The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 12-3-19

Episode Date: December 3, 2019

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 12/3/19Matt says goodbye to Greg Koch (0:00)Peaking Too Soon (15:14)Joel Klatt Joins Matt To Talk Conference Championship Weekend (41:50)Aaron Reiss Discusses JJ Watt's Possible Return For Playoffs (1:00:45)

It's larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. Clock at H-Town, what's happening at lunchtimers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show. I'm coming to you today from San Antonio. We're tonight the Rockets and Spurs. We'll get after it.

We've got the Texans down to the Final Four. We've got college football championship weekend. but all that can wait for a few minutes. This is my final day of the week because traveling to Canada tomorrow and the technology and whatnot, plus I like to sleep late. And so Ross and Brian T. Smith

are going to finish up Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for me this week. So this is my last opportunity, at least on air, to say goodbye to my good friend Greg. Kuco, I believe, is still back in our studios. Is that right, Uncle Greg? I am. You've always seemed Canadian to me somehow. my, that.

Perhaps it's because of my pasty white legs, you may say? It may have been that or the maple syrup running down your calves. I don't know one of the two. All right. I've known Greg. I just was just figuring this out. You and I have been known each other for 23 years. Do you know that? Yeah, I know. Back early 90s. Yeah, arena football. You've actually filled

in on a Cougar football game. Came on my radio show. When I came back in 2010, you had talked about wanting to get in the radio business, and it came to work guy that eventually you were over with us. So I just want to congratulate you on your beyond successful career as a pro football player as an attorney, as a father, and as a radio host.

And you are going to have some really, really nice times ahead of you. And I wish you nothing but the very best. So we're not going to get campy. We are just going to tell three quick stories. Yeah, but the thing is, you know, in this business, like any business, like playing football, you don't remember playing football. You remember the people you meet. And Matt, you've always been one of my first.

favorites and you always will be. And this isn't the end of anything. It's just a new chapter. No, but I do want to tell three very fast stories. And they all do revolve around our days when you and I were broadcast partners on arena football. One was we were in Tampa, Florida, where the, I don't think they were the Texas terror at the time of the Houston Thunder Bears. It really doesn't matter.

No. But we had a kicker named Richard D. Felice. Right. Who missed, I mean, I want to say, Greg, maybe one or two very important kicks that would cost the team a loss at Tampa Bay. Yes. And we traveled commercially back then, as did the arena football league up until its final days. And so we would go back to the hotel and we'd catch the flight the next morning.

And so word traveled because Richard was either, I think he, didn't he propose to his wife on the field or something goofy like that? I don't remember exactly what it was. Yeah, but his wife had heard me say some not so flattering things about his kicking ability. Because you hate kickers in general. Exactly. Kickers are not football players. Especially when they miss kicks in very close football games. Correct.

And he came up to you and basically didn't, told you none so many words, he didn't appreciate you taking shots at him. Right. You frankly took the opposite viewpoint and said, well, you want to go outside and finish this week. Well,

I wasn't going to back down to a kicker. I can tell you that, because I'd still be here in the end of it. Yeah, he was a little crazy. So I'm 23, 24-year-old sports broadcaster doing my first television radio work on the Houston Thunder Bears, Texas Terror, and my partner wants to get in a fight with a teammate, not a teammate, but a guy in the team, I'll be at a kicker. And you know what? I know where you're going from here. You're going to the Iowa Barnstormers next. You damn straight I am. I know exactly where you're going, where we're calling the game with Kurt Warner, quarterback for the Iowa Barnstormers. So a year or two later, we're in Des Moines, Iowa at the old barn where the arena football, Iowa Barnstormers play.

and there were two guys, maybe even three, that were, and we were right on top of the action. No, we were in the stands. In the stands. Our broadcasting was in the stands. Yeah, in the stands, and which was a great viewpoint of things. Right. But we were also right behind some fans who probably had seven or eight,

Corse lights, Miller, whatever their drink of choice was. Right. And they were just yelling and yelling and yelling and yelling. And I don't even remember if you gave them a warning. It really doesn't matter what you did. but I think you turned around and said if you guys say one more word, I'm going to kick both your asses.

I did. I said, we're live on air right now, and you guys are acting like a bunch of jackasses. If you don't shut up, I'm going to kick his ass just so you know what you got coming. And this is all live on air, and Matt's just cracking up. I could not continue myself. I'm like, okay, so we had the DeFilesa

Tampa. Now he's going after fans. I've done to anger management since then. Yeah, well, no, nobody believes you on that. But the last story is our last ever game. And we were in Milwaukee against the Mustangs. And we had just found out the franchise was going to either take a year off or move somewhere. It didn't really matter. This was going to be our last ever arena football game.

And Greg said, you know, this is my town. We're going to do this the right way. And we've mentioned this on a couple of times on other shows before. You had a limousine pick us up at our hotel and took us to one of your favorite Italian places. Well, it was a mob place to know the truth. Well, again, I was young and impressionable at the time, so we'll just go with one of your favorite places. Right. A red limousine, a red velvet limousine.

Inside the limousine. Again, this is probably 1999, so this is not like it's super, super old. Right. So we get in there, and the limousine is full of red velvet. I mean, not that we were going to make a pornographic movie in there, but there might have been one or two made in that limousine. some point. Yeah, but you and I were not involved. No, we were not going to do that. We proceeded to go to this mobster place where I stopped counting the number of gin and tonics you had. I think it was five. I had two because I wanted to take the edge off. It was our last

broadcast. Right. And I want to say you and I had one of our best broadcast ever in the final game ever. Oh, I forgot. We had those drinks before the broadcast. Yeah, we forgot to mention. We did this before the air. Well, that's kind of like Indy and I do, but we start a little bit earlier in the morning. Indy likes that crown roll at about 9 in the morning. Oh, my gosh. Well, I just want to tell you those and those are some of my favorite memories. And you're one of my favorite people, and so Ross knows he's one of my favorite.

So I'll be listening all the time. And I just appreciate both you guys' friendship. All right, buddy, there it is. Greg Cook, our hero, and he will not be, he'll be hanging around with us. We'll find him away to get him on the air once in a while to make sure he's doing all right. That's Uncle Greg, and again, a great, great friend and broadcast partner and a guy that I've known for a long time, I have a tremendous amount of respect for. So, Ross, there you have it.

The younger Greg Cook just insisted on fighting people, whether it be a kicker on an arena football team or its fans. And that's different than the older Greg Cook? That's true. Would you expect anything different today? No, I wouldn't. He said, did you mention the Waffle House out in Phoenix? Now, see, I wasn't there for that. I know that the he and, and he got sideways with somebody out there, but I wasn't there.

For the Super Bowl? I didn't know that was a Waffle House. I thought you were at a bar or something. Was it like a chicken and waffles? It was a chicken and waffles bar. What? Yeah. Chicken, waffles, and liquor.

What could go wrong? The Super Bowl travel stories. Wow. All right. So I just wanted to make sure that I got that out because I have such respect for. Greg and such a good friend of mine and I just wasn't able to talk to the rest week at least on air but well I want to get

that out of there so Ross do you have any great cook stories you want to pass although you'll have a few days before you have to come up with the definitive one nothing nothing comes to mind that's really I mean anything crazy or great which always just hang out have a good time have a couple of drinks and and talk and laugh

and that's pretty much it that's every time with Greg so I mean I got no problem with that I can do much more than not a whole lot of confrontation anytime I've hang out with Greg, which is a good thing. Greg Cook versus two Des Moines-Irawer fans. Who do you have in that? How would you fight club back? Greg minus about 700.

I got it. How about Greg versus an indoor arena football league kicker with Greg minus 10,000? Yeah. It wasn't going to be pretty at all. All right. So you know what? And then when Ross, you decide to retire, I'll have these same sorts of stories. I'll probably have about five or 10,000 more of them than we have with Greg.

But, yeah, it's good. How's I've been back in Houston today? Good. Weather's good? It's like 70 degrees and sunny. It is glorious here in San Antonio, too. Is it? Yeah.

It's going to be glorious, too, because the Rockets should put a beat down on the San Antonio Spurs tonight. Well, you never know. The Spurs are wily, Matt. Wiley vets. No, they're not wily. Lamarcus Aldridge has another five problem. You will not again play tonight. They got beat up by the Detroit Pistons battle.

How about this? You're San Antonio. You beat the L.A. Clippers at home, and then a couple nights later, you jump on the road and you lose at Detroit by like 40. Them's the breaks of the NBA. All right, on the agenda today, Joe Klatt's going to join us at 1 o'clock, normally on Wednesdays, but we're pushing them up to today. We've got conference championship weekend.

We have the NCAA announcements of the four teams in the playoffs coming up this weekend. We'll have the bowls and all that lined up. we'll also have our friend Aaron Reese from the athletic join us at 1.30 for some Texans conversation and then you guys ultimately will join our conversation. We'd like to invite you right now if you'd like to do so. For a conference

championship talk, are we going to talk rice owl volleyball? They won the conference. Which conference are they in? Are they in like the heart of Texas league or something, Division III? If college volleyball got the respect of college football, there would be top four rankings. Now you know, that

My daughter is a volleyball stud, so we are your official home of Rice volleyball here on Sports Talk 790. Nice. She is the Vinny the Johnson, the microwave Johnson of volleyball. Yes, she is. So let's get her to Rice so she could become a war owl. Can you make that happen? I would be glad to accept it to scholarship. Rice is ranked number 14 in the country.

Who they playing this week? No idea. Probably Wagner. You just guessed a school? Why would you say Wagner? I don't know. I'm still upset that our football team played Wagner years ago. Yeah, but at least you're bouncing back on a three and nine campaign.

It's Wagner. That's true. We did win the last three games. Yeah, but didn't you play like Division II? Didn't you all play like just Sol Ross? I got a bad technical glitcher. I can't hear anything back in our studio. Took a red shirt on the season.

Matt took a red shirt on watching the team. God. You know what sucks not going to a ball? I mean, Ross, I mean, Andy, of course, your school is used to that. But I'm not. I'm not used to not talking about what bowl game are going to. Birmingham Bowl. Liberty Bowl.

Rice has Oklahoma up next in the first round of the NCAAs. Okay. Hashtag one and done. Who's U.S. have? U.H. has, I don't know. But once I give you the up, once I check during the break, I'll be able to pass along. Oklahoma's ranked 3rd. It has a 33rd RPI.

Rice has 14, so they probably should win. What? Where's the game? I don't know. Is it neutral site? College Station, actually. Okay. Andy, can I go all be in Canada?

Will you go and be our on-site reporter for us? Where's this? College Station. I would like to do that. Okay. You're in San Antonio, right? What's at? I'm in San Antonio now, but I'm going to Toronto after the game today.

Yeah, Andy's seen those volleyball. If you go to sugars, tell Jeff, I sent you. I don't know what you speak of, my friend. Okay. Just, you know, if you happen to stop by sugar. Tell Jeff the manager. Why does everybody from San Antonio go to sugars? They have a great steak.

Is that right? Yes. Juicy? The steak is juicy, tender. It's always wet and moist. I hate that word. It doesn't cost that much. Is it marbled?

A little bit. A little bit. Creamy inside? No, no. Nobody wants a creamy steak. No. Who would want a creamy steak? Everyone from sugars wants a creamy steak.

Okay. They also have cream pie for dessert. This is gross. Which I'll talk about on your 10-to-noon show today. A lot of great cook stories. So you're telling me if the Texans beaten the Patriots doesn't carry over for two days? You know what? Yesterday on Monday, we had more calls for high school football than Texas beating the Patriots.

That doesn't make me happy. It should. That means you need to get into the books and learn about North Shore, learn about Manville, learn about Katie. So you can talk high school football on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Villarreal. How about the Ross Villarreal show

featuring Matt Thomas and he can just do the high school segment of the show? Don't sleep on those high school athletes, man. You know,

every NFL player was once a high school football player? Hmm. Wow, that's deep. That's deep. Man, this kind of analysis

we get on the 10th the noon show, huh? We were all born from mothers as well. Wow. Who all went to high school. Oh. And we're all going to die.

All right. This show has gone cryptic in a horrible way and it started with the term creamy steak. 713, 212. Creamy? It's what he said, creamy steak. I didn't say it, ND said it.

Okay. See? Put creamy mushrooms on it or what? That's what I'm saying. 713, 212, 1,7.9. We're here to talk sports. And if we're not talking about sports, we're going to talk some more sports. Because your Texans are down to its final four games.

Tampa Bay should be a win, although they beat Jacksonville, although Jacksonville is horrible. By the way, did you see the Gardner Minchew has been named the starting quarterback for the rest of the year. Rossi, that poor Jacksonville team just can't make much for agency help. They sign Nick Foles that crazy contract, and he sucks, and he gets hurt, then he gets healthy again, and then he sucks again. The trials and tribulations of Jacksonville football.

So just when you think it's bad being a Houston fan, always remember, it's way worse in Jacksonville. 713-212-5-790. If you'd like to join our show today, 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Yes, San Antonio, the Spurs are terrible. That should be good news for the Rockets as they have won three or four against San Antonio, and the Spurs are nowhere close to championship level team. In fact, they may even have a difficult time just even making the playoffs in 2019. 713-212-5-790.

Tyler White here. Back to Matt Thomas. And it is gone. And sports talk, 790. Home of Astros baseball. Time is 12-21. It is the Matt Thomas show here today from San Antonio. Meanwhile, Ross and Nick are back in our Houston studios.

We'll talk with Joe Clennick coming up at 1 o'clock at 1.30. We'll go to Aaron Reese on the Texans. Rossi, how much of the Monday night game did you watch between Seattle and Minnesota? I would say I had half an eye on it throughout the whole thing. I was engaged in it maybe half the time. The NFC, I mean, certainly. I know disrespect to Baltimore or New England or for that matter, Houston or anybody else.

But man, I cannot put my finger on who is the definitive team in the NFC. Can you? Because Seattle looks like thereabout is perfect of a football team, especially at home. I know they do have the one home lost to Baltimore this year. San Francisco looks

the part defensively and whether or not Garoppolo can lead them. New Orleans, you can't sit on them the way they looked. I think this might be, and I feel like maybe we said this every year around this time. This might be the most competitive playoff that we might have in recent time. I don't necessarily believe Buffalo or Pittsburgh will be one of those teams of challenge in the AFC, but you could probably go three to four

deep comfortable in the AFC and you probably can go five deep in the NFC. And that's going to make, I think, an awesome January. Yeah, I think the playoffs is going to be really good. If I had to pick a best NFC team right now, I think you're right. It's really top-heavy and it's close. I think I still go with San Francisco, even though they just lost against the Ravens. I just like what they do on both sides of the ball, and they're a complete team. They're really good. I think I would go with the Niners. Why don't we pick New Orleans?

They're right there. I think I might go with them number two. Man, I just, and I think it really might come down to home field advantage, but at that point, these teams are so tight that if you're really good like the Niners, if you're really good like the Saints or the Seahawks, does really the home field going to make that big of a difference? I mean, I know the Rams won last year at the Superdome because of the ridiculously controversial call,

but they didn't necessarily have to have the home field in order to win that game. Now, they had the officials on their back, but that obviously helped the cause. But I don't know, maybe it feels like to me that maybe this year that the fight in the race for number one may not be that big of a deal. I'll say this, Ross, my guess is in the NFC,

and you may even want to say this a little bit too in the AFC side, maybe the race just to get to number two so you can avoid playing opening weekend might be the biggest advantage for any one of these teams in the playoffs. Yeah, I think so. And interesting thing,

so the Seahawks, I was just looking through the Seahawks and the Niners records, both of them have lost to the Ravens. The Ravens are just, I mean, how did they lose to the Browns early on in the season? That's a great question. Let me ask you is, do you think, and they brought this up today on ESPN's

that show Get Up, do you think the Ravens could be peaking too soon or are they just so good that everybody they run into right now because they're so hot they're just much better than explain to me this peaking too soon that's what I want to know thank like for instance okay that makes no sense lamar jackson has gone through this ridiculous amazing run of whether he did it against the texans whether he did it against the uh Seattle Seahawks whether he did it against the niners this past week you know how I mean I think I think people could understand the term peaking too soon. I think that's ridiculous in the context of sports. You play who's in front of you, and if you beat

them really badly, and you do that a bunch of times in a row, you haven't just hit your peak. Like, what do they want them to do? You want them to save your touchdowns for the playoffs? Well, here's what I think when somebody says that. They would like them to have a real struggle, which I think the Ravens did this past Sunday against the Niners. Low scoring game, came down

to a field goal, whether conditions weren't great. It wasn't like Lamar was throwing the ball 50 yards down the field. I just, you know, it's almost like it's, do you win too much in a regular season and that when someone is due for a letdown, it comes in a one-and-done playoff scenario. Well, they've lost twice. I mean, teams go 14 and 2 win the Super Bowl, I imagine fairly routinely. So I mean, I just don't buy into that at all.

I mean, unless you want them to lose, you want them to score less points or not beat teams as badly, I don't understand what you would want them to do. I would generally agree with you. How would they stop from peaking too soon is my question? There's nothing. because all you're doing is playing. You don't ever get on a football field or any academic or athletic competition course and try to lose to say, you know what, this felt good.

Now, I've heard some coaches in the past say, this is not the worst thing that we lost because we now need to know what we have to do to get over the hump. But yeah, if you're a team, regardless if you're the Buccaneers who have a handful of wins or you're the New England Patriots with 10, no one steps on the field to say, you know what, let's just get out there. and if we win, it's great, if not, no big who everybody wants to win, especially when you are a team like Baltimore, who I think would love to be able to have every one of their playoff games in Baltimore this year. I do think a Ravens team that doesn't have a tremendous amount of posting season experience,

especially with a relatively young quarterback, could certainly use the home field more than say at New England. I don't think New England, if they're going to win the AFC this year, which I don't know if that's going to happen or not, they don't necessarily have to have it at Gillette Stadium. It probably wouldn't hurt, but New England's won a boatload of football. football games on the road. So no matter what their location is, they can still win it. Okay. That's why I think that they're thinking, does Baltimore need a wake-up call?

No, I don't think so. I think they're well-coached. I don't think, I mean, John Harbaal, you can't get up. Like, if they get up 21 or whatever, what was it? What were they up on the Texans at halftime? I know they got up 34 to zero in the second half, but I'm sure it was a ton. So, I mean, John Harbaal is not going to go at halftime because, guys, all right, slow it down. We're peeking a little fast here.

We got to wait for six weeks, guys. So just don't put your foot on the gas. We don't want to peak too fast this season. Yeah. I get it. I get it. I just think that, you know, for instance, I'll give you a very poor example. But it's an example of the L.S.

Remember when the Seattle Mariners won like 116 games, like a decade or so ago? It made me a little bit longer than that. Yes. They were, I mean, they never lost. They lost. Do they lose in the DS or the CS? Well, whatever it was, they didn't make it to the world. They lost to the Yankees.

Yeah. I'm trying to remember what series that was. The Yankees were really good that season too. And again, it's a poor example because it's a long series as compared to a one game. But there was, if you are doing as well as that team did, I think it was 2001, somewhere in that range, there is no consolation prize. That if you are winning that many games, if you are dominating that many opponents, the end game is to get to the highest level.

Meaning, again, if the Ravens are beating up all these superior teams, if they're beating up Seattle, they're beating up Houston, They're beating up San Francisco. They beat New England at home a few weeks ago. The end game is not to play just a mad game. And for Lamar Jackson, had three interceptions against New England in a championship game. They lost four games to one to the Yankees and the CS.

You think Astro fans are having a tough time then. Imagine what it was like being Saddle fan that back then? Well, that's what I was going to bring up. Are you saying the Astros peaked too soon? No, because they were just consistently good all year long. They never peaked. They never went on a run where they were. were winning 25 in a row. They just kept beating

eight out every ten opponents, it felt like. Speaking of that, I've got some baseball news that might potentially haunt us, not about the Astros, but it does involve an Astros-related player. We'll tell you about that. A minute plus, we'll talk to Dennis and Cyprus about peaking too soon. Again, I think it's just talk-show

speak. It's just kind of, hey, man, I'd like to see them calm down to earth a little bit. But if you're Baltimore or you're any team, for instance, the Texans win the next four games. They'll have won six in a row to close out the season. I don't think any Texan fan is bumping around town going, hey, man, I think the text is about to peak too soon. At home say, Alexa, play Sports Talk 790 on I-Hard Radio.

This is Craig Vigio. Vigio. Vigio. Back to Matt Thomas on Sports Talk, 790. Oh, we're having some fun. Your home with the Stroes. Ross, I've got a brand-new segment of the show. It's short and simple.

It is called Nick Lowe's Profound Moment of the, show. Every single team in sports history that has ever lost in a postseason has peaked too soon. And that was the Nick Lowe profound moment of the show. That felt good. Ross, agree or disagree? Agree. Ross, I'm not even paying attention to Nick Lowe's. I said agree. Yeah, what he said. He said every team has peaked too soon. If you don't win the, if you don't win the championship, you peek too soon. All right.

I want to make sure you're paying attention because Nick Lowe took a lot of time in preparing that profile moment of the show. About 12 seconds. Okay. 713-212-5-790. I mentioned some baseball news. We'll give it to you in a second here.

Let me first say hello to Dennis in Cyprus on Sports Talk 790. Hi, Dennis. Good. Hey, just calling in about the speaking too soon. It's something that I've kind of always bought into a little bit, but it's more particular, in my case, to baseball. And I'll give you the best example I can think of that's not far behind us,

is the 2017 Cleveland Indians. My boss actually, I'm a big avid Astros fan, and my boss asked me before, you know, two, three weeks left in the season if I thought the Axis could really do it. And I said yes, of course, and he mentioned the Cleveland Indians. I'm like, nope, they're speaking too soon. You don't go on a 23 game winning streak, right? before you enter the playoffs.

It's bad mojo, whatever we call it. And sure enough, what happened? Well, here's a thing. Even if they had not gone on that 23-game winning streak, the Astros and the Red Sox and the Yankees were all better than they were. I mean, they could have won seven of every 10 games, and it would have made me feeling different about the Indians. I mean, do you agree or disagree with that?

Yeah, no, I wouldn't necessarily argue with that. But you look at the team that goes on that kind of a row. run. And, you know, I guess for me, peaking is, things are just melding. Everybody's on the same page. Things are just working. Granted, they all work very hard to get to that point. But even if you look at the Baltimore Raven season, you know, they struggled early on. They struggled against the Cardinals. They lost to the Browns, I believe, if I'm not mistaken. That's right. They won an overtime against the Steelers. And, you know, we've seen the team that they could be. And this is either peaking too soon or it was just their rise to excellence and they're here to stay.

Who knows? I guess we'll find out soon enough. Yeah, and that's what it is. And thank you for the phone call. Maybe Ross, it's just, you know what? They just messed around for the first six weeks of the season. And they are now proving to themselves and everybody else in the NFL that they are the best team in the NFL, that when you're the best, you don't lose.

You may struggle. You may drop a game or two that you're not supposed to. But if you're the best and you're playing at your finest, and you have the best players and the best defense and the best quarterback, no matter who the opponent is, you're going to be better than. Yeah. Are they simply the best, Matt? I don't know.

I'll let Tina Turner figure that out in early February. But at this point, to answer your question, no, they are not simply the best. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Who is your favorite free agent pitcher available on the marketplace in 2020, Sports Army? Aaron Sanchez

That's not an correct answer I'll give you one more guess and only one more Dallas Keichael Okay Well I'm going to go with Garrett Cole Wade Miley I said favorite not most available

Fine Do you know who the second Most perhaps available star-studded free agent pitcher is out there? Will Harris? Your guessing skills are atrocious. The answer is Stephen Strasbourg. Okay.

Do you know who those two pitchers are going to meet with? Financial advisors, hopefully. Well, a.k.a. the New York Yankees. Oh, boy. Rossi, I want you to envision a world where you get to watch your favorite baseball team have to compete with a team that has Garrett Cole

and Steven Strasbourg in its starting five. That's not going to happen. They'll be in luxury tax hell within a couple of years if they do that. Some may say Yankees are in hell after losing to the Astros three times in the postseason. It is to your point, the Yankees aren't George's team anymore.

They're Hal's team, his son. Hal has not had the notion or thought of going into luxury tax hell. Most teams aren't. There's only a handful of teams that do. But if you locked up those two gentlemen with that lineup that they pose throughout their order and they rolled as Chapman closing, again, as long as he's not facing Jose Al-Tube, that would send shockwaves and I would say massive disappointment throughout all of American League Baseball. I would lean towards it not happening,

but I'll be honest with you on December the 3rd of 2019, it scares the bejesus out of me. That sounds really scary, but I couldn't believe that would happen. I don't think so. Especially because you're looking at both those guys wanting to make upwards of $35, $36 million a year. Maybe Strasper takes a wee bit less. but Garrett Cole, this is his first opportunity to become a major superstar for agent,

and I don't think he's taking a discount penny for anybody. They definitely can afford one of them. I'm looking at the payroll right now. They got 164 on the books. They got to pay James Paxton in Arbitration. There's a couple other guys in arbitration, Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge, because the payroll goes way down the next 2021, 2021 and beyond. Yeah, Cs Susie's off the books now because he retired.

so that's a heavy financial burden off his off their list now oh i don't i don't think there's any down in my mind that at the end of the day when if there was a clock going about which team is going to grab one of those two players the yankees are going to be running that short list selfishly i don't want garret cole to leave but i will feel so much better if he does it in place for a national league team as compared to america league yeah just get him in the national back to the National League. That'd be fine. And Strasbourg for that matter, too.

Yeah, it's true. Keep him in the National League. We don't want any over here. We don't want Garrett Cole to be a Los Angeles Angel and beat up on the Astros for the next 10 years. Did you see, by the way, speaking of Major League rumors, who might be in on Anthony Rendon? Who does that be, Matt?

The Texas Rangers. Oh, boy. I had enough of him in the One World Series. I'm telling you. And, oh, by the way, so I put the Today show on yesterday. And don't ask me why I did it. Actually, my wife put it on. I wouldn't ever intentionally watch The Today Show.

The guy that's one of the news anchors on the Today Show was bragging about how the Washington Nationals asked him to narrate the documentary of the 2019 World Series champion Washington Nationals. How did it make you feel, Matt? I felt like I was being kicked in their groin repeatedly. Well, that depends on what you and your wife are into, I guess. Well, I can tell you it doesn't feel good. Not having it happen to me all that often. Okay.

We're going to be reminded of that. Here's every worst. You ready for this, Ross? Here's every terrible scenario for the Astros 2020. First of all, they get dinged heavily by Major League Baseball. Next, Anthony Rondone starts shagging balls with the Texas Rangers. Then Garrett Cole pitches every fifth day for the Pittsburgh, for the New York Yankees. And then you got Steven Strasbourg pitching on the next day.

that Garrett Cole doesn't pitch. Stop. It's not going to happen. All those things are not going to happen. Promise? No, I can't promise. All of them won't happen. They're not all going to happen together.

Will you promise me that most of those things won't happen? I can't promise that either. That's where we're not talking baseball anymore. Because all of doing is depressing me. And Aaron Sanchez is not going to be back with the team next year, at least not a contract tender. That makes sense because he's blown on his arm. He's done for the most of the next year.

year. Remember, he was the guy that came as part of the Toronto trade. 100 miles an hour. Oh, by the way, they did sign Joe B. Eugenie. Avoverted arbitration with him. That's good. So the Ross, he's already called our offices. He wants a six o'clock hour show with you. I would host a show with Joe Biajini 100%. Are you sure? Yeah. Because his jokes are very long. They take quite a bit of growth before you get to the punchline. Shows over easy money, Matt. You might miss breaks.

Well, I will train them. You still miss breaks. That's true. Missing one right now. I'm going to break right now. 713, 212, 5790. It is the Matt Thomas show. Yeah, I just gave you terrible baseball stuff.

I just did. And that's what we're going to get back on the Texans front. Four games left to go. We asked you to predict them on the three most difficult ones. They weren't two and one. What will the Texans do in the next four? Starts with Denver this week at Tennessee. At Tampa, closing out against Tennessee.

How do you envision the final four? And were you right on these last three? 713, 212, 5, 790. This is Carlos Correa. Back to Matt Thomas. That's a sports off, 790. It's your home. That's baseball.

1250 on the Matt Thomas show, here from San Antonio. Ross and Nick are back at our Houston studios. We are welcoming you on the phone lines. If you'd like to join us on a variety of any of the topics we've discussed so far, or for something that we have not brought up to your attention. We would certainly take that at 7-13-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. If you'd like to reach out through Twitter, again,

it's at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Pro Nick Lowe. We're going to have Joe Clock join us in 10 minutes. Are you a big fan of conference championship weekends? Because here's the thing. You got the ACC where I think Clemson's a four touchdown favorite. I couldn't really tell you about Utah versus Oregon. Baylor, Oklahoma intrigues me a little bit. The Big Ten doesn't do much for me.

Are these really a chance to build on the resume? Or do you think at the end of the day, these are just ways for these conferences to jam 60,000 people in the stadiums and make more money for their respective conferences? I mean, the first answer is money. I mean, the Big 12 having a championship with 10 teams in it, and it's always going to be a rematch. I mean, that's just absolutely absurd.

The fact that they do that. But they just do it because, what was it, the one year? Was it TCU or Baylor, whoever, got left out of the playoff because they didn't have as stronger as a resume? So they added the game and it added money and it adds revenue. I mean, it is what it is. But I think it's intriguing. It's for money, but it's also a matchup.

I mean, of course, I mean, LSU, Georgia, I feel like you've got to be pretty excited about, right? Yeah. It's one of those days where you just get in front of your television and you hit the clicker and you just move around from game to game to game. There isn't one. And I'll be honest, not that I'm a huge Alabama fan, but Alabama has been the heavy enemy for a better part of a decade.

Not having Alabama in one of these things in the SEC championship game doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be any more of a must watch for me. Because when Alabama was in an SEC championship game, you were hoping that somebody from the east would make it a game of it. They normally didn't do so. LSU, I'm interested about because for all these years of, we have everything but the quarterback, they finally do, and they're one victory away from being in the tournament,

and probably either a very worst case, a number two seat, about maybe a number one, depending on Ohio State does in a Big Ten championship game. I don't know. I will agree with you on the fact that I really do believe, if you're going to have these conference championship games, they need to be in 12-team leagues. I think the NCAA, I can't believe a couple of years ago when Nebraska left to go to the Big Ten,

Colorado left to go to the Pac-12, leaving the Big 12 with 10, that they didn't say, look, if you want to keep this championship game, if you want to have this halaciously big revenue for one time with big television dollars, you need to have 12 teams in two divisions. Well, they did, yeah, it did go away for a little bit.

And then they did, I think they had to get some kind of exemption or a waiver or something. They had to do something in order to have this game. It wasn't just like, hey, we're going to have this game. There had to be some kind of process of an exemption or a waiver or something. I can't recall all the details of it. Yeah, because selfishly, Ross, that was how we being the University of Houston, we're going to try to convince the Big 12 to say, hey, you want this Big 12 championship game that you love so much, did you get a chance to be in the national stage and go to Kansas?

Kansas City and put 70,000 people in, you need two more teams. And when that provision got erased and that you could play with just 10, that eliminated the – and Ross, to be honest with, that's what the Big 12 knew. The Big 12 knew they didn't have – because of the expansion, the lack of a championship game with only just 10 teams, they were in no rush to expand. If the NCAA would have held them to their feet of the fire and said, no, you must have 12, then I think that we would have in 2019 two additional teams in the Big 12. Could you get like Cincinnati and BYU?

Those are the teams I was thinking of. Oh. I mean, those are possibilities. Who are you thinking of? I was thinking Houston and BYU. Why, something caught in your throat? Yeah, I'm sorry. You got a little frog in my throat.

Must be coming down with something. I hope you don't get pneumonia. Wow, okay. That was ominous. Well, not ominous. I just said I hope you don't get pneumonia. Okay, I hope I don't either. All right.

Well, Joe Klet will join us here coming up in a couple of minutes. We'll get on the Texans beat in a half an hour. Did you watch, I don't know how much you watched the various talk shows on TV in the afternoon. You know, the ESPNs, they have the Pablo and whatever show, and then they have the pardon interruption. 80% of the shows yesterday were, what's wrong with the Patriots? And I thought Tom Brady, and I don't like defending Tom Brady under any circumstance because it's painful for me to do. but Tom Brady was right. He went on his radio show in Boston yesterday and said,

we're 10 and 2, not 2 and 10. Ross, I may be the minority on this, but I am not ready to bury the New England Patriots. When you are 10 and 2, granted, you're in a crappy division, but they've also had some impressive wins over the course of the season like they do every year. When you get to 10, I don't care what division you're in,

you're beating some good teams. This notion of they're just an afterthought. I'm just not ready to roll out the red carpet and give Baltimore the free pass of the AFC championship, especially if that game, if somehow some way, the Patriots overtake the Ravens for the number one seeing the AFC playoffs. Well, I get me, look, there's a lot of football to be played. I'm not writing off the Patriots either.

I just think they're a little bit, they're looking a little bit vulnerable. And of course, like you said, they're 10 and 2, but they still, they didn't look great against Eagles. They struggled, what was the other game? They struggled before they play the Texans. They lost to the Baltimore Ravens But they only gave up seven points

They lost to the Ravens. Their last four games are a loss to the Ravens, 17 to 10 over the Eagles who we're seeing are crappy, and 13 and 9 against the Cowboys who we're seeing are crappy, and then a loss to the Texans. I will bury them, and we'll all have great delight in burying them. But it has to be in January.

No, yeah, I'm not burying them either. Look, if the Texans had to go up to New England and play the Patriots, you know who I'm picking in that game. Yeah. And their names don't rhyme with Mewston Mexins. Well done. I'm telling you, I think the Patriots, they will never say, they know they're not as good as they were in years past.

They may not even think they're as good enough to beat Baltimore. But I don't think they mind this, oh, you think we're done, roll. That's a very, very easy way to kind of slide by team when you don't think they've got anything left in the tank. They do need receiver help. That is true. But their defense had a bad game. I've seen enough of the Green, New England this year in prime time and major games

to know that's one of the best and stiffer defenses that you'll find in the NFL. Joel Clatt will talk with us about the college football playoffs. We will know who they will be, who they will be, one coming up this weekend, championship weekend. And, of course, Joel with Fox will have, I believe he's doing the Big Ten championship game. Let's go! And now, we're talking college football with Joel Clatt. Brought to you by Dos Echis, official beers by.

sponsor of the college football playoff. It is our final visit of the year with Fox Sports lead analyst. On the college football slate, Joel Klett. I'm Matt Thomas here in San Antonio Ross and Nick are back in Houston. Although we'll get Joel on to talk some XFL coming up this February because he'll be on the call with Kurt Menofee as the XFL goes to Fox. Joel, generally speaking, are you a fan of conference championship weekend? I am, yes. I think that it could be made even better if we did what I've been arguing for for what seems like forever, but I know it's only five years, which is make the playoff a mandatory

that you have to win your conference in order to get selected for the 14th playoffs. This could be an even bigger weekend. It could act as a pseudo-quarter final game. But yeah, yeah, I love conference championship games because what I think general fans fail to realize is just how important it is in these programs to some of these fan bases to be the champion of their conference. I know it means a huge deal in the SEC because of how proud they are of their fine conference. I know it's a big deal in the Big Ten. You know, I know that in the Big 12, the conference I played in, it was a massive deal. And so the success in those games, I think, can, it can promote a high.

hierarchy within the conference that can bleed into things like recruiting, which is, of course, the lifeblood of your program. So I think that these have massive importance, not just on potentially crowning a national champion, but all the things under it that affect college football. All right. This may be a fairly simple question, but I don't want to hear from your voice. Can LSU, Ohio State, and Clemson, can any of them lose and still make the college football playoff. Yes, I think that maybe not all three. I would say Ohio State and LSU could absolutely afford to lose and still go. I'm not sure about Clemson, but if LSU wins, then I think Clemson goes. Does that make sense? Because then you don't have, see, what you would have is if they

all three lost, then that means Georgia wins and they're in. That means Ohio State is still in, right? And then you would have a Big 12 and a Pac 12 champion potentially that would have one loss and they would be a conference champion and they would likely have a much better resume than Clemson. So it would have to be eye test that would put Clemson. I think it would promote a precarious situation for Clemson to be quite honest with you because of the lack of strength out of the ACC. No fault of their own. They've been dominant. They've been terrific. I think people desperately want to avoid them in that first round of the playoff. But if you're asking, like, is there a situation where they could miss the playoffs?

There is, even if it's a small percentage, I think that they probably still need to win. But I think they would only be in peril if Georgia also won the SEC. I hope that that makes sense. It does. For our Texas audience, or our southern audience, for that matter, if I got a Baylor fan, listen to me right now, Joel, what would have to happen for them to sneak in, and I would ask the same thing about Oklahoma? Well, Oklahoma's going to have a really good case. Okay, so Matt, when you're looking at all these resumes, if Utah wins, if chalk happens, right? So Georgia is now out, and shock runs. So then we're debating between essentially Utah and Oklahoma for that fourth spot. And I think you can make a really strong argument.

that Oklahoma has a more sound resume than Utah. They would have more wins over currently ranked teams. They would have two wins over a team that has 11 wins currently in Baylor. That would be better than any win that Utah has, even if they were to beat Oregon, who only has 10 wins right now. So that's a big deal. So OU, based on resume, now, based on just domination of games, margin of victory, which is not supposed to be.

taken into consideration, but it's there for people to see and debate and talk about. I think Utah might get an eye test over OU, but we'll have to see. Then it comes down to like Baylor. Okay, so Baylor, I don't think Baylor would get in over Utah if Utah were to win. So the situation for Baylor, folks, they are absolutely alive. Here's how it happens. LSU beats Georgia, Utah, Utah loses to Oregon. Baylor beats Oklahoma and Baylor is in, Matt.

I'm telling you like, it won't be, they would be in the playoff, which if you're just thinking about what has happened and transpired over the last three years with Matt Ruhl and in Waco, Texas, is that not just like the most shocking truth of all time that he's built this point to a place where a couple of things go their way this weekend and they're in the college football playoff? It's pretty remarkable. So let's recap that again for first. everybody. LSU beats Georgia, Utah,

who loses to Oregon, which is a possibility. Oregon, which is absolutely, listen, these are not out of the realm of possibility here at all. Then Baylor is in a win and in, and think about it from this standpoint, they will have a really good, they will have a really good idea when they kick off on Saturday against OU, whether they're playing for basically an automatic bid or not. not, right? Because they'll know, like, when and you're in as long as LSU takes care of business in the next window. So, I mean, this is going to be an amazing, that could be a supercharged environment in particular because OU is going to know exactly what they're up against pending Georgia winning or not. So that's off the table. That's basically kind of a win and in as long as LSU takes care of their business, pending on what happens on Friday night in the Pact 12 championship game.

Joel Klatte from Fox Sports with us here on the Matt Thomas show. Joel, one more Baylor thing, because I've been a Matt Ruhl fan, and I've told you this on many different occasions ever covering his teams up in Temple. Is Matt Ruhl going to get offers this year, this offseason, that he's going to have to seriously think about? Yes, and not just from other colleges. I think other colleges will come after him hard. There's not a great job out there that I think he should jump for,

but I think that the NFL is going to come hard for him. I'm going to be shocked if Atlanta doesn't make a really strong bid for Matt Rule. I know that's been speculated upon, but he's been incredible. I mean, think about what he did at Temple, and now he's replicating that. What I would argue is a tougher place to replicate it at because of what was going on when he took the job at Baylor. So at Temple, he went from two wins, then six, then 10 in his third year. At Baylor, one win in his first year, then seven, now 11. in this third year. I mean, are we

kids, like, this is, we all talk about Lincoln Riley and Nick Sabin and Davosweeney and Ryan Day and as we should. They've done remarkable job. Think of what this guy has done at Temple and Baylor. Like, he

can flat coach the stuffing out of the football if you know what I mean. I think we do. Let me get your thoughts about the staff changes that are about to happen that have already happened at University of Texas. You've been around college football a long time. When the staff changes come into play, what does that then mean for the man who's in charge of that staff? Well, it certainly

puts him more on the hot seat. And I've seen it work in both ways. Mac Brown tried to do this late at Texas. It didn't work out. Charlie Strong tried to do this a couple of times. It didn't work out. But think of what Bob Stoops did a few years ago. Remember when he made those wholesale changes to his offensive staff, and guess who he brought in, Lincoln Riley. So it worked out for OU in that sense, and it's worked out other places. So if you get the right people and you've recruited the right players, then it can really pop. So we'll see who they get as their offensive coordinator. I honestly believe that they should not bark up the Joe Brady tree.

One, they're going to have to overpay because LSU, he's such a sentimental favorite at LSU that LSU is going to wildly overpay to keep Joe Brady. And good for him. I'm not suggesting that's not a bad thing, but there's no reason to get in to an overbidding process for a guy that has not been a sole coordinator in his career yet. It hasn't really been a play caller in his career yet. When there's other young guys out there, whether it's Graham Hale or Carol with his ties to Texas and just the state in general from a high school coaching perspective and his success at Texas Tech, that could be a little bit of a better fit. Major Applewhite, although Major Applewhite is an interesting one because of what he dealt with off the field at Texas in a previous stint as the head coach, or excuse me, as an assistant coach at the University of Texas. But all I'm trying to say is this can work, Matt. We've seen it work. It worked incredibly well for OU, and we've also seen it not work.

But to your point, it puts you as a head coach on, I don't want to say the chopping block, but certainly on the hot seat. The crosshairs move because there's only so many times that you can point the finger around the room before that finger ultimately lands on you. All right. Last question is that we won't visit before the playoffs. If the playoffs were tomorrow, tell me who the four teams are going to be and then size them up for me and who would win a national championship. All right. So I think that this is ultimately going to land this way. And I know big 12 teams are not going to be happy with me.

But I do think Utah is going to win Friday night. And I actually think that they might win in a pretty convincing fashion by two touchdowns or more, which is really going to make an impact on that committee. That committee already likes Utah. They've been dominant. If you look at what they've been doing, eight straight wins by an average of 29 points. They've won their last 14 games when their quarterback, Tyler Huntley, and their running back, Zach Moss have both finished and played all four quarters in those last 14. They're balanced. I think that they win, and I think they get the fourth spot with that.

chalk happening above. Clemson's going to win. Ohio State's going to win. I think LSU is going to beat Georgia with Georgia's struggle that they've had on the offensive side. And now we're looking at, I believe, Ohio State will retain the number one seed, play Utah, and then we're going to have an LSU-Clemson matchup. Matt, I've got to tell you, the last team I want to see is Clemson.

If I was forced to bet money as much as I've supported Ohio State throughout the year, and this may change based on how they play in the next few weeks, I'd be hard pressed not to say Clemson's got the best quarterback and a deep team, a really great running back, good defense, and a coach that's been there. That's going to be hard for me to bet against Clemson.

Joel, always a pleasure of visiting with you. Safe travels to the Big Ten this weekend and we will need to catch up with you when you come to Houston for your first NFL game in the spring. Yeah, I can't wait. That's going to be first Saturday after the Super Bowl and I believe I opened the year in Houston.

So that'll be a fun one. Joe, great commentary of all fall, and we always appreciate it. We'll catch up soon with you, friend. Thanks for the time, as always. Thanks, Matt. Have a good one, bud. You got it. Joe Clack, Fox Sports on the Big Ten championship game this weekend,

and XFL coming up of this spring. Craig Ackerman here. When I'm not calling Rockets basketball, I'm following at Sports RV on Twitter. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Well, Craig, totally. telling you who his favorite is on this show. That's fine.

It is the Matt Thomas show here from San Antonio, where tonight, Noel Lamarcus Aldridge for the Spurs. It appears Clint Capela will be coming back. We don't know about Daniel House. Man, this flu, Ross, has inundated sports. The Patriots had like 10 players. Seattle had the flu. The Rockets have had a couple of players.

I feel like we could all connect this all to, like, some strip club that they all frequented, recently. And it's just spread like a virus. I was going to say church. I was going to say church. You said strip club. Well, St. James is known as the church. Yeah, on the north side.

Is that what it is? That every athlete just goes through a strip club and they wind up catching the same disease? Yeah, we've got to find patient zero on this. Like, who is the original stripper who just got every athlete in America sick? The options are, A, Desiree. Okay. B. I think Diamond might have done it.

Glorious, which is really an odd name for a stripper. Yeah, glorious. Is it the 1950s? Yeah. Or C. Sunshine. Hmm. I'm telling you, if this radio career, mine doesn't work out, guess what I'm doing? Matt, you'll be a fantastic strip club DJ.

Yeah, I wouldn't be able to do the, I'd have you do the music. You and I can work as a tandem like we kind of do now. You handle the music, I just handled the microphone. Wait, wait, what am I doing? And what are you, you're DJing? Yeah, but I don't know how to, I don't know how to, can I just put in one after the other to do it that way? I mean, you can let the strippers pick the songs. They like to pick their own songs anyways.

Okay. That's what I'm saying. And then you do your, oh, yeah, here we go. Yeah, out on the main stage right now, it is Diamond. And then you can throw in like little sports facts. Did you know that Ted Williams had a batting average of 344 in his career? On the stage right now. Now a beautiful young lady that's dated four members of the Texans defensive line.

I present to you peaches. Whitney Marshallis has 26 QB hits this year, and now here's Fantasia. So you're saying, like, do a sports strip club? Yes. Could you start tracking stripper stats? Wow. with 26 dances given tonight.

We're not going to keep the other stats. How about this one? Walk to the stage. Introduce yourself to Monica and she'll tell you which quarterback to start in your fantasy league this year. Like, you know how we have Dr. Roto people call on an email again?

You have to walk up from a stripper. Bring dollar bills and you ask her fantasy questions. Football, of course. Yeah, I don't think she's going to be able to help you too much. You know, we're always trying to find The way of ways to open up new businesses. Hey, do you think Chris Harris is going to get shadow coverage from DeAndre Hopkins?

Should I play him or what do you think? She's not going to know. But she'll give you an answer. I don't think she would not give you an answer. Okay. I like this idea a lot. Yeah. I'm always trying to be some sort of entrepreneur.

Well, just give us some more of your stripper DJ voice, Matt, because I think you do really good at it. Yeah. I got a problem is that. I got to get into character. I'm in a hotel room. I can't do this right now. That's where the night ends. That's right.

By the way, I should be getting to Toronto like at 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock in the morning, Houston time. Now, I don't know if it's Toronto or it's Montreal that has the amazing strip clubs. I think it's Montreal. But I may have to check out Toronto just in case maybe Toronto's got it plus, you know, plus club system. Do they take American dollars in the strip clubs? I would think so.

Yeah, they'll take anything you got. I was going to say, they're not like a Korean one or whatever. He's got to take it to the airport and get it converted. You're good. But you're telling me, if I took a $20 American bill to the club up to the strip club and gave one of the girls, she'd be like, I can't accept that this is not American. This is not Canadian money? No, she'd take it immediately.

Yeah. Yeah, I figured she would. All right. How do we get on this to begin with? Some of the things we talk about. I just don't understand. Well, we were talking about how everybody in America is an athlete got the flu, and they probably got it from church.

Sure. Well, from, yeah, St. James. That one $5 bill that hit 7G strings. That's true. Those things are probably pretty nasty, brother. Tom and downtown. Can you play, believe it or not, if these blanks are real? Hashtag strip club MT? Oh, no. That'd be more like a visual, believe it or not, correct? Yeah, and you might have to touch, and then you're going to get charged with assault, so that's unfortunate.

Yeah, we don't need to, you know, will you get arrested if you touch the? 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-21-2-5-790 we got Aaron Reese joining us the next segment but I can I ask you all a serious question as much as we're not overly serious does the Rocket Spurs I-10 San Antonio we hate you kind of thing is that resonating at all this year or the last couple of years because the reason why I say I'm struggling with it is because for all the years that San Antonio was so good it was such a one-sided series they were winning the championships the Rockets were on the outside looking in now the Rockets are a clearly better basketball team

San Antonio is in rebuild mode Ross and you know what Spur fan wants to go to look at our run we were due for one of these that's like giving up they're like semi comfortable with being 7 and 14 on the year. I don't think they are. There's some beatwriter I follow from the San Antonio Express News. And he is just so fun.

He's like, you know how Chandler Rome goes after Astros fans and makes funny remarks and all the crazy things they say? He does the exact same thing with Spurs fans who are expecting them to win 50 games a year every year for the rest of their lives. And it's actually pretty entertaining. I think I only followed. I followed him like in the 2016 playoff series just to,

to keep tabs on the Spurs, and I never unfollowed because he just crushes Spurs fans, and I love it. Yeah, Chandarom is a great Astrofan crusher. Usually it goes with, then why are you following me? Which happens to a lot of us. At least now, we know that losing sucks. And if anybody knows how much losing sucks, it's Matt Thomas. I'm outstanding.

This is Whitney Merciless. Back to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Time for our weekly visit with Aaron Reese from The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter for all things on the Texans, Aaron J-R-E-I-S-S. Aaron, why was Bill O'Brien so grumpy after the win Monday when the guys gave him the game ball? I mean, that was, I mean, six tries against a Patriots his first victory. So, you know what he coached his ass off? He should deserve a little opportunity to sit back and celebrate and relax and enjoy that one.

Yeah, you know, I think it's the classic sort of. on to the next one sort of mentality. He even joked that, I guess, he was talking to his dad on Monday, and then someone asked him if he said that he told his dad on the next one, and he said, yes, I'm like, onto Denver dad, which is a very funny thing to imagine. But, you know, it seemed like he enjoyed it in the locker with his players for a moment. And then after that, he went back to kind of deflecting praise and stuff.

What was the I would say the most surprising thing to me and I'll let you answer the question was the fact that Tom Brady felt like his receivers more times than not were covered up so here's my scenario you give me which one's accurate

the Texan secondary played out of its mind or we just don't realize with the lack of threats the Patriots have downfield which is more accurate you can't say a little bit of both I'm not letting you say that okay all right well if if I can't say a little about I'll say more of the, I'll say more of the former that it's a Patriots kind of lack of talent.

I do think that, I do think that the Texan secondary is, you know, maybe it hasn't been very good this year, but it hasn't been very healthy for most of the year. So it's, you know, it's, it probably, that probably is we've forgotten to some degree, the potential of what that group can be. I still know necessarily if I would view it as a strength of the team by any means. But it was good, though. I mean, look, the Patriots still score touchdowns. The offense is not nearly as prolific, but they were healthier. Mohamed Mohman Sunu was out there. They still use the tight end.

I like to use Gronk, although it's just way different of a scenario. I mean, sometimes you've got to sit back and go, all right, Jonathan Joseph and Reed and company out there. You did your job. And for all the weeks that we've crushed them and have been worried about their health and their efficiency and getting downfield, Roeby and Company, I thought was probably one of their best games. and it came at the absolute right time. Oh, yeah. I mean, 100%.

And, you know, the scheme was good. I mean, I looked it up in there. It was a season high in terms of a number of science and five movies out there really six. And, you know, the alternative to be covering a running back kind of prevent Brady from just killing them with those those. But running back says, I was doing that as those phones at times. And so, no, it certainly worked.

And, you know, I do think, you know, You look at kind of the tracking data and extra steps, stuff. Like they were consistently around Brady, but that's the part because, you know, like you said, you said he was standing back there for a while. But, you know, it's certainly promising in terms of just kind of what the second area you can be. Maybe we'll get a chance to see that during the rest of the year. If Geron County comes back and then will be healthy through the end of the year,

a place where they haven't been healthy all year. And, you know, the pass rush is coming along and being at least something. They certainly still miss a lot. imagine that clownie would be helpful, but they have something that now with Jacob Martin for the time being. Do you buy this? J.J. Watt could be ready for the playoffs, or are they just, is this hoping a prayer at this point?

Yeah, you know, I still don't necessarily buy that. I'm sure it's not based on nothing, but it would be a pretty aggressive timeline. And, you know, the report was kind of like this might happen if they make the playoffs. I think that probably even if it was possible, we need a little bit longer before there's a clear picture on it. Amazing with Aaron Reese from the athletic here on the Matt Thomas show. We also saw perhaps as much Duke Johnson as we've seen at any point during the course of the year. Was this just a situational move by Bill O'Brien against the Patriots defense, or do you think Duke's going to get more and more playing time over Carlos High in the last four weeks of the season?

it was it was literally as much more Duke Johnson they ever seen in terms of his most touches of the Texan and I think his most snaps so I think you know the way you go around I've talked about this all year kind of is that he's Duke Johnson as a change of pace guy

not necessarily as the workhorse sort of person and there is value in Carliside even if you know if he never gets if he never switched his place with he has he has value as kind of that that lead guy They're mostly splitting the carries, but you know, you can just delete put them in second and medium or second and short.

And that's valuable because they really have that a little more Miller. But, you know, I do think that there's also a place more for Duke Johnson if Kiki Kruit is going to be on the bench because they don't really have that kind of horizontal speed guy. You can put out wide as a receiver in the slot or whatever playing the backfield to do a bunch of different stuff within motion. I don't know if you've done this yet because Wolf Fuller has obviously between the ailments. He's had some good catches before he got hurt. He was used in one big throw the other day that the ball slipped out of his hands because of the corner, you know, pushing it at the very last second. By just having Will out there, is that going to be enough to stretch everybody out to allow the underneath stuff to be successful?

Because that may sound like a stupid question. But here it comes. Can just him running deep down the field and always being a threat be enough? Or does he have to be a part of the deep threat Texans offense in order for this team to really get their offense going to a, to its highest level. I mean, I think, obviously, if he does, you know, make a few impact plays that has an effect of the U.S., but I do get what you're saying. I believe he does.

And then all the numbers would indicate this, right? Because when it, in terms of games, when he's on the field or not all of those games, if he's catching, you know, five passes and two touchdowns for 100 yards, right? He's having a huge statistical impact, but I think he kind of has a sort of gravity tool or something. He sucks the defense's attention in a way, and that does open a lot of those things that are needed. And, you know, by overall efficiency and everything, Texas does it so much better when he is on the field, and some of those games don't require him to put up a lot of numbers himself. We're visiting again with Aaron Reese and the Athletic here on the Matt Thomas show.

Denver wins a nail-biter with the L.A. Chargers. I know that there's a tremendous amount of respect for Bill O'Brien for Vic Fangio and what he's doing in his first year there, although the record does not indicate that. Under the auspice of the Texans should respect all opponents. Should they be scared that Denver's in here to try to disrupt this good run of the Texans as of late? No, I don't really think so. I mean, I think, you know, despite that pretty good performance from the Texas defense against England, the defense is still kind of the weaker point of this team, right,

and the thing that is most concerned, maybe even so arguably, the secondary or kind of the past events because of the past rush and all of things, despite, again, what they did in New England. And so if you're facing a rookie quarterback in Drewock, I think that they should be able to pull this one out. All right. Last question for a let you run. You got the Tennessee Titans two times after this Denver game in the last three weeks, which I think is terrible scheduling by the NFL, but that's neither here nor there.

What have you seen? Because you work with the network with the athletic and different teams. what has happened? Is it simply Ryan Tannahill change has inspired this team to do special things? The ground game has been good. The special teams have helped with a touchdown. Why in the world are we talking about the Tennessee Titans being the number one threat to the Texans winning the AFC South this year? Yeah, you know, I think there was some stat that, like Derek Henry has now this past 16 games or 17 games, 100 plus yards in each game on the ground.

And so that's one is one thing I think It hasn't been realized It's been split over two seasons But I think he's really kind of come into The tier of the top top running backs in the league And then additionally I think Daniel is just playing out of his mind There's a there's a step that's like a completion percentage Above expectation

It's based on you know like how tight of a windows of all being thrown into And how close to the close defender is all those sort of factors And Tannenhill leads all quarterbacks in the NFL by a lot, and obviously the sample size is smaller, but, you know, he's completing 72.7% of his passes, and the expectation of 63.1. So I think that I kind of like that status as the metric of how much the guy is doing beyond what is just kind of being set up for him.

And, you know, he's obviously playing at a crazy level. The question of me is, like, how much longer does it last? It's the last all season, the last couple games. You know, because he might be better than he was in Miami. His situation might be great for him, all those things. but I have to imagine at some point it comes down to earth at least a little bit. And it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for them to do it twice in the next three weeks of the year after the Denver game. Anything else in terms of surprise?

Look, I know Buffalo is a surprise. Pittsburgh is in the mix. You're seeing I-Test. You've seen New England in person. You've seen Baltimore. The consensus, it feels like everybody believes that Ravens are the significantly better football team. Would you like to back that up and say significantly, or do you say, if you're sleeping on the Patriots, you're still making a major mistake? You know, I think obviously it's matchup dependent.

I do think that, and I'm sure Bill the Altschuk would have a game plan to kind of fix all the holes that his team showed against the Texans this week. But I do think that the Texans match up better with the Patriots than the Ravens, just because, you know, I think that the run defensive started to have some cracks in it and just all. the kind of complications of the things that the Ravens present. I just think that they are and this is really applies against any team in the NFL, right? I just think that they are the most difficult matchup because they're so different. And so if I'm the Texans, I would rather play the Patriots and maybe not just because you beat them, but I just think that that makes more sense

for them. And then, you know, the Chiefs, you know, they're kind of rounding in the form here. I think this test against doing it will be really interesting. But, you know, it seems kind of like people have forgotten about them or, you know, who is being talked about because Baltimore are so exciting all this stuff. But, you know, the Chiefs now, if they're playing their best football in the postseason, then, you know, they again should be a Super Bowl contender. We'll leave it at that.

Aaron, thank you for the time of visit again next Tuesday. We appreciate the visit. Yeah, thanks. You got it. Aaron J. Reese, R-E-I-S-S on Twitter for All Things Texans from The Athletic. And how about Lance McCullers? Lance McCullors. Back to Matt Thomas.

Curve all swinging in a mid-strike three. On Sports Talk 790, your home for Houston Astros baseball. The time is 148. Ross is working on today's edition of Believe it or not, which is all things about the San Antonio Spurs of this season. I cannot wait for you, Ross, to find out interesting anecdotes about Lonnie Walker the 4th. Who?

A Jacob Pertil. Bless you. A Trey Liles. Okay. A Damari Carroll, if you will. A Derek White. What about Damar Roder Rosen? The people know him.

Okay. Tweet from our buddy Jesse. There hasn't been an I-10 rivalry except for two seasons in the 1990s. There's only been one-sided jealousy by Rocket Fans. Oh, my God. It's just like the rivalry, and he puts it in quotes between the Texans and the Cowboys. It doesn't exist except for the human beings. Houston fans. That is as hot

bacony of a take that anybody can... Matter of fact, this this take was... This bacony take was sizzled here in San Antonio, and I bet you can smell it in Houston right now. Am I right? Yeah. I'm going to tell you this for the one... Not tell you this, Ross, but just tell the collective world. For the one main of time. And I don't mean to speak on behalf of all of you that are

Texans fans, but I'm going to. you do not consider the Dallas Cowboys arrival. You just don't. Because you can't have a rivalry when you play once every four years. It's impossible. Now, if you were to play in four in the next six Super Bowls, that'd be a rivalry. If the Texans and the Cowboys played every year in the same division or the same conference, that'd be a rivalry. But playing for the Governor's Cup in the month of August does not.

make it a rival. So I can very effectively tell and represent all of you that are Texans fans. When I tell you cowboy fans, no one thinks you're a rival. Is it a very interesting game? Yes. Is there large amounts of smack talk? Absolutely. But when you play once every four years, it's not a rivalry. So to compare Texans versus Cowboys to Spurs Rockets is foolish. Correct. So with that being said, I think I know the reason why the Rocket Spurs doesn't have the same oomph that it might have had, say, 15, 20 years ago. I'll give you some reasons. You tell me, Ross, when I'm wrong.

Largely, San Antonio has dominated the series. Yes. Namely because of World Championships, that's the only... Yeah, they tanked to get Tim Duncan, good for them. And it worked out effectively. And secondly, the most important thing in the last couple of years, they don't have the stars. the stars that we hate. We can't, we don't hate

DeMar de Rosen. We don't hate Rudy Gay. Yeah, the team's irrelevant right now. Nobody cares about them. We don't hate Patty Mills. In fact, we kind of like when he talks. The Australian accent's quite interesting. But Rossi, we hated Manu Genobali.

We hated Tony Parker. Although we had one of the all-time kittens all the time. Kitten? What? Eva. All-time kitten? You know what I mean? No, I didn't.

I thought you were really talking about a cat he owned. No. Well, whoever says, hey, look at that kitten on that guy's all I'm over there. I'm trying to go PG for the radio show. Okay. Very PG. You're not allowing me to go down that PG.

I was just confused. That's all. We hated Tim Duncan and his hair dye. Hmm. I didn't hate him. Tim Duncan dies hair. I didn't hate him. He went great at the end there.

I didn't like him. I respected Tim Duncan. I didn't like Managed Yoblo. I mean, I liked him. Managed Yobble would flop all over the place and score like 15 points and everybody would act like he was the best player in the NBA. Like I did hate Manage Jolobli. We don't hate.

I mean, even though Lamarcus Alders takes way too many top of the key jumpers, we kind of laugh about that? Right. You know what I mean? We don't hate Marco Bellanelli. No, not really. we don't get mad at Dejante Murray when he does something you're correct

that's the reason why we don't have anything what do we just sink our teeth in San Antonio a fan can sink in their teeth into oh rest of james bleh yeah gross oh three point shots and no layups no mid-range they don't have anybody shooting top of the key jumpers like our

Lamarcus does we've got nothing on the San Antonio side. They're focused on just having a crappy team and complaining about that. And I'm going to tell you something right now that I never thought I'd ever say. After coming here for 40 years, the Riverwalk officially sucks. Wait a minute. The Riverwalk sucks since I was a kid. I remember going there and it was, it stank.

I call it the sewage walk, Matt. I tried to raise the flag for the riverwalk. It's nice to walk, but 98% of the restaurants absolutely suck. Yeah, the food's not good. It's overpriced. The place stinks. The water is, it looks like it's like sewage backup. You can only go to Dick's last resort so many times.

Yeah, I said it. Come at me, San Antonio. Because here's the thing. I have family in this town. That'd be the first to tell you. The Riverwalk sucks. Now, the only reason why it's cool here, there are lots of very nice hotels. Everything is walking distance.

So if they were to host a Final Four, you can get around pretty easily. And there's, you know, there's places to go get really smashed, but it's going to cost you a lot of money. We don't need, you know what? We ought to do, Ross. Let's ask for San Antonio to be contracted from the Southwest Division. Let's put them in the East. We only have to play them one time a year. You know what?

There was an NBA writer that had an interesting discussion. It would never happen, but about contracting basically like half the NBA. And then you'd have like 16 super teams. I wouldn't be for that. I'd be for moving cities teams from one city to the next to freshen it up a little bit. Because anybody, I mean, does anybody really care about like the Memphis Grizzlies right now? Like, does Las Vegas Grizzlies sounds 10 times sexier than the... And that does.

You just want to go to Vegas every year. Calm down. Do the Seattle Grizzlies sound better than the Memphis Grizzlies? No, just make them the Seattle Supersonics so they go back. D. Duh. That's 100% going to happen. How about the Kansas City Nets?

No, they're doing well in Brooklyn. Okay. Right? The Kansas City Hornets. The Kansas City Pelicans. You get my drift. The Charlotte Hornets are an institution. No, they're not.

Name five Hornets. Let's see. Don't say Larry Johnson. I'm going to say Alonzo Morning. No, you can't do it. I can't do it. No one can do it. People in Charlotte came in name five-bye.

I got one. I got one. Nicholas Batoon. And I think I'm tapped out. You could have said Kimba Walker, but you'd be wrong. I almost said Kimball Walker, but I never remember he was a Celtic. All right. So I'm going Nick Batum and I'm done.

We ought to play a pawn game of name that obscure player from certain team that you think you should know, but you really don't know. Like really right now, can you name me five Orlando, Magic. All right. I just went to the, now I'm actually going to the Hornets roster.

They've made, these names are made up. Who are they? Dwayne Bacon. Come on. Oh yeah. He's not real. No, he's not real.

No, he's not real. No, he's fake, Matt. Okay, sorry. Robert Franks, that sounds made up. Never heard of them. Miles Bridges, made up.

Maybe. Caleb Martin. No chance. Cody Martin? Oh. Oh, Malik Monk. Yeah, should have got that one, I guess.

Terry Rozier, they gave a bunch of money too. Listen to that. That's an NBA team. That should be contracted right this second. Marvin Williams is still kicking. Good for him. No. Was he 40?

Was Andrew Bogot not far behind on that team too? Wow. All right. So I want to know, do we really have any hate for San Antonio? I think the answer is no. I don't think tonight people are going to be smack-talking each other from each part of I-10. Because really, look, the Spurs will win some games.

They're not going to be bored of winning any games, but the Rocket should win this game, especially with Nolan Marcus Aldridge. DeBarter Rosen will cause some issues, but the Rockets won three or four meetings against Spurs last year, and they probably should win three or four this year. And we'll have it for you here on Sports Talk 790 beginning at 6 o'clock with the launch pad.

Hosted by Michael Connor, 630, by the way. Oh, sorry, it's a 730 tip time. I forgot about that. All right. Let's get the final hour start of the Matt Thomas show here from San Antonio where the riverwalk sucks. It just does. Not other parts of San Antonio are very nice. I was one of the last holdouts of, hey, the riverwalk is cool.

No more. Is the Matt Thomas Show. Here we go, the final hour of the Matt Thomas show. Our time is 202. If you missed our conversations with Joel Clad and Aaron Reese on college football and of the Texans, you can certainly get to our. website and the what's on matchmind show page at sports 790.com. Ross and Nick are back in our Houston studios. I'm here in the Animal City at 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-1-2-5-7-90 is how you reach our show. Anything and everything is fair game this hour. That would include we talked very briefly earlier, Ross, about a certain team kicking the tires on not one. great pitcher but two, your thoughts on the New York Yankees, possibly going after Gary Cole and Steven Strasbourg. My thoughts are I don't like it. My thoughts are I don't want it to happen.

My thoughts I would like them to not land either of them. But like I said, looking at their payroll, it looks like they can afford probably one of them, at least, maybe, but both is not happening. Both just can't happen unless they're just going to shell out ungodly. amounts of money and the competitive balance tax, especially over the next couple of years. And the fact is, if he, if Garrett, we'll worry about Cole more than anything else. If Cole goes to the Yankees, it'll be about a bunch of people with innuendo that's wrong. Because the thought was he wanted to go to the left coast because that's where we went to

college. And I guess the wife is from there and the thought of, you know, a SoCal kid being able to play for either the Padres or the Dodgers or the Angels would be something very interesting. Although, what we don't seem to talk about enough is the New York Yankees were the team that originally drafted Eric Cole. And maybe they are like, you know what, mistakes were made. We're going to pay you as much as humanly possible. We're going to get you that $35 plus million a year that you want for a long period of time.

And they may be able to say, we can pay you when other teams cannot. So, you know, again, Ross, it'll be a sad day. I'm going to be sad to matter where he ends up but I can stomach it a little bit more if he finds himself in a National League ballpark as compared to going against a team that the Astros will be competing with

you would think for the next couple of years for supremacy in the American League. Also, we were talking a little bit about the NBA and how maybe there just isn't that zest for the rivalry between the Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs. How about this? Did you see last night

the Golden State Warriors Ross lost of the Atlanta Hawks who were beaten by the Rockets 158 to 111 over the weekend. Close one. You mean a tip time? Zero, zero. Yes, it was close. It was close to zero.

It was close to tip. With that loss yesterday, the Golden State Warriors are now owners of the worst record in the NBA. Here's why I can't dance on their grave. I mean, I'm not upset.

I'll be brutally honest with you, but I'm not dancing on it. It'd be something else, Ross, if this was a team that was built with Steph Curry having his worst shooting season, Draymond Green getting tossed out of multiple games, if Clay Thompson decided he was never going to play defense again. But what the Golden State Warriors are this season is nothing close to what the Warriors were of yesterday year. There are teams that go through subtle changes like San Antonio is going through right now with the fact that Tony Parker is gone, now retired, Monobley retired, where a few years removed from Tim Duncan. But they completely, because of injuries and because of Durant going to Brooklyn,

they're like the Santa Cruz Warriors. They're not even a real team. It's like when LeBron James left Cleveland and what the Cavaliers ended up being. It's like what Michael Jordan left the Chicago Bulls in. it's not even the real warriors. So while again, I'm not sad about the fact they're not going to make the playoffs, I'm chuckling at the fact that they have the worst record in the NBA.

But Marquis Chris, who I like, you know, personally, is getting major minutes for Golden State, Ross. That doesn't make them a very good team. It just doesn't. Do the – well, this is the thing, though. Do they have their own pick the warriors? I guess I'd ask you, why would they know? Well, because I'm looking at a mock draft and I don't see them number one or in the top five at all.

So, hold on. They would, right? That's the thing that would make me mad. As long as they have their pick. Oh, I see where you're going. They're going to get the number one pick out of this. And then you're going to have Steph Curry and Clay Thompson and Draymond Green and then some young stud who's going to tear up the league. Looks like James Wiseman is thought of as the best center prospect out of Memphis.

Yeah, that's the kid that took the money from Penny Harrow. Yeah, right. I, I, I, why am I not saying them in this mock draft? Yeah, that's the angle I'm worried about. I'm worried about the Warriors being a problem for a decade again because they're going to get some good, some cheap stud as a big man or a wing or something like that. It's funny because I'm looking at this, and I'm at NBADraft.com.

Is that where you are as well? That's where I went. Yeah, how come they're not up there? Well, let's put it this way. let's tell you who's up there new york cleveland phoenix chicago and atlanta okay phoenix is kind of playing above their heads this year the rest of them are atrocious and have shown no signs of being any better so even if those five even if those four if that's how it ends up these topics won't hurt you're right though if golden state was in the mix it would it would be a like, well, help me out.

When's the last time a really great team sucked for a year and got a franchise? Oh, yeah, the Indianapolis Colts. Yeah, it would be like that. It would be like going from Peyton Manning to Andrew Luck. And then, you know, without the retirement thing. Yeah. Anthony Edwards is considered to be the number one pick for the New York Knicks. Yes.

Which I thought he was really good on ER, but I didn't think he had that kind of NBA skills. I didn't know that he was an actor. So that reference kind of went over my head. But I get what you're getting in, I guess. All right. Sorry. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90.

Paul's in Tomball, the Matt Thomas show at 208. Paul, good afternoon. Hello, how you doing, Matt? Good. Okay. Jay-J. Watts, everybody's loving, but if Houston keeps winning and doesn't make it back for the playoffs, do we better deal him to a team that's in the last place for their draft picks for next year?

Could that be on the table? No. No? No. I'll give you two reasons why. JJ Watt is bigger than the position. I mean, he is, if you were to put the quote-unquote face of the franchise, it's his face. As awesome as Deshaun is and as awesome as DeAndre is, and maybe those two guys are moving up the list.

But JJ Watt still is the face of the franchise. That shouldn't be a reason why, but knowing the way that you. Texans operate, they would use that as a major consideration. But the most important thing, though, and the reason why is, what are you expecting in return? Why would I want to trade JJ Watt for a fourth and a six-round pick? Because I think when you didn't know it's... No, I wouldn't trade him for a fourth. I'd trade him to a last-place team for a second and or two second-round picks,

or maybe a first-and-a-second round, but you'd get into a team that's in last place or something. Why would that team, wait a minute. Okay, Paul, flip it. I want you to flip it. If you're the other team, why would you do that? That sounds idiotic. Because everybody loves JJ Watson. They think he's going to make them win.

No, I think first and second round picks, I think young first and second round picks who are healthy make you win over guys that have been in the league 10 years are hurt semi-regular. I got you. No, thank you for the phone. call, but that's preposterous. Ross, if I was to set the Vegas line, JJ Watt traded by the Houston Texans at any point.

I don't think you're going to get much value for him, like you said. Now, do I envision him being perhaps released down the road or not re-signed to another multimillion-dollar contract? Yeah, possibility. But no. He has no trade value. I mean, he's got some, but it would be worth you'd be getting pennies on the dollar. because again, this is the thing about trades with people that don't seem to understand.

You have to make trades that at least both sides could justify. Just like the JDwagon Clowny trade. What's that? Just like the Jadavion Clowny trade. Oh, of course. You don't trade guys, Janavion Clowny, unless you get absolutely amazing value in return. I mean, fair market return. Like both sides win.

That's exactly right. I'm looking at J.J. Watts' contract. I don't think it would be a cap hit at all if they just let him loose after this season. Cow's not letting that happen. Cow's not running anything. Cow's on the golf course. That's true. What do you think Cal's doing right now?

Right now? Right this second. Do you think he's behind a desk? He's having a cocktail at 80Vs. How many hours does cow work behind the desk per week? 40. Less than 40. I'm going to go under 40.

And that's okay. I wish I had a billionaire dad. I wish I'm going to give us a real answer on that. I wish I knew what Cal's... I mean, who's put more hours behind the desk? Jack Easterby or Cal McNair? Jack Easterby. What's he doing?

What is Jack Easterby's desktop? Planning next Sunday sermon. He's got a PowerPoint. He's got sermon in the left corner. Yes. On the right corner, he's got the salary cap numbers that Chris Olson gave him. Yeah, he's breaking down. And it has another sticky note for your review, signed CO.

Cal's doing okay. They had 70,000 the Texans game on Sunday night, did they not? Yes, they did. They sold a few jerseys. Well, I think jersey numbers go to evenly divided between the teams, but yes.

They sold some beer and $17. Oh, man. Yeah. They delegated and charged a lot of money for parking spots. $8 pretzels. Must be nice. Must be nice.

You know what? Let's get to the Super. You know, here's the thing, Ross, in all seriousness. Let's just get to the Super Bowl. and we'll stop teasing all of them. It's going to happen, that. Eventually.

They'll have scoreboard. They'll sell us to shut up. I'm rooting for them to make it simply because you said it would never happen under Bill O'Brien. That's correct. And I feel very solid on that still. You should be fine. Okay. 713, even though you want me to lose, you know I'm not.

713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. 7-1-3-1-2-5-7-90. When I listen to the math, Thomas show. I don't even understand the eclectic nature of the show. The dichotomy, the ostentatiousness, the perfunctory that sounds

about as smart as LeVar Ball. Back to the Matt Thomas show. Whoever he is. 20 on the Matt Thomas show. Thank you to Stephen A. Smith for giving us that great liner. It's funny, Ross, we've not anybody old liners or any derogatory

messages about the Matt Thomas show today. It feels kind of good. That's not true. We had Tyler White earlier today. Oh, I wasn't paying attention. Tyler White dropped a lot of wage. Do you notice? Has he?

Good for him. Yeah. Yeah. Strozer allegation. I think that caller Paul is on to something. Trade J.J. to Detroit for picks. Tell Detroit he will raise $1 million to rebuild their disastrous city like H-town after Harvey. So you're telling me that J-J-Watt is going to be a guy that's going to raise money for your city, but maybe play football.

He's been more effective as a philanthropist than a football player last year. I think he knows Detroit is a lost cause. See, that's my hometown. I don't really claim it that often because I haven't been back a whole lot. I come back once a year for the Rockets and Pistons, but that's about it. I don't have any, I have no family that lives in Detroit anymore. It's like most Midwestern East cities. It's going to have its really nice spots.

It's going to have its danger spots. I don't know. I think it just made my point. I think I'm trying to soft sell Detroit, right? Now, I'll tell you this, you go, when you land in Detroit airport and you go west to Ann Arbor, you would never think you were anywhere close to Detroit. The University of Michigan is one of the most beautiful campuses. Now, they don't beat Ohio State anything, but it's a great campus, great school,

and you would never believe you were in the middle of Michigan. And I'm not trying to be a chamber of commerce for Ann Arbor, but I just think, some cities just get a bad rap Detroit definitely has that and Detroit's got out I'm going to defend this they do have a casino in downtown though Ross you get already

I always respect cities that have casinos downtown that sounds great to me that's what I'm saying then you go to Windsor Canada and you go gamble and the Canadian folks there too they do a cost you and say what are you doing over here

Canadians don't like when the U.S. comes over especially if it's just for the day trips really why do they care that's what I'm saying Like, they should welcome us with open arms. They do like it when we go to Toronto, which I'll be tomorrow.

But yeah. You get your passport in order, Matt? I do. That's good. I do. You know, if anybody ever travels and, Ross, you've done this enough for yourself, when you think about that last 20 or four hours before you leave on an international trip, if you were like, where's my passport?

I'm going to put it in my briefcase or put in my suitcase. And then you can't find it for like two minutes. The intense panic runs through your pores. Yeah, it's not even, it can be even like 30 seconds. not sure where it is. You know what you put in your backpack, but you check the wrong pocket and it's not in the pocket you looked in. Oh, no.

It's gone. Yeah. You're overcautious and it drives you crazy. Right. Because what does it cost? Let's say I lost my passport tonight and I try to get to Toronto tomorrow. What would it cost me? Several hundred dollars, right?

To expedite it. I don't even know if you can expedite it that quickly anymore for 24 hours. Like, what's the fastest? But it is a couple hundred dollars. What's the fastest you can get a passport? Like if Ross, if I invited you to meet me in Toronto tomorrow night, we go up to take out the clubs, go get something to eat. I got a passport. But I'm not saying if you needed one.

You always want my questions. I know. Sorry. It's one of my favorite things to do on the show. I know. It clearly is. Even expedited is it looks like eight business days. Routine is six to eight weeks.

Are we sure we actually need a passport to get back in from Canada? Yeah, I was going to ask that question as well. Can you just use like a bill with your address on it or something? I think that's, that was like in the 70s, Nick. Matt's not going across to grab some Canadian beer in his station wagon. Let me ask you this. I've been to Tijuana one time. Do I need a passport to go to Tijuana?

You used to not, but yes, now you do. Yeah, Mexico, they're paying attention these days. Yeah. I went through Tijuana to go to Encinada and via the Guadalupe this summer. Did you get in trouble? No. I mean, I have a pass, Matt, I have a passport and I'm not a felon. I'm not to like trouble, trouble.

Like, you know. I had a good time. So what you mean? Yeah. What was the most salacious thing you did in Tijuana? Eat street tacos. Drink lots of coronas. Coronals were so cheap back then.

It was just a quick overnight there because we were on the way from, we were on the way to insinada. And what's in insinata? Is anything cool down there? It's like a, it's a big port town. It's good food, stuff like that. And then it's close to Valle-I-Dupe is the wine country over there. That was the end goal. You're going to Juarez outside of El Paso?

No. That sounds dangerous. That sounds really dangerous. Tijuana is supposed to be dangerous too, but I mean, it's fine. I mean, you know, the Caesar salad was invented in Tijuana, Mexico. That's not true. That is true. Why there?

Look it up. The Caesar salad? Yes. What did you get at most Italian restaurants? Yes. That feels like a believe it or not question another week or so. You can go get it at the Caesar Hotel. Okay.

Things you learn on this program. This portion of the Matt Thomas show brought to you by AAA. Let's go to Clay and Magnolia at 225 on 790. Hi, Clay. Hello, Matt. How are you all? Wonderful. Thank you for calling.

What's on your mind? Yeah, I just wanted to call, listen to your comment while I go about the Cowboys and the Oilers slash Texans slash, I guess, maybe even Titans rivalry that exist. And I agree with the person to either rode in or called in. is that the only rivalry that ever existed was with the Texans slash oiler fans back in the day, that the cowboy fans and the city of Dallas did not look as the Texans and the Oilers as a rivalry. And that started with the oiler fans because they wanted to be the number one state, pro team, football team in the state of Texas,

and they were jealous of the success that the Cowboys had had. And so that's where that all started. Well, thankfully, Clay, the Cowboys have had as much success as the Texans had the last 20 years, so that's kind of a moot point now, right? Well, no, well, now, see, I disagree there. Is that, yeah, I guess when you want to say recent, but when you compare- No, no, no, I didn't say recent. I said 20 years.

Okay, recent, 20 years, whatever. But five Super Bowl and eight Super Bowl appearances are still right up there at the tops compared to any team. And, yeah, they have been struggling. of these last 20 years. 20 years. 20, 20, 0. More than 10, less than 25, but definitely 20. But yes, but not as many as 40 or 50 is where the Texans slash orders slash

Titans have been. So that's where the rivalry started. But there's no rivalry, Clay, there's no rivalry at all. Zero. I agree. I agree with you. In terms of where the cowboy fans look, there absolutely are. It is not a rivalry.

Well, I can speak for, I don't always want to speak. speak for Texans fans, but Clay, I can tell you. And thank you very much for the phone call. We do not, we being Texans fans, and I think Ross and Nick will back this up, we do not believe the Cowboys are a rival under any circumstance. No. Zero. Nope.

You just, what happens and Cowboys fans get all mad? Who are the Texans fan care more? That's because your sorry asses are over here in Houston where we're trying to root for the Oilers or the Texans, and you're rooting for the Dallas, Dallas, Cowboys.

So it annoys people. In fact, we feel We look down on you because You're choosing a team If you loved your team that much, you would actually live in that city. The Cowboys fans are all loud and boisterous And talking all this trash and five rings, We've got five rings.

And you had touch a Super Bowl in, what, 20-something years? You know what? That's right. Those five rings were all tarnished. they're all they're all they're corroded they've given you stains on your finger you need to take them for a cleaning at shaw's jewelry and low exactly yeah i don't want to hear about your rings anymore nobody cares about your rings they're old rings they ain't worth crap on ebay and jason garrett is jerry jones's puppet well i was going to go with a different word but that's fine puppet works stooge Yes, man. Brown noser?

Correct. Yep. Check, check and check. Yeah, at least a Texas owner stays silent on everything. And I mean everything. Jerry talks when they win and lose. Ours just stays quiet. Like who's the highest ranking member of the Texans that speaks?

Easterbeat. Nope. Bill O'Brien. Bill O'Brien. I'm pretty sure Bill O'Brien's higher ranking. King than Cal McNair at this point. Just, yeah. Who owns more of the Texans?

Bill or Cal? Certainly, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. You know what we do in Houston? We give all of our power to our head coach. We trust him so much that we say, we don't need a general manager for 2019 or 2020.

We're going to give you all the power. Our guy is so talented and can handle so many things on his plate, he can handle it and he can do all of it. just one office. By way, Rick Smith wants back in the NFL Ross. You know where he's going to go? Where? I know a team that needs a general manager.

I bet you, how about this? Can you give me like odds on this, like a dollar bet on this? On him coming back? No, not of the Texas. Oh, hell, no. Give me odds. He's the next general manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Can you do that?

I think it would be plus 800. So you're giving me 8 to 1 on this? Yeah. I'll bet a dollar on that. I don't give you 8 bucks. RV bucks. $8 RV dollars. 7-1-3.

They're a 1-to-1 exchange for M.T. bucks. Actually, I'm going to Canada. I'm going to lose money in the deal. My M.T. Bucks in Canada don't count nearly as much. On the trail, it's hard. Then it drops it down with a left-hand hammer. This is Coach Dan Tonin. Matt Thomas is a great guy.

I'll always listen to the radio show. On mute. What a shot. Rossi, I'm about to give you a little bit of quasi, yet very non-important breaking news. It's going to make James Hardin fans upset. Go ahead. NBA players of the month were announced in the Eastern Conference, Yadis Atentacucoo of the Miliwake Bucks.

Western Conference Luca Donchich of the Dallas Mavericks. Wait a minute, what? For James, two players of the weeks in the month. Easily could have picked up a third, if not for Carmel Anthony, what did it get yesterday? And Luca Donchich with it in the West. Some could say Carmelo Anthony got robbed for a player of the month.

Who would say that? Carmel Anthony. Oh, man, I will be really honest with you. I don't really get into the player of the month, player of the week, faux outrage. I don't know if James does. We have not had broken bread over this conversation before. But it probably doesn't do him any favors

who is in the shortlist for the MVP in the NBA, if you are even paying attention to that sort of thing in the month of December. Dodgich is having a fantastic season. There is no question about that. He's a special player. He's a special player. His triple doubles. His attractive mother.

His ability to shoot from great distance. His mother is attractive. But James put together a pretty good month. Really good month. And I would presume the James Harden, Uber super big fans are not happy with this call. Do you get into this at all? I mean, I just can't.

You know what I'm focused on? And this is my exclusive focus. The rocket's trying to win the Western Conference. I am more determined as ever, as a lifelong rocket fan, and now an employee. For them to win the whole damn thing. And I'm going to tell you the reasons why. Russ wants one badly. James wants one badly.

Mike Dan Tony would, I mean, for all, the criticism that Mike has received over his career, for all the criticism that James has received. I don't care if you are a player of the century. This should be about trying to get to the NBA finals and

win in the damn thing. So I cannot come to you at 238 with this horrific outrage over James not won the player the month award. Now, did he deserve it? Absolutely. Is there media out there that absolutely

hates him? Yeah. But I can't, I'm not going to go chase down who they are, call them, or find their Twitter account, and berate them. I'm just not. That's not how I roll. But more so than ever, and Ross, I could tell you this every year, whether I was working with a team or just a fan or a sports talkos. I want them to go to the championship. Ross, you don't know because you were a kid, literally a kid, when the Rockets were the NBA champions two years in a row and how electrifying it was, just like it was when the Astros won the World Series. Nothing beats a championship or going for one or competing for one. The electricity in the building, the high fives with your coworkers, strangers, whatever.

It's an awesome, awesome experience that I will never get with James Harding winning the Player of the Month award, that I will only get when James and Russ and the rest of the Rockets hopefully beat a really talented Western Conference. So this is me talking to you as honest as possible. It sucks that James didn't win. But I believe James will be able to sleep tonight. I will sleep tonight. And all I'm going to think about is you and I, Ross,

thinking about that parade route when the Rockets hopefully win this championship this year. That's it. Yeah, I don't get. I mean, I think there was one year where James Harden won. won it like almost every month over Steph Curry and then Steph Curry got the MVP and that's I think that's when I was like, okay, I'm done with these players of the month awards. They don't even matter. They don't mean anything.

It's just, it's basically so the NBA can get a little bit of press and so we can talk about them for a couple of minutes. Because here's the thing he probably misses on a little bit of a bonus. He probably misses on a watch or whatever they give him. But James is making

what, $50 million a year? Yeah, I give her to, I mean, you have salary of 40 and then he's making more than that from Adidas. I'm not more than that, but somewhere in that amount from Adidas, so yeah, he's doing okay. Maybe he takes the, I don't know, if I was to call James in whatever room he's in in this hotel, first of all,

who is this? What are you calling me for? Who are you? James, you didn't win the player the month award. What? Heaven helped the San Antonio Spurs tonight, Ross. He's going for a 50 burger. What's Dominique Wilkins going to have to say about

this if he goes for yeah by the way what what you got to help me out with this Atlanta TV was all over James for scoring 60 and three quarters yes how do we even know that because they uh they saw showed him on the bench and he was like not happy that he didn't get his career high because he didn't know how many points he had or something and then Dominique will come was like see you're up 54 and you're worried about this you need to worry you need to be focused on winning and I don't like that I got a bad taste in my mouth he was kidding you know that right James was, right? Are you talking about Dominique?

James. Yeah, James. Yeah, James was. Let me tell you. Dominique was not. Let me tell you. These players know exactly how many points they have. Trust me.

They know how many assists they have? How many rebounds? How many blocks? I miss called Tim Hardaway Jr.'s name the other day at the Rockets Mavericks game. I said Dorian Finney Smith with the basket. It was 10 and 11. I just didn't see the second number. He screamed, I got that one.

Trust me. They listen and watch everything. They look at that scoreboard all the time. James knew exactly where he was. So this whole thought of, he's pit, no. But Nick's my guy, though, Ross, right? He's one of my all-time favorites. Is he?

Yeah. The human highlight film? The human highlight real. No, man. In 2019, we'd call him garbage because he didn't win a championship. How many player in the months that he went? Probably quite a few. I don't know.

All right, believe it or not, today, is all things about San Antonio Spur players from this season. I mean, really, you're really going to have to search this out because I don't even think you know who they are. If you want to play, believe it or not, come on in. 713-212-5-7-0. This is Cougars head coach Dana Holgerson. Matt's kind of like Shasta without putting on a costume.

He's a big old... The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 7-9. That's the coach Hogerson. in love. Cougars taking on Texas on Wednesday in college basketball. Oh, excuse me, Texas State. Clearly, uh, the Longhorns are afraid to play the Cougars in any sport, especially basketball, where we are now the dominant team in the state. Are you sure about that? Yeah. Um, Sweet 16 last year. Texas Tech did what? Oh, but they've already lost twice this year. Oh, okay. actually the cougars have two but they

because of two a bad officiating right two horribly officiating games you should be embarrassed to yourself why a number of reasons all I do is spit out the truth noon to three here on 790

all right rockets and spurs who do you got tonight rocks spurs by 20 this is like the kawai leonard reunion tour we're going to Toronto from here where he was here last year with their last year now he's uh in los

Angeles. When you watch him, does he look like a guy that just is going 70% the whole time? Kauai? Yeah. Like smooth? You mean like in a smooth way, I guess? No, it's more choppy, actually. Choppy?

Like, I think he's still not 100%. I think he's like, I'm going to need a five-game rest at some point during the course of the year. Because you know he's going to be, he's going to play on the All-Star game, which will give him not a chance to get a break there. I think he's going to, I think he's going to, I think he's going to, I think, He is the poster child for load management in 2019. I think his name in getting days off and important games is going to mean more than the average NBA player. Like when James gets, it'll be because it's astonishing. Russ gets a load management game because he's already determined he doesn't want to play him back-to-backs.

When Kauai does it, it's all the fans are being cheated. Just like LeBron used to get the same sort of criticism. I think this time around, it's going to be Anthony Davis getting. a lot of criticism. It's going to be a lot about Kauai Leonard. And I think next year when Kevin Durant gets back, they'll be quite a bit of it. Because these are the super megastars of the NBA. They make more money than anybody

else. And they're also guys that are like, you know what? Our teams we think are good enough to go to May and June, we're not going to be able to play 115 games a year. It's just not going to be possible. All right. And we'll leave it at that. I think Ross is still working on, believe it or not. Oh, it's done now. I'm sorry. I'm sending it.

I feel like you've been on a seven-second. can delay the whole show today. Well, there is a little delay. Not that much. Not seven seconds. I think Ross is getting air check. Yeah, exactly. I think Ross is doing two shows at the same time.

You know what he's doing? He's G-chatting somebody right now. I'm just sending an email right now. Sorry. Okay. You back to your profound thoughts on University of Houston Cougar basketball and how they're getting screwed by officials. I'll say that for the show next week.

You know why we don't? Can't do it now? because we've got 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 713212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-790. Today's edition of Believe It or Not is brought to you by Woodhouse Day Spas. Remember, there's a great number of awesome packages to give your special loved one. The gift of relaxation. go to that website right now at Houston Woodhouse Spas dot com. The category today is all things about players from the San Antonio Spurs.

I'll read you a statement about a particular player. Statements completely and utterly accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. If it's erroneous, full of bunk and made up, you will say this. Not. Two, believe it or not, is going to win you a special prize. Ross, what's the prize?

He's coming. Matt, I got a pair of tickets to see Kansas at the point of no return tour. multi-platinum album played in its entirety on December 7th at Smart Financial Center at Sugarland, LiveNation.com for tickets and information. Favorite song again is? Let it be. I was going to go dust in the wind, and I'll stay with that.

Let's play. 7-13-212-5-790. Brian on 7-90. Brian, you're ready to play Believe it or not? Yes, I am. Jakub Pertil was born in Slovenia. Believe it, or not? No, he's an aw...

Ross, that's a quick check of the nationality page of the NBA.com, right? Let's go to line number two. Corey on 790, Corey, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Lonnie Walker played his college basketball at Louisville, where his major was communications. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, he played in Miami.

Man, y'all should have the game note section. Now, you'll be all golden. line number three Kevin on 790 Kevin you're ready to play believe it or not yes does Jonte believe it yeah thank you Dejante Murray went to a famous high school in Seattle that has produced such NBA talents as Jamal Mash Crawford Doug Christie and Nate Robinson believe it or not believe it believe it that is correct statement number two for the

wind before becoming a Texas Longhorn Lamarcus Aldridge declared himself for the 2004 NBA draft. He changed his mind after getting advice from Shaquille O'Neal. Believe it or not? Not. Believe it. Oh, yeah. If I've said him one set a thousand times, you don't know which players get advice from

Shaquille O'Neal and which players don't. Let's continue. And line number four, Joe on 790. Joe, you're ready to play, believe it or not? All the time, Matt. DeMarter Rosen is named after his mom's brother who was shot and killed when he was 20 years old. Believe it or not.

Believe it. Believe it. Kind of morbid but accurate. Statement number two for the win. After going undrafted in the 2017 NBA draft, Bryn Forbes considered quitting basketball before getting an offer from the Spurs. Believe it or not. Believe it.

No, Ross made it. He was, however, undrafted. But the rest of that was just full of bunk. Line number one. Hasham on 790. Hasham, you ready to play, believe it or not? Yeah, let's do it. In 2016, Patty Mills was ordained as a knight in the order of Australia in recognition for his charity work for underprivileged children.

Believe it or not. Believe it. Not. Oh, I feel terrible for you. That sounded so believable, too. Ross, if he was paying attention, I'll give you a pat on the back and an Anna boy. Thank you, Matt. Oh, you are paying attention.

Hi, Garrett on 7.9. You ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it. Derek White won the 2018. G-League Championship with the Austin Spurs. Believe it. Or not? Of course not. Believe it.

And we gave away nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nata. Well, let's fix that. Giving yourself the gift of wings is always a great holiday gift. If you buy a $25 gift card

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That's big citywings and big citywings.com. I'll talk to you tonight at 730 for the Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs right here on 790. The A-Team with Adam and Adam is next. For Ross, for Nick, I'm Matt. Have a great rest of your day. Talk to you on a few hours here on Sports Talk 7-90.