The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 12-31-19

Episode Date: December 31, 2019

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 12/31/19Happy New Year!D Of The Year (0:00)Watchu Talkin' Bout Bill (41:09)Aaron Reiss Discusses Bills v Texans (1:02:58)Matt Reveals His D Of The Year (1:22:58)

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas Show. 12.02 and H-Town. What's happening in lunchtimmers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a new year's Eve edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Second and long, low snap. Watson able to field, excellent pass.

Leader signed a two-run, home run for Bregman, his 39th of the year. And the Astros lead is 6 to 2. Long set, now the pitch. And that's hit up the middle, softliner, caught by Bregman to the right of second, and that is the ball game. This is the time. These games in baseball, so we're going to feel good about our team. We get four days to rest.

You know, we are going to have to wait and see who we play, but well-deserved time off of these guys. Well, I'm really happy. It's really good because he's one of the best defenses sure stuff, you know, ever seen. And, you know, that gives the opportunity to Raymond to play here since, you know, start the season there. He's been doing really good. And, you know, in the other side, he can hit. You know, he's going to provide a lot of teams to the team. And, you know, we all.

One, two. On the inside corner, strike three call. Up one game to none in this best of five American League Division Series as they defeat the Tampa Bay raise. six to two. As Watson sets the rest of you between now and three o'clock today. We're not

going to reflect, Nicklo, on the year in review. No need to do that. We already know the ups and downs. We don't need to know the ups and downs of a decade. We know what the up was, a World Series championship. The down, many playoff losses. Damien Lillard hitting that shot.

Too many to count. That's what we in sports do. We have, we have one goal today on this edition of the Matt Thomas show. And that is to take the one sports personality of the year. No politics. Nobody that got convicted of fraud. Nobody that hurt somebody. We're talking about in the most jovial way possible.

The one sports person, head coach, player, media member. I don't care who it is. That was the worst part of 2019, making them thus this. D of the year. Nick, this is your first time with us on a December 31st show, I believe. It is. D of the year is a very important day on the radio program. We don't D of the week very often because we've got a lot of things moving on,

but we always in the back of our mind think of this. D of the year. So today on this radio show, show if you're out and about. Our people are kind of running around a little bit, get ready for tonight, maybe going to the liquor store, maybe going to get some snacks, maybe doing a little shopping. Traffic was still not bad today. I think a lot of people still are off.

But if you're out and about today and don't get a chance to call the show very often because you're either working a 9 to 5 job or sales calls preclude you, you're welcome to do it today because today is a very important day. We select the worst sports human being in 2019. D of the year Production value by the way Outstanding on your part there My pleasure

So let's talk about first and foremost Nick who is not allowed to be the D of the year President Trump is not allowed to be the D of the year Okay Nancy Pelosi is not a lot to be D of the year Nothing political Must be a sports figure Must be a sports figure

It must be something that is again again, I don't think I can explain it any easier. Sports related. We've had a lot of deaths in our country. We've had a lot of turmoil. We've had a lot of sadness. That's not the year. That's just Dian forever.

But we're just talking about in the calendar year. So I had people go to Twitter, and you are more than welcome to do that as well. At SportsMT is our Twitter account. At Sports Talk 790 and at Pro Nick Lowe. You're also welcome to call in with your suggestions as well. and we're just going to keep it really loose today on the radio program and kind of keep an unofficial track.

I think I've got a pretty good list of who it could be. But my feeling is Nick, and you get a vote too. You get to nominate and name your own D of the Year. My D of the Year might just be a group of people. Yeah, I've definitely got some front runners. So if you have any ideas, thoughts, beliefs, on which who should be or what should be the D of the year, you can join us today at 713-212-5-790.

It can be a local person. It can be a national person. It can be a group. And I said, mine probably is going to be a group of people. And they don't know it yet. In fact, these people who are the Ds of the year don't even. and pay attention to social media and radio shows. So let's go to some early candidates.

And like I said, today's show is going to be, there's no, I didn't go to the house and type up every segment. First of all, that's bad radio. To pre-determine every segment of your show means you can't have any spontaneity. And I think that part of being a successful show is being spontaneous. Now, there are a few notes that I've taken and prepared for today. But to say at 1220, we're doing this at 1230. we're doing this or 12.

It's that, bleh. We're going to have one guest today. Aaron Reese from the athletic joins us at 130 like it does every Tuesday. You're going to ask him who his D of the Year is? I could. I don't know if he's going to have one, but, you know, it's to each his own. 713-1-2-125-7-90. Let me get to an early candidate, I should say, a late candidate,

but a candidate, at least on my Twitter platform, is gaining a tremendous amount of steam. Mike fires. A lot of people on YouTube. Twitter have him as the D of the year. Prime candidate for Houston sports fans. No question about it. So let's first do this. I'll announce

some of the people that I have seen and then we'll start talking about them as the move goes along. And then we will get to your phone calls and welcome. There's got a lot of folks that want to chime in. 713 212.5-790. Remember, this is very lighthearted because there's a lot more things in life that

are more worthy of being D of the year than in sports. But because of where a sports radio sure and we're trying to entertain the folks in the middle of the day. We'll keep it to that. 713-1-2-125-7-90. Antonio Brown is on the list for D of the year. Yeah, that's got to be the, what would you call him, the MVP? He's like a D of the Hall of Fame, right?

I mean, he can win on multiple years. You've got Mike Fires. Let me see who else. there was actually quite a few people that I didn't really think of, and that's why I love y'all because y'all think of many more people than I do. But anything involving, well, Chris Paul got a couple of votes on this as well. It's just interesting to me how everybody just has this whole thing about, you know, what irks them more than any other person.

So if you've got a candidate or so, let me know it. 713. Like Joe Buck is on the list. Steph Curry is on the list. Dallas Cowboys are on the list. Colin Kaepernick is, I mean, again, to each his own. And that's why we'll have the next two hours and 45 minutes to discuss. But my day of the year is a collection of people.

And I'm going to save mine for a little while to see if you all can figure out who it is. And others have also noticed that as well. 713-212-5-790 with Nick. I'm Matt. This is the Matt Thomas Show. Happy New Year's Eve here on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas returns on Sports. Talk 790. Baseball, football, basketball in Houston.

Home for your home teams. And yes, I did not put the Houston Rockets in, and my theory on them is the owner right now is furious at the GM. The GM doesn't like the coach. The coach doesn't like his staff, who they forced him with, and by the All-Star break, Cardinal had it with Russell Westbrook.

This is going to unravel, and that's my theory on that. All right. I think chemistry is big in the NBA, and I think you've got this combustible China thing, Darry and GM, and it's just a lot of noise, and it's, I don't like noise. So there it is.

I got Denver, Utah, Clippers, Warriors, Lakers, Blazers, Spurs, Mavericks, NBA season starts in a few days. And the Rockets are not in the playoffs. I mean, he could be right. It would take a pretty seismic collapse. There's, well, they're four-seed, but they're only, what, four games out? Yeah, and they got Denver a chance to leapfrog them, I think, with a win the night against the Nuggets.

By the way, 6 o'clock, the start time. Which means Adam and Adam are hardly working again today. God, and my next laugh to come back is Wexler and Clayton. Get these large salaries and hardly ever work. Meanwhile, you and I are grinding here today on this New Year's Eve. Every day. Every day. Happy New Year, everybody.

It's the Matt Thomas show. We are off tomorrow because it's New Year's and no one's going to be doing anything. And then back Thursday and Friday, I think we're also to be back from his. trip camping provided it doesn't get held by authorities. But we all should be back for a full three-hour get-together on Thursday. All right, it is our D of the Year day on the program where we take the one person in sports locally nationally. I always think it's supposed to be a local person, but sometimes it goes beyond that. And again, my D of the Year are D's of the Year.

So let's get to a couple of early candidates. And again, we will start with Dillon and Baytown in a minute. If you guys want to jump in, you are welcome to do so. 713-212-5-790, 7-1-3-212-5-790. Mike fires. All right, Nicholas, let's get to it. He's the known person that has acknowledged and accepted the fact that, yeah, he went to Major League Baseball and said the Astros are cheating. Snitches get stitches.

Snitches get stitches. And by the way, he was able to grab a World Series ring knowing this. So again, I want to know, did he hand over his ring and said, I will not accept this? Did he decide he wanted to snitch on this as the playoffs are going along? No, he waited until he was, what, two years removed from playing with the team. He also shaved his beard like a total D. Yeah. Here's the question.

How do you feel about whistleblowers in general? Well. Because that's what he is, right? He was, I mean, and the true definition, Mike Fierrez was a whistleblower. I suppose so. but I would like to see verbatim. Did they release his statement verbatim yet? I have not, I didn't, I didn't look.

Point being is this, it really doesn't matter. He's the one that has identified with it. But he was also, he didn't step up. Now, again, if we're in his shoes, we're not doing that either. But I will say this, Nick, if we're also in his shoes, are we saying anything? There's a lot of questionable activity that I'd be. been around. I mean, every single person that has listened to the show right now, whether it be with your buddies in school, whether it be at your workplace, whether it be in your family,

whether it be at your church, whether it be at your civic club, have been around questionable activity, yes or no. Yeah, absolutely. No one has lived a saintly life, maybe except the priest around town and the nuns. Questionable. But point being is that we've all been around things that were not on the up and up. Now, to what that is, that's for you to decide. But if Mike Fires was a whistleblower by the true definition,

why didn't he blow that whistle during the 2017 season? That's right, because he's a human being. And he's not going to ruin, and he is not going to create this amazing firestorm, excuse my French on that, current player outs current team, while said current team is playing for a World Series championship.

Not happening. Of course not. Of course not. But now as an Oakland day or was, he decided it was a lot easier for him to do that. When he got pulled off a playoff roster, it was a lot easier for him to do that. Well, here is the ultimate on that.

The Astros, if they're indeed guilty of it, never should have done any of that. They were so good they didn't need to. It was unnecessary the measures they took if indeed everything that is being reported is accurate. We don't know that for fact. Major League Baseball has not announced that yet. So we're going to hold off our condemning of an organization until the results around.

If Major League Baseball comes back and says, you know what? The Astros, this has been hyperbolic. Then Mike Fires is really a D. Yes. And if this is more of speculation as compared to absolute hard, cold truth facts with evidence behind it, then there's going to be a lot of. people with a lot of egg on their faces. I hope that's the case.

I don't think it's the case, but I'm sure saying a small prayer every night that it is. Because as I've talked about before, I am really, really concerned about what could potentially happen if indeed it's true. To harness a World Series championship? Yeah, it's going to. Not in my mind, not in the memories, not in winning the games. But when people speak of the 2017 Houston Astros, if indeed any of this is true, there's going to be an asterisk put to it.

And that sucks. Yeah, we're never going to hear the end of it. Never going to hear the end of it. When you're at a bar talking about the Astros. Especially in different cities. It's going to come back. Like if I'm in a sports bar, let's say I'm in Detroit and I want to watch the Astros because I'm on a road trip or something.

How about those Astros? I wonder if they got any video cameras out there. It's never going to end. Just like we as sports fans never give up on the Patriots and all their cheating allegations. I still hear about the White Sox buying the World Series. How long ago did that happen? And you mean in 1919? Yeah, there you go.

We're still talking about that at the bars? It still comes up. Dang. I hope that's not as long as the Astros had to live with that, but you're right. So Mike clearly is going to get a lot of consideration for the D of the year because of the fact that he was in uniform and playing for the Astros and getting ready to celebrate and getting a World Series ring while his compadres allegedly. Or as Jim Rome would say, wingerly, did things to gain a competitive advantage. All right. Other candidates to get to momentarily, but first, your phone calls at 713-212-5-790.

7-13-21-5-7-90. Dylan, in Baytown on 7-90. Dylan, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Hi. Yes, sir. You're on. Oh, hey.

Yeah, my D of the year would be Josh Gordon. Wow, just can't keep clean. I'm telling you, I don't know what his problem is. Oh, I do. I mean, everything in his life, football is not very important to him. I mean, he's got a lot of demons in his life, Dylan, is what he's got. And those demons cannot be controlled. And he's taken an opportunity to be a very successful elite water receiver.

We're going to let you run there because he got a little bit echo back on your end and has turned it into multiple chances and multiple failures. I don't really think that makes him a D. No, I wouldn't make him a D. I think he's just... He chose what he chose. If that makes him more happy, then making millions of dollars playing football.

I don't think it made him happy. I think he just can't stay clean. He's an addict. Yeah. Of whatever is now his latest problems. I think it's been weed primarily, right? Hasn't it been? Yeah.

And, I mean, with the way weeds going in the country. I really don't think it's, I don't know, I don't see the stigma of, you know, hard drugs associated with weed. But the problem is this, is that there are rules you have to follow. And in your place of business,

in his particular case, the National Football League, he has to stay clean. If he stays clean, he gets to play. He just doesn't seem to understand the fact that if you play football for a full career, then you can get out and smoke all the weed you want

for the rest of your life. And as I'm saying, life chosen. But he didn't do something to somebody. Now, maybe the fan bases of the particular teams he was trying to play for. But he didn't do anything in per se to someone. He did it to himself.

So I understand why he would be considered. But I, you know, and we'll put him on the list. But to me, it's just a guy that couldn't, well, he did decide. He chose that recreational marijuana use or whatever other things he's used

is more important to him than playing in the NFL, which is crazy because that must be some powerful stuff he's smoking because he's turning away millions and millions and millions of dollars. You know, you can say the same thing about Antonio Brown. I mean, Antonio Brown is squashing this opportunity for him to play in the NFL because he believes that social media is very important to him. He believes a stupid helmet is more important to him. He believes in freezing his feet are more important.

He just, there's no maturity with either, one of those guys. They can't get out of their own way. They can't get, that's exactly right. They cannot get out of their own way. Sometimes you have to follow rules. You may not love them, but if you are to work in anything that you want to do in your life, you don't always get to create them. And the fact that, in the fact that Josh Gordon and Antonio Brown, and more so to Gordon, and this Brown thing has been a year and a half, Gordon's had these issues for multiple years. he's just made a life choice that staying clean is not that important to him as compared to playing in the NFL. And I feel sorry for him.

I think Antonio Brown's a far bigger D than Josh Gordon. Antonio Brown just... He's incites people. He attacks people. He calls people out when... Yeah, he's way more of a D than Josh Gordon is to me. You know, you can tell him one thing and he will do... Exactly the opposite just to spite you.

He just doesn't want to adhere to anybody's rules. And you can live that life as long as you are the one making the rules. But understand that Antonio Brown's actions have cost him probably this year alone $20 million. That money he will never recuperate from. And he still hasn't learned anything. Still hasn't learned. He still goes to, and I don't follow him on any of the social platforms, but I see his Twitter account. I see his Instagrams.

he's lost his marbles. You know, like the Saints workout he just went to. They specifically asked him not to bring an entourage, and so he brought an entourage. And then he also took a picture of his contract or whatever the offer sheet was or the waiver. He just, he can't, you know, I love the phrase you can't get out of your own way.

Yeah, it fits him perfectly. Yeah. All right, 713-212-5-790. 7-1-2-790. So we've talked about Antonio O'Brien a little bit. A little bit about Josh Gordon. We got to Mike Fires. Other candidates, stay with me all the day today because we're going to have to, at some point, put together the definitive group.

And we each get our own kind of little individual vote. Who is the deal of the year in 2019? 713-212-5-790. The time is 1229 and is the Matt Thomas show. And this is Sports Talk 790. This is Craig Ackerman. The rockets are certainly popping the polypropylene. I know Matt Thomas all too well.

Hey, by the way, this is my new catchphrase. Nothing but nylon. That's driven. Pete to left center field. Garner is to choose to. Altuve mobbed at home. He never said it would be easy, and it certainly wasn't. T.J. LeBegh, he tying the game with a two-run, home run.

And the top of the ninth, Al-Tube with the answer in the bottom half. And the Astros are 2019 American League. champions. You know what? Sometimes it's just fun to go to the audio vault to find things, and that was always good to hear. The great call from Robert Ford. You know what I also love, too, was the Yankee fans,

and I just saw the sound button, now I can't find it. Where is it here? Oh, Yankee fans, congratulating the Astros after winning the American League Championship. What is your name, ma'am? Donna. Where are you from, Donna? Brooklyn.

Wonderful. Donna from Brooklyn, would you like to wish the Astros, good luck in the World Series? Absolutely not. And do you want to say, though. I do. I want to say Al Tuvei, that was a nice shot, but next time we're going to f*** throw it your head. Would you like to congratulate the Houston Astros on going the World Series? F*** the Astros.

F*** the Houston Astros. New York Yankees all day. I'm a New Yorker. I'm a Yankee. I want to tell that little bit Ltuve to come by my construction site and we'll throw me. I'm a beating. Anything you like to get the Houston Astros? Look right now.

Oh, man. You want to congratulate the Astros? I'm going to world too. And fuck out too many little tattoo looking bastard. I hate them. Go Yankees. Anything you'd like to say to the Astros? They fuck them. They suck.

You a Yankees fan? Yeah, baby. Anything you'd like to say the Houston Astros? Go. So, is that good? Again, I think a lot of that was set up. but it was still very funny. Yeah.

Here's a, I have a dark horse for D of the Year. Which got? Juan Soto. Do you know he's 21? Yeah. Actually,

that more goes to Joe Buck, right? I guess so. Yeah, that's somebody on Twitter mentioned that Joe Buck should be D of the Year for bringing up Juan Soto's name multiple times. Also, Juan just dancing on the mount

or dancing at the plate. I just hated watching that. It's hard to, it's hard to hate a national because you didn't, six months ago, you didn't care about the nationals. and now you do.

Yep. And now the Astros and Nationals meet to open up spring training in like two and a half months. God, that sucked. I mean, not all time sucked. Like, and I don't mean to get into Oilers Bills for you, but Orders Bills all time sucked. Oh, yeah. All time sucked. This was a semi-all-time suck.

Game 7 World Series, your home field. Actually, game six, your home field. Up 3-2. Nobody can win on their home field. You need one in the last two. And you don't do it. do it. I think anybody asked Bill about the oilers bills again? Oh, we got which time of my bill coming up again, don't we? Yeah, we're, I'm getting what O'Brien's saying right now. I don't

know if anyone's asked him that yet. They're not that stupid. By the way, you know how much I love poll questions. I have a poll question up on the Twitter account at SportsMT. And here is today's question. Will a Texans win Saturday make up for the order's loss? And the funny thing is you cannot be tongue and cheek on Twitter unless you say with tongue in cheek, boom. 80.2% say no, that's stupid. I got 616 votes on that. That's quite a bit. 19.8%.

And again, I would have to think of that 19.8, there's probably 90% of that 19.8 that are tongue and cheek. There's nothing in this world that will ever make up for the orders losing to the bills. And I'm not counting using City Miracle because that was. Tennessee Titans. They were not the Houston owners. Yeah, I'm on Bill O'Brien's side on this. The two have nothing to do with each other. Everybody's saying that. I think Sean McDermott, the coach of the bills,

was asked about that yesterday. So on Twitter, no, that was made up with the Music City Miracle. No. Something called Cyrus underscore Hudspeth sends me a picture of a dog with really giff. Drew Bird 41

says the Titans made up of the orders collapsed with Music City Miracle. While I don't think the Texas organization has sniffed the jockey older's success, they have no correlation with what Bada Adams teams tried to do or failed to do in embarrassing fashion. I, as an order fan, take no pleasure in the Music City Miracle. It did, will never do anything for me. The day the Houston owners became the Tennessee orders to turn into the Tennessee Titans, where the day I stopped caring about that organization.

It was a hard breakup, Nick, but it was a breakup. It was clean. I didn't call her back. I didn't want to have one more. Let's make out session. Or, hey, let's try this one more time. When we broke up, me and the orders, we broke up for good. If you think about the biggest moments in Oilers history, obviously the Bills, Oilers' comeback loss comes to mind.

The Mike Rinfro catch comes to mind, or the Mike Rinfro no catch, I guess, I should call it. And then if you carry it on to Tennessee, they kept that, you know, they kept that legend going with the half-yard short in the Super Bowl. Whatever you want to call that? What I'm going to call it is a damn good game. It was a good game. It was one of the best endings to a Super Bowl I've ever seen. Yeah, but I had no attachment to it. And I think most oiler fans that were oilers fans don't have any.

I mean, there's a few. There's a few Titan blanks that run around town that claim that they're still the older fans, but they're nothing close to it. Where are they? Shouldn't they be calling talking about their playoff? They will if they beat the Patriots over the weekend. They'll call. But if they lose, and look, New England's a small favorite. But if they lose, they will go back into their cubby holes

and not be heard of from again until the Texans and Titans play sometime next year. But not, I'm not. I take no thrills in any success the Titans have had in amends to what the orders had to endure towards the very, very end. Joseph and Pearland at 1240 in the mat, Thomas show, Joseph, good afternoon. Yes, how are you doing? Well. Okay, happy new year to you all.

Same to you, my friend. I wanted to talk about the Buffalo and Eastern game, but I'll cover that all right. No, we can wait, whatever you want to get, whatever you want to talk about, we're here for you. Okay, thanks very much. The thing that really bothers me now that I'm asking is that if, if, if we've had Jim Brown, The second coming of Jim Brown will be Earl Campbell and maybe John Riggins. So would you say that Derek Henry is the second coming of Riggins and Earl Campbell? Gary Hedon is tough, man, I'm telling you.

Okay, so let me get your pie chart here. Actually, it's more of a flow chart. You got Jim Brown at the very top, right? Okay. And you're telling me we're going from Brown? to Campbell and Riggins. Right. And then we're going down to Henry.

Right. I feel like we've missed quite a few great running backs in between both those categories. Well, the reason why I brought that up because all those guys were big and fast, you know. And that's why I brought it up. So what about Barry Sanders or Walter Payton? What are we for, what about those guys? I'm talking about the strip and the speed going up the middle of those type of running backs. Well, but John Riggins was never fast.

He was very, very tough to bring down, but he was never a speedster. No, no, there was Earl Campbell. I don't know. Jim Brown to me, and thank you for the phone call. I never saw him play in person, obviously. But Jim Brown probably is considered the greatest running back of all time on the short list. Probably right after that, and again, I don't mean to get into a deep NFL historical. historical pattern. You've got Walter Payton. You've got Eric Dickerson. You got Barry Sanders.

I mean, obviously, Emmett Smith's got to be in the conversation for being the rush leader. Earl Campbell's one of my personal favorites because he's a guy I grew up watching. Bruising backs? Okay. I don't know if I still go from Jim Brown to to Henry in two different groups, but I give what you're saying. Derek Henry is a powerful running back, hard to bring down. frankly the only reason why he's been brought down on all the last two or three weeks because of the fact he's had hamstring issues but I wouldn't be totally shocked no would anybody be at this point if Derek Henry and Tanna Hill is playing really really well right now for the Titans

go and beat the Patriots who frankly for a better part of two months have been blah really since their loss on the road at Baltimore they have been a very average football team and getting themselves a cost themselves a hundred home field game in the playoffs and having to play this weekend, I think it's not necessarily indication of that they weren't trying hard to beat Miami this past weekend. Just they're just not as good as they used to be. Now, I think if you have, I'm not going to say the witch is dead until the, until

she's gone. Sorry, say that again. I was listening to Bill O'Brien. I'm not saying the, I'm not saying the witch is, witch being the patriots are dead. Like, you know, when you go watch these horror movies, which I don't do, I do. Like, Chucky was never really dead until you wanted to make sure Chuckie was completely dead, right?

Well, I mean, they had another movie coming out next year. Right, so he was still alive. Freddie Kruger? Never dead. I'm looking for the Patriots to die. Not literally, but figuratively. And the only way you killed them is you beat them in the wild car round of the playoffs. Matt Thomas continues on Sports Talk 7-19.

Your rockets. Your Astros. Your voice. Rockets tonight against the Denver Nuggets. We'll have it for you here on 790, beginning with the launch pad at 5. 5.30 in the network pregame and then 6 o'clock tip time. Craig will have the call for the Rockets and Denver. James Hardin, Clint Capella, remain questionable for the game tonight.

Hardin has a toe sprain, Capella with a heel, soreness, and the Nuggets, Gary Harris, Ball, Millsap, both questionable. That is a very tight race in the West. Western Conference and the Rockets have had some bad losses in the last month or so. Again, they're not going to play perfect, but there have been a few of them that you really want to scratch your head at, again, especially against teams that are well under 500. But even as I say that, a win tonight can affix a lot of that. The Western Conference standings have the Rockets as a four seed right now at 22 and 11.

They are a game and a half behind the Nuggets for the number two seed who come in at 23 and 9. Again, if you're going to the game tonight, 6 o'clock, the start time for the Rockets and the Denver Nuggets. What you're talking about Bill coming up at 1 o'clock? Aaron Reese at 130, and we will announce between now and the end of the show, the D of the Year in Sports. My D of the Year are a group of people. You're going to reveal your group? I think I'll do it at 2 o'clock.

Okay. You got out with that? Yeah. You got one for yourself? I'm narrowed down the list. I still got a few candidates. Is your D of the year a group or one person? I think I'm going to narrow down to one person.

I think I can do that. I cannot. Because I think this group is why people have been so angry towards sports in the last 12th calendar months. Ken, Southwest Houston at 1253 in the Matt Thomas show. Ken, good afternoon. Good afternoon, Matt. I want to thank you, Ross, and the rest of your crew there for taking us all year long through a great sports year. And enjoy the show every day.

Thank you. Nice you to say that. I appreciate that very much. Well, it comes from my heart. I really do. I'm in the car all the time, so get the opportunity to listen to y'all. Thank you. My D of the year is the group, and that is the Rockets' playoff performance.

I think there's a team during the year, and they get to the playoffs every year. And I don't know. I just, to me, that would be, that would be D of the decade, which we're not doing, but I understand your issues. Here's the number one problem. And Ken, you know, as someone who grew up loving the Rock, it's hard, it's hard to say this, but we ran into a dynasty. We really did. And it sucks. Yeah, it did. Now, if you wanted to say, if you wanted to say the 2017 season where game six against San Antonio, the semifinals made you just get nauseous for days, I would buy

that. I would absolutely buy that as the, oh my God, what was that moment for the Rockets? But largely, it has been three Western Conference Finals appearances this decade, unfortunately, all at the hands of the Golden State Warriors. Be true, but still, you're supposed to be able to beat those teams, and I think we had a team good enough to beat them. We just didn't perform. We did. We get to the end of the games, and nobody can hit a basket if their life depended on it. But anyway, that's nothing. We can't go backwards. Hopefully this year they'll continue to go forward.

I just like you, disappointed with a couple losses against Golden State and the loss against New Orleans. Just kind of embarrassing to be truthful with you. Anyway, I'll hang up and let somebody else in, healthy and Happy New Year at all. Same to you, my friend, thank you. Yeah, it hasn't

I mean, the Golden State loss, I'm talking about this week, painful. New Orleans, I mean, the reality is no heart and no West no Capella. NBA teams are going to win games when you have three or five best players out. Certainly no disrespect to Isaiah Hartinstein or Chris Clemens or, you know,

EG getting back out there and river starting. But when you have, you know, your MVP's out, it hurts. The Golden State game was flat and one that I hope doesn't bite him in the ass before the end of the year. But you know what you can do? You can make up some of that. And that's the wonderful thing about. thing of A is you can make it up by beating somebody in front of you. And you get to gain a game on the Denver Nuggets tonight if you beat them.

Interesting week for the Rock. It's actually an interesting time. The next 10 days, they don't have a whole lot of games. So these little ailments that James and Clint are going through, and you're always worried about PJ Tucker's playing time and how much minutes he's getting in. I mean, you got Denver tonight. You don't play again until Friday in Philadelphia. and then I don't think you play again.

Let me look at the schedule here real quick. And then I don't think you play again until the following Wednesday when you've been back to back against Atlanta and Oklahoma City. The Hawks are awful. They just snapped a 10-game losing streak last night. Now, there'll be some emotions the following night because Russell goes back to Oklahoma City for the first time. And then you have Minnesota and Memphis after that.

I mean, the next, you have two heavy hitters, Denver and Philadelphia, and then you've got four really winnable games. So the Rockets can pick up five or six here in the next handful. It won't be the worst thing in the world. What you're talking about, Bill, is next a special Tuesday edition and you as we nominate the D of the year. If you have a person or a group of people that are so dastardly in the world of sports, not politics, sports only.

713212-5-790, 7-1-3-2-1-7-9. 1255790 as we look for this. D of the year. Production value at ProNiclo. This is the Matt Thomas show. The second of three hours on a New Year's Eve edition of the Matt Thomas show. We are live, right? It's 102 on a, this is a pretty nice day.

Kind of cool, crisp Christmas-era New Year's Eve. Y'all be careful tonight. I'm telling you that God's on his truth. I have the Rockets game at 6, in my car as soon as they're worth and heading back home as soon as possible. I just think being on the roads tonight is really stupid. So if you are going to partake in beverages, don't even get an Uber's.

Keep the roads clear. Just stay wherever you are. Have 14 or 15 cocktails. Tell that girl that you've been eyeing from a mile away, how much you think she's a beautiful lady. Now, of course, be polite. But then stay downtown or stay wherever you are. Get a hotel room.

It's good advice. Stay out of restaurants. They're going to be a mess. Yeah, stay out of your restaurant. You don't even want to work tonight, dude? Nope. You get you guys closing early? We're not closing early.

We're probably open until midnight tonight, just in case. But usually it clears out before that because, I mean, it isn't exactly a party venue. Yeah, I get you. All right, yeah. So come have a couple of beverages of the Rockets game. And if you stay downtown, get a room. And just be careful about it. careful because I miss all y'all.

I, um, it's going to be 10 years next week on the radio show. So I'm kind of excited about that. And, uh, I've, I just got a great message from one of our, one of, someone, one of my listeners, Joan has been with me since the old KSEV days. It's been a long time and I'm very, very thankful. And it really, it all comes down to y'all supporting the show. So for that, I can, uh, truly thank you on that. 713212-5-790.

7-13-212-2-5-7-9. We got what you're talking about, Bill coming up in just a couple of seconds. If you are looking to add your candidate for the D of the year, there is one that is way ahead of everybody else. And I'll announce that at 2 o'clock. I have my own. If you've got a candidate, you can tweet at me at SportsMT or call us here at 713212-5-790. Marcus and Pearland at 104 on 790. Marcus, how are you, sir?

Hey, I'm well, and congratulations on your 10 years. I've been with you from the beginning. Thank you. It's always great to see a fellow Cougar really become success. I'm very happy for you. Thank you. It's nice you to say that. Go Coogs. What you got today? And I just turned on the radio because I've been working, but I don't know where this guy ranks.

But my D of the Year is Mike Fires. You know what? He is very high in the list, my friend. Marcus, I mean, here's what we did. We did this in the first hour, and you were obviously busy. So let's do this real quick. You and I have a back and forth on this. Is there a role in life for whistleblowers?

Is there a place for whistleblowers? Yes or no? Yes. Okay. So if he saw a wrong and whistleblowed, does that make him a terrible person? That's to each his own. My argument is he was around it. He couldn't have said anything while he was around it, if indeed it's true.

because no one in America would have ever said anything as the events were going on. But is this a case of he's doing this in the best interest of the sport and of the game, or is he doing it because the Astros no longer wanted him after the 2017 season? I'm asking. I have no idea. But my reason for him being my nomination is that I still, I like the argument, though, that, well, nobody would do it while it's going on. Well, if he's so virtuous, why wouldn't you?

I mean, okay, that's just one question, but he had no problem parlaying that into his World Series ring and bonus and parlaying that into a $6 million contract for the next year. And it waited a whole year. So if he all of a sudden was worried about cheating, why wait this on if he was such a stand-up guy? I would never want to be his teammate. Well, he will for sure be someone that you'll be very careful about what you say in front of that person, right? Well, yeah, the guy's a turncoat. I mean, he turned his back and I don't know what one.

None of us knows what's going, what went on truly. That's right. But just the fact that he waited all this time and then, but he had no problem profiting from it. I mean, he profited from it and there's no question about that. but and he had no problem doing it if he was such a stand-up guy why didn't he say you know I can't do this in my right mind I can't do this I'm a stand-up guy this is going on sure he loses future but what's more important money are doing the right thing well let me let me let me also ask you this what could he have just been silent has this been gnawing at him

for over two years that he finally said, I have to say something. Because let's be brutally honest, Marcus, there are a lot of things that go on in the workplace, in a major league clubhouse, at your country club, that you probably would say to yourself, that's not the way I would conduct my business

or that's not the way I would do things, but you just choose not to say anything. Is there any part of you that says, Mike, look, you obviously didn't think it was the greatest thing in the world. It's not an act that's going to cause physical pain to others. Wouldn't it be better for you to say nothing at all? And that's what I think I would probably say to him, is it,

why did this something that gnaw you, or are you just something that you were mad at because the Astros went on to this great run and you weren't a part of it after 2017? Well, that's the part I don't get. He made these statements and everything superficial. Now you can't get any more comments out of him, right? He had no problem talking superficially about it, but then asking more questions.

Well, all of a sudden he's disappeared again. Well, my guess is, and Marcus, thank you for the phone call. Happy New Year. My guess is Major League Baseball has said, don't comment anymore. My guess is that Major League Baseball, when they release their findings of this, will have significant testimony from Mike. Let me just play Devil's advocate for a second. Sure.

What if Mike Fires had been tipped off? that all this was about to come out anyway. And he decided, you know what? I'm going to get ahead of it. And that's why he came out. But the problem of that is, we never would have thought of Mike Fires in this conversation. All we would have thought about were the hitters.

This isn't a question of Mike Fires getting an advantage. This is Mike Fires in an Astro uniform in the dugout, supposedly hearing and seeing this sort of illegal activity. Mike Fires did not gain a competitive advantage over what the Astor is doing. This was meant to help the Astros hitters, not him personally. True. So I would say, if he's trying to separate himself from the team, he didn't have to do this because we wouldn't have associated him with this to begin with.

Another question I would have, and the investigators might be addressing this, is what level of participation did he have while he was sitting in that dugout? did he just simply sit by and watch all this happen or was he participating i don't think he was participating he was clearly observing that's yeah i i guess what i want to know is who's the one banging the trash can and who's the one watching the monitor because it had to have been multiple people involved because yeah we don't do we know who those people were who were doing i don't think any of that's come out yet i'm i'm sure the investigation's working on that though Do you feel like the month of January is going to be one of the most volatile January's in Houston sports history coming up between what the Texans do in the playoffs and what Major League Baseball announces?

Because I can't imagine the Major League Baseball is going to let this go into February when teams have got to start reporting to spring training. Yeah, I would think we're going to see something come out before spring training starts. The question is where does it land? But answer my question. Answer my question. this January, we may not want to take any time off. Yeah, it's going to, when that story drops, it's going to be, it's going to take over. Even if the Texans are still in it, I think that is going to dominate the days.

Oh, let me taste them. It will dominate the national scene for sure, for sure, especially if the presumption is that there are enough people in Major League Baseball that want to see the Astros go down for this. please please please eight pound six ounce baseball god please tell me the astros didn't do as many things as supposedly ever been discussed and please eight pounds six ounce baby baseball god tell the commissioner to take be conservative with the punishments if there's such a thing are the astros candidates for d of the year don't know yet that's 2020 which talk about bill next plus more d of the year candidate straight ahead 111 on Sports Talk 790.

It's Matt and he's back. The Matt Thomas show on 790. Houston's home for Houston teams. What you're doing about? What you job about? Coach O'Brien. All right.

We don't do this usually on a Tuesday, but it's playoff week. And I thought I did a really good job early on, but I kind of ran of gas towards the end. Yeah, I mean, most of these, I think you'll do all right. All right.

Where do you want to go? I'm going to start with what is key to Carlos Hides having such a successful season? It's 32 seconds. I'm going to go with the old standbys. Good guy, works hard, good teammate, learn the system, all. Always willing to do the little things. Resilient, stays healthy. It's been a nice addition to our team.

Here's Bill. Yeah, no, he's worked hard since the day he got here. He's got a good running style. He's smart. He's able to learn. You know, I like the way he runs. I mean, you know, he gets behind his pads. He's got good vision.

And he's learned well. He's able to come in here and learn our offense right away. He put his mind to it. And he picked up things right away. and it was similar to what he had done in the past and other offenses, so it was something that he could get in there and contribute right away. You're right. He's meant a lot to our team this year.

God. Lay up. I mean, I feel really good about that one. Really, really good. You just got to remember that play behind the pads quote. He's going to use that a lot now. Okay. Frank Gore, 36.9 seconds.

I give him a lot of credit for being as durable as he's been in the NFL, long time, successful, one of the great under-discussed players of all time. He's resilient. He's still hard to bring down to this day. And we've got to keep an eye on him because he's a kind of guy that can be a big difference maker come Saturday. Yeah, Frank Gore is one of the best ever do it. Frank Gore, you know, you just said it. I mean, the way he runs, he runs very hard, gets his pads down, does not avoid contact.

Very tough, tough individual. It says a lot about his durability, says a lot about how he takes care of himself to be able to do that for this long. Yes. Excuse me. To be able to do that for this long in this league, you know, is a testament to who he is. I mean, he's a, he's a great player and him in Singletary back. there, that's a hell of a one two punch. I didn't mention Singletary.

I don't think that's that important. Yeah, that's four and a half stars right there. I got nine and a half stars through two. Easily. I should quit the game right now, but I won't. I'm like the guy that wins a certain amount of money and the price is right.

I've already got $2,000, but I'm going to try to go for $10 because I'm greedy like that. Let's up the difficulty a little bit this time. Which one you want to go to? Let's do, when did you first realize how special to show? is 44 seconds.

This is really a challenge, huh? Okay, 44 seconds. I always appreciated his game from afar when he was at Clemson, but to get him in the film room with me and study tape, he's a real student of the game. And I loved his passion, always wanting to get in the building early, work hard, be willing to listen to things I, you know, instructed him to.

and also great teammate. Guys look up to him. Guys want to be better for him. And when I saw that in the locker, and how his teammates saw him, that's when I knew how special he was. Well, I mean, I would say for me, that was when I met him.

You know, I think first impressions, you know, at the combine, and then when he came here for his pre-draft visit, just the way he carries himself. got great poise. He's got an excellent memory. He's got great communication skills. He's able to talk to you about a lot of different things. He's got a big heart.

He cares about his teammates. He's a winner. Oh, yeah. He cares about winning. Yes. And that came across in the first two meetings. So I'd say it was way before he got here and on the practice field. And, you know, he did some things in rookie minicamp that, you know, really unbelievable plays.

But it was way before that that you knew that you had somebody that, you know, could be a special player. I do want to quit now. I've won my $10,000. Where do you want to go next? What's the next round? Let's see. How about did you save anything new offensively for the playoffs?

How much is worth $25,000? Yeah, let's see. You got $10,000 right now. I got a chance to go for $25,000 MT bucks or I can stop at $10,000. All right. I'm going for it. 32 seconds. Did I save anything?

Did he save anything new offensively for the playoffs? Okay. You know, we always save a few things. Because I think there's so much tape on every NFL team that you don't want to come across as being predictable. I think most teams know what we do best. we're always trying different things, but this is a, you know, we're going against great defenses, and you can't get too crazy for the playoffs because if you start getting too crazy and you don't do what your core beliefs are and what you do is run the football well and pass

and get to Sean the right avenues, you're going to be in trouble. So I would say, yeah, we've got a few things, but nothing that's going to all of a sudden make us different than who we are today, and that's a good, hard-nosed, tough football team. I would just say the way that I answer that question is we're a game plan offense. So basically when we study Buffalo, we're going to try to do things that we think we hope can work against Buffalo. You know, I think that when we play somebody else, we're trying to do something that we think can work against that defense. I think it's game plan oriented, so it's not about holding anything or anything like that. It's just more about trying to do the best you can to put your players in the best position possible to make plays versus, you know, a great defense.

No, wait a minute. No, no, no, no. I know. I didn't get as many dings as the last time, but you were too busy trying to look for that sound bite. No, he didn't save anything. He said he's a game playing offense. I said, I didn't say they were going to do something crazy. That's false. I need a third judge on that. All right. Let me get my $10,000 back. One more here before we get to Aaron Reese. Give me $10,000 back. All right. How do you overcome? a team like Buffalo that is so good defensively. Oh, I'm getting this money back.

I think we got to play at a good tempo. I think we don't have to turn the ball over. I think, you know, having some healthy receivers out there will be good this week. We got to play good sound, fundamental football. Lots of turnover references. We can't turn the ball over. We can't put ourselves in penalties, pre-snap penalties, third and 13s. We need to be very successful on first down and do what we do best.

And that's playing hard-nosed, tough Texans football. And here is how I'm going to make my $10,000 back. You've got to earn every yard you make. You know, you've got to be, they're very disciplined. They're very good at what they do. You have to be disciplined. You've got to do a lot of things that are basic fundamental football. You've got to take care of the football.

You've got to, you know, really just. to eliminate mistakes. You have to be able to drive the ball. They just do a lot of things well. So you have to be very disciplined and you've got to really go out there and earn everything you get. They're a top five defense for a reason. Hell yeah. That was pretty good. Now, you want to play this soundbite of Mike Adams. There's something funny about this Mike Adams soundbite?

Oh, it's just at the very end he says something that I know I'm going to use in the future. All right. This is him talking about free safety, Mike Adams. And we want to listen to the last five seconds of this to maybe... I like the last, like, second and a half, really. So we're going to save the very best for the very last. Here's Mike. On O'Brien, on Mike Adams. He brings a lot of maturity and a lot of professionalism to the room.

He's a very professional, you know, the way that he goes about his business every single day. He's very consistent professional person. You know, he's here at the same time every day. He's got really, I mean, he's played a long time. So he's really good knowledge of. what we're trying to do, what offenses are doing. He's just a good pro. I think any time you bring veterans in like that,

you have veterans that have been here, and then you have a guy that came in, and I think anytime you have that, I think guys understand that, hey, man, this guy's lasted for a long time for a reason. Let me ask him, what's the secret sauce? What's the secret sauce? I don't want you using that sound bite.

Because I am very much a secret sauce fan. You mean ketchup? No, secret sauce. I like the secret sauce at Big Mac on the Big Mac, which is really mayonnaise, ketchup, and a little bit of pickle. And I think that's a thousand island dressing, actually. No, it's not the same thing. If you take a salad and you put Big Mac sauce all over it,

it would not be the same thing. What's the secret sauce? No, don't play that. And I'm also a fan of the secret orangey sauce that you get on the hamburgers at Jack a box. I don't know what that's made of, but I like it. So Nick, as the producer of this radio program, and thank you for your hard work this year, do not play that sound by again because I am a...

Now, when I'm off and you and Ross are doing the show, then you're more than welcome to do it. What's the secret sauce? But I like the secret sauce at Jack at a Box. I like the secret sauce on the Big Mac. And I also like the secret, whatever that sauce is they put on the fries and the burgers over at In and Out, which are now found here in the Houston area. I'll pass on In and Out.

Well, you're anti-American. 127 is the time. We are halfway home. There are two leaders in the clubhouse for D's of the year. They are Antonio Brown and Mike Fires. Antonio Brown, Mike fires, D of the year. Matter of fact, we're going to put a poll

a question up right now. Those are the two finalists. We'll have the official reigning awarding of the day of the year at 252 today. The poll question goes up and the votes belong to you. We go on the Texans beat next with Aaron Reese and the athletic 127 on Sports Talk 790.

Hey, it's Joe Green. From Clutch City. Fires another three. To Crest City. And the Astro! This is Sports Talk 7-9. home for your home team. All right, we got about 80 minutes to decide who is the D of the year. Mike Fires or Antonio Brown are the two finalists. My D of the year, not either one of them.

I'll have you that coming up at 2 o'clock. Let's say how to our good friend Aaron Reese from The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at Aaron J. Reese. Aaron, let's get right to it. J.J. Watt on the practice field. He is ready to go. What are the realistic expectations from those inside the bill? I mean, I would be really, really shocked if he wasn't activated before the game.

I think everyone expects that he will participate in the game. I don't think that you should expect him to have a full workload. You know, he even said that himself when he had his press comrades last week. You know, I mean, this is a quick recovery. I think that they're going to be cautious about how much he's going to play. I imagine that you'll probably get him mostly on, you know, pretty obvious passing downs. So I wouldn't expect a full workload from him, but I think he'll still be able to make a difference. I think having him in passing down, third down especially would be useful.

This defense has been a historically bad third down defense. Is he superhuman? I mean, I know there were a lot of battery of tests the organization put him through. Most peck injuries require four or five months of recovery. He's doing it in about two. What made his recovery so different than everybody else's? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I think to some degree probably it is severity, but I also think situation matters here.

and you hear him talk about it too. I mean, he sounds like kind of when he talked about it, you know, he knows the risk of injury, and I imagine that when you come back earlier than expected, probably risk of re-injury is higher, right? But the way he seems to view it is that, you know, even if the risk of re-injury is higher than so what, right?

He gets injured in this game and he goes through a three-month process again or however long and during the off-season, and he already knows what to expect. And so whatever. So I don't know if it's so much superhuman. I mean, obviously it is pretty remarkable all he's doing this, but I think it also is kind of the situation lines of such that the calculation makes sense for him. Aaron J. Reese joining us from The Athletic.

You can follow him at at his name, Aaron J. R-E-I-S on Twitter with the Athletic and covering the Texans. Will Fuller expected to play. I think there's going to be a buzz for JJ. It's Will is how long is he on the football field again before he gets hurt? Is that your sense? Is that not fair? realistically, if I ask you about how much JJ is going to play, how much of a threat can Will Fuller be on Saturday? Yeah, you know, I imagine he'll help play and, you know, I was just at practice and he was on the field.

But I don't know how much of a threat he can be. And obviously, you know, I think he, with him and hamstring injuries in general, right? You got the, or groin, sorry, I can lose track of that sometimes. But, I mean, you know, you obviously risk him reagorating something. But again, I think it's kind of one of the deals where what do they have to lose, right? if they don't win this game, it doesn't really matter. So he'll probably be on the field. I don't know if I wouldn't expect him to be kind of as big of a threat as, you know,

he normally can be when he's fully healthy. But even if he's just simply on the field, it's just his presence adds a ton to the Texans' offense and creates a headache for the bills. I mean, if you look at all the splits and stuff, by basically every metric, the Texans offense can be like a buzzsaw when he's on the field and just be kind of when he's off it. How many scenarios have you envisioned about this game going on Saturday? you lay awake at night in your bed before you go to sleep. Because I feel like there could be five or six of them.

One of them being, you know, another flat start for the Saturday afternoon game, a kickoff return like they did against Kansas City multiple years ago, and then I see just the opposite where this Texan's offense, even though the numbers aren't dominating over a Buffalo, have a more prolific offense getting out to a fast start and hold on for dear life. Run through some of the things you envision that could happen on Saturday. Yeah, you know, I think they'll win ultimately because I think Josh Allen is just kind of a, I don't know if he's really a great quarterback, and I think him playing in a row-clough game first time of his career and all that sort of stuff.

I'm not sure that. This is kind of stuff for him to win. That being said, I think the way I view this game most likely is it won't be that high scoring. You know, I think that ultimately, even if you have a wiflellan on the field, and it'll be important because he can potentially get you some chunk plays. but this Buffalo defense was done really well as years. They're the best defense against defending deep passes. So I think that's going to be the test for the Texans. They can't get these turn plays, which they're, you know, among the league leaders and producing,

how they can move the ball. So I imagine that they probably win. I think they have a better quarterback to play at home. They, you know, they get Jigawat back, all those things. But at the same time, I don't think that it's necessarily a game where the Texans get off to a super hot start and blow them out. And also the Texans just haven't got off to a hot start against pretty much anyone this season, unless A.J. McCarran is the quarterback. Don't even say that.

That means terrible things have happened to Deshaun, so don't even think bring up that mind. For a young quarterback playing in his first playoff game, how you get him rattled is pass rush. Even with JJ out there, and hopefully it changes. But the last two months, there just hasn't been any. Why is that? Is it just exclusively, JJ? And if you give Alan time to throw the football, he's able to find some downfield threats. Cole Beasley has been amazing for them this year.

John Brown has got a reemergence as a receiver. So why wouldn't Buffalo be in a pretty good spot if Allen can have time to throw the football? Yeah, I mean, if he has time, then he can maybe make some things happen. I just stick it. I ultimately think, you know, him being his first playoff came and all the things, I would bet on the Sean Loston over him. But, you know, I don't think that, I think it's a competitive game. If the Bill's won, I wouldn't be shocked.

I think the biggest thing is probably, you know, to get pressure on Allen, even if beyond getting a lot on the field, I think effective blitz is a big thing. I mean, that's kind of been the book on him in the back half of those years. You know, if you've blitzed him a lot, he struggles. I imagine Romeo Cornell knows that, and he's going to try. And, you know, in recent weeks, even though they haven't got a ton of pressure, I did think they had to do some things creatively to get pressure at times and well-time blithes and stuff like that on third downs against Tampa and Tennessee and whatnot.

So I think that they'll be able to get pressure enough to win the game. Let me ask you this. Bill O'Brien just said a few minutes ago it's a top five defense for Buffalo. And you're a little bit of research on them. What scares you about them coming up this Saturday? And what should people keep an eye on as they watch the game? Yeah, I think Trudevius White against DeAndjadry Hopkins, their top corner against him will be really interesting. Because if they're not going to be able to get 10 plays and he's kind of limiting Hopkins,

being kind of a first down machine like he's been for this team and Lopton can't look for him then how else do they move the ball? You know, I think they are pretty good in coverage. They're just okay against the run. So I think having a big game from Carlos Hyde is important. And then on the other side,

you know, so like you said, get pressure on Allen is key. And so how often are they going to blitz? How aggressive are they going to be trying to do that? Because, you know, if you bring out on blitzers, then obviously put a little more pressure on those corners the Texans have who, you know, Bill Ryan, Lexington Connelly and Ryan Hargraves

and Bradley really has him pretty good this year, but I wouldn't say anyone thinks that the Texas secondary is like some really stout unit. So it'll be interesting to see if Alan can take advantage of those guys in one-on-one. We've seen one former cornerback come to Houston and Kareem Jackson and have quite a day against his old teammates. I would hope that Kevin Johnson doesn't become a storyline. How many stamps will he get this week, do you think? Yeah, it seems like he's contributed a bit of his place with social teams and stayed healthy,

but I don't think he's not the reason that this Bill's offense or sorry, Bill's defense has gotten the rep. Sure, we'll play some, but I can't imagine he'll be rise to the storyline level as Karim Jackson does. All right, two last questions from you. One, let's go to the positive. They beat the Buffalo Bills, and then I'm going to presume that New England does beat Tennessee, so that would send the team to Baltimore, right? No. Yes, that's correct.

Okay, sends them to Baltimore. New England's a three-seat. If they beat, if they be Tennessee, then three goes two, yeah. Okay, so what do you think the team learned from that first experience being beat by 34 points against the hottest team in the NFL the last three months? Yeah, I think that that was a game where they really, really missed JJ Watts. So I think one benefit that happens, maybe he would help in terms containing Lamar a little bit. And beyond that, you know, I think they just can't, they really can't shoot themselves on the foot,

and they really have to get off to a hot start against Baltimore, because Baltimore is one of the best offenses in the league to start games. And the Texans, obviously, everyone at this point or one of the worst. You can't really do that against the Ravens because they are going to score most times that they get the ball. So getting off to a hot start is tantamount, and obviously Texans generally do that in that game. So that would be the biggest thing. And then I guess the other thing they learned is that Lamar Jackson is super given. But I think everyone in the league is winning at this point.

Yeah. All right. Now let's go the other side of it. They lose this game against Buffalo. What are the offices in Texanville like on Monday after the game? I mean, I think Bill Ryan is still a coach. The question moving into the off season, and this is probably true regardless, right, is just do they proceed with a GM? You know, it's been reported that Nick Serio by the Boston Globe reported they still thinks of it as an option,

even though, you know, a lot of people report that they're going to stick with their plan. So, you know, a lot of noise on both sides there. I think that's kind of the question for me is whether they end up sticking with a general manager or not. I ultimately think that, you know, all these openings that are being created out there and stuff, and that's happening, you know, as we're talking, you know, Daccario is just kind of, he has better options probably than this Texans won that they don't have a lot of draft picks. And, you know, you have a, this job has been turned through by a couple guys. I don't think there's better options out there, but we'll see if he ends up becoming the GM. Do you think there's any chance if this team doesn't get to the Super Bowl that you could see coordinator changes, especially Romeo Cornell? Tim Kelly is an OC, but we still know the Bill O'Brien's running things.

Could you envision coordinator changes for the Texans? You know, I think maybe if there was one, it probably would be more on defensive side. But I'm not sure that either of those teams super likely, but I definitely don't think that Tim Kelly's going to go anywhere. O'Brien really likes him. He's one of the brightest young coaches in the industry. He's the only guy who's only worked for O'Brien really for most of his career or for a long part bit of his career.

So I don't imagine he would go anywhere. Maybe on defense, but I think anyone who kind of looks at the situation would also say that this isn't necessarily Romeo Cornell's fault of the defense is struggled this year. I think that they just kind of don't have all the sort of personnel they need to be a super successful unit. I think when they traded Jamie and Clownie and then Brown and Tunsel and all those moves, I think they clearly made a bet that if you give Deshaun Watson the weapons he needs, he can be the one that can guide the team and that was going to come at a cost to the defense.

And I think that's kind of been what has happened this year, right? That's right. That's right. Aaron, let's talk either way next Tuesday, my friend. Thanks, and we look forward to reading your coverage on The Athletic. Okay? Sounds good. Thank you.

Thank you. Aaron Reese, Aaron J. Reese, R-E-I-S-S on Twitter. He is on the Texans beat for the Athletic and does a really, really nice job. Great in-depth stories. Next time, tell Alexa. Playing 790 on I-Heart Radio. Wherever you are, so is Matt Thomas. You know that Jason Garrett still hasn't been fired yet?

Yeah, I heard he was. meeting with them again today. A lot of meetings. You think that would be a pretty quick thing to discuss. You missed the playoffs. I was laid off one time in my life. A low moment of my life. How many days did you have to go to meetings for that to happen?

I was a 10-minute meeting. Does that mean that Jason Garrett's staying? Because here's the thing. His contract is running out. So you could draft up a it's been a good whatever year or the eight and a half year run something like that and just call it that and but you don't need to have another day of meeting i wonder is is he trying to sell them on keeping him around for one more year or a two year i don't know but remember that tv station in dallas and you know how again not every market's the same but most times tv sports

reporters get it wrong. Mark Berman gets it right here because he's been doing it forever. When he breaks something, I always believe it to be the gospel. But there has been nothing official about it. Now, we do know that Doug Marone is going to stay in Tennessee. No, excuse me, in Jacksonville. Yeah.

Which is a huge surprise. That sounds like a mistake. Their cleaning house in Cleveland. I guess new gentleman. I don't know. I don't even care. Nobody cares about Cleveland. Cleveland is, I mean, if Cleveland was to just say, you know what, we've stopped playing football, it would be odd, be down to 31 teams compared to 32.

We'd figure out a way to do it. Actually, that's not true. The easiest way to get rid of a franchise get rid of two of them. So who are we knocking out? I mean, do we need the Bengals anymore? How about we just give, does Ohio need football, professional football? They've got dominant college football. Do they need pro football?

Would the NFL be better if there were no people? Bengals and no Browns? I mean, let me tell you something. Joe Burrow is beside himself right now. He won the Heisman. Oh, yeah, he's undefeated. He was amazing against Oklahoma. He's going to play for national championship. And then he's going to have to go get his brains beat out because he's going to play for the Cincinnati Bengals. I would actually say get rid of the Bengals and the Lions because I think they're the two franchises that have accomplished the least in the league with such long tenure. Lions has never rid of the Super Bowl. Nope.

But they're always playing on Thanksgiving. What are we going to do without having them on Thanksgiving Day? Insert. How about we get rid of Jacksonville? Yeah, I don't need them either. I mean, if you're going to contract, the Browns have been nothing but a miserable failure since they've been reborn. Jacksonville, now Jacksonville's gone to, what,

two or three AFC championship games, at least two that I can remember. But the Lions have been around since, like, the 30s. I don't know if I want to get rid of the Lions. Maybe that's Detroit speaking in me, but I don't know. It doesn't feel like, well, you're right. Detroit, I mean, if you're going to travel, you'd rather go to Jacksonville than go to Detroit. Contract a 30, get rid of Cleveland and Detroit, and call it a day. But those are two miserable franchises.

Yep. Let's go to AJ, North Houston at 152.17. Any, AJ, good afternoon. Good afternoon. I got the latest entry, and I think the most dominant because of what he's done to a, to a city. in such a short amount of times to see taking ownership of this particular ball club. You just mentioned them to Cleveland Browns. The biggest B of the year now, Jimmy Haslam, the Brown's Antichrist.

So Jimmy, sell, leave Haslam leave. Have a great new year. Thank you. Same to you. My buddy Greg Rajan from the Chronicle tweeted this, or retweeted this guy. Jimmy and Dee Haslam's resume, five hired, excuse me, five, five, five. head coaches, five fired general managers, two fired team presidents, 32 wins, 88 losses in one time. Oh, I mean, we got some Clevelanders that listen to this show.

You got your NBA championship. You feel pretty good, right? But other than that, you've done squat with the Cavaliers since. LeBron has left on two different occasions. The Indians lost into the World Series of the Cubs, who had never won a World Series in, what, 100 years, whatever it was. The Browns have been an utter disaster. Just when you think it's tough to be a Houston sports fan,

when in doubt, you go to, I think, frankly, two cities. You go to Cleveland, for sure. And Atlanta ain't far behind. Although they went to the Super Bowl And lost in a spectacular fashion Here in Houston Yeah Maybe not Atlanta

Well Braves didn't they lose a game Didn't they lose their championship series Like they were down 10-0 after one That's a pretty bad way to lose Oh yeah Hawks are awful And have been awful

They weren't even really spectacular When Dominique played But they're really bad now You've got nothing out of your basketball team in essentially, I don't know, 35 years. The Braves are back to being good, but their playoff exits are pretty pronounced. Yeah, that was a huge joke this year.

But the Falcons at least have gone to the Super Bowl a handful of times. I'll give him that. Not won it, but at least gone. Matt Ryan had an MVP season. Nobody's thinking about that. Cleveland is the... Looking for the bright spots.

Cleveland, yeah. Cleveland is the D of the sports. They did get the NBA championship, but that's because they had probably the second greatest player in the history of the NBA play for them. Not much since. And then the Haslam resume of owning the Browns,

five fired head coaches, five fired general managers, two fired team presidents, 32, 88, and one. And that's over 121 games, if my math is right. Yeah.

Thank you, Cal McNair. Thank you, McNair family. Thank you, Bill O'Brien. four AFC South championships in the last six years. Few minutes remaining to get to the poll question on my Twitter account at SportsMT. The question is, who is the D of the year? You know what's amazing? If you had told me to predict the D of the year maybe in, say, August,

I would have guessed that at least Bill O'Brien would have been nominated. And I haven't heard a single nomination for Bill O'Brien. Four AFC South Championships in the last six year. Two in a row. Ten and six. It's a good football team. Right after he traded Jadavia and Clowny, thought for sure he was a shoe in. Nope.

Barcavius Mingoes had some contributions of this team. 273 votes are in. 70% Mike fires 30% Antonio Brown when this program returns I will tell you my

dees of the year you have some come on in 713212-5-790 7-719 713 212 5790 156 this is Sports Talk 790

This is the Matt Thomas show Oh at 2 o'clock the final hour of the final show of this decade. We start 20-20 on Thursday. 2 o'clock sports talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show.

Nick, we have the Twitter question up and running for those of you that would like to partake in such. The question is, who is the D of the year? 71.8% Mike fires. And 28.2%

for Antonio Those are the kind of the two that have gotten the most conversation pieces going. I think people are voting with emotion. Well, I think, in my opinion, Antonio Brown's a bigger D than Mike Fires. Because let me ask you this. If it was Mike Fires outing the Texas Rangers, there would be none of this firing brimstone for the guy, right? Everyone who would love Mike Fires. Yeah.

And everyone here anyway. God, this sucks. Again, I'm saying a small prayer to make sure this is just a bad case of miscommunity. communication. All right. Now, time for my D of the year. Let's go ahead and get the soundbite and ready to go. Here it's.

D of the year. And I don't like doing this to a collective group of people, but I feel like it has taken over people's anger on Twitter. It has taken people anger over on radio. It has taken over anger with general sports fans that don't even partake in the previous two things I just announced. I bet I know who it is. It's officials in general.

That's what I have guessed. It started with the atrocious two non-calls in the NFC championship game on the targeting and on the pass interference. And I remember doing the Monday show after we were all incensed about it, right? And I said, they're going to fix this. They being the NFL. So they did.

They said, we're not going to allow you to challenge pass interference calls. And it only got worse. And it only got worse. Not only are they, are the calls as bad as they were before? The challenge system is broken. They're afraid to overturn these things when it is abundantly clear that there should have been many more overturns than they were over the course of the year, meaning past interference called the non-pass interference or non-pass interference with adding a flag.

It hasn't been better. In fact, it's just worse. And now it's frankly them just thumbing their nose at us. Sticking their tongue out. No, no, no, no, no. And it's not just the NFL either. We go to Major League Baseball. The strike zone is all over the place.

And they have QuestTech. And they've had Quest Tech for quite some time. And it's just getting worse. Fair or foul? Hasn't really been that big of an issue. I want to say in a while. Obviously, the interference call on the Jose Al-Tube Homer, and that was 2018, so I can't really even count that as part of my 2019D of the year.

But I can count strike zone. I can count replays on a handful of slide tags of the plate when things look pretty clear that they should have been. I'm not talking about just the asteros. I'm talking about in general. We are watching the best athletes in the world compete at the highest levels in the biggest games. meaning wild cards, Divisionals,

championship series, championship games, and the excellence that is on the football field is not being matched by the excellence from officiating. Now,

quarterbacks don't have perfect games. The best quarterbacks, if they throw 24 out of 30 with six incompletions, still have a high passer rating with a bunch of touchdowns, they have excellent days. Do we put too much on these

officials to get everything right. NBA officiating, I have said ad nauseum is the most difficult sport to officiate. The athletes are bigger, faster, taller, younger than just about every official on the floor. The game moves, the game of basketball moves at a breakneck speed. And I can say the same thing about college basketball, too, to be honest with you. Basketball in general. and the replay system is in play right now in the NBA, but right now it's thoroughly confusing.

And right now, it's thoroughly being underused because you can only challenge each team gets one challenge per game. The games in which I have called, whether being as a PA announcer or the radio play-by-play for the Rockets, I have seen quite a few plays overturned. And when it moves fluidly, it corrects a call by an official, and you think, okay, let's try this again.

Well, you can't. Each team gets one challenge. And then I've seen other games where other calls should have been turned. It seemed fairly obvious, and they were not. So here we are in the year 2019 with the best technology humanly available, with the best athletes and these officials, whether it be in football, basketball, or baseball, that are constantly evaluated.

I was talking about this in New Orleans a few days ago. NBA officials get, they get evaluated at half time of the games they're calling through video. They go in their locker room and they shower and they shave and they get out. They get evaluated there. Then they have to go back to their hotel with a hub of a videotape of what they did. And then they're going to get an email the next day talking about all the things you screwed up. Not a job you'd want, right? No.

Could you imagine, Nick, if every day I did a three-hour show that every single component of my show was evaluated and broken down to the minute, I'd want to get out of the business. Now, sometimes you do need to evaluate yourself and have others evaluate you. But generally speaking, I don't want 113 to 120 to be evaluated over a fine-to-tooth comb. I don't. It would make me hate the business. Absolutely. You don't want to be critiqued on every step you take.

But that's what those officials do. But you would think that if you evaluate these officials in no matter whatever sport it is, and they are constantly being reviewed in critique, we would get better calls. The Crem de la Crem would rise to the most important times of the year in these sports, the playoffs. We don't care about a miss call, frankly, between Detroit and Portland in a regular season game.

We might get mad at a game between the Steelers and the Browns for a pass interference. It should have been called non-pass interference. But what we really talk about, what we really get into is what happens. during the playoffs, the most important time where the best teams go, and you would think the best officials. But yet, we still have

massive screw-ups. And one of the most frustrating things I have is the officials today have me, they've begged the questions, what is a catch? What is a legal tackle? The catch thing is a little easier. We've had much more clarity on that.

Yeah, getting a little better. I think this year, the thing that has piss everybody off, excuse my French, is the pass interference challenge has not gone the way it should have gone. What is the point of challenging when the challenge is never going to be overturned? They never change it. So ladies and gentlemen, I pronounce to you at 208 on this turn up being a pretty nice day, December 31st, 2019.

Officials in sports, you, my friends, and maybe through no fault of your own, but just who you are, your system that you're in, you are the D's of the year. D of the Year My guess is, Nick, they are really nice people. Not all of them, but many of them are nice. They're conscientious.

They take their jobs extraordinarily seriously. You can't have an off day as an NBA official. You get taken off the court. You can't have an off day as an umpire, a bad strike zone day, and I not face some sort of repercussion of that. But it doesn't matter. We are finding ourselves as sports,

Sports Talk host and fans and connoisseurs of the game, we are spending so much of our time more than ever before criticizing officiating. Now, some people, and I won't mention names, my good friend Ben Dubose, you can't complain about every single call. Because if you do that, when there's a call you really should be complaining about, it falls on deaf ears. It's like the, what is it, the boy who cried wolf all the time? Yep. They're going to make mistakes. Jump shooters miss jump shots. Great players miss free throws.

Hall of Fame quarterbacks don't always throw the pass right to the receiver. Hall of Fame receivers drop passes. Mistakes are going to happen. Mistakes are going to happen. So you have to have that as part of the equation. And I'm very, very, in my opinion, and again, I could be wrong, but I'm going to gloss myself here as very conscientious and very observant of the fact that you have to make mistakes. I wish I had a perfect play-by-play broadcast,

but I have misidentified players before. It's going to happen. Now, hopefully in the big moments, it doesn't happen because that's when people really want to listen. They want the accuracy. And it's through no fault that I miss a name up. You just happen to say a wrong name, and you try to correct yourself, and you move on.

Nothing is ever perfect. But in sports, you need a system for when mistakes happen to correct those mistakes. Especially when there is so much on the line. and I am and again, I have no dog in the fight in the Rams Saints, either one of those two teams. I am completely indifferent. I didn't care who went to the Super Bowl last year and who did not. But how could you not be, I know we got Saints fans that listen to the show, New Orleans folks.

That's going to poke at you for the rest of your life until the Saints go to the Super Bowl and win the damn thing. it absolutely should because it was a one bad call, B, two bad calls, and C, the official was right on top of it. How in the world do you have an end, a conference championship game with what you would think the best of the best officiating or close of the best? And he blows a ridiculously obvious call.

And then the NFL puts a system in and you still blow obvious calls. We as sports lovers and fans and connoisseurs have a huge problem because our officiating is not matching the technology and the athleticism and the greatness that we find in today's sports in 2019. So even if you're of the belief that mistakes happen, which I am the king of that, nothing is perfect. that's why video replay is there to bail you out. And I feel like it's not done its job. And that bothers me because it could involve a Houston. It might involve a Houston team.

It definitely is going to involve a Houston team because Houston teams make playoffs. Texans go to the playoffs. It seems like every year the last handful of years. The Rockets go to the playoffs every year. The Astros have gone to the American League West Championship three years in a row. we've got Houston teams in this. So we're going to have even a more vested interest in it than say if it was Pittsburgh in the playoffs or if it was San Francisco. And gang, our officials in these sports are not getting better.

And that is something that I don't have the answer to unless you just young them up, make them all 26 years old. But again, if you're 26 years old, why do you want to be a referee? Why do you want to live your life being screamed at by people? I mean, the money's good, but ain't great. You're a smart guy. Go be a stop worker or make a half million dollars a year. Instead of going to being an NBA official and being away from your home, you know, 200 days a year and being screamed at every city you go to and told how awful you are.

Why would you want to do that? Why don't you be a major league umpire? Do you think umpires and refs tell people when they're not working what they do for a living? Yeah, it helps. It helps. So ladies and gentlemen, I pronounced to you at 213, the D of the year. And that's everything that has to do with officiating. D of the year.

713-212-5-790. Mike Fires may win it as an individual. I've got officials winning it for the league, for all of the sports. And it's too bad because we're going to see more games decided by erroneous calls by humans that make human mistakes, instant replay systems that apparently aren't conclusive enough, in leagues that will not do the things necessary in order to make these sports more foolproof by adding replay and adding people that have the stones to overturn calls. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach our show.

7-13-212-790. It's 212-790. It's 21-T-T-Mas show, and this is Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790 19 of the Matt Thomas show Sports Talk 790 it is our final 40 minutes of the year and of the decade which is kind of strange so if you have anything you want to get off your chest before we end this 2019 year

I don't remember 2010 changing so much except I was driving from Minneapolis to Houston moving back here I have no idea what I was doing in 2010. 2000 to me was a huge year. Do you remember how everyone was worried about whether or not things were going to be turned off? A Y2K. Yeah.

How clocks are going to be screwed up. If flights were going to be, if radar systems were not going to work, if the government was going to shut down, that kind of stuff. Yeah, and then it was just no big deal. It really was no big deal. But I remember, I think Barbara Walters got on a plane. and she was going to travel as the years were moving out in different time zones so she could experience 1999 to 2000 like on two or three different occasions. So I, you know, to me, I don't remember two, again, the only thing I might remember about 2010 was it was I was driving. I spent New Year's Eve December 31st, 1999 in some small town in Kansas because I was moving back from St. Paul to here back to Houston to start the job on January the 4th.

There's nothing better in life, Nick, than spending New Year's Eve by yourself in a one-star hotel in the middle of Kansas eating terrible Mexican food. And that's what I did. Nice. That's how you celebrate. Sounds like fun. Yeah. I've never done the New York thing before. You know, you go to Times Square?

I've never done that. You know the reason why? It's because I think you have to get there like 12 hours early. And then you're standing packed like sardines in the middle of Times Square. And then what do, and I know there's got to be porta potty's there. But can you get to them? But can you get to them? And how much, look, you're going to get hungry.

I mean, you're going to get thirsty. You're going to have to go to the bathroom. And standing for all that many hours, you're going to lose your space, right? You can't say, hey, I'm in this spot here. Can you, uh, can you save this from me for 15 minutes? Yeah, it's a mob. You can't control it. And I get the, the whole bit of being there and kissing your girl.

There's going to be some coolness to it. I mean, it is the most spectacular point in the world to do that. I guess. It doesn't sound like much fun to me. Yeah, I've never done it before. If anybody's ever done it before, let me know what it's like. I see why you'd want to do it because I know that Vegas does it. Disney World does it.

Disney Land does it. But the thought of being out in cold weather for multiple hours and not being able to get to go P. That's the thing about it. I can stand up for hours. I've done that before. But we're waiting for this damn ball to drop. We got terrible people singing lip-syncing songs.

Wasn't Mariah Carey's one of her big disasters on it? It was on a New Year's Eve where she's trying to lip-syncing and it can work out? Oh, yeah. The tape got off time or something like that. Yeah. Oh, yeah, she couldn't hear. That's what the problem was. And she just quit and started yelling at people.

So if anybody's ever been to that, is it worth it? at the end of the day. Would you, is it worth being out there for, like how many hours? I'm assuming you got to be out there by now. Because you don't want to be 25 rows deep, because then you're not seeing the ball drop

and you get the bad angle. I just like being an, I'm just, maybe as I've gotten older on this, I don't want to be anywhere near anybody around New Year's except my family because I've just, you know,

the first of all the cops are all over the place. Yeah. All my New Year's Eve's, blend together, at least for the last decade, I've been working on every one of them. Now, the best New Year's Eve I've had, I was in Atlanta

a few years back when the Houston Cougars knocked off Florida State and crushed them in the Peach Bowl. And Atlanta has a peach that they drop at midnight. And I didn't have to drive anywhere. I walked everywhere, hung out with a lot of different people,

drank a lot. Didn't have to be anywhere. the next day except to catch a flight. That was fun. But the downtown Atlanta scene was nothing close to what downtown New York would have been. And by the way, my cougars absolutely destroyed the Florida State Seminoles. They were afraid of play us. All the good old days from Peach Bowl dominating wind to no bowl this year.

We'll fix that. All right. Eric and Richmond says he has been to a New Year's Times Square. Eric, tell us your story. Yeah, it was pretty awful, but it's a pretty great thing to say you did just one time. I would never do it again. It was going into 2011. It was freezing.

I went with two of my best friends. You went around to bring alcohol in, so we had to sneak it into Sprite bottles, which we later, after, pretty drunk and having to pee a lot, had to pee into said Sprite bottles. And, yeah, but they did have a guy at least walking around, passing around a, you know, like a $30 pepperoni pizza. Oh, no. At least they had that. But yeah, you couldn't get the toilet, so eat in the bottles. And the funny thing was, you know, like it was like Kesha that year, and it was like the Backstreet Boys with new kids on the block. They played the same songs like four times because they, you know, I get to get it right that one time for the, when they actually do the

live or not live performance. So, yeah, pretty cool, but also terrible. You can't move, and you're there for about eight hours. So that's all. Okay, so how old were you again? Well, I'm 34 now, so I was, like, 26. So you basically saw a lot of men pee in a bottle. What do the girls do?

Sadly, we only had a couple of girls around us, so it was a sausage fest. in our particular area, unfortunately. Yeah, what do the women do to go to the bathroom, though? I didn't get to witness that, so not too sure. So you're glad you did it, but you'll never do it again. Oh, God, no, I don't think anybody or whoever does that more than once is probably not right in the head. Now, were people like from all over the country or all over the world, or were they primarily New Yorkers?

I think it was all over the place. I mean, it's New York. It seems like half the people are tourists. there so yeah you know what i would do i would probably and this is i mean i probably if i had unlimited cash i'd probably get run a room at the marriott marquee and just watch it from a hotel room but that those rooms probably cost a thousand bucks a night tonight yeah luckily we stayed with a friend's family member so we stayed for free you know you didn't have that much money so yeah wow well thank you very much for the storyline um and when so were you with women the night of of

the party or were they just a bunch of guys oh no we went to a bar afterward and that was like 10 times better. There were girls all over there. I guess they knew to stay out of there. So, but that was a good time afterwards. You, uh, did you kiss no one right at midnight, I'm assuming? I didn't want to kiss my dude friends. So unfortunately, no, I did not kiss me. It was high fives and fist bumps, I'm assuming, right? Uh, you got it. All right. Hey, Eric, thank you for, what was the temperature? Do you remember how cold it was? It was in the low team, or low teams, or sorry, high teams, low 20s. It was nice. It was not good.

I'll just say this. Oh, hell no. No, thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Eric, for the phone call. I appreciate it. All right. I'll take care.

All right, buddy. Happy, happy New Year. Yeah, I'll pass on New York in general, but definitely on Times Square. New York's not bad. Time Square is not bad. December 31st, hard pass. 228. The Matt Thomas Show, half hour left to go.

You know what? Do we have any... You know what? No one's listening, right? I mean, like, relatively few people are. Probably. Anybody have any crazy New York Eve store at New York? Year's Eve stories?

They got to be true. I don't. Like I said, I've been working most of my New Year's Eve's. I have to live vicariously through you guys. Do you have any crazy New Year's Eve stories? My last one again, having too much to drink and partying all night long was in Atlanta when the Cougars beat Squash Florida State. If you have a story and you tell the truth and you keep it PG-13, 713-1-3-21-5-7-90,

And this is not Penthouse for me. Can't lie. Got to tell the truth. Tell the truth. If you got a crazy, crazy New Year's Eve story. 713-212-5-790. Hey, it's Eric Gordon. Gordon for three in the lead.

Matt Thomas is my favorite voice in Houston. EG for three. You're listening to the flagship. Sports Talk, 790. Home of the Rockets. Say, say, say, 2000, Pottieroos out of time. We need, God rest his soul, we need somebody to step in here for Prince.

And sing this song? No, and sing any, like sing a song like it's 20, like it's 2020. This song was so good back in the 80s. It was so good in 1999. We don't have anything else. I believe Limp Biscuit covered it in 1999. And how did it turn out? It was Limp Biscuit, so terrible.

Can I tell you one more thing that I, and this only will go over most people's head. One of my favorite Billy Joe songs is We Didn't Start the Fire, which is basically a historical perspective of 50 years, right? He needs to update that. Going from the 50s to the late 90s, early 90s, that song was in early 90s. To show you what a dork guy am, I've tweeted at his daughter, Alexa, Ray Joel, asking her to get her dad to update the song. I agree. There's been a lot. A lot has happened since that song was written. Now, the last part of it is Wheel of Fortune, Salli Ride, heavy metal suicide, foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, cracked, burning debts, hyperdermics on the wall, Chano's under martial law, rock and rolling cola wars. I can't take it anymore. Yeah, I just said off top of my head. Let's go to the very end, go to the very, where I just sang that, or I just said, I want him to sing it for us. And then I want him to pick up.

It would be 1993 to 2020. That's 27 years of stuff. You can give me a four-minute song out of that, could you not? Now, I'm not going to try to guess what the topics would be or how you would try to arrange it. But rock and roll and cola wars, I can't take it anymore. Sing the chorus and then give me another two verses of things that have happened in the last 27 years. These are the dorky things I think about. We didn't start the fire version 2 updated is what I want to do.

713-212-125790 China's under mushroom Rock and roller collar walls I can't take it anymore And then get to something new Right You just have to tack on an extra verse Trump's in there

Clinton's in there Obama Obama's in there They're all in there They're all in there Um The internet's in there YouTube is in there

The World Trade Center World Trade Center is in Oh, electric cars are in there There's all sorts of stuff All right, thank you very much That's just a dorky thing I brought up I'm sorry I just love like that's a great song That needs two more verses

Tony and Katie You got a New Year's Eve story for me? Go for it 80s I was in the Air Force And I was stationed over in England And a bunch of us would try We traveled one time to London, which absolutely sucked for New Year's Eve. But then we went to Edinburgh, Scotland, two years in a row, and talk about packed people. We would go to this place called Tron Square in Edinburgh, Scotland, where a huge clock was.

And they packed in, it's nothing, in this square is nothing but pubs. And they packed in probably 60 to 70,000 people in this square. And that guy before me was talking about everybody standing around having a pee in bottles. Right. Well, there was no bottles back there. But it was so crazily packed when they would sing in their drinking songs, your feet would leave the ground because you're so tight packed in there. So that was probably the craziest.

Then passing around magnum bottles of champagne sharing it, when you're 18, 19, you don't give a damn. Sharing it with people you don't even know. So, yeah, Tron Square, Edinburgh, Scotland in the late 80s was unbelievable. Thank you. Thank you for the story. Happy New Year, my friend. I appreciate it. It's good stuff. We passed champagne in Scotland? I out for your scotch. They're drinking everything there. Scotch and beer, I would guess. Let's go to Aaron and pass a get-down, Dina. Hi, Aaron.

Hey, how you guys doing this afternoon? Well, I'm actually from San Antonio, but I went to school at San Diego, and I'd come home and do some moonlighting at a restaurant that I had managed in San Antonio. and do a little bit of managing over the holiday season. Well, while I was there, this beautiful young Redheader for a dating, she became my date for the evening of 1999. So she happened to work in Victoria's Secret, and I'm already out kicking my coverage at this point. Congratulations.

You're not going to Penn House form on me here, are you? Well, well, I couldn't believe it happened to me. You know, it starts off this way. Okay. you back, she was inside of her friend's apartment, and I said, okay, that's fine, who happened to work in Victoria's Secret with her, and we went up there and had a couple drinks, and she went to change, and I'm waiting, and I'm waiting, and I'm waiting, and it's been an uncomfortable 10 or 15 minutes. So I go back to check on her, and everything north of Ecuador is exposed

between her and her friend, and just as I walk in, the other girl's boyfriend walks in, and I couldn't even get out. It just saw what it looks like. He threw me off of the second four stairs all the way down to the first floor. And I ran to my truck like El Tud. We both got out of there and swore off redheads for the rest of my life. So wait a minute. You did nothing wrong, correct?

Wrong place, wrong time. Nothing wrong. But this guy was a bull of a man, and there was no time to say anything. I just took the kick down the stairs, and that was a lot of it. Well, first of all, I'm glad that you didn't suffer any injuries. But wow. So you went from it was going to be one of the greatest days of your life to I might never live another day. Well, and kind of the worst part is the next day we both had to work, and I didn't want to talk to her anymore.

I was so scared and just, you know, I was out of my league, out of my tax bracket with this girl. She came out of the kitchen with a full tray of food that I wouldn't talk to her because I was still shaking. She took the trail of food and threw it down in the middle of the dining room, New Year's Day. And, yeah, that reinforced my never dating a redhead again, philosophy. Well, I am very sorry to hear about this. I was definitely afraid it was going to go in one direction and it went in the other. Thank you very much. I was hoping to go in one direction and went the other.

All right. Have a great new year, my friend. Thank you, Erin, for the phone call. Tell me the truth, Nick. You were thinking this guy's going to tell us a one-for-the-age-stitch. story. I saw a twist coming. He should have

stood his ground. Take the punches. All right. Let's go to James and Myerland on 790. Hi, James. Hi, hi, Matt. Yeah, that guy's story, man. It could only happen perfect in a porn skit or something.

Because again, sometimes you open up a segment, you're deathly afraid of people like, I'm going to call the show and make some crap up, because I don't know if you're telling the truth, and I don't have a lot of texture on you. And he, I absolutely believe his story. because he was like, oh, this girl is hot, and she brings me to her apartment and her roommate's there,

and then this guy wants to beat my ass. And then that's just, that's Americana for you right there. Yeah, no, he sounded sincere. God bless the guy. Well, at any rate, man, I wanted to say your idea was brilliant. And I hope Billy Joe does do that, do a part two, you know, for we didn't start the fire. Well, that song was actually released in 1989.

I remember that. I was in high school graduating. Yeah, I was a junior in high school. I was a senior in high school in 89, and we had a competition among about 20 of us. We had to memorize the song, and I finished second out of 20. And because you spent, I spent so much time memorizing the song, I still remember large parts of it. For instance, if you gave me, like, Nick, find me a part of the segment of the song. Not to be the first part.

I need the first name, and then I can go on after that. I just can't start it, but once I hear the first one, I can go forward. And that's what memorizing stupid songs meant like in 1989. But James, you're not one of the same. Yeah, you got me beat on that. But very quickly, it would take up from the early 90s. He would launch into lyrics about grunge. You would go to the election of Bush, H.W. Bush, Clinton, all the way to Monica Lewinsky.

Yeah, you would go. Yeah, 89 would start. You would go with George H.W. You'd go to the other Bush. You would then go to, you'd have Clinton. you would have what other world events would be would the Wall

would the Great Wall be a part of that or not no that was under Reagan I want to say well that was a year before yeah well no it was a year after my bad it was 1990 when that wall went down he said crack so crack cocaine was part of the

early late 80s meth meth would be a part of it it would definitely lead up to Trump Oh, Trump's got like his own verse by himself, I think. Exactly. All right, thank you, James. All right, thanks, you buddy.

You got something here? Let's see if I can get it. All right, Matt, you're ready? Here's your start. I'm going to start it and then stop it and see if you can keep carrying it. Oh, this is tough. Play for a little bit. Malikov, Naser and Prokakiyev, Nakafela, Kampanella, Communist block.

Wonklini, Nini, Dan, Grong, Bien, Guvo. around the clock Eisenhower James Dean Brooklyn's got a winning team Davy Crockett Peter Pan Elvis Presley Barrett does Budapest Alabama Cruz Jeff Princess Grace Peyton Place trouble in the Sue is Yeah I did okay not great I did okay not bad not bad better than I can do let me do one more This is New Year's Eve what you do give me started here But Nick Jenada, Ridge on the River Choirals de Gauc

California baseball Falk fire beside children of the limine Yeah, it's B plus. Maybe see. Matt Thomas returns On Sports Talk 790. There are two bands

that I have friends of and you guys know one of them, Brian T. Smith, that they will travel around the country to see them perform. Brian's band is Pearl Jam. I got another good friend of mine.

I got another buddy of mine, Ed, who travels to see Pearl Jam to. Another one is when you two has concerts. What is up with you two and Pearl Jam traveling around the country to see them? I don't know. I've never seen either. I have no interest in seeing YouTube. They're okay. I mean, they're fine.

You know, I'm not big into either one of them per se. I mean, they both have their hits, Sarah hits. But like when, like the concerts that I, I go to sea. As you guys know, are a little bit older. Like, I've seen McCartney three or four times. I've seen Elton John two or three times. I saw Elton John most recently, December when he was here in Houston.

I would never intentionally travel to a city. Well, that's not true. I saw Paul McCartney and Shreveport, so that's not true. Is that really traveling? Oh, Litter Rock, I guess. He's traveling. That was a big concert because that was the first time he had been to Little Rock since the Civil Rights era in the late 60s.

So, but I wouldn't go, I wouldn't go to, like, Denver to go see Elton John. I'd want to go to a really cool venue. Like if McCartney's performing in an arena, okay, Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis looks the same as the TOTUS Center, relatively speaking, these arenas are about the same. But if they were to go to Red Rocks and perform or the Hollywood Bowl, smaller venues, smaller venues, amphitheaters, crazy, you know, have never been. And that kind of thing, that's what I'd want to go see. But part of the charm of these concerts is that people travel all over the country.

McCartney, when he always does his concerts, they ask where everybody's from. Now, Litterwock was easy because so many people drove from, you know, all throughout Arkansas. They went from parts of Louisiana. There were people from Oklahoma there. And then my son and I were from Texas. Because he hasn't been back since, was it Minamay, Part of it? did you do something at Totus Center too? No, it's been a Minute Maid Park, I think.

Yeah. But yeah, I just teach his own. But I just, those bands have, haven't had a hit much like Paul hasn't had a hit in years, but people travel all across country. And my buddy Ed says it's because Pearl Jam's concerts are always different. You never see the same concert twice. I would go to a Pearl Jam concert,

but I'm not going out of my way to go to them. Yeah, they came to Houston. I mean, I think Pearl Jam might be coming to Houston next year. If he does, it's a big deal. I'll ask Brian T. I'm sure he's in the know. I would want to go with Brian T with that. I wouldn't want to go hear his sports takes.

I want to hear him break down Pearl Jam like a mutter. He's probably listening right now, so I'm just teasing him. Okay, Rockets basketball tonight at 6 o'clock. So if you're going to the game, the game's not at 7. I don't want you to be disappointed if you're getting there at halftime. That would not be cool. So 6 o'clock. And we'll have the launch pad at 5, network pregame at 530,

and then the tip time shortly after 6. Tomorrow we are best of all day long. Some of the best segments, skits, funny things that have ever happened on this show during the day. So if you're driving around, which I don't think most people are. Everybody's going to stay home watch games, right? You got to sleep off the hangover. And then we are back stronger. Not stronger.

I'm probably weaker, but as good as ever, at least voice wise. You, me, Ross, be back from his trip out West Texas. We'll do it. And we will get into heavy Buffalo versus Houston. and what I think should be a really fun night Friday for the Rockets taking on the Philadelphia 76ers. Joel M. B. makes his only appearance here, at least in the regular season. Did we remember to load in a good morning strippers for tomorrow? Because I think that's a good morning strippers day.

No, it's just the opposite, actually. There's no way the strippers are waking up at noon tomorrow. No chance. Yeah, they're going to sleep a couple extra hours. Because let me twist it this way. They're working until two. They're definitely going to get breakfast. and then they're going to watch

TV till 4, 5, 6, get their 9 hours of sleep. Yeah, they're not going to be earlier at 1.32 o'clock. I guess you've got to have a good point. I'll get them up Friday at noon. That's just kind of a tradition. So we'll have that. Oh, I forgot to tell you my D of the week. Oh, please. I'm sorry.

We've got 90 seconds. Go. D of the year, by the way. Real quick, NCAA for being the biggest hypocrites on the planet. But didn't that the D of the year every year? Yeah, probably. What made you give them this year as compared to others? I was going to go with Antonio, But this year you've got, let's see, how many bribery and, let's say, bribery scandals?

Yeah, the Adidas thing, the FBI investigating them over all that crap. And then you have, in California, the players finally trying to gain a little ground in attempting to be able to make a little bit of money off of their own likenesses. And they're pushing back on that while they're getting in trouble for making millions, millions of dollars in, you know, it would be. legitimate ways. Save your take. By way, play some Pearl Jam because Brian's listening right now. So play some Burl Jam to close the show out. Your take right there, you can use that for the D of the year. I think every single year for the rest of your life. I don't think it's going to really be that big of a difference in 2020, 2021. Who knows? I don't even ever vision a day where athletes are getting full on compensation for doing anything.

Little bonuses, little lightness is sure, but being straight out paid, I don't think it's ever going to happen. All right. This is for you, BTS, who will join me Friday at 2 o'clock to preview Buffalo, Houston. Have a great rest of your day. Stand by the A-teams at TOTA Center. I'll see you guys at 6 o'clock at the arena for the Rockets and Nuggets. Happy New Year. We're back at noon.

Thursday, right here, Sports Talk, 790.