of this season because look at this. They're 29th in offense.

Their 30th in defense and their minus 12 turnover ratio is also 29th in the entire NFL. So for you to scratch out three wins, kind of impressive honestly by the Dolphins. So good for them. They are the third worst team in the NFL. It's going down to tubers. All right, thank you. Let's go next now to the Washington Redskins. They've gotten really close to winning their last couple of games,

losing heartbreakers to the Eagles and Packers the last couple of weeks, but there are no moral victories here on the Rotten 5. A bright spot has been Adrian Peterson, who still looks spry at 34, and is now tied for fourth on the all-time rushing touchdown list with Walter Payton. so good for him, but Dwayne Haskins has just been inconsistent. They've had injury issues and all that type of stuff going on. They do have a winnable game against the New York Giants this weekend. But as of right now, they are the second worst team in the NFL.

I think it's a disgrace. And last but not least, it was an impressive showing this weekend by the Red Rifle as Andy Dalton managed to throw three interceptions within eight passing attempts. I mean, it's hard to do that even if you tried. He also had four interceptions. overall. It doesn't seem to matter who the quarterback of the Bingles is. They just keep on losing and don't think A.J. Green hasn't noticed as he now shut it down for the season as he awaits free agency. The Cincinnati Bingles' long national nightmare is nearly over. They're one loss

away from clinching the overall number one pick. And they are the absolute worst team in the NFL. If Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her. That doesn't really have anything to do with Nothing to do with it at all. It's just my favorite one. Nah. Yeah, I'm telling you, I think Nick's got to do a better job in 2020 if we're going to use these sound bites to get some fresh ones because I feel like there's going to be a nude badge every day.

Well, we could probably, I mean, look, honestly, all these ones that we had, I made them over the course of like two weeks. Like, that man is a drop machine, which I really appreciate, if he wants to be president for four more years, so that I can get four more years of great drops on this show, I'm okay with that. I don't remember President Obama being the soundbite machine. You know what I mean?

That's why we need four more years of this because we'll have four more years of bits. Right. I don't think Joe Biden's going to give us great sound bites. No. I'm thinking about the show. No, Joe Biden can probably provide us with some good stuff. That man is off his rocker. Yeah, he's just really old.

And I approve this message. I absolutely want Joe Biden to win the Democratic nominee. because think of how great those debates are going to be. Both of those men flying off the handle, interrupting each other, forgetting what they're talking about in the middle of their sentences, and just overall being crude and rude, I would love. That would be like a movie. Like if you were to do a movie about,

there was a movie about an election, wasn't there with John Travolta? Somebody with it? There's been a number of movies about elections. There was that one where it wasn't there that one where Kevin Costner had like the vote that was going to decide the entire election, which is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. stupidest thing I've ever heard. But I think there was one about Will Ferrell.

There was a farce of an election involving two candidates. The Manchurian candidate? No, no, no. Hmm. With who was in it? John Travolta. It was just an over-the-top political movie. Oh, John Travolta?

Yeah, maybe I'm thinking of the wrong. Oh, Battlefield Earth. That's not it. Oh. That's about Scientology. Oh, Urban Cowboys. Urban Cowboy. No, no, that was about Sissy Spacing and Bubba.

Oh, not Bubba. Primary colors? That was it. That's supposed to be about... But he was kind of like Bill Clinton, right? Yeah, I just think there was something going on. Speaking of impeachments. Yeah, no kidding.

It's like a chess player, Grandmaster, playing against a checker's child. Ross, we're alive, we've been alive for two of the three presidents that have been impeached. Yes. Not a lot of us alive for the old leader. Yeah, I don't think so. My favorite part of that chess one is the guy just randomly screaming about how funny that is at the end. It's like a chess player, grandmaster, playing against a checker's child. Ah!

I love that part of that one. Like, why is that guy screaming like that? Leave Tom Brady alone. Yeah, we need four more years of this. Yeah, no question. I don't care what your political affiliation is. I don't care if you think he cheated or not. I care about the show.

I care about 12 to 3. And sound bites from Joe. Joe might be all right, but Bernie Sanders might give us some sound bites, too. Not as good as nobody's going to be as good as Donnie T. I think it's a disgrace. You are a rude, terrible person. Are you ready to go to Tampa Bay, Ross? Sure.

Let's go to Tampa next. I can't wait. Yeah. We will get a Buccaneer. perspective on things going on with them. They got two games left to go. They got a chance for a winning season. Now, they've got no chance of the playoffs, but do they want to be the team that precludes

the Texans from winning the AFC South for one additional week? Yeah. Is the Matt Thomas Show. Time is 201. It is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. I'm here in Los Angeles. For tonight, the Rockets will be taking on the. Los Angeles Clippers.

Ross, we got a good devil-headed tonight on the old network. Of course, everybody will be listening to radio from I call the Rockets Clippers, but you'll watch the TV of the Bucks and the Lakers. Of course. Those two teams have a combined six losses between the two of them?

They're both 24 and 4, I believe. Okay, so that makes it my view of H math kicks in at 8. Yeah, maybe you should have somebody to take your math test for you. That's too soon. And rude. I'm only going to bring it up for the next decade.

At any point when you stop bringing it up? I won't bring it up at your funeral. Oh, really? So the only time you're not going to take a subtle jab at my school being one of the, I guess apparently the only school in America that doesn't, that has kids have exams taken for them or writes papers. We're the only one. No one ever been caught.

Go ahead. Use your Astro fan defense. That makes it okay. No, I'm saying. is that I'm just stunned that in the history of athletics, that the University of Houston is the only school that's had one kid write a paper for a couple of kids. The cheaters.

Oh, man, it's a little dusty in here. Sorry. You better hope Texas behave itself. Vacated wins. I'm sorry. Hold on. Who cares if they vacated wins? Yeah, it's true.

I remember every one of those wins. They were like five and eight that season anyways, right? Or 85? Yeah. I frankly remember all the losses, too, like when we couldn't stop Navy or Army. Those still count, luckily. I wish we could have played the Coast Guard. That would have been a lot better.

Why wouldn't the Citadel available that year? Hmm. Air Force. Probably on next year's schedule. You know, next year schedule is going to be good. BYU and Washington State. Wow, Cougars versus Cougars. Yep.

Wow. It's like a scrap at a Woodlands wine bar. Twice. Cougars, BYU, Cougars, Washington State Cougars. Wow. All right. your college football preview for next year, brought to you by our friends of the Joint Chiropractor,

the official chiropractor of the Houston Cougars. All right, are we ready to go to Tampa Bay? You know what I want to do? I want to ask our next guest if he can do anything to make this happen. The greatest uniforms, Ross, and you and I argue about this all the time. Oh, the crimsicles? The crimsicle swashbuckler Tampa Bay uniform. And you know how much I love the Houston teams,

the rainbows, the rockets. The greatest uniform in the... the history of uniforms is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers uniforms from, say, 76 to what? I don't know, 2000, 2001, somewhere in that range. I'm going to ask Tom Cresnicki of WDA, our sister station in Tampa, if he agrees with me. Tom, first of all, thanks for joining the show. Secondly, do you miss the swashbucklers? Hey, Matt, how are you?

Yes, you know, it's funny you mentioned the uniforms because this morning on our show, We were talking about, you know, the top three things that Santa Claus could bring to our local teams here. And I'm telling you, truth be told, I said new uniforms for the Buccaneers, the Creamsicle uniforms. The greatest in the history. With John McKay wearing, and this is for those of you that are really old school, John McKay was former USC coach, first coach of the Buccaneers. This is when Doug Williams is playing. He would wear a white boating hat with the orange pants and the white shirt. was the goat of everything.

So I was a kid loving the Buccaneers back in the day. I was telling you, I would leave my allegiance for all Houston teams if the Bucks changed things. But now on the more important things, Tom. And Tom's with our sister station, WDAE, in Tampa Bay. Tom, who is James Winston going to throw two this Saturday? I don't know. I think I might suit up and, you know, outside a wide receiver. I think I might be a red zone target.

Look, that's a great question because Mike Evans and Chris Godwin are both out. as we know at hamstring injury. Scotty Miller, a rookie, a speedster, a guy that was coming on a little bit over the last couple of weeks. He's out. I think Rashad Paramond, who caught three touchdowns last week, is going to be their wide receiver one with Justin Watson, another young guy on the other side.

And I think he's going to see a lot of Cameron, Braden and O.J. Howard. They're two receiving tight ends. Both guys can catch the ball well. So I think those will be his top four receivers on Saturday. Okay, so, and that makes sense because, look, he threw for $4.50 in back-to-back weeks. He's not just throwing it to one. one guy every single play. So there has been some, there's obviously a depth chart with guys are getting involved in things. So this 450 has been a big deal around the NFL the last two weeks.

How much of it is stat padding or how much it is? My God, James Winston is playing out of his mind right now. I think it's more the latter, Matt, to be quite honest with you. Look, James has always had the talent. He can make every single throw. The problem is he knows that. And he thinks he can do it whenever he wants, and that's when he kind of gets into trouble with some bad decision-making and interceptions on first drives. He's done that five times this year where he's thrown an interception on the first drive, and it's usually like his first or second pass attempt. But I give James a lot of credit because he has tunnel vision.

He forgets about it quickly, and then he gets on with his day. You know, Bruce Arian said when he got the job, he said, look, you're allowed to throw one interception. And as we know from James Winston, he has thrown a lot of. interception since he came into the league, but he usually gets it out of the way, and then he gets it out of the system, and then he goes on, and he throws the ball all over the yard, and he can make throws that not a lot of guys can't make. Tom Cresdenicki, joining us from WDA, our sister station in the Tampa-St. Pete area. Tom, is he doing, is James doing enough to get a new contract for the Bucks next year?

I think so, and I think the big question here is, how big of a contract is it going to be? I think you'll be back for next year. Is it going to be a shorter-term deal? I doubt it'll be a long-term deal because, again, the turnovers are a big factor. The number one reason why you lose in this league, man, as you know, is the turnover margin. When they beat the Colts two weeks ago, the Bucks turned there over four times. The Colts turned it over once, and they found the way to win that game. That's the aberration.

That's not the norm. So James realizes it, I guess, so does Bruce Derry. And so they're going to try and work with them. the previous coaches worked with James trying to get those turnovers out of his system. I just think this is who he is. I think the Buccaneers are cognizant of that. And they look at James Winston as a high-risk, high-reward type of guy.

So I would expect them maybe to place the franchise tag on either James or Shack Barrett, not letting that guy get away, and probably a one-to-two-year deal somewhere in that range. 7-and-7 is the mark for the Buccaneers. And Tal will be honest with that we don't follow the Bucks very. often so I want to ask you because you are part of their broadcast and I was talking about them every day is this a team is just getting better or has this been a team that underachieve in the first half of the year and has been able to kind of realize who they are towards the back half of the years they try to fight for a winning season I think they're getting better because

you look at this team and they're the second youngest team in football this secondary is very young they're relying a lot of rookies and Sean Murphy bunting and also Jamel dean and, you know, Carlton Davis is a younger guy in the second year. So they've got some young guys in that second there that are trying to grow with this team. Jason Pierre, Paul was injured for the first six or seven weeks of the season. Then he came back. Then he's made a big difference both on the field and in the locker room as a leader. And the offensive line has had good weeks and bad weeks, just like James Winston.

So I think they're getting better. The young guys are starting to perform and you're starting to see a team that's maybe realizing their potential. So how much is there to play for this week? First of all, I wanted to tell you, I saw the real sports story about Bruce Ariens and his return to Tampa Bay and the fact that he's such diverse coaching staffs, giving some guys some opportunities. I'm going to assume he's pretty well regarded there and the future is bright, or are there some people that are believing that, okay, this is Bruce's last get-go,

he's going to make a little bit of money, and there'll be a new coach in Tampa in a couple of years. What's the general sense of the long-term future of the Buccaneer organization? I think Bruce is probably going to give this maybe two to three years, and he's going to groom someone like Todd Bowles or Byron Leffich to take over, and then he'll probably right off into the sunset, or they might kick him upstairs and give him some fancy title within the Buckney organization because he's pushing 70 years old. And yes, health has been a factor. And the Bucks vetted him completely when it comes to his medical. So far, so good with him, you know, knock on wood. but I would be surprised if I saw Bruce Ariens on the sidelines more than three years with the bucks. All right, so after this week and looking for the future,

the Saints obviously have been the dominant team in the NFC South. Atlanta's coming up and down. When will the Buccaneers? What do the Buccaneers have to do ultimately to be a legitimate NFC South contender in the future years? Well, look, they've got a lot of decisions to make in the off-season. and they have a ton of expiring contracts, especially in their front seven as well as the quarterback. So they've got to make a decision on James Winston.

They've got to make a decision on Shaq Barrett, who leads the NFL in fact. He's got 16 and a half, so he's going to want a hell of a lot more money than he's making right now. Carl Nassad, Jason Pierre Paul, and Domican Su. So I think they're going to spend a lot of time trying to resign. And then when they go outside of their organization,

I think offensive lines, specifically offensive tackle is a big need for this team, as well as running back. This team can't run the football, and they're stable of running backs turned over as well. So offensive tackle, the questions about the quarterback and residing some of their own guys, those are some of the decisions that the Buccaneers are facing. And last question for you, Tom, what is your gut feel for you? Because the Texans have been so schizophrenic that I don't know what team we're getting week-to-week, case in point losing it home to Denver and then going to Tennessee and winning the game last week.

everything right now is pushing for the Texans to finish off, win the division, and maybe rest some starters next week. But like I said, when you talk about a schizophrenic team like we do here in Houston, we don't know. So you having seen the Buccaneers in recent weeks, how close of a competitive game will this be on Saturday afternoon? I think it'll be close. I think the Bucks are playing with a lot of confidence at this point, especially offensively.

They're a pass-first team, and James right now is very hot. coming off two monster games. However, I don't think they have the firepower to match up with Deshaun Watson and DeAndre Hopkins. And when Will Fuller is healthy, he's about as good as there is, you know, and stretching the field in this league along with Kenny Stills, who's dad, by the way, lives here in the Tampa Bay Area. I met him the first time a few weeks ago. But I like the Texans because I just don't think the Bucks have enough firepower to keep up.

We'll leave it up. Tom, thank you very much for the time. We really appreciate it. and enjoy the broadcast and game on Saturday. We'll visit again down the road. Thanks again for the time. My pleasure, Matt. Have a happy holiday, my man.

Same to you. Same to you and the family in Florida. That's Tom Cresdenis. He does a really nice job on the Buccaneers. There's a morning show on our sister station, WDAA, in the Tampa St. Pete area and a part of their extended Tampa Bay. Buccaneers pre-and-post game show. It's always nice to catch up with somebody out of the marketplace.

Rossie, it's time for us to do our non-Florida stories of the week. Ross, mine comes from San Antonio. Antonio, where does yours come from? Indeterminate. We've had two hours and 12 minutes while on air to find this story. I'm very busy working on, believe it or not, and Rod in 5. So you're kind of fell behind. Thanking people on Twitter for birthday wishes.

So you're going last thing. Any gifts yet? Any gifts? Yes. Not GIFs, like GIFT.S. Oh, wait, no. No. Gifts.

Birthday wishes. I don't have any presents. Any DMs? No. All right. Nick, where's your story from? The Great State of Missouri. Okay.

This is James Arden. It goes to hard. Three to shoot. Jacks up a three hits. This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk, 7-90. Are you kidding? You know, Ross, I feel bad. I ran in, I rode up the elevator with Russell Westbrook,

and I didn't have him wish you a happy birthday. That would have been very nice. That's okay, man. I'm not that too wrapped up in birthday. Have a nice dinner tonight and move on. We're on to 36. I'm going Bill Belich. 35. I remember when you were just a kid.

Many moons go, Matt. And as I said, that just means you're older, too. Thanks. All right. Time for us to give you the best of the non-Florida stories. Wonderful. Yeah, here's what we do. Every radio show again does a show where they give, hey, this happened in Gainesville. This happened in Orlando. That's just too damn easy. So we take every country in the world and, 49 of the 50 states, and we can find an odd story about it. And we ask you guys to judge who has the best non-Florida stories. If you'd like to do that, get on board right now. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-790. Listen and tell us who has the best non-Florida story. Now, I never win this game, so I'm going to go first. And I'm going to start with a story out of San Antonio. Ross, I do not endorse stealing items, ransacking, robbery. That's not what I do. My story is a robbery story too, but go ahead. But if I was going to do it, I would give you a couple of guidelines.

First of all, I wouldn't make a lot of noise. Secondly, I would be quick. I wouldn't spend a lot of time just grab and go. And then ultimately, I would also be very, concerned about what I was wearing. In San Antonio, a 26-year-old man was caught breaking into two houses. Patrick Deshawn Freeman was arrested on burglary charges after allegedly stealing $2,300 worth of electronics from a Westside home on July the 31st. Police discovered he had hit several houses in the area and he was caught after security footage captured him,

looking into the front homes, looking into the front of homes in his work uniform. His work, Ross, a cook at the International House of Pancakes. Name tag on that one? So let's just put this in perspective. What he did was he went and robbed houses still wearing his IHop uniform. I don't know if his spatula was in his pocket or not. Right. But.

Was it a fruity-to-to-D, Russian, fresh and robbery? Fresh and, but my point is, again, Ross, if you're going to do this, change your uniform. Yeah. So, IHop Bandit,

you were unsuccessful in San Antonio. What's that? They arrested him? Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, I was hoping they hadn't arrested him yet because maybe he's actually a criminal genius and he just put an I-Hop uniform on.

It doesn't work an I-Hop, and then when Rob's and put him up. That'd be smart. You can go to Goodwill and buy some kind of weird uniform or something and then just put that on. Well, Matt, I guess I'll follow that since I have a robbery story as well. Are you done? I'm done. Okay.

You know, Matt, as you said, you don't want any way to be identified if you're going to rob people, correct? Yes. Well, one man in Riverside, California, unfortunately did not heed that advice. On Thursday, December 5th, at the Festival of Lights in downtown Riverside, California, around 1115. 11.50 p.m. A suspect approached a caricature artist and asked for a portrait of himself.

The artist agreed and created a caricature of this suspect. Once the artist was finished, the suspect grabbed the money bag that belonged to the artist and fled on foot. Unfortunately for him,

there obviously was a picture of exactly what a caricature of exactly what he looked like. It's a young African-American male in his early 20s, about 5 foot one tall with an average billed, black hair, and a mustache, last seeing wearing a blue and red jacket

with a white undershirt black pants and a red hat. Is the character of him like roller skating away with a money bag? No, it's just a picture of his face. So obviously, the police have a reference with which to identify this young man who apparently fled with about $500 in cash from the caricature artists at the Festival of Lights.

So he's, that's where he's going to go to go steal? That's where he's going to? Yes, the Festival of Lights. And that's what it said. The picture of the caricature is funny. It says like Festival of Lights 2019 on it, and it's just a picture of the guy. He doesn't have a look on his face like he's about to rob you, but he did.

All right. So we have two robbery stories. We have IHop Robber. Yes. And caricature robber, right? You're just a bad person if you do that, right? Bad! But how about the caricature artist making $500?

You ever had a caricature of yourself? Yeah, I mean, when I was like a kid, I think, at Astro World? Asterold, yeah, you had to do it at Asterold, but no other... I've never done it as an adult. Right. I don't think I want to. Although I'm a good-looking man. I should probably do it.

Thinner. Okay. All right, Nick, you're up. All right, I will bring up the rear with my story. Oh, this is going to be awful. We're going to go to Missouri, Kirksville, Missouri, to be exact. A church leader, he is an elder at the Kirksville Church of Christ,

and also a professor at Truman State University. What is his name, Mr. Pointer? He was actually accused by a Truman State University student of Breaston. the law and the police decided they would perform an undercover sting to see if the student's claim was correct. So they got on Grindr. And this professor quickly fell for the undercover sting and was speaking with an officer on the Grindr app saying that he would quote, love to have a sugar daddy relationship offered to fill up the undercover officer's gas tank in exchange for sexual favors on December 3rd.

And it also says that he, quote, might throw in an Arby's card. So free roast beef sandwich, too. That's pretty good. Instead of... No, I feel guys about Arby's. Very underrated. I'll eat some Arby's every once in a while.

But instead of getting to provide a young boy with an Arby's card and a filled up gas tank, Pointer was greeted by police officers at a gas station where Pointer tried to flee. He was pulled over a few blocks away and then began to tell police he was not doing anything with a minor. He was only trying to help by offering gifts to men on the app. He was charged with patronizing prostitution and faces up to six months behind bars. So a gross story that's not funny, but the funny part is... Arby's, man.

He's offering Arby's. I'd go with a Rubin. They have a decent Rubin for a fast food place. Ross, you and I have not discovered this for sure, but there's unofficially Arby's, if you go in and say, I want all the meat sandwiches, there is a sandwich that gives you one piece of every meat they have. Yeah, what does it call?

It has a name. It does have a name. I don't know what it is, but I know what you're talking about. I know there was a big Montana or something. No, no, that's just a lot of roast beef on one piece of meat on one piece of bread. It's called the Meat Mountain. Nice. So he wanted to go on grinder and get a meat mountain.

Okay. And see. Offering my meat mountain to Austin. That's enough. Both of you. All right. So, how do I describe these things? We have IHop robber, caricature.

That's that three times fast. Carricature. Carricature. Carriquetcher. Robber. Bernardrick McKinney should go get a caricature. No, not even trying. Not even trying bed mac.

On Pine Mott. On Pine Mott. And then we have Missouri professor using grinder with... Let's just call it the Mead Mountain. Nah. No. All right, which of those three stories is the best non-Florida story of the week? 713-212-5-790.

Do you like to judge? And look, if these things run... I don't necessarily have to get four votes. If I feel like the segment is going in an awful direction, I'll end it. But we do want to do that... It's going to happen. Yeah. We are diplomatic here.

We do believe in the votes, democracy. Let's try this and pray for the very, very best. We'll start with line one. Brian on 790. Brian, what's your favorite non-Florida story? Brian. Brian's not listening, but thank you for playing. Line two, your favorite non-Florida story?

Internet's for a house of protection, Matt. Very good. One vote for that. Thank you very much. Line three, favorite non-Florida story? Ross, happy birthday. Thank you. All right.

I think you get a vote for just being your birthday. That's fine. The birthday sympathy vote? I'm okay with that. Yeah, that's how it works. He'll take it. Line four, your favorite non-Florida story. I'm going to go to Meat Mountain.

There we go. Line one, your favorite non-Flority story. It looks like an uncircumcised John. Okay. I think it was that the guy that calls every week that makes fun of me? Let's try one more and get out of this horrific segment. Line one, who wins? Not best non-flora story.

Well, happy birthday, Ro. Thank you. Meat Mountain by landsmine. Okay. And we'll close it off there. I just don't want to say caricature anymore. Say what? Caratature.

Carotopshire. Carrot. You can just keep saying meat mountain instead. No, I'm not going to do that. Carachure. Carachir. Say cature. Cature.

Cature. Say caracature. Cure. There's a hitching to giddy up, isn't there? You got the yips. You're like a Charles Barkley golf swing. Yeah. Or I'm in a president's cup on the final day.

What is it you do for a living again? Broadcaster. Okay. But I never say that. When do I ever say that in a game broadcast? Ever say what? character character

guy that does artwork how about that he's a caricaturist he's a real true character I don't know why this is entertaining me so much but it is you know what I would not normally put myself out there but it's your birthday so I just want to

you know what can I do but give myself a gift of embarrassment let's make you some money next we believe it or not by the way come up for 20 minutes Ross, the topic is? It's me. It's your birthday? You believe it about or not about you?

Correct. I cannot wait for this, frankly. This is Cougars head coach Dana Holerson. Matt's kind of like Shasta without putting on a costume. He's a big old The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790.

Last minute Christmas shopping to do. You're going to be bumping around the malls. the shops on Saturdays Sunday this week, which means you've got to put it on 790, the mid mornings, 10 o'clock for Paul Nolan and the rest of the crew over at freewinter's.net and sports investors weekly. Paul with us for a couple minutes here to make us some money

on this weekend's games. Paul, first of all, happy holiday. Second of all, when was the last time you had this much interest in research in a Bill's Patriots game on a Saturday? Yeah, right. Imagine that. Someone told you early in the year that this would be for the division title and someone's going to unseat the Patriots at this point. So, yeah, it's been exciting here for the bills.

We did have them on the come early on in the year. I felt like they were a pretty good value team. We really love Tadavius White, what he's doing. And, you know, we expect a really good defensive performance here. But last week, you know, you're looking at the bills and Steelers, we liked that on the, we talked about on the year, but it was just a 36 and a half, 37. It's just such a tough number in this NFL,

considering how, like, you know, how ticky-tacky-to-repping is, and you just never know one defensive play leads to it, and we know both of these defenses have been opportunistic, so as much I would like to lean to the under in this game, I'm thinking it is a tough, hard-nosed battle. And obviously everyone kind of knows that, but the lockdown corners, the matchups on the offensive line, I think Kyle won Ben Noyes going to disrupt the offensive line

and the edge for the bills, and I think there's going to be a lot of people in Allen's backfield. He's always missing guys who are open, and obviously Brady has no targets to throw to right now. Edelman has, you know, his lower half and his hamstring and quad are both banged up from what we understand. And he's a tough kid, obviously, he'll play. But, you know, there's just really no weapons there on the separation, the overall team speed. If you look at the aggregate team speed of the skill positions in New England, it's to the point of, you know, it's the second's lowest team in the league.

So I like the game to be a tight-fought game. It's hard to go against the Patriots at home, but the six and a half is enticing to us. that's a game. We would definitely lean to Buffalo there as a play, and I would lean to the under. Again, not the best bet on the board, but probably the most intriguing matchup in the AFC this week outside of

you know, Texans a game for you guys now. I mean, that's obviously a pivotal game for you guys. You know, so, you know, last week, we liked Houston last week to go into Tennessee and we talked about that in the air and, you know, with a good solid. I'm going to double dip here. I'm going to go back

to Houston. I love them on the road. Five and two again. out to spread. They've traveled well all year. The injuries, and obviously James Winston is on fire, but he's on fire and it's still disastrous at times. I've never seen a quarterback in all my life, more frivolous with the

football, more frivolous. Like, I mean, it's like they should just name him Yolo Winston because he don't care. Like, you simply can't get him to protect the ball. He's going to fire. He's got obviously a great arm. Well, Godwin out. Godwin and Evans out together. And then, you know, some other injuries along the offensive front,

we just see that this is going to like a great spot for Houston, all hands on deck. I don't like Houston in this game. I love their chances. I'm definitely going to bet them. I just, I think it's a great value getting them at this spot with these injuries to the, to the up and over in Tampa Bay.

Just, I think it's a great spot. I'm really root for DeShaw Watson, have a real breakout type game. All right. So you're, you like Buffalo. You like the Texans. I get all that. I want to go to the Buffalo New England game for a second. The overrunner, the last I saw was.

was 37. I've heard a lot of people leaning on the under on that. That's crazy. 37 points and still taking the under, huh? It's 38 now at the main, the biggest books in Vegas now have 38 everywhere. Yeah, it's tough. Well, the weather's going to be perfect. And, you know, there's no wind and it's going to be dry.

It's perfect football weather at 32 degrees as of right now. Things obviously can change in the Northeast. But, you know, everyone's kind of expecting me. The, you know, the typical Tredavius White, you know, he's as good as Gilmore. He's not getting the kudos. That defense for Buffalo might have the two best safeties in the game playing alongside him. The lineback is a fast. Milano gets, you know, his ability to get from point A to the edge on any rush.

He has been nothing short of astounding. He's just so short tackling. And the Buffalo team really plays for one another. And obviously, the coaching staff there has been great. You know, when you look at what they've done and the prep work, you know, with a quarterback that is just wildly inaccurate at times. And as good as Alan is and as much as we like him, he keeps the plays alive with his feet. And we do expect the turn it out. The pace of play for both teams is slow.

So we like that we still like the under. But 38 is such a low number in today's NFL. You know, it's so low. And, you know, back in the day, this would be a 33 or a 34. You know, if this is in the 90s when it was more of a knock-em-sock and type of game, you know, it's much more finesse-driven now the league. So, you know, obviously a lot more personal fouls and tiki-tacky calls, but, you know, it's for this player safety. So it's a tough spot, but I would still lean to the under if I had to. All right.

The Texans have been a schizophrenic team all year. Obviously, they have a winning record. They have a chance when the AFC South. What have they been like to bet on this year? Is it been a hot mess or pretty consistent? You know, it's really, you know, yeah, it's been a little rough. I've been pretty fortunate, you know, when I went again, I had the Colts, you know, when they played them up in Indy, Annapolis, and it was, you know, good spot for us there.

And, you know, on the air, I said last week I liked them in Tennessee. And, yeah, they have been a tough team, especially because I'm really a big to Sean Watson guy. I just think he's got the kind of skill set that if he was on, you know, a better coach team with better personnel across the board, a better environment from top-down ownership through, you know, the lack of real, you know, structural leadership. I just think he'd be putting up much bigger numbers, much gaudy of numbers. But obviously, you can't help but love it when Wolf Foller's in that lineup.

There's just a different team, you know, and, you know, with Hopkins and him, and, you know, Fells is getting such great separation. I really like him, and I know that it was going to be some heavy wins, but I don't mind them in heavy wins based on the arm strength of, and I just can't help but see Winston thrown into weaker receivers and just. really putting the ball on complete harm's way. I wouldn't be surprised if you guys had three takeaways in this game. And as hard it is to predict takeaways, it's not that hard when it comes to Tampa.

You know they're going to turn the ball over at least two times in this game, and I'm predicting three. All right, that's Paul Nolan. Saturdays and Sundays at 10 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. Let's go Rockets! The Rockets have Red Nation. Matt has Maddie Nation. Things are going to start happening to me now.

You've made it. I'm somebody now. More Matt Thomas. Now. Well, I'm very happy to tell you that this radio show is not ego-driven at all. And that today's edition, believe it or not, is not an ode to sports RV, but just to get to know behind the scenes of Ross Villarreal's life, right? Sure. And there would be no way for anyone to argue whether or not this is ack or not, because Ross made up his own questions about him.

Well, everything is true and accurate or it's not. You know what I'm saying? I didn't lie on here. How about that? Fair enough. All right, five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports game show.

We simply called it Believe it or not. And here's how it works. You'll call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Today's edition of Believe or Not is brought to you by Houston Onehousespaws.com. Print that gift card out right now before Christmas arrives. Give that gift of relaxation.

She'll love it. Houston Woodhouse Spas.com. Houston Woodhouse Spas.com. Category today is all things about at Sports RV. The statement is completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. If it's your runny is full of bunk and made up, you will say this.

Not. Two, believe it or not, it's all things about Ross. When's your prize? Ross, what's the prize? Matt, I got a pair of tickets to see Bumpin' Mikes, featuring the comedy of Jeff Ross and Dave Attell at the Revention Music. Center Saturday, January 18th.

Don't you feel like on today's show, you should also give an autographed picture of yourself? I'm on fresh out, actually. Fair enough. Yeah, order. We're back ordered. Let's play. 713-212-5-790. Renee on 790.

Renee, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Renee, while at the University of Texas, Ross's major was psychology, believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it is correct. Statement number two for the wind. Ross had his picture on the wall at the original Pluckers wing bar in Austin for eating more than 24, 25 that is, fire in the whole flavored wings.

Original Pluckers Austin ate more than 25 fire in the whole flavor of wings. Before they tore it down. Before they tore it down. Believe it or not. Believe it. No, he never did it. 713-212-5-790 either people don't like you, Ross, or we have zero listeners. We've got plenty of lines available for believing. This is Ross.

And Dave Attell at the Revention Music Center, Saturday, January 18th. Good prize. Elwood on 790, Elwood. You ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Ross once got a citation for public intoxication at a Rudy's barbecue after floating the Como River in New Bromville, Texas. Believe it or not?

Not. Statement number two for the win. After the Oilers left town, Ross briefly rooted for the Cowboys and even owned a Cowboys hat and jacket. Believe it or not? Believe it. Believe it is right.

I'm not proud, Matt. That was a dark time in your life, wasn't it? It was very dark. Like I said, I was on a rebroad. It was my rebound girl. We need you. You still haven't rebounded since, have you? Yeah, now I'm just a monk. That's sports monk. Philip on 790.

Let me punch him up here. Hello, Philip. You ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. When Ross first met childhood hero, Akim Elijah on in a Rockets event, he accidentally introduced himself by saying, hi, I'm Akeem, believe it or not? Believe it.

Not. No, wrong. It can clearly happen, though. I've called myself Ross before several times. Let's go to line number three. Javier on 790. Javier, you ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it.

Growing up, Ross wanted to be a lawyer. Out of high school, he received a scholarship and an internship from a prominent Houston law firm. Believe it or not? Don't believe it. Believe it. You should believe it, sorry. Ross, the lawyer.

You could have been the judge Ross before Judge Ross, before Judge Judy. Eh, attention to detail wasn't there for me. Yeah, and intendants probably would have helped as well. Paul on 790, ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, sir. Ross once got swine flu and to miss a week of work,

believe it or not. Not. Believe it. Damn. It's just a slightly more aggressive version of the regular flu. It's not that bad. Russell on 790, ready to play, believe it or not. You better believe it.

Ross once lost over $5,000 in a single night while playing online poker. Believe it or not. He doesn't have that kind of money, not. Believe it. Ross, you got 12 seconds to tell the story. It was winnings. I had, I just hit a bunch on a big tournament. I'd made like $7,000 in a tournament.

I probably had about $10 in my account at the time. And I blew all of it to two guys and heads-up poker for $400 each buy-in. So I probably lost, like what, what is that, 13 buy-ins or whatever it was? Yeah. It was probably the worst professional. Not professional, but the worst, no, one of the worst nights of my life. Maybe the worst night of my life. No, I didn't cry.

Did you throw something? I didn't throw anything either. I was just, I was like went and crawled in a hole and I just didn't want to talk to anybody for like a couple days. Where you were still up, though? Yes. So that's okay. And I eventually cashed down and bought a car, but I still, it's still. It's still stung.

So there's still a happy ending of the story. All right. Impulse control also not one of my strengths. Yeah. I need to buy you a gift card from Big City Wings. Hey, I had some boneless error last week. Did you really? You know, it's buy one, get one boneless today,

a.k.a. the executive chicken nugget. But, yeah, buying gift cards would be a great idea. Great stocking stuffers. I'm always responsible for stocking stuffers of the house. By $25 worth of the Big City wings, you get $5 free. They'll double that to $10 when you order 50. So for every 25 you order, you get $5 an extra wing, Big City Wings cards for yourself to eat and enjoy the flavorful wings. The wings that are my favorite now, the sour cream and onion wing.

Delicioso, as the kids say. Do yourself a favor. Big on televisions, big on wings, big on appetizers, the fried cheese, the macaroni, the pull-port nachos. The sandwiches are great. And the fried Twinkies for desserts are amazing. But remember tonight, buy one, get one free wing at any of the big city wing locations. There are eight in the Houston area. BigCitywings.com for more news on how you get those gift cards today.

All right, I'm off tomorrow as we travel to Phoenix. It'll be Brian T. Smith and Ross in. I'm in with Monday with Ross. Ross this will be, I think, well, no, we'll do some shows after Christmas, too. So kind of a schizophrenic schedule. But we're going to be here entertaining the heck out of you. And tomorrow, it's three hours. Texans preview.

Ross, how excited it? Are you 1 to 10? 17. That's what I'm talking about. For Ross, for Nick, I'm Matt. I'll talk to you guys on Monday and talk to you tonight for Rockets Clippers here on 790. 18. Up next here on Sports Talks.