The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show: Bill O'Brien Speaks On The Draft, The Trade, NBA Optimism

Episode Date: April 16, 2020

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. H-Town. What's happening in lunchtimmers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. With Joe George filling in for Nick Lowe, Sports RV, Ross Middle Real. I'm Matt Thomas.

It's nice to have you guys with us. on this absolutely glorious day in our city. So, you know what, after the show ends at 3 o'clock, we should all go for a long walk. Is that what you're going to do, Matt? You're going to take your doggies and go for a very long, lengthy walk? Trying to get my 10,000 steps in a day. Ooh, that's got to be difficult.

I'm probably getting around 8 to 9 steps a day. And, you know, there are some days I look at my step count and it says 74, and I'm, like, humiliated by this. Yeah, that's how I would be right about it. Well, that's how I'd be about basically every single day. single day. And then I think about, well, you know, I did walk around the house a little bit from the refrigerator to my bedroom, to my office, to the bathroom. And there's got to be another 50 steps in there. There are some days I'm at about 120, 530 steps. Very nice. Let's get right to it. We are with you

today until 3 o'clock. We've got a variety of issues to get to get to get to get to get to completion less than five minutes ago. I actually had to jump off the Zoom call at 1150 to finalize, get ready for this show here. Bill O'Brien speaking for the very first time publicly. I mean, I know he did that conference call or whatever, that town hall meeting, whatever is with the season ticket holders, but this was the first time that he met with the media. Just some general thoughts, and we're going to start, we'll start playing some audio coming up in the second segment of the show. nothing profound, nothing new, nothing that while that was the insight that we were looking for,

I thought he was frankly very polite. He answered a lot of questions. He probably went probably 15, 20 minutes longer than he probably wanted to. There was no one of those, I'm done with this, let's move on. So we kind of misread that sports rave, but that's okay. We don't always bet a thousand in our predictions of what's going to happen in things. there was very little on the most important topic, which would be DeAndre Hopkins. There was a lot of high-fiving, congratulating of his staff.

He made it perfectly clear how much he loves his staff, and he mentioned a bunch of different employees that are on the football side of things that are making this thing go. Talked about the fact that nobody from the Texans organization has contracted the virus. mentioned that maybe wide receiver will not be a priority in the draft, and we'll get to more on that as you hear some of these sound bites. But let's get right to, I thought, was the number one reason why I really tuned into it. I don't really overly care about their draft philosophy,

because they don't have, I mean, when your number one pick is number 40, you're not, I mean, Ross, you and I are not going to set up a virtual zoom sitting there waiting for the Texans pick at number 40, as clearly he values live players over draft picks. that seems to be the case yes yeah it it is for sure so let me get you backwards but that's okay yeah you know what you know what it's just so out of the ordinary because ross you and i grew up still to this day we always hear general managers you build core players long time franchise players on what you do in the draft you don't go chasing after guys

that have been with other teams unless it's a deal you can't refuse and that's what clearly the arizona cardinals did is they got to a deal they couldn't refuse. Yeah. It's not only your general managers or whatever. I mean, it's the philosophy of the NFL. It's maybe different in other sports. Certainly it's different in the NBA.

The draft picks, if it's not in the top five, doesn't have a lot of value. But the reason you build through the draft is because you have a salary cap. You pay your big name players, and then you have a bunch of other guys who are going to be starters and good players on rookie deals. That's what you do. That's how you're supposed to build a team. Especially because those super high-end players, like your quarterbacks, your lead-wide receivers,

your lead offensive alignments, especially your left tackles, are going to take up such a huge chunk of your salary cap that you've got to find value at right guard. You've got to find value at your second wide receiver. You've got to find value in your tight ends. And so, yeah, if you start chasing after players through trades, you're eventually going to find yourself in salary cap hell. So that's where the Texans, and I shouldn't say Texans,

I should say Bill O'Brien felt like he was going to be in when it came to DeAndre Hopkins. And, you know, we all assumed this, but he finally put it there. He says, look, I need to pay a quarterback a lot of money. I got to pay a left tackle a lot of money. I don't have it. I'm paraphrasing here, and this we'll let you hear what he said in the next segment as we chop the audio up. You know, I can't spend super big money at every position. and honestly

he just didn't think DeAndre Hopkins was worth it I Ross most level-headed NFL people believe that that's a mistake especially because you know when you're six or seven paid and you're playing like you're a top two or three you should be paid like that

and it's not like he was looking for extensions of years looking to get you know past his prime where he would have lost even another step he just wanted to be paid like a guy should be paid when you are, you know, as successful as he has been the last handful of years. Just want a little cherry on top. A little cherry on top of the contract. And so that's it.

I mean, I wish I could give you some profound, like he called my wife a bad name, or, you know, I was worried about, you know, his legs falling off. I mean, there's nothing. There's nothing except. we didn't want to pay him. Priorities, Ross. And that's what Bill O'Brien, and again, I'm paraphrasing here. We'll let you hear in the next segment.

It just came down to, we didn't want to pay him. And the question I wanted to get in, but I was like 23rd in the list to get on the Zoom question. Did you raise your hand? I did raise my hand. And I think I did it way too late. I should have raised my hand almost immediately because when I was ready to pose a question,

Stephanie Stradley, who does a fan blog in The Chronicle, she actually asked the question I was going to ask about why didn't you get a bigger hall and you would have paraphrase it clearly was the reason why they didn't get a bigger hall Ross is because Bill O'Brien wanted David Johnson first and foremost which again that's another question for another day and then Steve Kime who is the general manager of the Arizona Cardinals has a relationship with Bill O'Brien so young general manager goes to somebody he knows and says, hey, let's work something out.

Which in itself kind of bothers you because instead of you're putting the finger up in the air and seeing what's blowing, you know, and figuring out what's out there and who could maybe offer more, i.e. Stefan Diggs going to Buffalo for a huge haul. He went with somebody he was

comfortable with. And that's the reason why David Johnson is here and that not a first round pick is also here in 2020. That makes us. make more sense. And that's one of the things I mean, we've talked about it. We're like, maybe Bill O'Brien is on like Madden 17 and he thinks David Johnson is amazing. And that clearly seems to be what the case is.

It furthered my conviction that they just do love David Johnson. Bill O'Brien and the Texas love David Johnson than the rest of the NFL does. I don't think there's any argument to that. Certainly more than the Cardinals do. Yeah. So we'll get to that on the show this afternoon. Other things going on include the NFL. there's a report in the Washington Post that they're throwing out all possible options about this season, about how many, if you should play a full 16 games late, when you should start this season.

Other things like how many players, shorten schedule, moving of games, rescheduling in games. And I think a lot of that, frankly, Ross, is how in the hell are you going to play a game in San Francisco or in New York City this year? And I mean, New Jersey, because that's obviously what the Jets and Giants play. those would be, I mean, especially New York, how in the world, with all of the hundreds of thousands of cases, is the state of New York going to authorize a full stadium to watch Jets and Giants games under this situation right now? And I think that's what the NFL's kind of thinking about at this point is,

what are we going to do with two of our teams needing home games probably shouldn't play home games in this 2020 season? They're probably not going to. I don't know. Yeah. I cannot imagine Matt Leifield and East Rutherford hosting any games this year. It's just even if things tend to die down,

the epicenter of this, and it feels like it is, is the New York, New Jersey metropolitan area. So we'll get to that. But up next, you're going to hear some Bill O'Brien sound bites. We won't play them in any particular order. I just wanted y'all to hear it.

And they'll let you decide if you feel the same vibe that I did. And again, credit he took the whole he took many many questions he had a couple of minutes of opening statement basically thanking the first responders and anybody in the health care industry for doing what they're doing you know he's got a son and old who's got multiple handicaps and I think he wanted to take some time for that he thanked his staff as I said on multiple occasions and you know what when you're a general manager and a head coach in your mind you hope you have a

great staff behind you because he's carrying a lot of of responsibility into one office. 713-212-5-7-90. We'll play the sound bites. Ross and I, Joe George, will reflect on him, and then you guys can reflect on them too. I just don't think you're going to get the kind of clarity that you wanted. Maybe this never was the opportunity ever to get that,

but at least he's saying it as compared to us thinking about what he's saying. 7-13-212-5-7-90, 12-14. It is the Matt Thomas show. we very much appreciate you listening to Sports Talk 790. No fear, no worries, and no hair. It's the Matt Thomas Way. Houston Sports Talk continues with the Matt Thomas Show. All right, 1218 and the Matt Thomas Show.

713, 212, 5, 790. We're going to play some cuts. And honestly, if you don't like the tray, which I hate the tray, Does anybody like the trade besides Bill O'Brien and Jack Easterby? Well, there are minions underneath them do. I mean, yeah. That's what I'm saying. If you're not related to somebody in the Texans organization or affiliated,

does literally anyone love the trade? There is no one that even like the trade. The only thing I've been hearing lately is that this team's wide receiver depth chart is deeper than it was last year. Deeper doesn't always mean better. It just doesn't. You traded, and I always hate to go to the food card, but Ross, you traded, I mean, Beef Wellington, and you got some nice sirlines. That's what, I mean, that's what it is.

Wait, what, what's a beef Wellington? That's the fancy meat that's wrapped up in Philly and that dough. Okay. It's delicious. So it's good. Oh, my God, it's good. All right. Let's just go with, I don't live this fancy Matt lifestyle, okay?

Kobe B. Flee. That's what he was. Or perhaps a wagyu. Wagyu, that's right. He wasn't even a ribby or a really good strip, Ross. He was the highest end of high. You know, you know, when you and I, sometimes we go to Chachos to get some Mexican food? Yes.

And, you know, they have the, like, well, here's the bottom of the barrel of heated, so you can put it roll up in tacos, and then there's like that steak, there's a steak taco that costs like nine times more than the other one does? Well, yeah, there's the steakhouse, and then there's the rest of, regular fajita? Yeah, he's a steakhouse. Well, it's all pretty cheap fajita meat, actually. But anyways. You're ruining my point here.

Well, you brought up chachos for fancy meat. But you know, I mean, there is something that is really, really good. And by the way, you're speculating. I mean, they're not going to charge me five times more. But let's move on. You trade. There's not steakhouse meat at chachos. Trust me. I don't know. Okay. But I mean, you could go to Outback and get a decent steak, or you can go to

you know, more. I'm a saltgrass. guy. So great. Yeah, same difference. And that's what you trade. You trade it for two no-you-train. You trade it for two sloins. I mean, they might be all right, but they're not as tasty or not as fancy or as delicious or as marbled as that Wagu steak is.

That's what it is. Now moving on. Okay, we're done with food. So no one is going to be able to argue this except those in the Texas office. And that's they made the trades, they got to sit there and justify it. So here is, we're going to play four soundbites for you guys. And

Let's hold off comment from us until we hear all four of them. First up, this is O'Brien, and again, this is a part of an hour-long Zoom conversation with members of the media discussing what they had done so far this off season. I'm really excited about our current team. In no specific order, we were able to sign back some really key free agents that we had on our own team, like Darren Fells and Kaimi Fairbairn and Dylan Cole and A.J. McCarran, and more. Philip Gaines, role players,

Vernon hard grades, Bradley Robey. I think we've done a really good job. Yes, we did lose DJ Reader. We tried very hard to keep DJ Reader. DJ Reader's an excellent player, an even better person, and we wish him the best in Cincinnati, but it's hard to keep everybody. You know, I would say free agent-wise,

we were able to add Eric Murray and Jalen Watkins and Randall Cobb. And then most recently, we made a trade for Brandon Cooks. You know, we have two receivers there at that position now that have played in January and in February. And so like I said, we're so excited about where we are. It's very incomplete, though. It's incomplete relative to being before the draft. I mean, we have a long way to go here and building our team, but we want to win the postseason, and we understand that. We understand what it takes to get there. And we understand in our minds what it takes. to move beyond where we've been.

Okay, so that's what's happened so far. Now to the elephant in the room. Here is opening thoughts from him on the DeAndre Hopkins trade. The transaction that made the most news, DeAndre Hopkins, first and foremost, I will tell you that DeAndre Hopkins was a great player in Houston. Made a ton of plays for us and, you know, just did a great job. I mean, obviously the production is there, and everybody knows what that production is.

I'd say with three years left on his contract, you know, his representatives himself, myself, and our team of people, we spoke, and we felt like relative to what I said earlier, salary cap, future, our team, being able to provide our team with more and more role players, layers of players, it was in the best interest of our team, to move DeAndre to Arizona.

We feel like we made a really good deal with Arizona. We're so excited about having David Johnson on board here. We've got the 40th pick next week in the draft. We're really excited about that. And we wish DeAndre the best. DeAndre's a great football player, and he'll do well in Arizona. We wish him the best in Arizona.

And let Arizona figure out how to give him more money. Again, now, If you are in the belief that sometimes relationships between players and coaches can't be salvaged, especially when that player wants a renegotiated contract with three years left. Doesn't happen to that off in the NFL, very, very rarely. And especially when that coach is Bill O'Brien, which seems to happen quite often. Correct. So you're going to trade him.

You're going to say, you know what, we're going to find you a place that is better for you and we'll get something in return. Question asked, how is a team better without Hopkins? Yeah, I don't think you replace Hopkins. I think that every year is different. I think that this year's offense will be totally different than last year's offense or the year before his offense. I mean, I think that Timi Kelly and myself, we're doing a lot of Zoom meetings with our offensive staff. We're thinking about who we have on our team right now. We feel really good about where we are offensively right now with our personnel and what we're going to be able to do.

I feel like our offensive line. line at the tackle position, at the center position, at the guard position is in good shape. Our tight end position is very strong. Our wide receiver position is, you know, we have four, or five, six wide receivers that are going to be battling whenever we're able to get back to, you know, to practice. But we feel good about our offense, John. We feel good about where it's at. Again, we've got to go out there and produce, but, you know, we've got a lot of players on offense. Again, you had the Kobe beef, the Wagu, and you went and got a couple of sirloins. So is there great value in this trade? I think that one thing, when you look at the,

when you look at the trade with Arizona, and, you know, when you're involving a guy that, you know, like DeAndre, who's a great player, who they're going to have to, you know, adjust his contract in Arizona. I think you'll see that whenever that. that ends up happening. You know, you're going to buy the 40th pick also. I think at the end of the day, there's going to be some player on their roster that you really like that is do some money in 2020 that you're going to take on to your team in addition to the 40th pick.

And I think when you look at David Johnson, he's a three-downback who's had some really productive years in our offense and what we feel like having them. Plus, the type of guy he is just being on the phone with them a few times. having met him face-to-face when he was coming out in the draft. I just am so excited about having him, Randall Cobb, Brandon Cooks in this locker room, three pros,

three guys that really understand what it takes to win day in and day out, and we're excited about those guys. I.E. Ross, I don't want DeAndre Hopkins, Monday through Saturday in my locker room. I'll take him on Sunday, but money through Saturday, I'll take a hard pass on that.

Pretty much seem to be what are you saying there, yeah? And he really, really, really, really loves David Johnson. What he is asking, and he did, I don't know if we have a quote of this or not, he's asking for this to play out. He's asking y'all to wait a year to reevaluate this in a year. Well, we've got no other choice, frankly. But I've envisioned this. Okay, here it.

Matter of fact, here's Bill O'Brien talking about y'all being patient. The best thing I can tell the fans is to please. because I know the media's job is to evaluate right away. I get that. I have a lot of respect to the media. I've always said that. But I think we have to let it all play out. Let it play out.

Let the whole thing play out, whether it's that trade or anything else that we've done. I would say let's review it, you know, a year from now, two years from now, three years from now. Let's let it all play out. Hasn't the audience already done that? No. They haven't let it play out for a year because it hasn't been a year. No, I'm talking about over the last five or six years.

Haven't Texans fans been extraordinarily patient during all this? The answer is yes. Of course they have. Yeah, but I mean, that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about these moves that everybody's upset about. But he's also asking again for more patience. And I think a deal like what was done a month ago, I think patience runs out. And that's why people are so upset. That's why anytime you go to the Texans' Twitter account, it's hashtag Fire Bill O'Brien.

I think people are, I mean, again, when I say people, it's most likely those fans that, you know, go to a bar and watch the game or maybe go to one game a year or watch every game on television from their comfortable rooms. It's not the season ticket holders. Because season ticket holders, if they really said we're done with you, they would be, you'd have ads across TV and radio saying, hey, tickets are now available for Houston. Texans games. Hadn't happened. Had it happened since day one. So, you know, you can, you can say I quit, I'm done, or be patient, but the 70,000 people are going to be in that building. And at those 10,000, those 70,000 leave, then they'll get the 10,000 people back on that waiting list to move up with a few spots. So, you know, what other choice do Texans fans have but to be patient? Because you've been patient since 2002. You've been patient through the early years of Bill O'Brien. You've been patient

through the trades, the moving of two really good football players. Now three. When people ask you to be patient over and over again, I think it kind of falls on deaf ears sometimes. And that's how I feel that this set of comments will be the reaction from most people when they think about this franchise. He's asking us again to be patient. He's asking us again to trust him. he's asking us again to let his organization let the people that are running their

Texans now put this team in the best possible positions that can win games in January and not just be one and done or a humiliating divisional playoff loss he's not talking about that though I mean he's talking about these moves he knows everybody's upset about DeAndre Hopkins being out and Brandon Cook's being in and David Johnson he's saying be patient because he thinks that David Johnson is going to be great and these are going to end up in a couple of years we're going to look back and say, you know what, Bill O'Brien knew what he was doing. These are great moves.

He truly believes that, and that's what he's asking us for us to believe as well. Okay, so I'll throw out that way. Are you ready to do that now? No. Nor am I. Okay. I'm just telling you what he's saying. Houston, are you ready to do it?

Bill O'Brien's asking you to be patient. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-5-7-90. Are you ready to be patient? because Bill O'Brien's asking you to. I mean, to really know the choice, is there? 713-212-5-7-90. More cuts from the press conference, the Zoom call coming up as our afternoon progresses.

7-13-212-5-7-90 with Joe and Ross. I'm Matt. This is the Matt Thomas show with a message here for bronze roofing. I just had somebody the other day in the neighbors. We weren't going for a walk. Said, hey, what's the name of that company that you speak for when it comes to having roofs repaired. And I said, well, it's bronze roofing. And I'm like, yeah, you need to call them right now. And what they'll do is come to your house and they will give you an opportunity to get an inspection that will cost you zero.

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From Clutch City, Rockets Basketball to Crush City. The Houston Astros. Sports Talk 790 is home for your home teams. Certainly a lot of layers to the hour-long get-together. And again, I give Bill points for taking every question. Frankly, it was he gave you different answers. Maybe not the answers you wanted to hear, but at least to give you different answers.

In years past, when Rick Smith would do general manager conference calls or video availability or in person, he would just say the board every time. Got to trust the board. We're going to stick to the board, Matt. I believe the board. You know, a lot of board. Matter of fact, did we not have the board on the show one time? Yes, we did.

I feel like we had the board as a guest. And people hated it. Whoever did the board, they did an awful job probably. Yeah, it was not well done. We should have actually rehearsed it. But, you know, sometimes live radio comes up with sometimes you swing and go to the home runs, and sometimes you ground out to short. There are creative differences on that bit.

All right. 713212-570. Lots of layers to get to. Next up, John McLean from The Chronicle, asking about one of the most incredible quotes coming from a Hall of Famer from the Dallas Cowboys. Bill, the day after you traded Hopkins. He told Michael Irvin that you had had a conversation with him in which you brought up Aaron Hernandez and said it was the first time you'd had a conversation with a player like that.

Why was it necessary to talk to Hopkins and bring up Hernandez? Yeah, I would say, John, I have no comment on that. That's it. No comment. So not that I like to roleplay a lot, Ross. Yeah, right. But for the sake of this show, we will do that. if that was at if if Michael Orvin said that about me and this is the first chance I've had a chance to publicly you know kind of dispute that or agree with it or some if I'm agreeing with it and I say you know maybe I did say that I would probably say no comment right but if it was not a conversation and I didn't refer to Aaron Hernandez's name or as you alluded to you and I disagreed about this you thought it was kind of like that Aaron Hernandez's name would have been lightheartedly brought up

that you would say, here's what I meant, here's what I said, here's the context of it, or I never said that DeAndre is making something up. Because at this point, he doesn't need to protect DeAndre Hopkins. Everybody in the world knows that DeAndre Hopkins and Bill O'Brien don't get along. I don't care what Bill O'Brien says about how great of a player he was or what he meant at the organization or he hopes he does well in Arizona. The two guys don't get along. And whether it's about money, whether it's about the attitude,

whether it's about his influence in the locker room, whether it's about the practice habits, it doesn't matter. The bottom line is those two cats don't get along. So if it wasn't true, Ross, don't you take 15, 20 seconds to say, I don't know where Michael and or DeAndre got that from, but I don't remember having that conversation, and I would never do that. Instead, he just said he had no comment. Because frankly, why would he need to protect DeAndre at this point?

It would be, and also, Matt, I mean, he's had, how long ago, since that allegation, like a month, basically. He's had a lot of time to think about that and hear about that and wonder and say, you know, no, he's probably going to get asked about that at some point and could come up with some kind of clarification. I think that is, it is very curious. And Adam Clinton was tweeting about it as well. He finally has a forum to clarify, and that was like a big sticking point for a lot

of people and say, you know what, this is what I meant. I wasn't calling DeAndre Hopkins a murderer. It was taken out of contact. context, etc., etc. And he didn't say anything. It's weird. I would have thought he would have tried to step up to the plate and clarify a little bit. But also he, I just, maybe it was as bad as we thought or as bad as Michael Irvin took

it to be and as bad as DeAndre Hopkins took it to be. I don't know because he definitely had the opportunity. If you have the opportunity on something like that to clear the air, not only for your own reputation, to look good in front of your players and to look good in front of other fans and other prospective free agents or draft picks or whoever. You have an opportunity to clear that up for everybody who has questions about why you brought that up. And he passed on it.

And frankly, if you're looking to clarify, you're not under oath. Exactly. It's a he said she said at that point. We imagine it was probably just two people in this meeting. Maybe Jack Easterby was there, but I mean, I don't know. Well, the point is is that even he had an opportunity. to kind of get out of it a little bit? Because again, I don't think Aaron, and this is where you and I argued.

I don't think you ever bring up Aaron Hernandez's name ever in a joking fashion. So I don't even know he could have lied to us in the last half an hour. Because as we talked about when it first went down, Ross, Michael Urban has about 1,000 when it comes to accuracy. Now, clearly he's got relationships with a lot of receivers. are in the NFL, and there are a lot of guys that will come to him and be able to, you know, kind of tell him their thoughts on things. And that's the way I certainly interpret it the morning that I saw Michael Irvin say what he said on ESPN.

But, you know, man, to go to the no comment card, it's weak. Well, here's the thing. You go to the no comment card if you are trying to overprotect somebody. Clearly, DeAndre Hopkins wasn't ready to overprotect Bill O'Brien when he was telling those things to Michael Irving. Because Michael Urban even said on the day on ESPN show, Michael Irvin, the day of the trade, calls DeAndre. It says, man, what's up? And he's like, you know, nothing, no big deal, nothing, nothing.

And then Michael Irman said, I called him back a day or two later. And I said, come on, what really happened? And that's when DeAndre opened up. Bill probably could have gained some points if he would have just said what I said was a complete utter lie, or what he said is an utter lie, or there was a misinterpretation or, or, you know, Anything except no comment. No comment basically means either he's trying to overprotect an ex-player of his who he doesn't get along with, which sounds highly improbable, or everything that Michael said was completely and utterly 100% accurate.

And frankly, that's the way I interpreted, because, again, you tell me why Bill O'Brien would want to have DeAndre's back when, frankly, you moving him with three years left in the contract means you really don't like him. like if something happened Ross to you and somebody asked me about it and I considered you a friend, a valuable work partner with this organization, I can easily say I've got no comment on that. But if you left and went somewhere else and you and I had a falling out and you had said some things about me, uh-oh, would you hear? Well, I'm just saying, this is actually going to probably happen at some point, right? Joe, I told you not to tell him. No.

I haven't got to Vegas yet. Come on, guys. Guys, you tell me. A no comment to me means everything Michael Orvin said was 100% accurate. No, that's not. I don't think the no comment is an omission of guilt. I mean, Hopkins himself tweeted that it's being blown out of proportion, which is also, but that adds to why, why did Bill no comment this? I don't.

Maybe he's a no comment kind of guy. I mean, we talked about that yesterday. I will say, I don't think, I think Bill O'Brien is intelligent enough to know that getting into a war of words with Michael Irvin is probably not the best thing he wants to do with his time. Or maybe he thought, here's one, here's one that really could make sense. If he says no comment, the conversation, the question's ever asked again. Think about that. I'm not going to comment. I'm done with it.

And he didn't even say, I mean, when he said, I have no comment, there was like a five second pause. And then nothing. It was on to the next question, which for him meant mission accomplished. Because I'm sure he doesn't want to get into a long, exhaustive conversation about what that meeting was between DeAndre Hopkins and Bill O'Brien. Because it probably doesn't make Bill O'Brien look very good. So in his remark, in his world, me saying no comment, so what have people? think I'm guilty. So what if people think I said it?

I'm going to have to worry about it again. But in the back of their minds, everybody's thinking, yeah, whatever Michael Ervin said was pretty much on the spot. Maybe not completely, but maybe there was some fire with that smoke out there. 1244. The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach our show. 713-212-5-790.

We'll mix in some more Bill O'Brien and let you guys pontificate. I don't know anybody's out there. I mean, if y'all are at home, you know, taking care of your kids, can't call the show. I get it. But if you are out and about and can to discuss anything you've heard from Bill O'Brien, we'll play some more sound bites from him coming back. And also coming up between now and 3 o'clock, one Major League Baseball megastar is not hip to this Arizona bubble.

We'll discuss that in a moment. 3-212-5-790. Stop that wave. Busting the wave since the stroves were in the dome. Who are you going to call? Wave Busters! Houston Sports Talk continues. With the Matt Thomas Show. Time is 1249, and this is the Matt Thomas Show, 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

Much of our hour, actually all of it has been about a Bill O'Brien Zoom call in about an hour. and, you know, to his credit, answered everything. Kind of need to once in a while. This first time he's spoken to the media directly since all of the offseason moves and we'll play some more sound throughout the course of the show. You guys are certainly welcome. 7-13-212-5-7-90 here on 7-90. Rod and Claire Lake is on the Matt Thomas show.

Rod, good afternoon. Good afternoon. I just have a quick question for you. I've been in HR for a long long. time. And I'm sure that NFL teams have HR, they have the union, and all that good stuff. But if Bill O'Brien had said this to an employee of the Houston, Texas during this meeting, why would Andre not have gone to HR or the union and said, you know, this what happened?

during the meeting. Maybe he did. I don't know, but I'm confused on that. Well, I mean, if you're an HR person, if you tell me where the violations were. Well, if you're exactly right, I guess there was no violation of labor laws, but I mean, you still would have reported it to the HR department and said, why would he bring my name up against Aaron Hernandez, a convicted killer? I mean, that would raise hairs on my hair.

Well, I mean, let's make sure we don't, hold on, I'm going to let you go because I think you're mixing some things up here. The reason why Aaron Hernandez's name was brought up, so says Michael Urban, is because he said the last time I had a meeting like this was with Aaron Hernandez. And so that was up to DeAndre's interpretation of, man, you're putting me in the same class with him? Maybe Bill O'Brien didn't want to do that. But my thought is, Ross, Bill O'Brien has hundreds of individual meetings. Hundreds. He must, he had to have said that I'm having a meeting with you, Aaron or DeAndre, because you are exhibiting habits that Aaron Hernandez.

has had when I was the offensive coordinator and I was watching you conduct your business in the Patriots locker room because he's had, he has meetings all the time with players. It must have been the tone of the meeting. That's the reason why I brought up Aaron Hernandez's name, not the fact that he hadn't had a player meeting since that. What do you mean? He said the words that Michael Irvin used were last time I had a meeting like this, it was with Aaron Hernandez or something like that. The tone of the meaning was an Aaron Hernandez meeting.

That's exactly right. That's what I'm saying. Because he's had lots of meetings with lots of players. But this one was going to be the same tone that Aaron Hernandez. Not saying that Aaron Hernandez, that he's afraid that the honor was committing crimes. He obviously, Bill O'Brien and Aaron Hernandez got sideways with each other when they were in New England together. Well, like I said, you have not watched the Aaron Hernandez documentary? No.

Okay. Well, in that documentary, they talk about. how Aaron Hernandez was beloved in the locker room, and everybody, he was like a locker room leader. So it's very possible that all Bill O'Brien was saying is that you have a little bit too much, because we know that apparently it's come out that Bill O'Brien felt that DeAnd DeAndre Hopkins had too much power within the locker room, right? Correct. And he wasn't setting a good example. And also Aaron Hernandez was going home and wasn't hanging out with the team as much and stuff like that. So, I mean, if he was just referencing DeAndre

Hopkins having too much power within the locker room, that could have been it. It doesn't have to be a murderer type of thing. Yeah, that's right. That's why there was no violation of HR rules because he is saying the kind of conversation I'm about to have with you in terms of what I expect from you, the last time I had a player conversation like that was Aaron Hernandez. That's exactly what he's doing. Because he's had plenty of meetings with plenty of players about things. He obviously noticed some tendencies about how Aaron conducted himself and thought it was exactly.

same thing that DeAndre was doing in his last season with the Texans. And that's why he wanted to have that meeting because he saw traits in Aaron that he saw in DeAndre. Not saying that he's going to go kill somebody, but the way that he conducted his business, the way he hung out, the way there was obviously some baby mamas hanging around the offices. Who knows? But yeah, I don't, yeah, because if Aaron, if Bill O'Brien had not had another, had never had a player one-on-one meeting between the time Aaron Hernandez and DeAndra Hopkins, that means he's not a very good communicator because he's afraid to talk to his players.

And no one thinks that. So, yeah. The tone was the reason why Aaron Hernandez's name brought up because obviously something that Bill O'Brien watched the way DeAndre Hopkins conducted himself with the Texans, bothered him to say, the last time it bothered me like that was when Aaron Hernandez was playing for me in New England. Or he just flippantly brought it up. We don't know. We weren't in the meeting. We just don't have all the information.

Boy, you talk about flippantly. if you're flippantly throwing Aaron Hernandez's name out that's pretty damn flipping Yeah I mean it can happen in conversation with people Matt I mean let's say you say After the show you're like hey Ross Can you book me this guess and also can you do this

And I'm like well Matt you're being a real Hitler I'm not saying you're committing genocide And trying to take over the world I'm not literally calling you Adolf Hitler I'm just making a comment You know what I'm saying And then if that comes back And if it becomes public

while Ross was comparing Matt Thomas to Hitler, that could be taken out of context and blown out of proportion. And that might not be what I really meant. So we just don't know. That's all I'm saying is I think you're jumping a little bit too much of conclusions on this. Because DeAndre Hopkins himself said it was blown out of proportion. So we don't know how bad it was, how he meant it, what context he meant. And unfortunately, he could have clarified today and he neglected to do so. So he had a chance to clarify and chose not to do so.

Yes. Okay. Well, that's on him, not me then. For sure. 12.57. We start the second hour of the Matt Thomas show. Yeah, clarify it. Because let me tell you something.

When things in life get clarified to me or any of us listening, they go, okay, that makes sense. Or, hey, all right, I understand what happened. But just like you would have said, if you would have said, using your own example, I mean, you sure are being like Hitler. You come back to me 30 seconds later and say, you know, man, I was, you know, I wasn't calling you Hitler. I was just saying that, hey, you're just, you know, asking me to do a bunch stuff.

That's clarifying. This thing's going to die with DeAndre Hopkins being brought up in conversation in a team meeting in Air Hernandez. And only the two of those guys can ultimately tell you what the context was of it. But obviously it bothered Michael Urban so badly. And obviously it bothered DeAndre Hopkins because he said it. Matter of fact, Joe, we have the Michael Irvin comments. Let's play them coming out of the top of the airport. hour because clearly if it didn't bother de Andre Hopkins if it bothered de Andrey hopkins it didn't bother him he

wouldn't have said anything but he did second hour matt thomas show next on sports talk 790 is the matt thomas show all right one-on-one on sports talk seven 90 we start the second hour and we'll put this deandre hopkins uh he said he said to bed after this but i just wanted to Just play the second half of Michael Irvin's comments. And we'll move forward. But again, if it didn't bother DeAndre, he wouldn't have said anything. So here's the comments from Michael Irvin, the, what, day or two after the DeAndre Hopkins Trade Arizona. He told me, he said, Michael, it was a bit of a power struggle there because Bill O'Brien thought,

Coach O'Brien thought he had too much influence over the locker room. He called DeAndre Hopkins in a meeting to talk about this and to kind of just hash it out. In that meeting, he started the meeting with telling DeAndre Hopkins this, that blew my mind when DeAndre told me this. He said, he told DeAndre Hopkins. He said, hey, the last time I had to have a meeting like this, it was with Aaron Hernandez. I was like, what? He put in Aaron Hernandez in this meeting.

He said, yes, he did. He said, Michael, that blew my mind. that he would even bring that up. I've never been in any trouble. I don't know why would he equate me with Aaron Hernandez. And from there, the meeting just deteriorated. And that was the essence of the visit that he had on ESPN. As I said, and I will state to it, I think that maybe there were some things that DeAndre told Michael Urban that he didn't want to repeat it and he did it anyway.

And that's why I think that DeAndre went to the defense of, you know what, things were a little, you know, maybe a little overblown. This is what he said. This is being blown way out of proportion. This is DeAndre Hopkins tweet. This is being blown way out of proportion. As I've said before, I enjoyed him and proud of my time with the Texans. I have the utmost respect for Coach O'Brien, and that will not change. Now I'm ready to play for the Cardinals.

Okay. I just, I don't 100% believe that. He has no reason to have to go send that out. Yeah, because I think he's trying to do damage control. For what? because obviously there were the things that Michael Urban said to make Bill O'Brien feel better well he doesn't have to do that no to make it to make this is not uh I'm a bad guy and I went to and my coach and I got in fights but what Michael Irvin said makes Bill O'Brien look bad it doesn't

make DeAndre Hopkins look bad no but I think he didn't I think there were some things that were said to Michael Irvin that maybe DeAndre Hopkins didn't want out there I mean look I you you we both have arguments on this and that's fine I'm just telling you that there have been things happen in my life where I have said something to somebody that didn't need to get out there. And I've had to try to backpedal a little bit. I'm going to be honest. And we've all done that. There's all been things we've done in our lives that we thought we told somebody in confidence that wind up, you know, causing some ripples.

And you have to kind of soft pedal, back pedal, whatever you want to call it. And I think that DeAndre did a little bit of that. I'm not saying that that's who he is as a person. I'm not saying that, well, here's what I am saying. I'm saying that the relationship between DeAndre Hopkins and Bill O'Brien was probably very, very poor. And then on top of that, for a guy that didn't want to practice, and for a guy that do, oh, by the way, the number one thing is, Ross, he wanted three years. He wanted bonuses in the next three years for his contract. And the Texans said at the end of the day, we just can't do it.

Yeah, it was all about money. We can talk about the locker room and the hate and this and that and too much power. If the Texans had the money, they would have paid him. And they would have been moving on their happy ways. That's right. This is 90. The other stuff we're talking about here is like 2% of the argument. The number one thing is that DeAndre wanted to be paid like Julio Jones and, you know,

and OBJ and all the other lead receivers in the NFL getting, you know, Antonio Brown when he was making a living. And he didn't get it. And so that caused enough of a strife with the other stuff to say, you know what? Maybe, you know, the Texans should explore trying to move them. And they did. and that's why I go back to the very beginning of this argument when the deal was first done, Ross. I don't mind, you know, again, I don't like it.

But the number one thing that bothers me more than anything else is that you just didn't get enough in the return. It's almost like, and again, Bill O'Brien during this video, during the Zoom, and I want to make sure I continue to say this, I give him credit for answering these questions. He went and said, Steve Kime, who is the general manager there, under Cardinals. He and I knew each other. We had a relationship. We were both Pennsylvania guys. I mean, he explained it.

And he thinks David Johnson is great. And he thinks David Johnson is great. When most people in the NFL circles said that you would have to give a team more stuff just to take David Johnson's contract.

Remember how the Texans move Brock Oswater? Right. They had to get the Browns a second round pick. That's what they're saying. that David Johnson's contract is so bad, is so bad, that you've got to give somebody a draft pick in order to make the pain subside a little bit. Yeah, that's what we thought. Remember there was five minutes.

We broke, it was like 12, 11. Right. And it said David Johnson, it was somebody, I can't remember if it was Rappaport or whoever. David Johnson going to the Texans, we're like, oh, my goodness, well, we'll discuss in the next segment. We've got to hit a break.

When we come back, what are the Texans getting to take David Johnson? not only, I mean, they got a second round pick, but they also gave up DeAndre Hopkins. We were almost like, how many ones are coming? Yeah, we were like a five. There was a five minute sliver of time. We're like, oh, cool. Texas are getting David Johnson, whatever.

They'll probably get some draft picks out of the deal too. Yeah. Whoops. We were completely organic too. You're not supposed to like have significant pregnant pauses in your show unless you're Jim Rome. But we were like, what? I mean, over and over and over again.

We just, we could not fathom. and I still can to this day, Ross. Yeah, I get it. If you wanted to say, if Bill O'Brien calls me after the show that he says, Matt, DeAndre just wanted to be paid like a number one or two, and I got to pay Laramie Muntle, I got to pay Deshawn Watson, I got to pay Zach Cunningham. You could give me a compelling argument to say, okay, got to move him.

Because if Randall Cobb's available and you like Brandon Cooks and all those other little things, and you think that Will Fuller is going to be healthy for a full season, I mean, you could somewhat sell that to me, but just get somewhat a fair market return. And you didn't. Not even close. Arizona completely fleeced Bill because Bill was comfortable with the Arizona Cardinal General Manager. And that will be incredibly hard to fathom because here's the thing, Ross, David Johnson doesn't give you a whole lot of flight.

flexibility when it comes to your own salary cap. At least into Brandon Cook's trade, the Rams are picking up most of his check. Brandon Cooks, and that's why I said last week when the deal was made, Brandon Cooks does not bankrupt this organization. Brandon Cooks makes $8 million. If Brandon Cooks can get to the end zone seven to eight times and can catch 50 or 60 passes, get to 1,000 yards, it's not a horrific deal giving up pick up pick 57 for him, especially

he's only going to cost $8 million. If you believe Brandon Cook's is healthy and can compete for you, $8 million to have a number two ride receiver in your football team, whatever 1, 1A, whatever you want to call it, that's a pretty shrewd move. But that's about a,

it's a lot of what-ifs and a lot of, you know what, thank goodness the Rams took his salary. In this particular case, the Texans are taking every bit of David Johnson's salary, which doesn't give them any sort of salary cap flexibility. What it did

is it got a guy out of town that wanted additional money for a team that wasn't willing to spend it on a guy that might have been an awesome Sunday player, which is the most important thing, but, man, Monday through Saturday. And apparently that means a lot to Bill O'Brien.

And maybe Ross it does. I mean to a lot of coaches. Would Bill Belichick accept a player who missed practice once or twice a week because he wanted to not get the full reps in. Because this is what we're doing. We're trying to compare Bill Belichick to Bill O'Brien, because that's how Bill O'Brien learned how he is. How many other teams in the NFL give star position players days off in the week?

My guess is quite a few, right? Probably. Deshaun Wants, I mean, DeAndre Hapkins isn't the only player that practices once a week. It just doesn't. or twice, whatever the case may be. So you add it, you add all those components together, and Bill said, you know what, I just not worth it. I got to pay Laramie Tunsel. I got to take care of Deshawn once and down the road.

Love you, Deshawn, but you're just not worth it. Let it play out for the next couple of years. That's what Bill O'Brien says, Matt. And that's all Bill O'Brien's asking for, is to let it play out. 713-212-5-7-90. More from him. Bottom of the hour.

We will switch to baseball because there is a megastar that doesn't seem like think this idea of playing in Arizona and or Florida is a pretty good idea. We'll tell you who that is. You'll hear from him at the bottom of the hour. More from B-O-B-N-X 112. It's a Matt Thomas show and this is Sports Talk 790. Astros, buddy. You of H-Grad, Tex-Mex connoisseur.

Well, is there anybody more Houston than Matt Thomas? No way. Back to the Matt Thomas show. What, 16 on the Matt Thomas show? Good afternoon Houston, Texas. Hope you guys are staying safe. Practicing social distancing. What's it like being a social distance guy, Ross, as a single man.

You're the only single man of the three of us here. What's the question? What's it like being a single guy in social distancing? How lonely are you? Oh, I'm fine. I'm a solitary creature as it is, so I'm doing great. I was born for social distancing, Matt. So this has been nothing new to you.

Exactly. You're like Bain and the Dark Night Rises. Yeah, exactly. Born in the darkness. I was born in the darkness. You had merely adopted it. I got to take it this. He tweeted that out a couple weeks ago.

I've been doing song lyrics, and I haven't done as many the last couple days. Oh, what? There's something subliminal to them. And I just take songs that I like it. I put the lyrics on them. That's what makes it funny, Matt. That's why you have to keep doing it. I will do one here in the next couple of minutes.

My favorite is someone tweets me thinking you're taking shots at me or something like that. Which maybe you are. You know what the last one was I did? I don't know. Let me see if I can find it real quick. Yellow submarine. We are the walrus. Here it is.

This is one day ago. We've got the right to choose and there's no and ain't no way we'll lose it. This is our life. This is our song. We'll fight the powers that be just. Don't pick our destiny because you don't know us. You don't belong. I mean, Matt, I know I'm just filling it.

I feel like I belong on the show. Is that a shot at me? No. I mean, let me take, if I'm going to take a shot at either one of you, it's going to be right to your voice. If I was in the studio today, I'd be doing it right to your face. But since I'm here, I can do it right on the show. Can you all name that song? That's an easy one.

Yeah, it's Bob Seeger. Nightmoves. Not Bob Sear. Oh. It's a chubby checker, the twist. No, no, no. Do you really don't know? It's the Nightman cometh, Charlie Day.

We've got the right to choose, and there's ain't no way we'll lose it. This is our life. This is our song. Oh. We'll fight the powers. A little band called Twisted Sister. Yes, we're not going to take it. There you go. Okay, I'll take your word for it.

You know a Twisted Sister fan? Name me your top three favorite songs from Twisted Sister. I only have one of theirs. That's it. Sounds like you're not a huge fan either. You know what? I love that one song, though. Let's see. What if I can find one more song? 80s hair band music sucked, by the way. Okay. Here's one. Everyone's watching to see what you will do.

No, I know this one. Everyone's looking at you. Everyone is wondering, will you come out tonight? Everyone's trying to get it right, get it right. Yeah, we are the world Lionel Ritching Company. It's actually a promotion for your Saturday show because you are working for the weekend. That's true. The Sports RV show Saturdays at 10 a.m. here on Sports Talk 790. And since it's a Thursday, we're a lot of promoted. I'm promoting that bad boy all week.

All right. I bet your nightcap show is full of that. That replaying interviews of ours. Well, it's conversations that the folks need to hear, Matt, because you're such a great interviewer. That's right. All right. 713-212-5-790.

Some harsh words from a baseball superstar coming up a little bit. What about how things are going with the Jeremy? Jeremy, Laramie, Tunsel negotiations. Here's B-LB with an update on that. Larry Me and I have been in touch quite a bit. Laramie's a great guy, a great part of our team, and we've been in a lot of contact. I don't want to get into the details of that,

but we're working hard to try to get a deal done. I'd have been better for you to say, you know, Laramie's being a douche right now. He's just asking for way too much money. I wish he would smarten up, take the deal, and let's get going. Instead, he calls him a great guy. Yeah, but Laramie did that too. When he went on ESPN, like what was it?

A week ago, two weeks ago, he was like, Billio, ha, ha, ha, ha, that's my guy. Talked about how great of a duty was. Laramie, with the exit of D'Andre Hopkins, Janadian Clowney, Dwayne Brown, and guys like that. I mean, can you just put into your words how you would characterize Bill O'Brien's leadership and how he deals with big-name players on the team? Billy, Billy, oh, that's what I call him. in my opinion he's doing a great job by laying the team he's doing everything in his best ability

and like I say it's time for us to win games and close our games in my opinion but you know that's all up to the front office of what they do trading wise and you know I'm just here to help the team win games hashtag pay me billio that's what he calls him Billy O

I like that Donnie T and Billy O nobody calls the president Donnie T except me and Joe's adopting it now too. Yeah, I'm adopting it now. He's in. Yeah. I was really just going with the Donnie T's growing on me. Oh, you're starting a new trend, Ross. It's disturbing. That's what I'm here for. That's right. Bill O'Brien also, Dona, Billio was asked about, you know,

if there's so many great wide receivers in the draft, why are you going out and busy getting them all right now that are currently on NFL teams or at least work when you made these trades? I mean, I would agree that there's a good amount of diverse wide receivers. You know, you've got guys that can play on the outside, guys that can play on the inside, guys that return kicks, guys that, you know, can run, guys that are really good route runners. Yeah, there's some good receivers. But I think it's very, very difficult.

And again, we're going to, we've evaluated all these receivers. And we may, we may draft a receiver. Who knows, whatever we think at that. pick is best for our team. That's what we're going to do. I do think it's very difficult for a receiver to come in as a rookie and play right away, especially in a unique time like this.

That's my experience. Even with a full rookie mini camp, training camp, the whole thing, it's very difficult for rookie wide receivers to play. It's a whole different ball game, press coverage, different coverages, different types of corners that you have to learn to play against. So, but there are.

a lot of good receivers that have been productive in college and, you know, we'll see how it goes. Here's a question I'm going to ask that I don't know the answer to. What position on a football team would be the easiest and most difficult to learn if you're not going to have rookie OTAs, rookie minicamp, those extra practices? He seems to sell us on the wide receiver position. I would have thought it would have been more about running back than anything else, guys. Running back is probably easier. Cornerbacks thought of as easier. I mean, hey, follow this guy or sit in the zone.

And to me, these comments are just identical to what he said about Watson, about it being a complicated playbook. That's why I feel like he's saying this about wide receivers. He's saying that these guys aren't going to understand my offense, just like what he said about Deshaun Watson. It almost sounds identical to the same thing. But for the easiest, If you're running man-to-man a lot on defense cornerback, you just follow one guy.

Follow this guy. I mean, don't let him catch the pass. If you're just running man a lot, then maybe corner or defensive end, just go get the quarterback. Yeah, put your hand in the dirt and go. Yeah. Yeah, pass-rushing specialist. There it is. Oh, how about this?

Special team specialist. Run down, stay in your lane. Kicker. Kicker and putter. Yes. Kick this ball through these uprights. You're in. And when you're average, I'll pay you a lot of money.

Yeah. Oh. That's true. It's a fact. Well, you know, that was just, somebody needed to grill him about the Jaime Fairbair move. That would have been a good one. If somebody would ask him, hey,

Fairbairn is quite fair. Why are you paying him like a top three kicker? What's he third? He's paying like a top three kicker, right? It's like Justin Tucker or we'll figure it out. Yeah. Well, you know what he would have said. Good teammate. Good guy.

Walks in the locker room early. Leaves late. Justin Tucker 1. Robbie Gold 2. This is by average annual value. Kimee Fairbairn, 3. I remember Ross. And I think I did it.

You know how he's like to do that. What's your favorite blank is a blanket moment as a blank? Okay. Yes. I was really close to putting it after one of those missed extra points. What is your favorite Kimey Fairbairn as a Texan's kicker moment? I'm glad I didn't do it. Because, damn.

he went from being horrific to finishing out the year. Right. Yeah, average, I would say. Average. And becoming the third highest pay kicker in the NFL. You must have a great agent. He made 20 of his 25 kicks. What was his longest?

Long was 54. Extra points made 40 of 45, only 89%. That's got to be probably below. I would guess that was below league average? I don't know. Well, I don't know with the yard line being extended if that's where it's supposed to be. Like, well, compared to Justin Tucker. I mean, Justin Tucker never misses, right?

I guess he's a bad comparison because he gets everything. League average for extra points this year was 93.9%. And he made 88%. Okay, so he was slightly below average. And he really can't control how many kicks he gets because it's, depends on how prolific an offense is. The year before, he made 37 or 42 kicks. That's a lot of kicks.

Yeah, my guess is... That's a lot of offenses stalling in the red zone there. Yeah. He got that deal because of his body of work, not just about what he did in 2019. Now, he was perfect inside of 40 yards, so he gets that. Hey, let me tell you, there's a lot of teams that would die for it inside the 40-yard perfect guy. I mean, who is a team that was the Texans had?

It was so, is it Tennessee that was going through kickers left and right? Yeah, Tennessee was gone through a lot. Now, granted, he has the advantage of playing, how many dome games does he play a year? He plays nine and New, Indianapolis, it makes nine. They opened up the year at New Orleans, that was 10. So, at least 10 dome games per year. That's why, if I'm a kicker, I'm going, I got to make sure and figure out a way to play for a dome team because, I mean, just, Never have to worry about weather.

That's a huge, huge benefit for kickers. That's why kickers in Chicago go through left and right, right? I mean, it's not fun kicking a soldier field, is it? No, it's awful. Denver would be fun. Pittsburgh seems like it's a hellhole because of that one side of the stadium. The wind swirls differently than the rest of the place. Fairbairn was 24th out of 28 qualifying kickers when it came to extra point percentage.

And third in your heart when it came to salary. 128. The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-7-90 if you want to chime in. We're going to shift gears for just a minute and let you hear from a baseball player, not just any old player, but the best in the American League last year. So, so the voters. And his thoughts about Arizona being the hub for baseball in 2020.

7-13-2125790 with Ross and Joe. I'm Matt. This is Sports Talk 790. Hey guys, Lance Cullors. Regular season through postseason. Straight shots. Pop a bottle. October happens here.

Playing in October. Listen to the home of the Astros, Sports Talk, 790. Time is 133. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross and with Joe George. I'm Matt Thomas, 713. 212.5.790. If you want to get out on anything we've talked about, we've spent almost exclusive with the first half of the show on the Bill O'Brien's

Zoom press conference. missed some of the stuff that we played at the 1227. We'll pre-play it for you at the top of the hour. Mike Trout, pretty good player, right, boys? American League MVP? He's okay. Yeah, it's okay. Alex Breckmanman was damn close to winning at finishing second.

Made up a lot of ground because Mike didn't play much in September, and Alex was awesome. Mike Trout, appearing on NBC Sports yesterday, about what it would be like playing in Arizona this year? You know, being quarantined in a city, you know, I was reading, you know, if we play, you know, a couple months, it'd be difficult, you know, for some guys, you know, people, what are you going to do with family members? My wife is pregnant. What am I going to do when, you know, she goes into labor? Am I going to have to quarantine for two weeks after I come back? Because, you know, obviously I can't miss that, you know, birth of our first child. So it, there's a lot of flag, red flags, there's a lot of questions. Obviously, we would have to agree on it as players. But I think the mentality is we want to get back as soon as we can, but obviously it's got to be realistic. You know, we can't be sitting in our hotel rooms

and, you know, just going from the field to the hotel room and not being able to do anything. I think that's just, I think that's pretty crazy. He said crazy. They cut off the very last part of that. That's what I frankly would expect more players to say. We haven't heard a lot of players say one way or the other on this. You know, we had Eric Gordon on the show,

what on Tuesday and he said, hey, I can do this. I want to finish off a season. It feels like to me, and again, we're only using a very small sample size guys of player opinions, but I feel like basketball players are like, you know what, I want to finish this bad boy? Major League baseball players are like, am I really going to have to go away for six months, not see my family, if we want to spend in the entire season in Arizona or Florida. So I can't say that we're surprised by what Mike Trout said, because he's probably

speaking about half a lot of players, isn't he? Yeah, and to me, because the big difference is obviously if a team loses in the first round of the playoffs, they're home. They go home in the NBA. For baseball, it could be the whole year and even through the playoffs. So if you play in the World Series, you might not go home until October. I get where he's coming from, for sure. And EG is kind of in a different situation, right? That's right. He's not married. He hasn't pregnant anybody that we know of, and he doesn't have a baby on the way,

and he's not going to have to worry about those things and not seeing your wife and your kids. So he's on a little bit different of playing than probably a lot of people are, and you're not going to get the entirety of a roster degree on anything, let alone an entire league. So I think his concerns are valid, but you have to put it against the alternative. I think a lot of these players and a lot of us as well, we're putting it against you a perfect scenario where you have fans and you have the regular season. That's just not possible.

That's not a world we're living in. So we can say, oh, well, this is, we're coming with this issue and this issue and this issue and what's going to happen with this? And we're just going to have to figure that out or we're just not going to have games. So these things, there's not going to be a perfect scenario that we can come up with that's going to satisfy everybody. It's just not possible. And I know if you guys saw this or not, but did you see what the governor of California said? maybe in the last 36 hours. No games till, no fans in stadiums.

Nothing. 18 months or something, right? Yeah, to 2020. Yeah, I mean, if they get the immediate testing really rolling, which, I don't know if you guys saw this, but starting tomorrow, there's two Walgreens in Houston. They're going to have 200 tests tomorrow are going to be the rapid response testing. Wonderful. So if that's something that's widely available, I don't see why Mike Trout wouldn't be able to

leave the bubble, go see the birth of his child, and then go back, or bring them with, if there's immediate testing available for them. I don't see why the family can't be a part of it. Like that's, yeah, because he's, as you heard the sound bite, he's afraid if he goes and sees the birth of child, he's out for two weeks. You're like a disabledist in or something. Yeah, I think that we need to move the deal to like 50, well, they moved it back to 15, right? Yeah, but I think we talked about this.

I think there have to be a different designation for these. guys. Like, we call it leave or what? Yeah. I would just call it the Corona L. Corona L? The Corona L? The Corona L?

I mean, it's... The coronalist. There has to be something different because if, let's say a player gets test positive and then they quarantine and five days later they feel fine and because of their immune system, they pass it and they take two negative tests.

Well, if they're clean and they're healthy now, why should they have to another nine days to come back. If they had a flu, they wouldn't have to wait. So I just, I feel like there had to be a different designation for quarantining in the coronavirus. Yeah, there'll be some provision. It'll be a paternity to leave with, you know, clearing, passing of a test.

You know, you just brought up the whole Walgreens thing for a second. And look, you, we never on this show ever talk about technology or medicine or politics because we're a sports show. But I was kind of blown away by Joe, what you're. just said that there's going to be, you said, how many 200 tests available that will give you immediate results? Yeah, it looks, from what I saw from one of the news channels here is it's going to be two different Walgreens and they're each going to have 200 tests available tomorrow.

And I'm presuming that every state in the union or at least a lot of states are going to have similar amount? When I saw, my parents told me about this last week when it was announced in Illinois and the original article I read said there were seven states and seven different, like counties of Walgreens testing this out is what it's going to be. blown away by that a little bit? I am. Yeah, it's positive. In what way? That six weeks ago,

we were barely concerned about this. So we've gone from barely concerned to no more international travel to an NBA player getting it, to thousands and thousands and thousands of people getting it, to thousands unfortunately passing away, to a lot of people recovering, to now, where's the vaccine,

to how are we going to get tested, to, oh, by the way, we can get tested in a matter of seconds. I mean, it feels like we're moving pretty quickly, right? I mean, there's only 200 tests, right? I mean, there's 2 million people who have contracted this. So 200 tests doesn't feel like a whole lot. But it feels like it's a step in the right direction. And that's what I've been saying is that we're talking about the now and the here

and all trying to figure this out. I think eventually there will be in a few months because obviously you can sell these tests. I imagine Walgreens is not giving these out for free. That, yeah, there's money to be made. so somebody's going to come up with these tests and we are going to have it to the point where it's just as widespread as a flu test. It's coming in a few months, I believe.

Yeah, the biggest issue still is just because you have these tests, when's the vaccination going to be as readily available as these tests are becoming now? I guess that's what we're waiting for at this point. Is there a sick cure, right? We don't have one that's been officially said as this is the definitive medicine, correct?

I know there's been a lot of experimentation out there because people's symptoms are changing all over the place. No, there's nothing official. The last thing we saw was that the University of Pittsburgh, which is one of like the elite medical schools and medical companies in the country, that they were progressing on something. That's why Joe is the official 790 epidemiologist.

Don't you want to find out who those people are and just make sure they have like a really nice hotel room? They get great food. They're getting plenty of rest. I mean, whoever those people are in Pittsburgh or whatever, school, they're trying to save millions of lives. They're the ones to be making these crazy contract numbers, not Laramie Tunsell. All Laramie Tunsell's doing is protecting a quarterback.

All James Harton is doing is shooting baskets. These people have a chance to save an entire world. God bless you, first responders. God bless you doctors, nurses, AIDS, whatever the case may be. Thank you for all your help. Please keep going. Because, you know, I don't know, I was really down on the dumps last week. guys, to be honest with you, but I'm starting to feel better every single day about this.

Not that I mean that you're letting your guard down because obviously we're all still social distancing. And we've got to get our economy going, which has got to be the next thing on the list. But at least we're starting to get some more positive news daily as compared to the next round or the wave or whatever the case may be. Let me get a timeout. We'll talk to Joe and West Houston. He wants to know why all the games are going to be in Arizona. I think it's a pretty easy answer. We'll see if we can figure it out for him and the rest of you.

713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. It is the Matt Thomas show with a message here for TGS Insurance. Everybody's trying to cut corners. Everybody's trying to save a couple bucks here and there. Well, one thing you may not be thinking about that I'm going to try to help you with is your home insurance policy. And that's where TGS insurance comes in. Get to your phone right now and text the word money.

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He's having trouble seeing Dallas win anything anytime soon. Sorry about that, friends to the north. Back to the Matt Thomas show. Caller asking about why Arizona would be the spot. First of all, weather would be conducive to it. Well, until you start playing games on June 19th at 107 degrees at first pitch. But the spring training facilities are all very close together. It's a dry here.

I don't know, Ross. I've walked in Las Vegas in July. I don't care if it's dry, warm, wet, whatever. It's still hot. And we keep talking about Arizona. What about Florida with the humidity? It's going to be like 87 with a feels like a 120. And by the way, every day it rains at 3 o'clock.

Every day. every single day. Well, I think, do we talk about, did I bring up the hurricane thing with you guys? Yes,

you did. That's still, like, I just still don't know what their plan is. You're just afraid he cat. I just don't, like,

they can't stop, they don't stop all of baseball. Like, that's why I think the Arizona makes way more sense. What does Arizona have with terms of treacherous weather in the summertime?

Just intense heat? Yeah, heat. Sandstorms? I was like, I don't know, sandstorms a thing. Matt, what is the Vegas,

Triple A team, dude, did they play outside? Yeah, Cashman Fields outside. Flash floods, landslides, earthquakes apparently. Every now and then, Arizona? And apparently. Do you know the Astros plane about 15 years ago was struck by lightning as they were trying to land in Phoenix? Hmm, I didn't know that. Yeah.

Earthfishers? I don't know what that is, but that didn't sound good. Dust Devils, if you will? It's not a vacuum cleaner. Well, that's a dirt devil. I was thinking the exact same thing as soon as I said it. I will give you credit for that. Yeah, the number one thing is that there's plenty of sunshine.

There are plenty of ballparks, and they do have an indoor stadium they can use to play three games a day. Rossi, if we play baseball, we, because we're part of me of all. Of course. If we play baseball, we're going to have some really strange broadcast times for Astros baseball this year. Yeah, I guess. Is the Sean Salisbury show going to get preempted a lot? Like, I don't imagine the in trenches being on, but like once a week. Are they going to do day night, night headers?

Not going to be a lot of nightcaps, I guess either. With Steve Sparks, this is Robert Ford. I want to remind you that tomorrow's first pitch is at 10.05 a.m. Central time. Pregame at 9.30. Which means you and I would become the 10th inning show right in the heart of our program. That's okay. I actually, you know what? I like that. That'd be fun.

Well, I'd have to get up early to watch the games. Or conversely. Wait, that sucks. Astros play the Dodgers tomorrow night. First pitch, 1145 p.m. Yes. No post game shows. That's true.

No pre. What does it make me listen to the pregame either? People want it coast to coast. Well, it's on 790. It might be. I mean, we might simulcast. Maybe Ben Mowler's audience will get mad at us. All the rabid Ben Maller fans will be upset, Matthew.

Astros on deck starts at 11. PM. Good luck on that one, Maddie. You can do that a few margaritas in. You know what? I'll have to start drinking at that point. Let me tell you, I may have had one or two back in the day when the Astros were losing 100 games a year. And the Astros have lost 12 to 1 to the Arizona Diamondbacks. And I'm three margaritas in. 7-1-3. Never three. Just one to take the edge off. Maybe a double port. One with a tequila floater. Well, I had that one terrible producer that made me go an hour and a half. That was the only bad one.

I had a second one once in a while. All right, 713, 212-5-790. There is optimism, however. Actually, just generally speaking as optimism, right? Or am I just a sports fan being hopeful. Sam Amick from The Athletic has a story out about the NBA is feeling better and better about their resumption here. Oh, why don't you get them on and talk about it? He's your boy.

You know, it's funny, I will try to put a Sam Amick on the show tomorrow. because when you try to get a hold of him, he never responds. That's true, but you guys are boys. There are two people in the world that Ross has tried over the years to get on the show that never respond to them, but if I do it, they come on immediately. You know what Sam Amick is one. Who's the other? That would be not Steve Largent.

What's his name? Steve Tasker. Yeah, but Sam Amick used to always respond to me, and then he got big time. When he was a little Sports Illustrated Sam Amick, I've got 15,000 followers. Sam Amick was always rearing to go. ran to go and ready to come on the Matt Thomas show. Then he stopped responding me after he broke the Dwight Howard news and got big time. So if I get him on the show tomorrow, do you think we should actually have an intervention between the two of you?

No, it's fine. Okay. He's dead to me. All right. So here's what they're thinking. Some players under sports have pushed back against the Bubble City. Several NBA players, according to who he spoke to, said that they share a different view. Here's the thing.

The reason why they're sharing it, guys, is simple. they can taste that playoff run. You know what I mean? They don't have to worry about four weeks of spring training in a full 125 or 150 games schedule. They can taste it. Three or four more regular season games, hashtag tune up,

and then the playoffs start. And then as we've talked about for the last couple days, those teams in Vegas, once you lose, you leave. That's not a bad consolation prize. Man, we're out of the playoffs. but I get to go home. That's cool.

So if you're down like 3-0 in a 7-game series, you're just throwing the game? Can you just forfeit? Like, guys, I'm ready to go home. You win. That'll be an interesting thing. First of all.

First of all, y'all are assuming there's going to be 7-game series. Yeah, that's true. My assumption is there's going to be two different 7-game series, the conference finals and the NBA championship. The other ones are 5?

Yeah. If the finals is not 7-game, it's the whole thing's a shame in my opinion. Yeah. I remember you and I originally talked about this. I said I wouldn't be stunned if it was a best of three. That would be terrible. But they did do that in the 80s. They did.

And the reason why you can do it is because you don't worry about anything to travel. If you're just going to Las Vegas and staying there, you play Monday, you play Wednesday. And if you have to play a game five, you play on Friday or you play, I mean, there could be back to back. You know, who the hell knows? Who the hell knows? But at least if you read Sam, I'm making it, we'll try to, you know what, I'll try to get him on the show tomorrow.

By all accounts, this is his report, Las Vegas appears to remain as a leader in the NBA's quarantine clubhouse. The combination of hotel space, hoop facilities, and the rough blueprint that was built from all those summer leagues passed as an interesting option. With all the teams staying under one sanitized roof, you can also hear other scenarios in which teams might end up playing in various locations. But even so, we were talking about this yesterday. even if you, let's say that Tillman Fortuna's like, hey guys, I'm an NBA owner. Come stay at my hotel.

They have enough rooms. And you just have a really efficient shuttle system between Thomas and Mac, downtown Las Vegas, and that's it, right? Yeah. They got enough restaurants at the Golden Nugget, right? It's basically every Landry's restaurant is in there. Yeah.

You can have shrimp one night. You can have a Cadillac bar the next. You can have steak the next night. Yeah, there's salt grass. There's a chick filet in there. It's got to be a Starbucks Probably What's it like

Do you think it's like to walk into a casino right now With it being empty And we can't get in You can't get in Do you think? Well, the security is going to be tackling you Within 30 seconds Yeah

But I mean if you were If we got past That would be cool We found a secret way in Do you think there's lights on in the hotel? No You think it's like an Omega Man situation Yes, that's a great point

That's exactly what I was thinking Like going to the You know how people were trying to sneak in the Astrodome? because they wanted to say what it was like before they would open up once in a while. And then they were getting attacked by feral rats. All right, that's what I'm just kidding. Farrell. Farrell's like externally large.

Farrell cat. Farrell just means wild. Farrell cats and feral rats. They're like five feet long too, right? Yeah, well, maybe. That's what the legends say. Okay. So when did ever Vegas do you think ever thought about turning?

Because, you know, Vegas is a 24-hour city. That's part of the charm is you go down on the craps table after getting your hour and a half of good sleep. trying to play the place Blackjack at 3 a.m. How often do you test whether or not you close everything off, turn everything off? You don't do that, right? I don't know, but just you talking about this is making me want to go play Blackjack, Matt. Just so you guys know.

I'm Jones and. Today, the Las Vegas mayor said it's time to open. Of course. Oh, yes, it is. The casinos are always the first ones that want to come back. I'm texting Tad Brown right now. I will do the Matt Thomas show and whatever they need. me to do for the rockets from Las Vegas.

Here we go. Las Vegas mayor calls closure of non-essential business, quote, total insanity. Open our city. Being closed is killing us. We'll start looking at them flights, Maddie. You know what the problem is? They're expensive again. Oh, really? Yeah. Go look right this second. Real fast with the top of the hour. Go to United or Southwest, whatever. Those are the ones that offer non-stops.

Don't check spirit because we're not going to fly spirit. But just go look. Go book a one for 10 days. Oh, what? Yeah, they're like $4.20. $789 from. United. Good luck with that. That's for this weekend.

Oh, well, forget that. Next weekend, um, looks like it's like 500 bucks round trip. I mean, Spirit's still 35 round trip. Yeah, but that's a one day round trip.

You have to buy a bag and all that. But yes. And they put a coin slot in the front of the bathroom. We can't go to the bathroom on the plane. Is that for, is that for real? There's, they don't charge for the bathroom, right?

No. I do charge for bottles of water. I know that. Really? I was thirsty. I was like, can I just get some water? Like, yeah. It'll be $4 or $5 or whatever it was for a bottle of water.

And they charge you a dollar and a half to speak to the flight attendants too. And that's not true. You give her a token and she'll talk with you for 60 seconds or something. It's kind of like one of those 900 sex lines. Exactly. All right, time's up. I got a question about it. My connecting flight.

That's going to be $3.50. Yeah, and I remember the scene in front of me was shoddy and there was a metal rod sticking out. And it was jammed, just planted firmly into my knee the entire flight. flight. That was fun. But I'll say this. If Spirit, if you're listening right now, and you want Ross and I to go back to walk in the city back with open arms, Ross, you and I will go, right? I kind of swore him off, Matt.

I mean, I guess like, well, for free, yeah, I'll go. But short of that, no. Okay, you're right about that. But damn, United, come on now. You can't be charging $700 for a city that's closed. That's ridiculous. All right. Some of the best of highlights of Bill O'Brien's Zoom meeting coming up at the top of the hour,

plus the NFL, also thinking about their scheduling as well. First time we've heard of potential reduction in games and playing games without fans or limited fans? Or how about this? Moving teams out of their cities for a period of time. And I guess you would have to think you would know the cities that are in most danger of maybe losing their football team for a year.

158, the final hour, the Matt Thomas show, straight ahead. Sports Talk 790. Yeah. Thomas show. So about three hours ago, Bill O'Brien had a Zoom meeting with members of the media, and we will play a variety of sound bites over that for the next half hour or so. If you would like to join us, want you hear something from your beloved head football coach and want to comment on it, 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-7-90 on Twitter at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Joe. George Radio. That's ridiculous. You didn't say anything yet, Bill. Rightfully so. That's Ross. He's in front of our audio card. He's playing stuff. Anything else before I start playing the real soundbites. All right, fine. One more.

By the way, did you notice one of the soundbikes I put earlier about how much you respect the media? Isn't there a soundbite that says just the opposite we have? That is true. Especially because he said last week to not listen to the noise. Don't listen to the noise. I don't think you guys really care what I say. Just like I don't really care what you say. He will never live that down.

It was good. All right. Here's Bill O'Brien asked today about whether or not they discussed they being Bill O'Brien with the DeAndreuxon trade with the guy that was throwing them all those passes, Deshaun Watson. Go ahead. Do your Bill O'Brien. Oh, me? Holy smokes.

No, don't. That's that what he said. Okay, he's having, apparently Joe is having some computer issues. We both have today. I would say that any conversation like that, Pat, with all due respect, I'd keep between myself and the player, I will say that we've communicated a lot with Deshawn during this time. You know, he's doing a great job of working out, staying in shape. he's been in touch with his new teammates. Any conversation that I would have with a player relative to those types of things,

I'd just like to keep that in-house. But, yeah, we've communicated quite a bit with Deshaun and many, many other, all the other players. All right. Also, how does Sean feel about all the changes right now in that Texans offense? He's excited. I don't want to speak for him, but he's excited about, Number one, Timmy Kelly, you know, he has a great relationship with Tim. T.J. Yates will be the assistant quarterback coach.

That's a good room. We were able to, another guy, I didn't mention earlier, but A.J. McCarran, we're able to bring him back. So really good quarterback room there with a lot of experience. And those guys really enjoy working with Tim Kelly. You know, relative to the new teammates, you know, he obviously with Will and Kenny and Kiki and those guys, I'm sure he's had a lot of conversations with them. I know he's had conversations with Randall and with Brandon, but they haven't been around each other. So to me, it's just all about when we get back together

and try to hit the ground running and, you know, being productive offense, feel really good about where we are offensive. Hear that? He's feeling really good. Do you feel good, Joe George Radio? Do you feel good sports RV? I feel great. I don't know. Wonderful.

Amazing. fantastic. The offense is going to be good this year. I think the offense is going to be good, actually. I mean, we could talk about how upset we are about DeHonner Hopkins. Okay, I'm sorry. There's room for it to be good. If David Johnson is some semblance of what Bill O'Brien thinks he is,

and even if not, I think Duke Johnson is a solid backup and change a pace back, then the offensive line is coming together and it's getting better if they can stay healthy and you lock up Laramie Tunsell and all that. And then the past catcher, I mean, we've gone through it. The wide receiver core is good. It is. It has the potential to be great. Now, of course, you've got to figure out what's happening with Brandon Cooks because he fell off a cliff last year.

Can I tell you to one player that I'm really, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I really hope the Brain and Cooks deal works out. I really do. Because if it does, and he is ending what he was in New Orleans or in New England, and I can that same, but it's not like he's 31 guys. How old was it, 27? 26, I believe. Okay. Yeah. And did anybody ask him about what he thought about his lack of production last year?

Was that addressed? There is a cut about the concussions I want to say, right? We'll have to look. I can only see a few cuts at one time. But yeah, they don't think that's going to be an issue. Of course, you would hope that it wouldn't be an issue. Yeah, they wouldn't have gotten to get it for them. Yeah, we're really worried.

You're probably not going to get on the field. Oh, here it is. Here's a cut. About 18, Joe George. This is Bill O'Brien asking if he's confident in the health of his core receivers. Each year, the plan changes, right, relative to what the injuries on your team are. This year, we have a few guys, you know, whether it's, you know, Will Fuller or, you know, Titus Howard or Dylan Cole. And we have been in great communication with them.

Roland Ramirez, our trainer, Dr. Lowe, our team doctor, a lot of FaceTime, a lot of Zoom, you know, being able to watch their rehab, being able to watch what they do, and being able to coach them up on what they're doing. I think we're doing a really good job of that. I think we've adapted really well to making sure that when we are able to come back and play football, that, you know, those guys will be ready to go. good generic answer right very generic you name drop the name dropping the doctor and whatnot he was name dropping uh here is um one more sound bite about the concussions issue you want you guys to hear yeah without getting too much

into the into the into the into who did the physical on brandon but it was it was a doctor that we felt really good about that dr low had a personal friendship with and that's kind of how it goes there this unique time. I mean, when there's no traveling and no things like, you know, that, that physical had to take place in L.A. and we were able to have a doctor out there that did a great job. We also spoke with other doctors relative to Brandon and his injuries not to get into the detail. We feel really good about where Brandon's at and, you know, relative to his health. And we really can't wait to start coaching him. Again, like I said, is Stephanie. Look, These things all have to play out.

You know, they do. We understand that. We put a lot of research into these things, put a lot of work into a lot of layers of research, and they all have to play out. Hopefully they play out well. We believe they will. Of all the acquisitions,

like I have, let's just go over the guys. I mean, Randall Cobb, what is your realistic expectation level? 1 to 10. 10 being, he's the best slot receiver,

in the NFL, one being he doesn't even make the foot, he doesn't even get on the field but once or twice because of injuries or he's just not very good. Six? I'm at a five. He's going to give you something, but I'm not necessarily hoping or believing it is going to be a huge player.

Last year with the Cowboys he played 15 games, 828 yards, three touchdowns. I think that if he does that with this year for the Texans, I think that's good. And isn't it now worth $9 million? Probably not. But I would say if he, at the end of the year, he's around those numbers. I would say that Randall Cobb had a solid season for what you expect of him.

And frankly, guys, we'll forget how much money these guys make if they do what they thought they're supposed to do. They're good and they help. We won't care. And if the cap goes up like we think it's supposed to over the next couple years. I don't know. We haven't changed that. Virus might have other things to say about that correct. Okay.

Brandon Cooks. I haven't been like an eight and a half. Your expectation level, really? Yeah. Not that I'm saying he's going to do it, but I'm hoping for the Texans' sake that he's really, really good. Because it's not Randall Cobb's responsibility for us to forget who DeAndre Hopkins is. Frankly, it's probably not any of those guys by themselves. But Brayne & Cooks has at one point, not too long ago, been an elite, elite receiver in this National Football League.

Like David Johnson, guys, on my list, he's about a three. he's had injury issues he got benched down two spots in the Cardinal depth chart he's making a lot of money to me I would have signed Cardinals Hyden called it a day but him with Duke Johnson been just fine but something about David Johnson really piqued Bill O'Brien's interest

and sometimes you just have a mojo for a player so but I just think that the best days of David Johnson especially running backs that have had some tread on the tires to me is no good I think Brandon Cooks if he could can just stay away from concussions, which is maybe an absurd statement to say, but that's been his biggest detriment, right?

His hands are okay, right? They're not considered elite, but the thing that's dropped, it's dropped him down from being the super elite receivers is the fact that he gets these concussions. There's anything else? Has he any other lingering injuries like hamstrings or cramping or anything like that? No, right? It's just been the concussions that have stopped his playing, correct? As far as I know, yes.

Yeah. that's what I'm hoping for. I'm hoping that he can figure out a way to get a super cushy helmet. And so when he lands on his head, he'll be fine. Just tape a pillow around his head? Did you ever see the Steve Young helmet that he wore for a while with an iron? Yes, it was like from Spaceball. It's Lord Elm.

Yeah, it had like an AMFM radio in there. It had different compartments. It had like a cool breeze, a fan in the middle of the thing. I mean, that thing was the biggest helmet I've ever seen in my life. Maybe that's what Brandon Cook's needs. because at this point it feels like that's the only thing that's really slowing him down. 212 on the Matt Thomas show, Sports Talk 790. We take this program to 3 o'clock.

We will talk to you. We've had one or two calls today. If you guys are just bumping around town, I know a lot of people are taking 2 o'clock drives, just driving around just to get out of the house. If you're in that spot, I want to call in about the NBA in its hopeful return, Major League Baseball with Mike Trout saying,

I don't know if I want to be in the bubble. for four months or what Bill O'Brien has said throughout the course of the show. Join us, please. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Right now I want to tell you about the Shell Federal Credit Union. These are outstanding people that have been working with Houstonians and those that have worked and lived and done everything very important in Harris County since the late 1930s.

And right now they want me to tell you about their mortgage options. They've got fixed rate, purchase, or re-stop. refinance loans that will help out to everybody that needs a little extra help this time of year. $500 in cashback available on every mortgage loan. There's low down payment options, no closing cost programs available, and your loan is completed in-house from start to finish. It will never be sold. It will always stay with the Shell Federal Credit Union. For details, and to apply online, visit shellfcU.org.

Remember, their drive-through still works. They're online by phone and making other special arrangements. are all available by contacting the folks with a five-star service at shellfCU.org. That's shellfcU.org. Welcome home to ShellFCU. This is Craig Ackerman. And the Rockets get the job done. Oh, here's another new catchphrase I have for you.

Good gracious! Good gracious! You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. If Bill O'Brien did anything today that makes me feel better, is that we have something to chew on in terms of sports. He's thinking about the draft. He's answering questions about the DeAndre trade. I mean, you're getting the answers you want,

but at least we've got some answers. I'm getting a story today from Sam Amick about the NBA, maybe wanting to get back sooner rather than later. Ross are telling me that Las Vegas needs to get open again. I mean, this has been the best day for me in quite a while. I'll be brutally honest with you. Things are trending upward, Matthew. In fact, so good that,

I'm bringing you guys a lunch tomorrow. Really? Yeah. Okay. You're returning to studio? You're not making it or anything, are you? No, I'm going to go through a drive-through, social distance. Uh-oh.

Okay. You don't have to eat it. I'll eat it. I'll make this. I'll risk it. What a sacrifice. We'll be okay, Ross. Well, we'll see.

Talk to me in two weeks. Yeah, I just, I, we have very, we, our, our offices are, they do an amazing job of keeping things cleanly and sanitize and all that. So I just, I would say I miss you guys, but I really don't. I just need to get out of the house because I have been cooped up in here for so damn long. Think about the people who's been cooped up for a month, Matt. It's only been like a week for you. I know.

But all says, I miss you guys. Yeah, there you go. That's better. At least lie to us. Yeah. We got tomorrow we have hopefully have. Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam Amit comes on the show, I'm going to try to bridge the gap between you and Sam.

No, there's, there's no gap that needs to be bridge. It's fine. He's got big time, and can I, can I bridge a gap between you and Brian Geltzider? No, screw that guy. What, what, Joe? What happened with Brian? That guy's a scumbag, and I hate him. What happened?

I hope he dies in a fire. Whoa. Oh, let's see. Okay, fine, maybe that's a little strong. Wow. We disagreed about something in, uh, It was when Kobe's last season, when he made the All-Star team, and he said something like, oh, good job on the voters for voting in Kobe over some other undeserving players.

And I said something about how James Harden deserved to go, because James Hardin didn't get voted in, but Kobe did. And Kobe was having a crappy last season. I'm sorry, it's just a fact. He was scoring, like, 18 a game. And James Arndt. That was the year James Hardin was averaging like 27-7 and 7, and everybody was talking about how he was just a stat pattern and stuff like that.

and we got in some argument about it and then he called me stupid yeah I'm reading it right now he tweeted at Lance Zerline and said he's sorry that I he's told Lance I'm sorry you have to work with somebody so stupid he said here we go poor Lance

I couldn't deal with this type of nonsense every day either that or you have more patience for immature stupidity from someone that should know better that's a Matt Thomas show you're making me mad Joe don't you think that's why I called him stupid I called him stupid because he said something stupid.

By the way, how did you find that tweet so fast? You just at the Hoops Critic and at SportsRV, and anytime they've interacted, it pops up. Stay calm here. I'm proud to say I get very, very, very few Twitter fights. Very few. There was this one douchebag radio host that works for some network that no one carries his show.

he is a complete douche nozzle. He would attack me for no reason. I know who you're talking about. I've never met the guy in my life. I used to produce his show when that happened. I'm like, who are you? What are you doing? I said, your biggest market is like,

my not North Dakota. Back off. He sucks. He's a bad human being. Yeah, he was unbearable to work with. I couldn't stand him. We had a big falling out. That's why you and I are besties.

And that's why you get to have as much Chicago talk on my show as you want. Other shows will say no, but no, I'll give you as much Chicago as you want. Blackhawks breakdown, Chicago Sky, WMBA draft, I'm all for you, Joe, George. I don't think we're going to go Chicago Sky Route. Why not? I've won a couple shekels off the old Chicago. Ross's bet on Chicago Sky games. Trust me.

Is that where you gamble most is WNBA games? No. Is the running joke? Is the over the hot button? Let's talk more about how much I hate Poops Critic. I like this segment. This is a good segment. Let me get a call, and then we'll go back to hating people.

Let's say hi to Mark on 790 and 2225. Hi, Joe. No, Mark. That's okay, Matt. To be brutally honest, just wanted to call and tell you, even though I've been listening, it does not feel the same, and I miss you. And thanks for making me laugh.

No comments needed. Thank you. I don't think I miss anything. Have we missed anything? He misses you, Mark. I mean, Mark misses you, Matt. I'm right here. We haven't been anywhere. Have you missed the show? No, I have not. I think it just means like driving to work because it's not the same. You know what? That's true. A lot of our, especially in the middays, it's people driving to and from lunch and stuff like that.

Yeah, okay, well, then tomorrow I'll go to the studio. I mean, that's fine. And let me tell you something. Tomorrow? Because Joe, I don't know if this is your last day with us or now. I've gotten more one way the other. Ross and Joe will each get to welcome the strippers. Wake him up. No, that's okay. You can handle them, Matt.

I don't know. You can do it. That's a big, a big task. But you know what I'm really excited about Matt? I was really bummed last week when you went home on Friday because I've never seen you do it in person on a Friday. I'm actually very excited to see you, hear you say good morning to people that aren't working right now. Yeah, by the way, I've been thinking of Fantasy 5 topic for tomorrow. and I thought of something I thought was interesting

and then I thought maybe this is going to be too generic. What if we did a fantasy five on just the five coolest people you believe are out there today? That makes no sense to you, does it? Wait, say that again? Sorry, I'm still fuming

about Hoops Critic. Go ahead. We'll go back to that. No, I don't want to go back to it. Okay, then we won't. So, like, John Hamm would be on your list, right? Like, let me tell you something who I think is just cool. I think Snoop Dog is really, really cool. That's a good pick. Yeah.

Middle Age White America loves Snoop Dog for whatever. That's true. He's doing the commercials for that stupid insurance company with the general? Yes. I've been watching a lot of his commercials, and I'm like, he's making those general commercials halfway decent. No, Shaq was on some of those, too. Okay, so you're saying, I think, say again what you're calling this. We could do Fantasy Five, five different categories.

We could have a cool politician, a cool music person. Just cool people? Just your coolest. Okay. We did do one time lives whose people whose lives I would want to have. Justin Timberlake, Frank Sinatra. But I think this has got a little licks to it. This kind of has a little bit.

This kind of has a little lexia because, again, it would help you define what you think are the coolest people. I guess. Okay. this is okay so I'm not audience you hear this I'm not sold this

a sports rave we could do something with uh right you manor you have an idea and I shoot it down this is how the Fantasy 5 works the DACA the last dance comes out on Sunday

oh yeah let's do something about that and should we do like a preview and we need to by the way communicate to everybody man that we're all watching this live tweeting it and then talking about on Monday shows for five days right

yes there is no we're going to hold this back if you didn't see it because your DVR no you have nothing going on on Sunday night And by the way, you're going to watch the episodes with the language in it. None of this PG crap on this show. That's right.

The censored version is going to be on ESPN 2. Are they airing concurrently? I would assume so, yes. Yeah. Yeah, I'm watching ESPN the regular. Oh, yeah. We are live tweeting it. We are talking about it on Monday.

We're not saying, you know, spoiler or anything that crap. If you don't watch it, you're just. You got no other choice. There's nothing else on Sunday night, right? 60 minutes? Who cares? No, there's nothing else on it. Okay, so you're telling me, you're shooting down five cool people on the Fantasy Five.

You know what? We'll have that in our back. We'll back pocket it, Matt. We can't come up with anything better. I thought we were supposed to do hot women. What happened to that? Hot sportscasters is what we were supposed to do. Yeah, but I had a really tough time after about seven.

That's fine. and I just can't put people on that I have some sort of relationship with. Why not? Because it would get a little odd. Like who? Who are you thinking of? I'm not going there. What do you mean?

No chance. I'll give you an example. Allie LaForest is just a sweet girl. What's wrong with you? You're not a friend with her. Well, I mean, we know each other. If I say who's Matt Thomas, she's going to know who you are? Yes, I have text evidence of that.

Plus, I know Joe. I mean, Joe knows who I am, too. I can't do it. So what? She will not be on my list. Tell the man his wife's hot. What's the big deal? Nah, you don't do that, no.

She's down on my list anyways. Okay, well, then neither one of us to worry about out of the force. So what are we going to do? So, Joe, you make the deciding vote. You're the third vote. Are we doing cool people or are we doing sexiest women's sportscasters? Yeah. You can only come up with.

seven? Here's the thing, Matt. You're kind of making it sound like you might get uncomfortable tomorrow. So let's do that. So let's do that. We'll do it the sexiest woman sportscasters. Okay. But the problem is, again, Ross, is that there's one that I have a massive crush on.

Yeah. But she's in Los Angeles and nobody would know who she is. So it doesn't do me any good. Well, then don't draft her. Okay, I'm not. You can take Lisa and she's a sportscaster. She's more porn than sports, right? Well, she's retired, Matt.

Somebody tell me she was active. Was she back? She's back in the game? I don't know. She's got her own radio show. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. She does fantasy sports. So you have her over Dr. Roto?

I mean, I haven't seen her mock drafts lately. I don't know. Is that what you call it? I haven't seen her big board. Oh, the entendres will be just amazing at this point. So we won't do them. 228 on the matth. Oh, we haven't said, you know what?

Let's go to. Oh, you know who this is? This is Bill or Dwayne, right? There's no chance. It's just a regular old Dwayne. Hello, Dwayne. Dway, how are you guys? Hi.

There you go, Matt. You're wrong. Yes, can you hear me? Yes, sir, go ahead. Hey, you guys are talking about the top five cool people. With this quarantine going on and stuff, why don't you guys come up with something called Table for Six, where you and your five people you invite to dinner are out to dinner?

So who are your five people you'd want to break bread with? Thank you very much for the call, Dwayne. Didn't we not do something recently like that anyway? I don't remember. I know Sean Salisbury's done a topic like that before while I was on the show with him. Dave, you notice that every one of our shows on our station steals our bits constantly? I listened to the A team yesterday, and they were doing, believe it or not, right in the middle of the show. They were? Who wrote the questions? Were they good?

Wexler wrote the questions. No, we have a segment. It's called Wednesday's BS. We do it every Wednesday. It's called Wednesday's bit stealing. Yeah. We steal a bit from everyone. We stole it from trenches and Sean.

We specifically steal your actual bit. So we don't have to do any work. Yeah, there you go. That's a good idea. And then Sean does drafts, which is basically the Fantasy 5. I heard that he, is it true that he gets the first pick every time and there's no snake. There's no snake system? We need to talk to Sean Salsberg about this.

But it's the Sean Salsbury show. So what? It's the Matt Thomas show. He lets me draft first and I draft first sometimes. on Fantasy 5. We're like programming the entire station. And they need to do a snake system. That's not right that they don't do snake.

Yeah, I'm going to have to call out, Sean. You got to do a snake system. It's totally unbalanced. I'm going to go ahead and tweet that to him right now and see the responses. I'll retweet it. And by the way, what the people will be thinking about when I say, Sean, you've got to use a snake system. Uh-oh. Damn, you might want to clarify.

You might want to put a couple of clarifications in there. All right. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. The NFL is thinking about altering their schedule. We'll tell you about that next on 790. Hey, listen to Lou Holtz and listen to Sports Talk 790 on your sports speaker. Your smart sports speaker.

Your smart speaker. Yeah. Just ask. Hey, Google. Play Sports Talk 790 on I-Hart Radio. Strow's relegation says, I assume the sports. Sportscasters include sideline reporters right for the sexy list. Yeah, of course.

Of course. So what round are you going to draft Evan Washburn? Who? He's on the number two team on CBS. I have no idea who Evan Washburn is. Oh, yeah. He's a dude. Yeah.

All right, so I was listening. I was talking to Joe during the break, and I could hear you in the background yelling. Are you still mad at Hoops Critics? Yes. Well, Joe reopened up a whole can of worms. So, no, you know, I'm laying it to rest. It's fine. It doesn't matter.

The man is dead to me, and I'm going to stop caring. At Hoops critic. I think I'll probably bring it up on the nightcap tonight. I had not thought about him in years, or at least my, no, I thought about it. You had him on maybe like a year ago, that. And that was the first time I thought about him in years. And now it's just making me upset again. All right.

I want to play a cut of Bill O'Brien. But the NFL is thinking about, yeah, the NFL is thinking about a short and schedule, potentially. they are thinking about empty stadiums. They are thinking about stadiums with limited seating. You know, really, Ross, you could separate fans by quite big distance. The problem is, why would you go through all that, right? To get 1,000 people in the stadium paying 100 bucks a pop, whatever? I don't know.

Yeah, that's ridiculous. They're talking about moving and rescheduling games, playing games on odd days of the week because, let's face it, Ross, there could be a time in the month of October, November, December, January, February, where you are having to jam in a bunch of sports on a bunch of networks that all want to get the coverage and are willing to pay the high prices for it. Although the NFL is going to tell baseball to go shove it, right? Baseball's like, we need to put a World Series on at 3 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon in December,

and they're like, the hell you will. You'll be on FS2. The NFL is going to reign Supreme Court. They'd be the ones that do the least maneuver moving around, right, unless they chose to do so. Yeah, I mean, if college football is not happening, couldn't they take it? advantage of that and put games on Saturdays just to captivate more of a national audience? I would totally agree. Especially if college football doesn't start until the 1st of January.

And by the way, I think, I think guys, honestly, there's going to be about 25 schools that I think are going to be seriously impacted by awful weather in college football. Most of the Big Ten, well, probably all of it. A few schools in a big, and they don't have a big East anymore. maybe a few of the ACC schools. Are we still going to get Tuesday night Macon?

Oh, I forgot about the Macship. But like Power 5 schools. Yeah, well, what about the other schools? They're going to have football. Are they going to have football too? Yeah, everybody.

Yeah, there's nobody playing. If nobody's playing in September and nobody's playing in October, we're going to bump this college football schedule to February, boys. We're going to crown a national championship in a warm weather city and February the 20th. I honestly,

I don't think there's going to be college football. Because of what the commissioner said yesterday? Yeah. I think they're just going to pass. And there's also an interesting wrinkle to this. Darren Revelle tweeted out yesterday. You know how we talked about the ticket sales is not a very high percentage for the NBA and Major League Baseball and the NFL?

It's more the TV deals. Apparently, according to Darren Revelle, ticket sales is about 75% of revenue for college football. Oh. Yeah, you know why? That was heavily disputed, though, by other people on social media. That's true. Let me give an example. And I know you're going to tease me when I'm at City University of Houston, but that's the reality.

Okay. The University of Houston has a terrible television deal because it's not a power. No, there's not a power in a group of six schools that has a great television contract. The Mac is not great. Conference USA, Mountain West, American. the only the good TV contracts are frankly found in four of the five power five. Pat 12's TV deal is not very good. Four of the five Power Five have really awesome television deals.

The rest of the schools in the country don't have it. So you need 35, 40,000 people at TDUCU or whatever the stadium may be of your choice to make up those revenue. Like Utep. Utep sucks, right? Utep makes pennies on the dollar for their TV deal. But if they draw 40,000 people in the Sun Bowl, because it's the only game in town, that's a lot of money with corporate dollars and people spending and parking. That does.

Now, I don't know if 75% Rosses, I'd believe, but I would believe it would be at least half. And yeah, this actually is being heavily disputed on his tweet. It might be completely bad-based. But, no, let me give me the biggest example. What do these little Division I schools like to do with their non-conference schedule? They like to go play the big boys and get serious cash. Miami of Ohio, Ball State, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Lafayette, they pay for their athletic departments by going to get their asses handed to them at LSU, right? Or at Florida or at whatever.

We're talking over a million dollars, a million and a half dollars a game. You do that twice in a year and you're funding five or six sports. guys, if there's no college football, there probably isn't a tennis team anymore or a golf team or a gymnastics. And now the general audience is going to say, well, I don't care about that. Well, these schools do.

They really do. And this is what I was, 20 years ago, I'd say, well, nobody at the University of XYZ cares about their golf team. Guess what that golf team does, boys? It graduates people who go on to be very successful who go on to make a lot of money in a lot of cases.

Are there required to have 16 programs? It's got to be mono-a-mono. For every male program, you've got to have a female. So I don't think that's to be 16. Because at Houston, there's a women's soccer team, but there's no men's soccer team. I don't know the exact. But point is that some of the most successful alums,

the ones that wind up giving money back to the school, are the guys and girls, who went to that school on scholarship to compete in the non-REB sports. So there is a place for those types of programs. Cincinnati just cut it what's cut at soccer program, right? That's what you're going to see. You're going to see if we have no college football season, we're going to see universities, smaller D-1s, go bankrupt and shut programs down.

And thus losing a pipeline to having great alums to their particular. schools. Not that it may matter to a lot of you, but that'll be the first immediate effect of no college football season for 2021, especially because I guarantee you Michigan is not going to pay central Michigan $1.2 million if they can't put 100,000 people inside Michigan Stadium. All right, let's take a quick time out. Bill O'Brien is preaching one thing besides capital T, capital E, capital A, capital M. And it's a message directly to you. You'll hear it next.

242 on the Matt Thomas show. This is Sports Talk 790. Hey, it's Carmelo Anthony. The Matt Thomas show continues. On your home of the Rockets. Sports Talk 790. Yes. Final segment of a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show.

Let's hear from Bill O'Brien a little bit more. And you're going to hear a lot more of it during the 3-6 show here on Sports Talk 790. here's a B-O-B talking about, well, let's be honest, what he believes are, is the number one key to having a great football team. The key to having the best team is not just having the best player. We have a lot of really good players. You know, obviously, we've got players that are pro bowl players. We've got players that are tremendous role players. But really the key to having the best team is to have a room full of productive players.

layers and layers of productive players relative to what their roles are on the football team. I'd say contracts, injuries, and the salary cap are a part of the game as we know it. And those have to come in to play in every decision we make relative to the personnel on our team. And really after researching teams that really win in January, we've won the wild card game, but we have not gotten past that. Everybody understands that in Houston. and we're working tirelessly to get past that, to get to the ultimate goal of the Super Bowl.

But after studying teams that win in January and win in February, our staff is more convicted than ever, that we must be prepared to have layers upon layers of productive players who can build on the tradition that we have established here of winning the AFC South four out of the last five years and to try to get beyond that. We know that the goal is to get beyond that. Guys, the Texas now have layers like an onion.

What are you, Shrek now? Layers. Layers. Layers. That top shelf layer was DeAndre Hopkins. Well, he's off. He's off the shelf. You pull that layer off and it's nothing but just ground beef underneath.

Now, the Texans are like a seven-layer dip. Interesting. And one of their layers is gone? No, this is different layers. Oh. They added some guacamole or what? Guacamole, salsa, refied beans, lettuce, cheddar cheese. I don't know what's in a seven-layer dip.

So what's Deshawn Watson of this seven-layer dip, Matt? She's the salsa. Keep things spicy. Okay. Okay. Dave Johnson? He's the beans. Lettuce.

The lettuce. He's the lettuce. Well, it depends on how you feel about beans, so I guess is the beans good or bad for you? Who doesn't like beans? Well. Weird people. They're good, but I don't think they're the best part. No, I do.

You don't like beans? No, I like beans, but like, I think the tight ends would be the beans. Like, they're good, but they're not. The beans are the foundation of a dip. So the running backs of the lettuce, the tight end of the offensive line or something. Wait a minute. Who's the green onions? Who's the cheddar cheese?

Cheddar cheese has got to be the receiving core. That's fair. I'm on with this. This is weird. And then Tim Kelly and Bill O'Rey, are they the chips? Who's the olives? They're the Sporks. The Sporks.

Yeah. Who are the olives? I hate olives, so I don't know. I mean, olives are standard on a seven-layer dip, Matthew. So then David Johnson is the olives. Matt doesn't like olives, so that's David Johnson. Wow, this is deep. So I went on my Facebook page, my personal Facebook page, and I put 10 things I don't like that people do you do like.

And I got crushed on guacamole. You don't like Dr. Pepper, right? or something like that. What's not to like about Dr. Pepper? Oh, it does not taste good to me. I like Dr. Pepper, but I don't like it often. You drink Pepsi, but you won't drink Dr. Pepper. Here are these soft drinks I will not drink.

No Mountain Dew, no Fanta Orange. Any of an orange drink or no Dr. Pepper. I love ginger ale. I love root beer. Love Coke. Yeah, I know what else you love, Matt. I haven't had a squirt in years. It's delicious.

I love squirt. We drink diet squirt at the house, though. I haven't had a squirt in years. You and Salisbury with your squirt. You ever had a squirt? It's been a while. How about I bring you guys some squirt tomorrow with lunch? Sure.

Yeah, it happened once. And I can film it. I can film you guys enjoying a squirt. I haven't had a squirt in years. It's delicious. I'm going to have one after the show today. I listen to the 18. You like to do.

Just slide it in there. You don't want to come back tomorrow, Joe, because I get to control the computer audio board again. If I didn't have anything else going on in the show, I would probably look at Red Tube. She's in a doggy-style position. This package can't be that big. Joe? You like it hard. She likes it soft.

Joe, turn the computer off for him. Because I want to see him completely naked for 7 to 12 minutes. All right. Here's Bill O'Brien. Back to that. And we get rid of these awful sound bites you found of mine. He is asking one thing. You got the time of the cash?

I got the head. All right. Go ahead. Bill O'Brien asking you guys, you die-hard Texans fans for one important thing during this time. Best thing I can tell the fans is to please. Because I know the media's job is to evaluate right away.

I get that. I have a lot of respect to the media. I've always said that. But I think we have to let it all play. play out. Let it play out. Let the whole thing play out, whether it's that trade or anything else that we've done. I would say let's, let's review it, you know, a year from now, two years from now, three years from now. Let's let it all play out. He's asking for us to review this in three years, Ross? Three years, Matt, after there's three years. After they're two times Super Bowl champions,

The Houston Texans, he's going to look back and he's going to laugh at all of you for doubting him. Is he trying to say that he thinks in three years, DeAndre Hopkins will steeply decline? Do you understand that if the city of Phoenix was smart, they would advertise a segment on their show called Time Now for the Daily DeAndre Hopkins Update, brought to you by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce because we're going to work at his stats every week. You know this, right, guys? we are going to Matter of fact On Fox

When the Cowboys and Saints aren't playing Channel 26 should put Arizona Cardinal games on Because we're going to be watching them We're going to keep an extraordinarily close eye On DeAndre Hopkins as an Arizona Cardinal Are you all ready to wait three years I can't wait three years A judge of trade, no chance

I mean Hopkins would have to have In like year two or three would have to have an Andrejohnson level fall off like he did when he went to the Titans. Which it could happen, receivers. That does happen. He's 27, though. I know.

That's why. Or if they overpay him. But they've got a rookie quarterback, so it's different. They can overpay Hopkins. Yeah, they can't overpay him for the next three years. Kyla Murray's not going to need a deal for three to four years if he even gets one. And does Larry Fitzgerald take less money every year,

or is he making about the same area? I think he's been making decent, but not like crazy money. I'd have to look at that again. Well, the David Johnson contracts off their hands. They got to be pleased about that. They are pleased, but the Texans think he's, or Bill O'Brien, I should say, thinks he's great. No, Easterby believes it too. Well, that's because Bill O'Bron's.

By the way, you know, during this video, Zoom call, he was talking about how he and's Easterbyer in the backyard of Bill O'Brien's house. Are you serious? Practicing social distancing. Doing what? Talking, I mean, they're working side by side. Is one painting the other without clothes on? Paint me like one of your French girls. Is one of them saying that?

No, I think they're barbecuing daily, though. He's been doing one year, $11 million deals for the last couple of years. That's what... Which is crazy. Yeah. Not crazy at all. Because what a high-end receivers are getting $16, $17, $18 million is right? So, yeah.

That's why I always said, this Brandon Cook's deal, if he is productive, $8 million for this year, even $12 for next year, if he's good for two years, isn't a bad deal because the Rams are frankly paying more his hour than the Texans are. Yeah, but isn't Brandon Cook's going to want more money if he's really good the next year? So then that just becomes the same problem. Oh, then, well, you ship Arizona because... Don't make that face, Wex, what? If Brandon Cooks has a good season next year, if he gets 1,100 yards and catches eight touchdowns,

so he's not going to want more money? Okay. Is Wex shaking his head? Yeah. We'll find out why he's shaking his head in a... a matter of moments. As he and Mr. Clanton will get together for three hours, they'll agree on everything they discuss.

There'll be no arguments, no, you know, hesitation, no reservation. It'll be 100% agreement radio. That's Clinton and Wexler. They are known as the A team, and they're up next. Talk to you all tomorrow for an anything goes Friday. And yes, boys, I'm bringing you some squirt right here on Sports Talk 790.