The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show: Hopkins & BOB Relationship, Robert Covington, ASK MT

Episode Date: April 21, 2020

It's larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. What's happening at lunchtimers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas. Tuesday. Yeah, it's Tuesday.

God, Ross looked at me with blank, these weird looking eyes. I'm like, oh, did I get the day right? So you wanted to hear from DeAndre Hopkins. We'll be able to do that via an article in Sports Illustrated today. The author of said article will be with us in one half hour. You want to talk some Rockets basketball? Robert Covington. One of the newest Rockets, former Rocket left, came back.

He'll join the program at 1 o'clock. It won't be about live Rockets Basketball or Rockets Basketball that's recently happened, but Rockets Basketball nonetheless. Well, I can talk about things five weeks ago. That was somebody recently. Yeah. How about that win over Minnesota, Robert? March 11th, right?

Yes. Damn, what's the day? 117 to 111, I think? That was 40 days ago, give or take. Oh, God, I guess sports. I want credit if the final was 117, 111. All right. And then people we miss hearing from, our series continues today.

Our friend Julia Morales on the program at 2 o'clock this afternoon. Wonderful. They've been in a lot of AT&T Astro replays. Okay. They may run out. I haven't catch it. They might be playing some losses eventually because you can't show, I mean, you can show every one of the wins. And I guess you can show them twice, but how long, how back in the, in the archives can they go?

They've only gone like the last couple of years. I'm looking for a good meaty 1993 game, but I don't think they get the film on the tapes on those. Okay. They don't have the rights to those or anything like that? Like, I don't think they could, I haven't seen a non-AT&T broadcast. Like, I don't even think they even show CSN stuff. I mean, they won't get a lot of wins. But a seven to two and over the Mariners is.

isn't going to do much. You got to play something, Matt. Give me a Daryl Kyle, no hitter. Okay. Give me Craig Biggio breaking the 3,000 hit barrier. Mike Hampton cranking home runs or something. Yeah, something. Give me a little some-sum.

Okay. Hope you guys are in a fantastic mood today. DeAndre Hopkins. Rossi said that things that were said by Michael Irvin were overblown. In reality, they were not. Blown out of proportion. Blown under proportion. Same difference.

Well, this article doesn't clarify any of it. that for the most part? I think logically thinking people do. There is no relationship or was no relationship between Bill O'Brien and DeAndre Hopkins. So says the article written by Greg Bishop of Sports Illustrated. We'll get to some of that coming up at the bottom of the hour when he joins some SI. It's just good journalism right here is what this is. And so it's worthy of read. It's available on their website. And of course, the hard copy will be out too. I have not purchased a hard copy of Sports Illustrated. I don't know in how long. I used to read it cover to cover every week. When I was younger, my dad subscribed.

Yeah, when you go to that when I was younger card, and man, when that S.I would show up. Yep. You were always excited about who's on the cover. Of course. I would always read the site, the, you know, they'd always have that little section, like in page two or three, like three, 14-year-olds that are doing incredible things. Faces in the crowd. Yeah. And then signs of the apocalypse. Yes. And then there was Rick Riley at the very end. Before he became just bat-blank crazy. Yeah. I would usually skip the NASCAR features. But other than that, I would usually read it about cover-cover.

NASCAR, golf, and tennis were a pass for me. Exactly. Not to be disrespectful. Other than that, I would pretty much read cover-to-cover. I can remember Rossi in 1994 when the Rockets won the championship, how they were regional covers. Yeah. And that was a slight towards the city of Houston

and the Rockets winning a championship because it wasn't the entire national cover. I think there was some, I think they shared a article, uh, The New York Rangers. With the Rangers. Wasn't Pete Rose somewhere in that mixed, too? He might have been. But definitely the Rangers got some run too because that was the first time

in a long time the Rangers had won the Stanley Cup. Yes. And I remember the one when they won their second one. It was the special edition. It was called it said like twice as nice. And of course, Matt, when Sports Illustrated, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention. You know what happened in February, early February. Well, of course, Christy

Brinkley. Cindy Crawford. Heidi Kloom, Tyra Banks. That was my wheelhouse of those years of the Swindies. We've done goats of S.I. Covers before. I believe so. And really, we were sitting there going, yearless is good yearless is good oh your list is really good

there's not a bad because of them you couldn't go oh that horse was on there no that was terrible by the way horse racing another category

I wouldn't talk I wouldn't look at in sports so Greg Bishop will join the program coming up at the bottom of the hour really thorough

I don't want to get through everything I did bold a few quotes Rossi and if there's a couple of things we can chime in on this

it goes over the right end of the season it goes over some time in his James and Clemson. It goes over the stats that made him one of the NFL's top receivers, if not the Barry Bass. A lengthy feature.

Let me give you bold quote number one. This is stuff that I bowled that I thought was important. DeAndre Hopkins was working out with Julio Jones when he found out he was traded from the Houston Texans to the Arizona Cardinals. So he and Julio were playing by the schoo yard is what you're saying. In Los Angeles, exactly.

Okay. Their initial reaction, meaning him and Julio. Down by the schoolyard. Hopkins says, we both smiled. The coach adopted a business-like approach for the brief exchange. His tone and message exactly what the receiver had expected, given the tenor of their interactions over the past six seasons. Quote, there was no relationship, Hopkins says. Make sure you put that in there.

There was not a lot to speak about. So no relationship. That's better than bad relationship, right? I'm going to call it even on that one. I mean, the guy's been your most valuable offensive threat. through a lot of crap and you have zero relationship with him? That's a little weird.

Then Watson, Deshawn, our quarterback finished his own workout who saw a dozen, and he went to his phone, who saw dozens of messages about the tray. When he picked up his phone,

Avery told Watson, Avery being his quarterback kind of consultant coach, Watson thought that, Watson thought that Avery was joking. The quarterback ran to grab his own device and sat down immediately trying to make sense

the news. Even he was shocked. Yeah, that was that video we saw on Instagram, right? Yeah. Wow, Watson said over and over before posting a Drake lyric on Twitter, the one that resonated across the NFL. Iconic duos rip and split at the seams. So when Bill O'Brien says that he keeps in communication with Deshawn Watson, his quarterback, they must talk about a lot of things, except, oh, I don't know, trading the franchise's best receiver since Andre Johnson.

So he probably talked about the weather. how his golf game is, how his workouts are, how's his arm feeling, how's a family. And oh, by the way, I'm probably going to move your favorite target to another football team. Well, I mean, Deshaun Watson, if he's so tight with DeAndre Hopkins, and DeAndre Hopkins says in this article how he wanted to leave and he kind of forced this move, it says in there he knew asking for a raise would trigger Bill O'Brien moving on from. So then how could Deshaun Watson be blindsided then? Because I think, I'm just interpreting on this, in that

just because you think you're going to get traded, doesn't mean it's going to happen. And that's what I think to Sean's like, man, you're just talking smack. But clearly, this latest conversation that involved pay me more, put me in the top two or three receivers in the NFL and salary, was the, all right, now you've done it.

I'm going to move your ass. And I'm going to call one football team. I may have a conversation with another, but I'm really going to talk with one football team who's been asking about you. And I know the general manager from our days in Pennsylvania, and I'm going to trade him for a ham sandwich. So said Michael Irvin.

Now, let me tell you, that ham sandwich might be as good as a Monte Cristo eventually. David Johnson, better be a Monty Crystal. I'm talking about layers of turkey, Swiss cheese, rolling flour, deep fry that bad boy, and put some jam on top. It's like Cinderella turning into the bell of the ball is like the ham sandwich turning into Monty Cristo. Because right now, it's one of those sandwiches. What are they in the triangle container that you get at, let the stop ago? It's literally what I just had before the show. What you just had was David Johnson.

It was okay. It can want to becoming a club sandwich. Let's go to the layers. It could be the triangle sandwich that you get at the convenience store. Okay. It can be just what mom makes at the house. You could take it to another level. You could go to a Schlottes or a subway or at Jimmy Johns, if you will.

And then you can go to the country club where you play golf and you can have that club sandwich. Or the Monte Cristo. And that's what the Texans need. David Johnson to be. The Count of Monte Cristo. With a jam. Don't forget the powdered sugar on top. That really adds to it. So how are we going to eat this year in 2020 with David Johnson? That's the question mark.

All right. Greg Bishop to join us. Also, Major League Baseball continuing to think about a variety of options. About where to play baseball. We've already heard of what states so far, Sports Army? To where to play baseball? Arizona. And Florida. There's another state in the mix. Delaware? Could it be Delaware?

I don't believe it'll be Delaware, but we'll find out what that state is as we move along here on the Tuesday edition of the show. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Greg Bishop from Sports Illustrated wrote the article about DeAndre Hopkins. We'll talk to him in 20 on 790. The pandemic continues. The no-dam sports pandemic. I'm not leaving my house.

Luckily, the most infectious lineup in Houston sports. continues now here's masked rubber glove but still jesus sandaled matt thomas sanitize those toes would you you don't know where they've been i know where they've been in the shower clean don't listen to our liner guy he just got he's just bored 1216 on the matt thomas show with joe and ross i'm matt great to have you guys with us today and ladies two 713 2-212 5790 713 2 1 2 1 2 5757 90. We have our NFL draft contest. You can go to our blog, right, Ross? Oh, crud.

Am I disappointed? Oh, the face of disappointment, Matt is showing me right now. You're actually kind of am used to it, aren't you? We'll work on it. We'll run through the questions. We've got until Thursday at 5 o'clock. We've got three great dinners we want to give away to our top point winners. We've got to feed people, right? I mean, people don't want to cook these days, so take out and play. We'll give away some dinner certificates,

some great restaurants. We'll tell you more about. that as the afternoon progresses. And again, three great guests to join us today, Greg Bishop from Sports Illustrated, bottom of the hour. One o'clock, Robert Covington, the Rockets. Two o'clock, we spend time with Julian Morales from AT&T Sportsnet. And we'll get more into the Greg Bishop article in 50 minutes from now, but I do want to bring up the baseball stuff for quick. So, California, not in play. Arizona in play, Florida in play. Did you guys see who the third state would be that there have been some reports. That would be Tejas.

The great state of Texas. And, you know, honestly, guys, it does make a lot of sense. You have two dome stadiums you can go to. You have, what, probably five Major League Quality Fields here in Houston, dimension-wise, wreckling park, Cougar Field. Is it big enough? I don't know a lot about college baseball. Yeah, I'm sure.

Does HBO play basketball? HBO plays Division 1 baseball. So, I mean, there might be like 390 to center or something like that. I'm not 100% sure. But there's no cheap. There's no, you know, 285 to left center, put it that way. So that's three. TCU plays baseball on fourth.

Dallas Baptist plays. SMU does not. So there's five right there with the stadiums. You could put two to three games a day in those stadiums. We've got two fully functional baseball stadiums in Arlington. I know one doesn't have a dome now Oh, wait, that's right? Because Gold Life Park is still there, right?

It's still there. They're not tearing it down. What are they going to do with it? I thought I saw high school football there and other stuff. Really? For that big of a stadium? Yeah.

Or at least it's not going yet, I don't believe. So, yeah. So there's four stadiums at least in, or four major league baseball ready fields, or at least close to, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. You have at least four here. and UTSA plays baseball, Texas plays baseball, obviously. So, I mean, you could create a league full of just Texas teams.

So in theory, you could have 10 in Arizona, you could have 10 in Texas, and you could have 10 in Florida if you wanted to. And again, I would assume at that point, using the dome stadiums as much possible, because if you're going to be starting the season later, the temperatures are rolling, I start to warm up,

places, heat would be a major consideration. But that's when they say sports RV, when everything is on the table, they literally mean everything's on the table. Yeah, I mean, they played in that oppressive heat in Dallas for years. I guess we'll just have to deal with it here. The Houston Buffs used to play in the heat. Yeah. You know how many calls I've taken to my life about the mosquitoes at Buff Stadium? Maybe two. Five million. Since I'm on the radio here full-time, it's 1995. I have heard. every single time somebody called the show. When I was a kid or when I was a young adult or when I, my grandfather took me, you wouldn't believe the size of those mosquitoes.

Apparently they were the size of tarantulas. That sounds dangerous. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So how would you split it up? 10, 10, 10. So just the west goes in Arizona. I think you. The central plays in Texas and the east plays in Florida.

Yeah. And basically, I think what you do is you try. your best to try to put the divisions together, but in reality, you're probably going not, you mean, you're going to have probably Kansas City playing with the Astros. Yeah, I mean, St. Louis. Why do you just put the entire A.L. West in Arizona? And I know that sucks because the Astro, they'd be playing baseball in Houston. That's not going to happen.

But the Astros wouldn't be here. But what if you just put the A.L. West and the NL. West in Arizona, the central divisions in Texas and the A.L. East and the NL. East and Florida. Because you're saving yourself. thousands and thousands of dollars in lodging. If you have the Astros in Houston... Wouldn't they have to be quarantines still, though? They couldn't stay home.

I don't know. Good question. But I would assume that it would be easier for the Astros to find a local hotel than it would be for them to worry about flying over there and going somewhere else. Yeah, I mean, I think part of it is to keep the teams... Like, I think the Marlins and Tampa Bay

would be in the same division. If you kept it to do a Florida League. Again, everything is up from conjecture. Here's the thing, and I feel like, Like every day we do this a little bit just because we're just some unknown. Aren't we coming closer to some not drop dead dates, but some we need to hear something kind of dates? I feel like May is going to be a very important month for all of us, whether it be to get our restaurants open again, whether we get to our haircut places open again, whether to get our department stores opening. To also, when is there going to be a resumption of a football league? When is there, I mean, our football, when is there going to be a resumption of the NBA or Major League Baseball?

because the only sport, frankly, that probably is going to have to, can wait a little while is probably the NFL and college football. And more and more and more of the time are you hearing that college football might be thinking about pushing that start back even more to perhaps an early 2021 because there are too many conference commissioners and university presidents that do not want their athletes playing in empty stadiums when there are no camp when there's no school. My son goes to Texas Tech boys. There's no guarantee, first of all, summer school is not going to happen.

But there's no guarantee they'll be ready to go come fall. And they're not going to put college football games on in stadiums on empty campuses because, A, they just don't think it's right. But B and probably most importantly, they need, I mean, Lubbock needs 50,000 people at Jones A&T and T Stadium. That's how Texas Tech makes its money. Texas Tech gets a pretty good chunk of change from their telehealth. television contract, but they also make way more from the sweets and the alcohol consumption and the ticket sales and those people that pay the serious money to be donors to a school

to get those seats at the 50-yard line. The NFL, while obviously ticket sales are a huge part of it, they much more rely on their television dollars and other things than the college athletes do. So that's why I think everybody else needs to kind of have some sort of firmer plan starting May 1st, maybe May 15th. college football and the NFL football might be in a position where they can probably just wait a little while. But I know the NFL is going to release their schedule. They said no longer than May the 9th.

It's going to be interesting how they do it because my assumption is Ross, they're going to put a September schedule out there. They're going to have August exhibition games schedule. Yeah, they're going to put it out, but are they going to get played? It's going to be put on like an eraser mate. Yeah. Everything's going to have aster next to it. Subject to change. The way I was looking at it was, I think they'll just.

released the schedule and it's going to be very formatic where like my example was that in the first 10 weeks of the season the Texans would play all of their AFC South games and all of their AFC North games. So that way if the season has to get pushed back they'll just chop stuff off the back end and then they would play the NFC North next and then the last two weeks they would play the Chiefs and the Patriots so if you lose two weeks it's that Chiefs and Patriots games that get knocked off your schedule for everybody

the ones where you compete against people just equal to your record. And that way you can just keep pushing it back. And if they cut it down to 10 games, it would take out the NFC North games. So that way... So you think playing those four NFC North games are more important than playing everybody in the AFC first and then saving those NFC games for last? I don't think so.

I just think the way that they would construct a schedule would go from like 17 weeks to 14 weeks to 10 weeks. like in theory. Like I don't think they're going to take off. Like that way they could set up to schedule a certain way. See, I would envision it being this. They're going to start the schedule on in September. And then if they have to cancel September,

they'll just put those September games flip them to the very end. Sure. Instead of having games that would end to say January 2nd, those four games now cover up the month of January. Which I'm telling you what's going to mean. If we have January regular season football, in college football, the same thing.

there's going to be some really interesting weather games. How fun is it going to be to be in Buffalo, New York, playing a game January 20th at that stadium? The Texans could be... We'd pretend they've actually made the play a deep end in the playoffs before, and, well, they have, but it's been like 20, 30 years. So the Texans could get the Patriots. Like, who are their cold weather games this year? The Bears. Game in Chicago and February 9th? Yikes.

Probably not going to be fantastic. The other NFC North games are here. here are in a dome, so that's not an issue. Away games, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis. Those are domes, except for Cleveland.

Yeah. So Cleveland, Chicago, New England are probably your... Do you know who loves bad weather games? The NFL does. Kansas City. They're fun to watch. You know why the NFL loves them? Do you ever notice that every time there's a really good team

that plays in a terrible cold city, they put that game on the latest possible? Yes, because the crazy weather games get raped. They know that. It's not them. It's us. Yeah. They're so much fun to watch. Like I, like, when I see that Green Bay is hosting a game and they're like game time temperature minus 13, like, oh, damn, that seems kind of balmy for this time of year. Let's go check it out. Yeah. I'm all for that. So even though it'll be peculiar, it'll be peculiar, you tell me watching New England and Buffalo playing in a blizzard in Buffalo on January the 20th, wouldn't sound halfway interesting. I'm sold. Yeah. But then again, anything is sports related sounds really good right now. That's right. So maybe we just need to wait until sports come back and re-evaluate.

Here's my phrase for the NFL this year. Take your time. Make sure you get fans in those stands. Make sure those athletes are taking care of. And if you want to play, you know, a game in Cleveland on February the 9th, game temperature of 14 degrees, well, those NFL athletes are making good money. They can handle it. All right, let's talk to Greg Bishop from Sports Illustrated.

He will join us next. 713-212-5-79. If you want to chime in on anything that Greg has to say following our conversation. But right now a message for hoops. Basketball goals and sporting equipment today. Really, the last couple weeks have been great weather for us to get outside and play and shoot some hoops. And you need a great-looking goal that one that's got a fully adjustable rim from 5 to 10 feet, temper glass backboard, rust armor protection against rust and corrosion.

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I'm Matt with Ross and Joe. Nice of you guys to ladies to hang out with us today. We've got a lot of great guests coming up, including Robert Covington at 1 o'clock from the Rockets, Julian Morales from AT&T Sports Net at 2. Right now, we say hello to a gentleman who put out an excellent piece for Sports Illustrated, Greg Bishop on DeAndre Hopkins will define himself in his future. Greg, it's Matt. Thanks for spending some time with us today. Let me ask you first and foremost, had this been pre-planned or did DeAndre kind of start to feel a little resentment and towards some of the allegations about who he was when he wasn't playing on Sundays.

It kind of felt like they needed to clear the air a little bit. You know, it's interesting you mentioned that because I could definitely see it coming across this way. And I appreciate you having me, first off. But DeAndre is actually someone I've had on my story list for over two years. He's a guy that I've always found interesting. He's a guy that I thought would be interesting to profile. And we even talked about doing a piece last year. But it was sort of shelled once the SPN story came out because it was so well done.

And, you know, I thought really compelling and dramatic, and it just felt like, you know, it wasn't going to be possible or in the cards for last season. And so what's really interesting in light of the question you asked me is that, you know, essentially we decided that we could use DeAndre in the magazine this month. And we reached out to his people, you know, essentially the same week that we did the story. And so usually this process for me would take three to four weeks. It would involve going to visit a guy, sometimes going to see him two or three times. And between the time I asked if DeAndre would be open to it, when I interviewed him and when I closed the magazine story, it was a total of five days. So it was really condensed and different than most processes. But when we started talking to the question that you asked, I think there were some things you wanted to get off his chair.

Yeah, I am extraordinarily bothered. My audience knows this about everything about this. The compensation that the team got back, that you would trade away a guy very much the problem of his career with a lot left in the tank, how a general manager and a coach could get sideways with his best player. And I was really, really blown away. I'm sure as you were, Greg, when I don't know if any of it was innocently or intentionally, Michael Irvin goes on ESPN and speaks to his conversation. That had to really perk your ears up when that went down.

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I think everything you just said is totally fair. Like, this didn't make sense on the surface especially. You know, why you would take a receiver who's 27 years old, who's been a three-time first-team all-pro, so that's, you know, one of the two best wide receivers in the entire league. It's a very hard distinction to win, even for great players. You know, a guy who played through injuries, a guy who didn't miss games,

and a guy who, you know, had had a special performance in the playoffs with torn cartilage in his ribs and a busted index finger. And you just looked at that and what they got for him, and it was just hard to make sense of how that all came to be. And so I think that was one thing that attracted me to the story in the first place was this idea of how did we end up here, what factored into it. And I think what really emerged are two different stories, one being that he didn't want to play in Houston,

that they didn't want to pay him what he wanted, and then the reaction to the trade itself and the value that they received in return. So obviously one of the best parts about that or the biggest quotes is DeAndre Hopkins saying he had no relationship with Bill O'Brien. Did you get any more from DeAndre about that, or how does that happen?

How does a man who was the head coach of the football team with somebody as valuable as D'Andre have no relationship with him? Is there anything other than obviously the Aaron Hernandez comments and things like that? Did you get anything from how the friction started or anything about the relationship with D'Andre and Bill O'Brien? You know, to me that was a really interesting facet of the story. I think like you just said, it was very unusual. usual. I don't think there are many teams that would have a player that's an all pro, a pro bowl or a perennial star where they don't have some sort of relationship with the coach. Now, it's possible that Bill wouldn't characterize it exactly the same way that DeAndre did, but I don't know that because I wasn't able to get Bill to talk to me for the story to weigh in on some of the things that DeAndre said. And so we definitely tried, and it definitely didn't work out. And, you know, I think that beyond the unusual nature, I think it's really important and

terms of that meeting because, you know, what DeAndre did tell me is that they had not had conversations about his personal life, that they had not had conversations about, you know, any of these sort of concerns. And then he sits down for this meeting. And again, this is their characterization. But, you know, he feels sort of blindsided. It's not just that there was a comparison made to Aaron Hernandez. It's not just that there was this baby mother's term that was, you know, allegedly thrown around. It's that these things were all done after there's no relationship. When there's not really even friction. There's not even, there's nothing, you know. And so then to have sort of of a personal bent to really sort of, you know, go in on somebody and how they live their life when you

don't have a relationship with them. I mean, if that happened, as he said it did, then you could see why it would lead to more hard feelings. So it's not even just the contents of the meeting or the fact they met at all. It's the fact that they didn't have depth to the relationship that, you know, there wasn't a closeness between coach and star player. And however that came to be, you know, whatever the sort of genesis of that was, like what matters is to me, at least, is that they didn't have a strong relationship to begin with. I mean, that, to me, is super unusual, and I don't think you'd see it many places outside of, say, you know, New England. Well, because that would fit, for sure. We're visiting with Greg Bishop. His article can be found. It's definitely worth a good read

at s.I.com. S.I.com. Greg Bishop, the author of DeAndre Hopkins, will define himself in his future. One of the things my partner Ross who just asked the last question brought up to me, and it was interesting, was the reaction of Deshaun Watson. And look, he came across, and your article is shocked by this, but there's no way in the world that DeAndre Hopkins and Deshaun Watson couldn't have had conversations about DeAndre's need to make more money, right? I mean, it may have sounded blondesided that he got traded, but he had to have known there was some tension between the two people, correct? I mean, I would assume that. I don't actually know that for fact, but, you know, this is something DeAndre thing, you know, DeAndr's team believes that he had been being shot for over a year. You saw him say that on the conference call in Arizona last week.

It's definitely something that came up in our interviews. Like, he knew that there was, you know, that it seemed like to everybody that he was, you know, out there and that they were looking for trade partners. I think that part, nobody is denied. And then I think that the idea that he wanted to leave that, you know, this, you know, that he knew it at the end of that crazy playoff game last year, that he would not play next season in Houston. You know, to me, I would guess that Watson would have some sense of that as well.

I think two guys that are going out to dinner should at least have that level of understanding about each other, you know. But I think the shock is more, you know, when it finally happens. You know, here are two guys in their mid-20s, two prime, you know, two guys are smack in their prime, two guys who could end up in the Hall of Fame one day. And they're not only together, but they have this great connection. and they're playing really well, and the team wins a playoff game, and they have this cool comeback against Buffalo,

and, you know, it's just urban season out to dinner in London, and he says, this is me and Emmett Smith. These guys are going to win rings. And, you know, I think the shock comes more from, like, not that he didn't expect it at all to happen, and more from knowing he's not going to have a player of that caliber, knowing he will be approaching the season in a different way. And I think on some level, both those guys have got to be thinking about what could have been,

you know, championship rings, dreams, all the things that I imagine two guys with that level of skill set would talk about. And so I don't have any direct knowledge of that, but I think just putting the dots together, that's kind of lined up for me. Greg, what if DeAndre goes to Bill and says, I want to redo my deal? Because he thought that would be the thing that would push the trade along. And Bill says, look, DeAndre, we may not be best friends. I may not like your practice habits during the week.

But you're a hell of a player. Let's revisit this in a year from now because it is certainly very much unprecedented that most teams or even the Texans especially won't renegotiate a player's contract with three years left to go. If he would have gotten that message from Bill O'Brien, could that have stayed their relationship, or did he just not want to be a Houston Texan, no matter if it was a year from now or two years from now that he got the money that he thought he deserved? Yeah, that's a really good question. I think the answer is in some ways is sort of both.

I do think that he's aware of the economic realities. I do think that people around the team have to know that the only time they're done that with three years left was for Andre Johnson, you know, who's obviously one of the best receivers of a generation, you know, to me, a Hall of Fame kind of guy. And I think that, you know, on some level, he had to understand

that they have to pay to Sean Watson, they've got to pay tons. So, like, there are economic realities involved here. Now, I think if O'Brien had approached him the way that you just said, I do think they would have at least maybe been able to have a conversation. Like, who knows what comes out of that? You know, I think the way that it was handled and the lack of

relationship and this sort of like both sides being entrenched in how they felt made certain that there was no chance that anything could be done in some sort of reasonable fashion beyond shipping him somewhere where you could get something in return. And so it's hard to say exactly how that might have looked if they had sat down and talked, but I think if they had had a different kind of conversation, then maybe there would have been, you know, different machinations in terms of, you know, how they were going to approach it. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't have still been traded.

it doesn't mean he wouldn't still be playing elsewhere. Like, I think he knew by the end of last year what he wanted, and I think, you know, that conversation would have been better off in the middle of last year in place of the Aaron Hernandez's baby mother's one. Last question, and I'm glad you brought up that up. Any clarification on the baby mother's thing? Because that's a – the presumption to me, and we were trying to figure that out when Michael said it,

was that these women were going to the facility, causing trouble, calling his cell phone during practice time, causing a distraction because once you leave, I mean, I'm sure Bill O'Brien didn't spend a lot of time, especially if there was no relationship between him and DeAndre, Bill O'Brien wouldn't care about what DeAndre did when he left the facility. When he would bring that up, my thought would be, well, these women are obviously causing problems that affect DeAndre's practice ability, going to studies, a variety of things that may interfere with his preparation for game week. Where is the clarification on why he would bring that up to begin with?

Yeah, you know, I wish I could tell you, but anything I've heard on that, I haven't, I wouldn't be able to share publicly on the radio. And so, yeah, it's just, you know, so far there's nothing out there in terms of, at least that we could find, or people we could talk in terms of public comments that there were any kind of issue, which I think it was part of what bothers DeAndre's team, you know, that there, this isn't a guy who's had issues like the way that we've seen it publicly with other receivers. Now, that doesn't mean by any stretch that there isn't something there. It's just I didn't come across it. I didn't, you know, nobody brought something specific up to me. There's not something, if I had something more to it, I would have put it in the story. And so the idea is that, like, clearly they felt something was wrong with that situation or they wouldn't have approached him that way or traded him for what they got.

And clearly he took issue with how it was framed to him or he wouldn't have pushback so strongly. So, you know, my experience with doing a lot of these kind of longer stories on guys is usually there's something to both sides there. In general, you know, you tend to find that like there was something that had worn out both parties. And, you know, what we do know is the Texans traded a, you know, a top three wide receiver talent, if not the top receiver in the NFL for a relatively low return. And that never happens by accident. So, you know, something even in terms of perception had to. have gone on there or we wouldn't be sitting here talking. The name of the piece, DeAndre Hopkins will define himself and his future.

The author is Greg Bishop. Greg, excellent, excellent piece. Thank you for covering it a few minutes, and we look forward to reading more of your material down the road. Again, thanks for spending some time with us here today. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Greg Bishop, Sports Illustrated.

Go to s.i.com right now. And it's a very worthwhile piece, lengthy, but very informational. And you want to get in on that? 1244 is a time. 713, 212.790. 713-212-5-790. The Matt Thomas Show takes you to 3 o'clock. Robert Covington and the Rockets to join us in 15 minutes here on Sports Talk 790.

The Houston Lunchtime Sports Conversation most respected by head coach Bill O'Brien. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Matt Thomas. In his career here in Houston. Of sorts. The Matt Thomas Show. I feel like our in commercial break commentary on the Matt Thomas show would be amazing at his own show. Yeah, but there'd be some hurt feelings. Too many secrets to keep.

Way too many secrets. You guys talking about being there? No. Oh. Oh, my goodness. Of course not Joe. 1250. I don't believe you're awesome.

What reason have I alive? Lye. It's alive? Yeah, that too. I don't know. How are you going to handle your draft party on Thursday? What's going on? It's not a party, it's a show.

What draft party? We're not having a draft party here at the station? We're having a show. Is everybody going to social distance? Yeah, how are y'all going to separate each other by six feet? There's like seven people on the show. By the way, Ross and I and Adam Clinton, the only three, they were not invited. Actually, you were invited to do anything.

I think Clinton was invited. No, they were like, hey, Ross. We're moving the night, cats. It wasn't really invited. Clanton doesn't like college football, so I think he's okay. Who doesn't? Clinton. Oh, that's true.

So I think he's all right with not being invited. Yeah, I'm okay too. I'm going to make it. Now, you want to get to the MLB draft. Well, you can also have that one too. Yeah, you can take that one. NBA, NBA after about the fifth pick, you can have that too. Everyone's doing these redrafts right now.

Man, some of these are. That's stupid. You realize how bad some of these drafts are after the top five. Or a lot of them are. Some of them, like, the whole draft is bad. Yeah. It's crazy if you go back to the, the NBA draft is by far the worst or the most hit and miss. Yeah, because it's either the top five and then pick 24, but like pick six through 23, don't do anything for you.

And you would, and the way that MLB has tried to push their draft and make it more of a presentation on the NFL, just many number one picks in baseball that become flat out bust. One Tommy John's surgery. I mean, look at the Astros had, what was his name? Brady Aiken? Who was the other guy? Mark Capel. I mean, two of the most highly profiled pitchers, the Astros had both of them, and they both never put an Astro uniform on for a day of their life. And then you get like 40th round picks who are great players.

And those guys are like, hey, you should have taken me 39 rounds ago. Look what I did. I had 319 home runs for this team. How about the 2000 draft? I was thinking about this one. Kenyon Martin went number one overall. Kenyon Martin. Kenyon Martin. Okay, serviceable NBA player.

Strow Miles Swift, number two. Not as much of a service. Darius Miles number three. Okay. Marcus Pfizer, Mike Miller, DeMarre Johnson, Chris Mim. Stop right there. Mike Miller was your most successful one of that group. So, no, so the Bleacher Report did a redraft on April 1st because like I said,

everyone's doing this. They said the Nets would take Michael Red, first pick. Oh, crap. He's in the second round. He was drafting the second round. Because a lot of times they just based it on Winshare, they don't base on like actual need. And then Mike Miller. second overall. Third pick.

Third pick was Hito Turculu. Oh my gosh. You're not redrafting NFL players, are you? No, no, no. Kenyon Martin goes fourth, Jamal Crawford, fifth. That's terrible. This draft is awful. I mean, Darius Miles is still a top

10 pick in this draft. It's disgusting. Mateen Cleaves. That's why Darrell Moore thinks drafts are overrated. Yes. That's why. Go get somebody that's already had three or four years of success. it's the Bill O'Brien strategy. We don't need to look at the future.

Oh, wow. This draft also has the all-time Mexican greatest NBA player, Eduardo Nahara. For sure. And then JJ Barreya, right? It's why I don't get tanking. Puerto Rican, man.

That's different. Why do teams tank in the NBA? The drafts are so bad. Because every year in the NBA, there's the one can't miss. Yeah, you might get a Zion. Well, there's not this year. You might get a job.

It's like, why are people tanking? What are you taking for lamello ball? who knows he could be really good maybe or could be awful apparently he did really well in the Australian league like 10 games let's go back to the NFL for honestly I want to know on draft day

who the second quarterback has picked that's it for me because okay offensive linemen great didn't watch him play much in college football cornerbacks can cover there is a serious debate about whether or not Herbert, Love, or Tungavaloa should be the second quarterback taken.

Guys, isn't that the only drama in this round? The biggest drama. What's the next biggest drama after that? Which wide receiver goes first? See, you couldn't even sell it to me that one. No. That's why I'm watching the draft on Thursday. I think that's decent enough.

How the wide receivers are going to shake out is kind of been a little bit of a story. But it all feels like they're all going to be good, right? I mean, we've been told this is the deepest wide receiver. Yeah, there's going to be fun. There's going to be 15 all pros here, apparently, according to the draft experts. We're going to get an expert on before Thursday? I don't know.

It didn't sound very positive. I got you one last week. But I booked them like a mother today. Tomorrow's you're booking like a mother today. I'm very busy. Doing what? Prepping the nightcap. You mean reply on my interviews?

That's not true. Is it not? Robert Covington tonight at 6.30. Or Greg Bishop? Or both? Or Julian Morales for three minutes. Oh, Ross, let's take the night off. Yeah, you want to just put all three of those?

Yeah. And I do a show. You are lazy a. That's not true. It's compelling content, Matthew, that the people need to hear. It's your content. It's good. Yeah.

Thank you very much, boys. All right. Great questions. Speaking of compelling content, please check out our website at sports790.com on the What's on Matt's Mine show page. Today's afternoon delight is the lovely and talented Kayla Simmons. Yeah, she's a good kid. How talented is she?

Check out the what's on Matt's Mine show page at Sports790.com. Robert Covington, one of the newest rockets. I feel like I barely got to know him before the season came to a grinding hole. We'll talk with him coming up in a couple of moments. Right now, a message for TGS insurance. I'd like for all of you to save as much money as you can and all the little things in your life, all the bills, because look, our economy is in a rough spot, which means you're making less money.

and you probably made 30 days ago. So if you're looking to save, get your phones out right now, as you listen to me. I appreciate that. Text the word money, M0NEY to 23, 23, 23, 23, 23, 23. And start saving big on your home policy with TGS Insurance. When you text money to 23, 23, 23, 23, the text comes back to you asking for your address. You type that in, the quote comes 15 seconds later.

Not an hour and a half, not 15 minutes, but 15 seconds. your choice at that point is to call them back and say, hey, that looks great, or thanks, but no things. You do not speak to a live agent unless you call them yourself. Text the word money, M-O-N-E-Y to 23-23-23. Average listener, saving nearly $900. Most people, in fact, they've got a couple of friends that have saved more than $1,000. Text money to $23, 23-23, and save big on your home policy with TGS insurance. is the Matt Thomas show.

101 on Sports Talk 790. We will be joined by Robert Covington and the Rockets coming up in a couple of minutes. Rossi and the headlines today we have yet to go through. The big one today is the sports illustrative story. We had Greg Bishop on to talk about the fact there was zero relationship with Bill O'Brien. That's hard to stomach. No relationship. So it must have got off to a bad.

start. And I think if you get in Bill O'Brien's doghouse pretty early, no matter how good you are, it's hard to get out of there. See, that's what I'm trying to figure out. That's what I ask Greg. It's like, you mean, relationship, before relationship's sour, they have to start somewhere, right, Matt? Like, you meet somebody, you don't know anything about them. What does that smug look on your face? I'm just thinking about if you and I ever got sideways in the first month, I'm like, and that was like 10 years ago. Did we? No, I'm saying no. I'm just thinking about it. if we ever did.

Our early relationship was you just telling me how bad your musical taste was. You're trying to get me to play. Me being impossible for me to figure out what bump songs you did or didn't like. And also, if you remember, I used to say like things into your ear rather than on air. And you're like, why don't you just say what you're saying on the air? It'll be better. And now you're the star that you are today. Well, thank you, Matt.

I owe it all to you is what I'm trying to say. But no, I mean, it has to sour somewhere. they had to say they had to meet each other they had to talk they had to develop a relationship and then it has to go bad how did this happen why did it happen i mean i just i'm just fascinated by how you let a star player like dandre hopkins get to the point where the first thing it says in the article the first thing he's thinking after that loss is how it's his last run with the texans and how he's going to be gone he knew that the day of that game we'll talk more about that coming a little bit right now let's say hi to our uh

Favorite newest rocket 103 here on Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show. We say hello to Robert Covington, who joins us on behalf of a great group called The Elephant in the Room. And their website is The Elephant in the Room, Inc.org. We'll talk about that, and his life is a rocket. Robert, it's Matt. How are things, my friend? How are you doing? Hey, I've got to ask you questions.

Since you've been with this, this is your second go-round. I'm your PA announcer in the arena, and I do the radio on the road. I haven't called you Roco in the arena. Am I supposed to do that, or is that just a taboo phrase? I mean, that's just what everybody calls me. So, I mean, it's what's been my name and what people who know me by. Okay, because I just haven't called Russ Brody yet. I just don't feel comfortable doing that.

I just want to make sure Roco is okay with you. Oh, yeah, it's been established for six years now. Okay, very good. Hey, thanks for joining us today. Tell us a little bit how you got involved with this group, the elephant in the room. It's mental health. And let's be brutally honest here. We need some of this right now because I think depression can certainly kick in with this COVID hanging over a lot of us right now.

Yeah. Well, I got into it. It's actually my sister's foundation. There's someone that is very close to me that I consider them a family. I've known for years, and, like you said, what I just dealt with over the last couple years, you know, was really the reason why I got involved because I didn't really realize that I was going through it all until, like, the second phase, you know, just like last year. But just the beginning of last year, once I got injured and, you know, my season was taken from me.

So, you know, that's when, you know, I kind of got into the whole aspect of it, because I didn't understand. and how everything was going on. But it took for me to, you know, talk to a therapist and, you know, deal with everything that I was going through because, like I said, I just couldn't, I just couldn't file them all the stuff that was going on that was going through. And I just didn't know how to deal with it. So that's a point where, you know, like I said, I wasn't a dark place. I wasn't myself.

And, you know, I didn't know what to do. And I had a couple moments while I last out. people. And it was just, you know, it was just bad. And like I said, and I understood it. And I got to a point where I got through it and, you know, it all worked out. And then once my, you know, sister had came up with the idea of, you know, the elephant in the room, you know, it was a no brain for me to be a part of it because I just realized how big mental health was and not a lot of people talk about it. So it was easy for me. Like, Like, I wanted to be a game changer in all of this to put people on, you know, and let them know that it's okay to talk about this stuff. And because we all have every day, we all have problems. We all have issues. But, you know, we're put on this pedestal and we're looked at that we shouldn't have

because, like you said, people say, you know, you're an NBA player or you're athlete and all this other stuff. We did with everyday issues just like everybody else. So, and first of all, I'm glad that you're able to speak about this. This means a lot to a lot of people that maybe start. suffering through similar situations you are. Was it largely because of the fact that you went from this NBA player, living this great lifestyle, playing in front of 15, 20,000 people every night to being hurt?

Or did you see some effects of this depression you speak of even before you got hurt? It was even before I got hurt. But I didn't realize that I was dealing with all of it. I was dealing with an aspect of stuff that happened between family issues, relationships, of issues, but I didn't understand the magnitude of it until I got hurt and realized that all that stuff. I thought I had got past it all. I thought I got past it all, but it lingered, and it just was in a different form and came about. So once it got to the point where I got hurt, like I said, different things that started to

affect me. My mood started to change. My energy, I was drained. I was, you know, sleepless nights. And, you know, that's a point where I used to sit up here and I used to look, you know, act like I was sleep in certain nights just so my partner at the time could go to sleep and just wouldn't talk to me, but I would be up all night. It would be some nights like that. So, like I said, that's where, and that's where the biggest thing came from. And like I said, I went to therapy.

my coach in Minnesota had told me a story about how it helped him and dealing with his whole demeanor with death, not demeanor, the death of his dad. So,

you know, I was like, at first I was skeptical about senior therapists because I was just like, you know, what's the therapist is going to do to help me?

Like, I was, I felt like it was just simple issues, but it actually goes deeper than that. So and I was just like, I got to a point where, you know, it came to me first

time and then it was another moment where like I said, I went into my work job and I snapped one day. And I knew that wasn't me. My team or my coach and them all knew it wasn't me, so, you know, it just was like, all right,

now we got to do something to, like, help lead it because this is not the person that we've seen since you you've been here. And so I sat down with our coach and had a, had a moment, and he told me the story about him and how it helped him. And I was just like, at that point, I was like, what can it hurt? Plus, you know, I had just underwent surgery.

I had to, I had to get it got so bad, but I had to send my ex-girlfriend and her son away from me. So, like, I went through my whole process of, you know, rehab and getting back, like, from all crutches. I went through that whole process by myself. That's how gone I was in my mind. I didn't want my mother there. Like, no one to come visit me.

I was so frustrated and so, like, torn that I used to get bad that people when they were asking me, like, are you good? Like, that's how bad. That's how bad I was. Like, that would bother me. That's powerful stuff, Robert. I frankly did not know much of this going in. And it sounds like, and having seen you a little bit since you joined the team, you're in a much better place today, which is obviously very good.

What was the turning point for you? When did things come a little easier to you, that the days were much brighter than they were, say, you know, a year and a half, two years ago? The days were much brighter, you know, once I started to unload when I actually began seeing a therapist. because the first session was supposed to be like an hour and I started to instead of it being an hour the first session turned out to be three and a half hours and listening through all the stuff

my therapist at the time was like just mind-blown because of all the stuff that was going through and a way it happened back to back to back to back to back to back to back like all every time it was an issue like something happened right then it was for two years straight. Like, it was so, it was so much going on that within this time frame that, you know, it took a toll.

And it was slowly, slowly taking the toll. And it was like I said, for two years straight. Like I said, from having issues with my family and my relationship, then, you know, moving, having to move and go to another city, dealing with trade rumors. And you ask the team whether, you know, like what's going on so you can prepare yourself because you're, you know, you're moving, you know, your partner and her son into your element. And that's a different fact. It's easier.

It's easier to move components is, you know, it's just me. Like, it was just me, my dogs and then my reptiles and stuff. But, you know, that's easy. I can manipulate that by myself. But when you add in other factors into that, it's. it's a lot difficult. And then on top of that, packing up a house, like it would have been easy,

but then once they moved in with me, that's when things change, and then things changed. So rapidly in this league, like, you know, it doesn't, you know, phase and all. So it just was at a moment. Like I said,

then that and then, you know, playing well with a new team and then having a setback, you know, I injured my knee. Again, getting to the point where everything is starting to take the toll of their relationship, it takes another hit. Then working my way back through that and working my way through all the issues of my injury.

And, you know, I'm working myself. Everything's going good. And, like, I'm on the verge of coming back. And then it's still watching all these games not being able to, you know, be a part of them and they were dropping games. And then I playoff hopes are slowly diminishing. So it was a lot that, you know, played a part of it. Then I go back.

I had a return date. I had a return date. Then I go and I work out with the G-week team. And, you know, I do everything with that. Have a great couple days. And then I get to a point where, like, I go home to visit my ex-JF and her side. For his birthday, for a couple of days. because the team was on the road

and they allowed me to go home. So I went down there and then the couple days when I went back to Minnesota, I get back into the gym and my knee is swollen like a bloom. And I mean, I had endured swelling like throughout the process.

They said it was going to be back and forth but it was not like this. Like my knee, you literally had no definition with my knee. So it was that swollen. Yeah. So let's fast forward to a more pleasant time. You've been healthy this year. You did eventually get traded.

Take us through what that was like getting that phone call from the Rockets and determining that you were going to come here and be a part of a very interesting, albeit smaller, five-man rotation at the very beginning. I had kind of known, like I said, something. I tell people, somebody told me, like, beforehand, like, what was it being worked on? And they were just telling me, be prepared. So I sat up here and I typically, like I said, I was preparing for it already. I had bags packed, was working on, like I was looking at houses and everything. I was just waiting for the moment to sit up here and, you know, headline and, you know, what has helped me, you know, throughout this whole process of this year. And, you know, the real turning point when I

really realized like everything with me was actually once I started to go back to church and I started to develop a understanding in a relationship with my father and savior. So that's what allowed me to get over the hump and like have a whole new mindset on everything in life. And, you know, that was the greatest day. That was the greatest day of my life. Like for me to sit up here and do that and go through that moment. And that was the releasing point of all that negative that negativity like everything that I had endured that was the releasing point because they gave me a new outlet they gave me a new understanding of it all and you know that's what has that's what has helped me throughout this entire year and like I said prepared for

and I had a different mindset going into getting traded because I didn't I wasn't in the same place that I was before so you know like I said I was able to you know prepare early on you know I'm no longer with my partner, my ex-girlfriend, so it was a lot less components that I had to work to work through. I could just pick up, you know, go get everything together. The only thing I had to worry about was my dogs and my reptiles. How many reptiles do you have? I currently have seven. Seven?

Yeah. Do they have names or are you? What kind of reptiles are there? I got four leopard geckos, and then I have three snakes. I am not coming to your house. I mean, we can go out and have dinner once we can go out and have dinner again, but I, seven. Okay. Well, are they happy?

Do they like Southeast Texas? Man, they're actually right here in my living room, play with each other. Like, they didn't have a problem with everything. Like in Minnesota, they didn't go outside. But now them being here, now that them being here, you know, they go outside in the back yard. I let them go out there for about 30, 45 minutes. Nice. They come out, that come in and they'll sit up here and they'll, they'll, K-O.

They sleep a lot because of how hot it is. Well, so do I. They play around all day. Like I said, they're just, they're just so, like, energetic now. Like, they have so much more energy. but instead of them having energy in the house, they have it outside and they come in and chill. All right.

I've learned more about geckos and snakes that I have in my entire life as a radio host. These are things that I'm glad you brought to the conversation. Hey, I loved your debut. I love the fact you're blocking shots like a mother. I cannot wait to see you back on the court doing that, hitting the threes. Last question for you, how ridiculously anxious are you to start playing basketball again? man I'm beyond anxious um I've been I found a gym here that I was able to get some shots up in and he's about to you know work on finding a a personal trainer to someone to keep me in shape

because like I said I've been I've been doing stuff on my own but it's not the same magnitude as you know actually having the right equipment and everything so um we just Like I said, I'm anxious. I'm about to get ready and go back home to Nashville. That way I can be able to work with my trainers. And I'll be, I have a strength coach there that I'll be able to work with. Because, like you said, we don't know when this whole highest don't be able with. So I'm going to go just going, I've been here this whole time.

And I've had, like, a set, family here. Like, I want to get back into some type of shape, like I said. Because it ain't, it ain't the same when you don't, like, when you're not playing, especially around this time. We need to be playing playoffs. I know. I know. I got Beyond Cabin fever.

Robert, the website, for those that would be interested in checking out ways to improve overall mental health and something that helped you out big time was the Elephant in the Room, Inc. inc.org. That's the elephant in the room, inc, inc, inc, inc, dot org. Roko, I really appreciate you and kind of giving us a little insight into behind the scenes of who you are, beyond the basketball player. Wish you nothing but the very best. Tell all the reptiles we said, what up? And we look forward to seeing you on the court, wherever it may be in a very short period of time, my friend.

Thanks for joining me on my show. Thank you, guys, for having me. All right, Robert Covington with us here on the Matt Thomas show with his seven reptiles. What do you say? Three geckos and four snakes? Four geckos and three snakes. Sounds like the 790 studios sometimes. I think we did Robert Covington, believe it or not, when the trade happened.

And I did find out that he had exotic pets. We are super late for a break. I would have asked the names of all the reptiles, but that would have taken us still at the bottom of the hour, and then Joe would have been really mad at us. All right, 119 is our time. Interesting. Didn't think it would go in that direction kind of conversation,

but it did. And I hope that some of you got something out of that beyond just the normal basketball Q&A that you would normally get. Robert Covington, the newest rocket here on the show. 119 is our time. Bottom of the hour, you and me, on another baseball field that'll be open

if major leaguers want to come play in Texas. We'll tell you about that. Julia Morales, people we miss hearing from. She joins us in 40 minutes on Sports Talk 790. Here in H-town, we're social distancing experts. We've been socially distancing ourselves from Dallas since 1836, which is one of the reasons why we've never had an STD. The Houston Sports Talk continues on Sports Talk 790.

All right, went a little long with Robert Covington, but boy, he had a message to send beyond just basketball. He was, man, it sounded like it was in a really, really, really dark place. Yeah, I was like, you were his therapist there for a little minute, man. Well, I mean, I think we've bonded a lot closer. I can call him Rocco. He's got seven reptiles. Yeah, depression is no joke.

It is no joke. It is no joke. It is very real for him. And thank God he's turned the corner. I mean, I think that it's, you would think that'd be the last thing that NBA or any athletes have to worry about. But depression is real. And that's why it is a good opportunity for those of you to check out the website that's done so much for him.

And that's the elephant in the room, INC.org. I got a quick trigger Twitter question. I'm seeing replies on my Twitter line from people I don't follow. Yes. It's been happening for a few months. Can we get rid of that? Because if I wanted your replies, I would follow you and see your replies. Joe George, work on this for us, please.

I can't help you with that. Okay. Well, thank you very much for your efforts at least. You can just mute those accounts, though. That's how you do it. That's how you have to mute those accounts. Yeah. It's a lot of work.

At SportsMT. It's very slow. Not even steady climb. This whole COVID, this whole virus thing costs a Twitter account, too. You were going to say COVID again, weren't you? I was. I don't know where you got that word from. I'm just going to say it costs your Twitter account.

Well, because I was on a slow, steady climb? Now you're just a slow climb. It's still climbing, though. SportsM. M.T. We're only now 4,896 away from 30s. That's a lot. Ooh, that's a lot of meat left from that bone.

Maybe you should just be the 25,000 Twitter follower party. We're going to Vegas when we get 30. Yes. Well, and here's the thing. I'm going to make sure you guys don't pay for your trip as a little way to. Oh, yeah, let's follow SportsMT. I need you guys. I mean, I have something for it in y'all.

I've only got like a thousand Twitter followers. You only a thousand? Follow SportsM2. How many porn stars are there? None. How many people from the Chicagoland area? Probably 90%. No, it's probably like 6040 now, Houston.

Okay. Do whatever you can. There you go. I just tweeted follow SportsMT. Yeah, but I have more followers than you. We probably share 85% of the same following group. That's true. But I'll take those 15%.

I'm sorry. What do you want me to do? Well, I just want to maybe get a billboard. Maybe you got to go get a plane or something. Okay, yeah, let's not get crazy. Plainer ain't got to be cheap. The gas is cheap. Yeah, but there's no one to see it.

There's airspace plenty available. Nobody's outside. Flights are down to like two a day on each airline. Yeah, we're going to get outside more, aren't we? Maybe. Go for a walk this afternoon. How about three of us go for a walk at 3 o'clock? I don't know.

I lost three followers today. Did you? Oh, well, that doesn't help my cause. Sorry. 713-212-5-790. The Reverend K. Hey, Jay, and Pearland on 790. Rev, what's a good word?

What's up, fellas, man? It has been a while. It has been a while. What are you up? What are you up to? Man, I'm trying to stay COVID-free like everybody else. I'm putting on about 10 pounds in the process. I know. Hey, real honest, you really have gained 10 or is it more like 15?

Yeah, 10 is my radio way, 15 in real life. Ah, very good. What's on your mind? Real quick, man. Shout out to Robert's coverage, man. I listen to the interview, and I always had the utmost respect to do when he was here before. He had his travels with Minnesota and Philadelphia. to see him come full circle and back to Aitown, not only that, but to get some insight to what he went through and where he is now, man.

I don't know if you still listening, but shout out to you, dude. You always had a fan here, and you're definitely on my 18-9. Nice. With that saying, I wanted to throw my two since then about DeAndre Hopkins, because it's been a hot-soe topic for me since the trade took place. I never, I wasn't a Bill O'Brien fan for you, but I tried to give him the benefit of the out, and I also allowed myself to continue to root for my team because, again, that's my team. I've been a fan since the day they beat Dallas back in 2002.

With that said, Bill O'Brien, and to a much larger degree, Cal McNair, have basically pushed me to my limits as far as my fandom is concerned. I look at DeAndre Hopkins trade, and people, the two primary issues obviously, with the trade is the fact that he was traded and the things that you got in return. I look at the way he treated today being cloudy last year. Now, from a money standpoint, and you guys know more about the contract situations than the cap, you know, dead money and all that stuff and I do, if this was purely a money move to free up money to have more players available to whatever, don't you think the more sensible move would have been

because he's not as productive anymore? and because he's making more to release or trade, if possible, J.J. Watt, and I'm just throwing that out there, but if it was all about money, there were other options he could have employed. But you get rid of DeAndre Hopkins, you get in a wide receiver who's less who's not as good as DeAndre Hopkins and who has more money on his contract than the Audrey Hopkins. Yet, you have to be in win mode if you're Bill O'Brien because you're skating on thin ice. You're talking about give us two or three years. who's to say you're going to even be here in two or three years. So that's all the moral reason why you should have kept DeAndre Hopkins here because he is a wide receiver.

But for me to hear what you said earlier, Matt, when it seemed like Deshawn Watson was blindsided with the trade, lets me know that Bill O'Brien is dishonest. When he gets on that podium and talks to the fans, he's dishonest when he talks to you guys, the media, saying that he's in constant communication with Deshawn Hopkins. He has a great relationship with his players. And not only this, I've never seen the coach in the history of the NFL.

have the tirade that Bill O'Brien had. I don't remember what game there was when he was in a tunnel, throwing F-bonds left and right with fans or whatever, and not only not get criticized, but still have a job when you heard nothing about it. I don't know what this dude has on the league in general, and Cal McNabb in particular, but I'm telling you none, everybody that knows me,

no, I am not a Texan fan at all until Bill O'Brien. I refuse to put on any of their merchandise. I refuse to support into their game, and I'm just one person, so I can't speak for everybody, but this is me. So I'm going to start back calling in, man. I want to hear what I've got to say about that. But as far as the U.S.

I used to take the guy hard fan right here. When I say die hard, I have fist fights behind him. I'm done with him as long as Bill O'Brien is up. I'll give with you all the back end, man. Thank you, Reverend. We will comment on those comments next at 131. At home, say, Alexa, play Sports Talk 790 on I-Hard Radio. Carlos Correa.

Correa, it drills this one. A 790. give your strokes on the radio. And that ball is gone. Sports talk 790. It's your home of fastest baseball. All right. Thanks to the Reverend KJ for dropping a line on the show.

Ross, he just basically, in his minute, phone call, has reviewed and done everything that we've talked about for several weeks since the trade. There's really nothing more we can add to it, is there? Except the fact that I am not completely startled, but again, immensely disappointed that the head coach of the footballer, football team and its best

offensive threat over the last half decade had zero relationship. Zero relationship. That's weird. That's embarrassing. It's just so odd. How do you have zero relationship? Are you doing it even hate the guy? He doesn't hate you?

Like, there's no passion on either side of this or I hate my coach? I hate my coach. We have co-workers in this building and I have no relationship with. Sure. It doesn't mean I hate them, doesn't mean I like them, but I have zero relationship. Yeah.

But that's okay. Because that guy, that person, man or woman is not my boss. I don't report to them. You have to have a relationship. It can be awesome most of the time. It can suck most of the time, but there's got to be a little happy medium. How can the number one offensive player not have a relationship? Is it because something went sideways?

I mean, Ross, something had to have gone sideways almost immediately for Bill O'Brien to say, you just do what you need to do. That's what we don't know, and that's what we're just left with to try and figure out, is how did this happen? Because by all accounts, I mean, DeAndre Hopkins is working out with Julio Jones. Julio Jones seems to like him. Deion Hopkins talked about how great relationships he had in this article about his relationship with Sean Watson. Justin Reed talked about him with us. Justin Reed, yes, we had on. And he talked about how he was basically telling them how the chiefs were telegraphing routes and telling them how

to cover stuff. And Justin Reed called him an all-pro player and an all-pro teammate. I mean, how was everybody getting along with DeAndre Hopkins except for Bill O'Brien? Because he doesn't practice when he's hurt? Because apparently, and I try to get this from our interview, our guest, I wonder if the baby mamas did come to the office. I even hate using that term, the mothers of his children. Baby mothers?

I don't understand why, how that would be Bill O'Brien's concern. otherwise unless they're unless they're going into Bill O'Brien's office and saying, hey, where's DeAndre? How does this happen? They're an energy stadium, not going to, you know, that's what I'm saying. The receptions.

We're joking. Give us, give me a practical way that DeAndre Hopkins has a bunch of baby mothers everywhere. And first of all, he says he has three children, so he can only have a maximum of three. They're all showing up and beating down doors or calling Bill O'Brien or hitting a Jack Easterby or, I mean, how does it happen?

The only why I can think of it is a, those women came to the offices of the stadium and the receptionist had to go back to football operations and say, XYZ woman is here because she wants to talk to DeAndre and DeAndre won't talk to her. So the only thing she can do is go to his place of business because that woman knows that he's there during that time of the day. That's the only thing I can think of. Okay, even if that happened.

Let's say it happened a couple of times or something. Sure. I mean, is that an hour of a week, a two hours of a week? How is this affecting the team and how they do things? on how they conduct business on Sundays? Let's flip it. Let's say you had several girlfriends that came to this radio station

and Mary Jane, our receptionist downstairs, had to always answer, you know, where's Ross? Matt's, we're all, Ross was on the air. He's doing, he's working stuff on the fifth floor. At some point, Mary Jane is going to come to one of our bosses and say, look, Ross's girlfriends keep coming to our radio station. This has to stop.

So, again, under my scenario, that's how I'm thinking this has to be, right? I guess. But even then, I'm not an NFL player. It's a different scenario. They practice on certain days. They have certain off days.

And they really gear up and their hardest work is done on Sundays. It's a little bit different. The most important days of the week are Wednesdays and Thursdays. Okay. That's where like women are just showing up to these facilities. You ask me the only plausible scenario because it's not like my guess is that DeAndre wouldn't be that disrespectful to keep his phone on a ringer.

My guess is that DeAndre wouldn't be that disrespectful to answer phone calls in the middle of meetings. That would have to be the only way that Bill O'Brien, who has no relationship with his wide receiver, would have any idea about a relationship because somebody from the football operations department got a phone call from the receptionist and said, hey, XYZ is here. She's here for the fourth time in the last three months. Bill O'Brien's like, I don't need this. I don't remember receptions being worried about that. I need her to make sure that Jackie, Sabrina, and I, our phone lines are clear. So I can make bad trades. I'm just being goofy, but that's how I can think about it.

See, I mean, that's what I'm, it's like, it's just a different world. And again, I guess that world would have to be encroached upon so much for this to sour the relationship. So in reality, when DeAndre said that things were being blown on proportion, he, as I thought he did when he did, we tweeted it. He was trying to soften the blow of the impact of what Michael Irvin said. There's obvious. He went to Sports Illustrated and let it all hang out. Most of it, I should say. Not everything, but most of it left very little room for interpretation

about how bad their relationship was. And now he's in Arizona, where we're going to have to have weekly. Is there a sponsor, like, can we get the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce to sponsor the segment? Because we're going to talk more Arizona Cardinal football. I think in the next nine months in Ross we've done in the previous 10 years. The University of Phoenix, maybe?

That's not a bad deal. Be a Phoenix, man. What else is Phoenix good for? I mean, the weather is normally good. It's real hot as hell during the summertime. We're not going there. If the Astros move to Phoenix, should we just move the show for a couple months?

Go quarantine with them? How would you... I don't think your newlywed wife's going to like that at all. My wife would be like, go, bye. She'll be fine. Really? She'll stay in Kingwood. You guys can watch Cougar Town together at night.

Yeah. Are we in the same room? No. You don't want to say... I snore, apparently. Oh. Apparently. You should get Ross's, what was that, CPAP machine?

Yeah. Get your seat that. It'll change your life. It's like a baby. I got a juicy story that Joe tipped me off to. There is a former league that once existed not too long ago that had this really recognizable CEO. A.A.F? A little more recognizable.

Okay. And there is a nasty lawsuit that has been filed. We'll tell you about that and more. Plus, our good friend, Julia Morales, and our series of people we miss hearing from. She's in 18 minutes here on Sports Talk 790. Greg Bizjo here. The heart of the order is up right now.

Matt Thomas is swinging for the fences here on Sports Talk 790. And welcome in to an impromptu version of SportsM Theater on Sports Talk 790. Today, we will have a play. played out between Adam Clanton and one of his Twitter friends, playing the part of, what's this guy's name, Matt? Texan Vision. Texan Vision will be one Matthew Thomas. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone. Thank you. And playing himself will be Adam Clanton. Hey, do I need to use a British accent for this? Use whatever accent Adam Clant would use. What about a voice you would like to use? Can I read my tweet as Matthew McConaughey? Sure.

Sure, why not? Okay. I bet Cal McNair is so proud of his coach slash GM's bold move. Only the Texans could be gifted the prime years of Andre Johnson, Aryan Foster, J.J. Watt, and D'Andre Hopkins, and waste them. Are you paying attention to Sean Watson? And then I go on, I have to quote the article here that says that DeAndre Hockings. Okay, so, you know, gross.

People still supporting O'Brien other than the Texans' clueless ownership or nothing more than sheep at this point. At Texan Vision. It is people like you that brings bad vibes around here about you. Just go I-10 to the Saints or 45 North to the Cowboys. These non-homegrown-ass people being able to talk Texans is a joke. I've lost my place. Okay, here we go.

I've lived here since I was eight years old. Watch the Oilers leave and become the Titans. Seeing two NBA championships and one World Series Championship Live and everything in between. It's people like you that blindly support a crap product allowing the Texans to remain mediocre.

What happened to McConaughey? Sorry. At Texan Vision. Eight years. I've been here all my life. You and outsider GTFOH, you only cover the Astros and Rockets. Now you have something to say about Houston Texans. Hell yeah, we support them.

I'd rather support them than support a station that's trying to divide our quarterback from team that drafted him. Are you going to, thank you, thank you. Are you going to cry when he leaves? moving down, moving down, moving down. It's the very next one. It's not. I don't have that one. Yes, it is. There it is. Oh, geez.

Where is it? Oh, at Texan's Vision. Only people need to leave is you in Sports Talk 790. We don't need you talking about Texans, and you refuse to talk about them on air. Your voices are muted. Only people hear you are Astros and Rockets fiend you not existent to humans. Houston, Texas fans, G-T-F-O-H. And I don't even know what I wrote after that.

It was like a bunch of people piling on at that point. So I think I ended up muting the guy and telling him, oh, well, he blamed the whole thing on the whole Super Bowl trip. So I got some more. Oh, you got some more? Okay, go ahead. Your station don't even cover the Texans, you clown, you are just here to try to destroy the Texans organization.

We paying attention to crappy people. people at Sports Talk 790 who want our QB to pay attention the team that has made his dream come true that traded 12 spots to get him you I joke scroll up please

no no back back the other way they fired the general manager that made the trade for Watson genius guess who made that decision your boy Billy O even Rick Smith comes up smelling like roses when compared to O'Brien

that's good stuff Does he have any more? I guess I sworeny had more. And that is a very imprompt. This is another edition of SportsMT Theater. I tell you, it's been a while since I've engaged. I actually told you not too long to stop fighting on Twitter. Yeah?

But it helps with a segment of my show. So what do you want? Make up your mind. Do you want show content from me or do you want me to be good? Be good. I haven't done anything. Look, that's the first, that kind of stuff I've probably done since the whole. whole pandemic started.

That is not true at all. Who was I tangling this? Every NFL reporter. Who was the one that put the information about Bill O'Brien? Oh, it was Ed Warner, wasn't it? Didn't you say something about Edward? That was weeks ago. Okay, well, that answered the question.

You have put other stuff out to? But we didn't go back and forth. If I have an opinion about a reporter kissing ass or kissing up or whatever, which, by the way, Ed Wurter saying something about the Texans, that's stupid. In defense of him, and we brought this up, Ed Warder was only getting the material that was given to him. Correct, which is the same thing that happens with Ian Rappaport. But Ian... And he's way more of a mouthpiece.

Ian presents it as gospel. I thought Warder said, from a Texan source. I don't remember that part. He did. He did. But he's a cowboys guy. But here we go. You engaged Tim Cabalcomi.

Well, Tim's had me blocked since like 2015. How do you engage someone than block? Unblocked me, you coward is what it says. That's what I did. I did tell him that. He's talking about Ethan Sherwood-Strauss' book about the warriors. You're calling Jeff Passen a simp. He is a simp.

Where are the lies? He said you haven't gone after anybody. This is a week ago. I haven't gone after anybody. That's just telling the truth. If I was going to go after Jeff Passen, I would get a lot more personal. I would talk about his small shoulder frame. I would talk about that he weighs 140 pounds.

soaking wet. I'll talk about the fact that he's a Yankees fan and isn't even close to hiding it. He photo bombed us when we were down in spring training. I saw that. He is a simp. Oh, here you go. You went after Mike Fires? Oh, really, Ross? Me and what, what, five or six million other people in the city? We're not talking about five or six million other people. You said you haven't gone after anybody since the pandemic. Again, and I'm proving it wrong. Again, what did I say to Mike Fires? Let's see. And tell me if it was any lies detected there. I'll back known cheaters over this.

You called him a freak chump. Have you seen his TikTok? Huh? Have you seen his TikTok video? Are you on TikTok? You still went after him. Yeah, well, he's Mike fires. Well, I'm just saying. Again, I'll stop you when I need to stop going after

whomever's on this list. So keep going. I didn't say you needed to stop going after anyone. You said I needed to be good. Oh, yes. This is way more entertaining than me being good. Here we go. Right on cue, the only thing worse than being Bill O'Brien's mouthpiece is

being Bill O'Brien's mouthpiece during a global pandemic. Yeah, which was redundant. All around suck here. Yeah. That's what you said. That's what Ian Rappaport. You went after Rappaport. So we got Rappaport.

The guy has a direct line. The guy has a direct line to Bill O'Brien's personal phone. It's not the point. And just, you just, whatever Bill O'Brien says. Let me tell you, I'm a fraud. Keep doing what you're doing. There you go. I say back back.

No, you don't, Ross. you enjoy it way too much. I bet you I could name at least two other people that I wouldn't, if I, quote, win after, you'd be very happy. And it would be very entertaining. As at 3 o'clock 7. What? You got time for it.

What's that? Whether or not I should do this. Keep doing this. Oh, no, we don't. I got Julian Morales coming up. It's frankly more important. Very busy. I see where my, it's not TV.

We had our breaks on time here on the show. The hell you do. We'll start at 305 today. See later. Adam Clinton. He's got a 35,000 Twitter party coming up, so make sure he'd be a part of that. Julian Morales is going to join us.

She's the opposite. I don't think she's ever got antagonistic with anybody on Twitter, right? In the history of Julianne-Morales? I don't think so. No. Kind, gentle, I don't think I'm a lot. Big fan of all things, Houston sports.

She also does jewelry, big with dogs. She's got 116,000 followers. Damn. You tell her to help you out. Because all I need is to ask for Bun B to do it. He'd get me to 30. But those people would follow me and then unfollow me right away. I don't think Bun B followers are much interested in what you have to say, man.

I'm sorry. Why? I'm a sports guy. Yeah, he's a rap legend. I'm a legend in some world. Just start tweeting out of Bunby and my lyrics. See if it works. Like, hey, Bon, you tweet me out.

And all I'll do is I'll tweet your lyrics for every. show promotion for the next two weeks. Hey, we owe you a story about a lawsuit. Tweet out his verse from murder and then Is it involved swear words? Is your Twitter fee PG? I don't ever swear on it. Well, I'll let you guess, Matt.

Do you think UGK's murder has swear words in it? I'm going to say yes. Yes, it does. All right, I owe you a lawsuit story, but I also owe you Julian Morales and she will join us here in a matter of moments. People we miss hearing from on the Matt Thomas show. right now a message for bronze roofing. I also owe you some good advice when it comes to taking care of your roof, especially if it's 15 years or older. And here's what you need to do. Get with bronze roofing. Have them come to your home today for a free inspection. Make sure everything is legit. The folks are easy to reach you at bronze. It's 281-480-9900. High winds, rain, which more is coming the next couple of days, falling debris. All that can cause damage to your roof that you can't see. And don't wait until your wife leaves and then climb up. the roof yourself. Skeeter Braun and his team will do it for free, but you have to make the phone

call first. 281-480-90-900. 281-480-9,900. Free estimates within 24 hours in most cases. No matter what kind of roof, bronze will have you covered. 281-480-9-0.000. Bronzeroofing.com. B-R-A-U-N-Srufing.com. bronze roofing.com. It is the Matt Thomas Show. It is 2 o'clock on Sports Talk 790, the final hour of the Matt Thomas show. We've had a lot of fun with our people we are mishearing from series. We've had local, national people on. We've had the likes of Craig Ackerman, Robert Ford.

We've had Jim Nance, Kevin Harlan. We had Kaylee Griffin on who travels me with the Rockets. Who else have we had? Bill Brown was on, and no list would be complete without our next guest. Our friend of the show normally joins us in spring training. We catch up with her during the course of the season. And now we just catch up with her doing live IG videos before Astro Classic games. Hi, Julia Morales, what's going on? Hi, I was going to, you know, get after you a little bit. But the intro was pretty good because you had Kaylee on first, which just means that you like Kaylee more than me.

And that happens fast. She's only been here like six months. Let me tell you. This is peeling back the curtain for the audience. She has been giving me such grief. What am I coming on your show? What am I coming on your show? And I'm like, okay.

All right. I'm going to just try to make amends here and put her on very first. So, yeah, first. And you guys are such great people. I've enjoyed, had a great experience with her. And you guys are really getting along well. And I loved your piece during the season when you were together at the Rockets game. So let me.

Let me ask you this. Have you mentally prepared yourself for maybe going to Arizona or maybe Florida or maybe in the state? I mean, how are you thinking about when and if this thing resumes where you're going to be for the next six months? You're asking about my mental space right now? Yes. It's all over the place. It's all over the place. I want to know what it is right now, right this exact second.

No, honestly, Matt, like I'm following just like everyone else, but, Obviously, you know, we're not getting any information. I mean, you know, it's like this is so different because MLB is obviously following what the CDC is saying. I mean, this is just so much bigger. So it's a very interesting situation we put in because it's not like you can call people that you know or your sources or people that you lean on for information. I'm weird. We just all feel like we're in the dark. And so I'm following this.

I'm obviously reading every single word that's written about baseball right now because it's not that much. But yeah, no, I'm following. And all of it's very interesting, how it pops up, who actually has the story, you know. And then MLBs actually followed up a few of these stories with their own statements, which is, you know, telling in some ways. So it's hard. It's hard to wrap your head around really any of them. You know, do you think about them? And you're like, okay.

And then you think of reasons why it won't work. And then you watch the news and you're all notes. So, yeah, my mental space all over the place. That answer pretty much covered how I'm feeling and thinking about anything that could be happening when it comes to Major League Baseball. Do I want it to come back? Oh, my gosh, Matt. I'm dying. I'm missing it like crazy.

It's like we did a meeting on a Zoom last night with our listeners, and we brought up the question of if the Rockets were to go to Vegas and everything was safe. I'm just throwing it as an example. Would you go on? I would say in a heartbeat because, A, it'll be the resumption of live games. but also, Julia, in our lives as broadcasters, we may never cover an event like this ever again where the epicenter of an entire league is in one city. It's going to be the weirdest. Whenever it returns, if it does, it'll be a weird experience.

So I've always said, as long as everything's healthy, because they're not going to send thousands of athletes somewhere if it's not completely 100% safe. They're just trying to do it from a economical standpoint in saving of travel. So that's why I would take the assignment in the heartbeat. I'm sure you would do the same thing. Yeah, no, I mean, it's all we know. It's our passion. It's what we love to do.

And so if there's baseball being played, I want to be calling it. You know, however that happens, again, there's so many scenarios that we could play out in our minds when it comes to that. But, no, I'm missing it like crazy. I'm missing, you know, it's just this time of year. You know, it's a fun time of year, the drafts is the NFL drafting talked about. And that's when it gets good. It's like the rockets are on the playoffs. The Astros are just getting warmed up.

You know, people are actually starting to hit. a little bit and feeling pretty good. The pitchers are feeling pretty good. You've got NFL talk, and it's just, it's this kind of year, and the sun goes down later. And for those of us who are baseball people, we're outside every night. You know what I mean? Not, you know, the roof is closed in Houston, but there's still this feeling of being outside, and then we go on the road, and I am missing sitting in my spot watching baseball

as the sun goes down. I mean, it's killing me that I'm sitting on my couch instead watching Netflix. So I'm not in a wonderful place when it comes all this. We're hanging in there. We're healthy, and that's obviously the most important, and I'm rooting for everyone that's working right now and keeping us all safe. But gosh, man, it's been hard. It's very hard. We just kind of have to take it one day at a time. I hated that cliche, Matt, but now here I am. Living my life that way. By the way, before we go any further, we have to give a shout out to Kevin Ashenfelder, who was one of our people we miss hearing from. He's listening to us right now going, I guess I wasn't memorable. Julia, tell the world how memorable Kevin Eshenfelder is to you. Oh, my gosh. Kevin, stop it, Kevin. Kevin's my favorite. We just spent the last hour, so on Zoom. We were practicing our Zoom so we can get ready to do some more content. I mean, you know, we miss each other, too. And I know that people are missing Astros baseball and they're wanting to see the shows that come with it. It's because we're a part of Astro's baseball or those that tune in every night. I'm missing Kevin. I'm missing T. K.K. and Blummer and our interactions that we have every day. and so it was good to hang out Kevin. Kevin is the absolute best.

And I'm surprised you didn't have him on first and Kaylee on before me. I feel like I'm dropping quickly on your list of people that you miss hearing from. Well, you know, we just, we had you on. I wanted to make sure because I want to get you guys at 18 to you doing a great job of doing these Instagram live videos. I actually tease Kaylee yesterday. He got Mike Dan Tony to do it. I don't even know if Mike Dan Tony knows what Instagram is, much less before going on video. yesterday. So that's the reason why I was teasing. He didn't. He did not. No, I thought that was

fantastic. And those are starting to come around too. You know, not everyone has Instagram. And so that's been a little bit of our behind, you know, it's like us trying to figure out them. We're trying to figure out ways to get the touch of these guys and then and then talk to them and then bring it to the fans and the people who would usually be tuned in every night. I have Best thing Garneau on tonight. I'm going to talk to Joe Smith on Thursday. So in our small way, you know, we wish we could be giving you the five hours of of content every night that we usually do on AT&T Sportsnet, but in our small way, we're trying,

you know, we're trying to bring you something to keep your mind off what's really happening in the real world. All right, I'm going to put you in a leadership spot in baseball, because we bring up this going to Arizona, going to Florida. I know Texas now might be considered as a place.

Let me ask you if Mike Trout came to you, Commissioner Morales, and said, look, I'm going to have a baby this year. I want to go be there. Are you going to put me in quarantine? I'm not going to be gone for two weeks. how do you answer that? How do you answer the criticism that some players are saying, Julia,

that they don't want to be away from their families for a lengthy period of time, especially some of the younger players who have maybe babies on the way? No, I know. And I don't want to answer that question. I don't make the money that brought the problem in for me. So let him answer it. But, you know, in all reality, I don't like it either. I don't like the idea of quarantine or any of it. So, no, all hard. All very, very hard. I mean, these ideas do get interesting as they come across, but gosh, the quarantine them from their own families just sound so crazy. I mean, these guys don't get enough time with their families.

You're going to take the little times they do have a way is really hard to imagine. So I don't want to say anything. I'm going to leave that up to Rob. All right. That's why it makes a big money. Tell me about your husband. What is he doing right now? He's working out at the moment.

Yeah, no, he's a professional athlete for those who don't know. he plays in the Mexican League and a couple of days after Major League baseball shut it down, so did the Mexican League. And it's the same scenario. There's things being talked about. There's dates being thrown out there. We're trying to keep up with Mexican League baseball news. It's hard when you're over here.

And my Spanish is not great. But, you know, it's for him in that pro-acist state of mind, it's just how ramps up or when does he ramp up and how, you know, as far as being at the top of your game in mid-season form, like he can't. can't do that. He doesn't have the ability to do that. I can't throw BP. I'm not playing catch with him. That's a frightening idea. Um, you know, and so he's a hitter that wants some timing down. So this is, it's hard on him. It's hard to know just how strong he needs to be at this point. How far out is the season. Can you imagine what pitchers are going through? Um, you know, this generation has no idea because they haven't done it before. Obviously, He's Stanton and he's gone through the strike And yeah, there's been scenarios that have been similar That from way back, you know

I mean, it's been a while of those So it's the mentality for my husband And what he needs to do to get himself prepared for a baseball season Gosh, I feel for him I mean, he's working out every day, He's doing what he can, but he feels like he should be doing more Or does he need to lay off? Is there going to be another two months? Gosh, you just keep going.

But he's good. He's home, which this is more time that we've had together consecutively than ever since we've been together for eight something, eight, nine years now. But yeah, we're enjoying that. We're doing some house projects and we haven't killed each other yet.

So we're doing pretty good. All right, there you go. Julia Morales from AT&T Sportsnet. How long do you think, realistic? Because you've talked to a lot of players, how long do these players need once there is a resumption? I mean, do you see expanded rosters? Do you see?

Because if everybody goes there, Arizona, people are going to get hurt, Julia. You can't use a minor league system to bring back players up because there's no minor league. So how do you think we should go, should we go 40-man rosters? Should we go 25, 30 days before the start of the season? Do you go to spring training? What do you envision once we get the all-clear at some point, if we do, of how this season even begins? It's an excellent question. And the baseball people I do keep in touch with, it sounds like, you know, they would be a few weeks, not a week, but a few weeks in order to get themselves prepared. And we're talking pitchers that need to build up, have they been throwing,

did they have the ability to get off the mound, all those things so important. And then, you know, once you do get going, if there's going to be less off days, I mean, we're going to be cranking out some games, I would assume, you know, trying to get as many in. And that's a scary thought. So that's where, at least that expanded rosters would be definitely something they have to talk about and think about just to be able to not, you know, to ease these guys. in, you know, we were all worried about the, the innings for the Astros and how are they going to

fill some of these guys that had left the team and a Garrett Cole and a Wade Miley and some some good quality innings. And we were thinking we'd lean on those middle inning guys, you know, and they didn't really have a ton of those. They had some good guys, some good options there. But gosh, I can't, I bet it's a lot more of that, you know, once the students are for every team, just to kind of piece it together in the very beginning. So, yeah, I see a few weeks. I would think, you know, that's what I'm hearing from other guys. Obviously, I don't know from, I've never had to prepare for a season, but that's what they're saying as far as just how they would feel good about being at the highest competitive level they can possibly be.

Remember this is that these are professional athletes. I mean, they compete at their best and which is the best in the world. I mean, they don't settle for anything left. So you can't just tell these guys to get on a field tomorrow. Let's just see how it goes. I mean, that's just how they think. It's not how Major League Baseball thinks. It's why it's the greatest game ever.

So, yeah, I think there's a lot of things you'd have to consider in order to keep guys safe in such a crazy time and uncertain time. Last question. And you may not know the answers because Kaylee didn't know this either at the time. Have the TV networks had any preliminary discussions of how to broadcast these games if they all want to go into one central location? Is there any been in any conversation of that? Are all these TV networks, especially the regional ones kind of just waiting to hear from the commissioner's office and say, yeah, start putting together a plan to start broadcasting these games. Yeah, I know we haven't, you know, as far as the network,

we're not hearing anything for Major League Baseball yet just because there's not a plan yet. But that's going to be, you know, obviously above my pay grade, but those people above me have been talking every day, communicating, coming up with their own ideas. You have to have so many plans. And hopefully one of them works out to where you're prepared in a way. And it's just a, there's so many different ways you can do it, right? As far as the PD world goes to, and I would bore a lot of people technically if I were to get into it to something like that.

But it is, it's also very unique if you were put everyone in the same area. I mean, it's just, there's a lot of people in Houston that do great work. And they would not be in Arizona's that's where you put them or the Florida's and what happens to them. So, you know, it's hard for me to even go down that path. I don't want to. I want to keep thinking and being off the. the stick that we're going to play baseball in Houston with my crew, the people who I love and who do such a great job on our broadcast.

But yeah, it's all up in the air still. People we miss hearing from, no doubt. It's our friend Julian Morales. Julia, thank you for the time until Matt we send our best. We're welcome. We look forward to seeing you guys broadcast very, very soon, whenever that may be. Yeah, same to you. Thank you.

I take care. It's Julian Morales from AT&T Sportsnet 214 is our time. The long-awaited lawsuit details informing a sports executive and the league he used to work for for a very short period of time. It's next at 2.14 on Sports Talk 790. Houston's official sports cliche translator.

I'm working hard. I'm trying to be a good teammate. I'm trying to go out here every day and do my job. Matt Thomas. Taking it one day at a time. There are a handful of differences we think make a lot of sense. We think we've seen.

taking this great game of professional football and made it just a little bit better with our innovations. Rossi, does that voice sound familiar to you? I would ask you to play it again. I wasn't prepared to do that. Okay, it's fine. No, I'll do it one more time. Matter of fact, I'll play even a 45-second soundbite, and you must get to this person once I play this 47-second soundbite. Pro ball college is being played at the highest possible level.

The athleticism, the strength and conditioning of these guys, the acrobatic nature of the game. It's all, you know, unbelievable, and it's elevated the entire game. So I say that because the players that are available to us are really talented guys. These are guys who are former first round picks by NFL teams who are college, all-Americans. And we marry that great talent pool with good coaching. We think we've got some great coaches, guys like, Kevin Gilbride here in New York, Bob Stoops, and others, you know, that gives us really a very good mixture that can lead us to play good football. And that's what I think the difference is going to be.

We've focused for the last two years really on quality football. That's ultimately what we need in order to succeed and build a strong foundation. That sounds like a man who's in charge of a football league. That is correct. Continue on. Maybe a man in charge of a recently folded football league. maybe the father of a recently retired quarterback. Yes, it's been an interesting year for the Luck family.

Maybe a former Houston O'Eler Great. Great's a relative term. Maybe a former Houston Dynamo Great. As far as executive. Sure, sure. Oliver's been on this show before, maybe a couple times, as a matter of fact. Multiple times. Glowingly.

In different capacity. He's had a different job every time. 80, Virginia, NCAA, NCAA, Dynamo, XFL. he's been there done that all. He loved him some XFL. Until the XFL declared bankruptcy enfolded and disbanded and will never come back.

Former Commissioner Oliver Luck has filed a lawsuit against Vince McMahon in federal court citing wrongful termination after McMahon's decision to shut out of the league. Court in the complaint filed last week in U.S. District Court, Luck received a termination letter on April the 9th.

A day before McMahon laid off most of the XFL staff in three days before the league filed for bankruptcy. Funny. In the complaint, Luck quote, holy disputes and rejects the allegations set forth in the termination letter and contends they are pretextual and devoid of merit. That's some lawyer speak if I've ever heard it. Here's a big lawyer word. Joe George, let's play. What does this word really mean?

Redacted. Oh, that means it's blacked out. Yeah. That's covered up. That's right. You win. Much of the lawsuit is redacted. We're just taking out.

Yeah, taking out for perfection. Citing confidentiality clauses in Lex Contract. He was hired in 2018 May for a deal reportedly worth approximately $20 million over its lifespan. That doesn't know if it's four years, five years, three years, but I'm assuming it's probably at least four or five. Probably. Locke was not listed among creditors in the XFL's bankruptcy filings, but the lawsuit alleges breach of contract. Wow. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, attorney's fees, and interest in a declaratory judgment on fulfilling the terms of the contract. Meanwhile, the law

firm that represents Vince McMahon says the following. Oliver Locks Service as commissioner and CEO of the XFL were terminated by a letter sent to him in April the 9th, which explained the reasons for his termination. As to the lawsuit he filed, his allegations will be disputed, and the position of Mr. McMahon will be set forth in our response to his lawsuit. So basically... I can't wait for this, because I have no idea how this got South so fast. Vince McMahon tried to pull a fast one. He said you're fired, then two days later filed for bankruptcy. That way he's not, he's going to try to get out of many millions of dollars that he's going to owe Oliver Luck.

Oliver Luck's team, as they said, wholly disputes and rejects the allegations in the termination letter. So apparently, maybe was Vince McMahon truly unhappy with what Oliver Luck was doing and wanted to fire him? Probably not. So you're trying to get out of millions of dollars? Yes. He sends a letter, says you're fired. That way he doesn't have to pay him all this money owes. And then, oh, by the way, the league is filing for bankruptcy. And now Oliver Lekka is filing for a lawsuit. I don't understand why they had to file for bankruptcy. Why did they just furlough everyone? Like, it's the... Because they don't want to give the appearance that they do want to return to play it. It sounds like Vince wanted no part of this coming back. I guess so. He just realized it was a terrible idea. He spent two... years planning the launch of the XFL for five weeks and then just gave up. Because here's the thing, guys, and I might be the minority on this, tell me that this

XFL would have been around for multiple years if not for the virus. We don't know that. No, I'm saying that. I think we would have got at least two seasons. But then why not just to suspend the league and say, hey, we will try this again when all when all is cleared. We put too much blood, sweat, and tears and dollars, frankly, behind this, not to at least give this a second go-around. As you said, they spent two years promoting this. They spent two years trying to fix the mistakes. They made the first go-around. They went and got

people that we recognize and had respect for. They went and got Oliver Luck, who has been a successful sports executive in the many places he's been the last 10 years. something's fishy on this. Because if Vince McMahon is telling the truth, and he wanted to fire him, did he get a blueprint of the paperwork and the dollars in the financial sheet of the XFL? And's like, this is a bloodbath. And you're fired because this is a bloodbath. Possibly.

I think to me is they lied to us pretty consistently for the better part of two plus years that the WWE had no stake in this company. they portrayed it as Vince McMahon owned the entire thing. And the bankruptcy showed that they owed the WWU own like 23 to 26% of the company. So I'm wondering if the stockholders of the WWE were like, you have to shut this down, man. Like the WWE is losing millions and millions of dollars. Now they're being sued in Florida by one of the wrestlers.

It's a disaster. So maybe they just said, you can't do this. You have to sell the XFL or we're going to push you out. Because the WWE has a very lucrative television contract with USA and with Fox. But they live for the LiveGate. They live for the T-shirt sales. They live for 18. I mean, WrestleMania, 60,000 people go to that.

That's all theirs. They live for the travel packages and the pay-per-view and the WW. I mean, why would anyone buy the WWU network right now? Now, granted, it's only $10 a month or whatever it is, but there were still a decent amount of people that would buy the pay-per-view because it was WrestleMania. Guys, I have a feeling when the dust settles on this, we're going to see, and I don't want to say money laundering. That'd be a bad term for it.

Because that'd be a legal activity. But are we Robin Peter to pay Paul? What is it? Robin Peter to pay Paul. There you go. And Peter's really pissed. And Oliver's pissed, too. I just don't understand.

understand how you're going to be able to go in front of a courtroom and show for cause termination. If, I mean, yeah, that's what, that's what's going to hang in the, that's what's basically going to happen. And I'm sure this will just probably just going to be settled at some point, right, if we had to guess. I'm guessing maybe there were some missteps that Oliver Luck had. Maybe there were some issues with the league at first. And maybe it would have survived. Maybe it wouldn't have.

We don't know. So then Vince McAnne says, these are the reasons why we don't think you did a good job. You're fired. But, oh, by the way, I mean, that's just... But he can look at ratings and ticket sales, and if they're not what the goal was at the outset of... That's what they're going to argue. The launch of the XFL, then by a standard, even if it's wrong, then Oliver Luck failed

his job. Operating cost can be way out of control, and you can fire a CEO over that. I mean, maybe he's blaming Oliver Luck on these contracts of why did you pay Bob stoop's a million dollars a year to coaching the XFL. This is why we're going bankrupt. If that's Vince McMahon's argument of why Oliver's getting fired because of this and because June Jones got all this money, Oliver might not see any of that.

I wonder if, I mean, there's going to be the argument from Oliver Luck. This is kind of dirty pool from Vince Young. I'm Vince Young. Vince McMahon to do this two days before the league is folding in its entire. I think there's going to be arguments on both sides. I bet you it gets settled for an undisclosed amount. Do we need to call the official legal expert of the Matt Thomas show? Who would that be?

Big angry, Charles Adams. Okay, sure. Let's see if we can get him on next because I'm very curious about the timing of this. And he might not have an answer to it. But you know what? The legal expert of the Matt Thomas show, Charles Adams, if you're listening, we need you next. 228 on Sports Talk 790. This is 790 baseball direct.

Direct from the ballpark To your radio Driven by Texas Direct Auto powered by Vroom All right Apparently our legal analyst is legaling I thought you were at first At first going to say Jim Adler on a mobile

Oh, that's tomorrow We have nothing booked for tomorrow Joe get to work I'm tired of booking guests like a mutter Me too I think I've done at least two in this last month It's a tireless work ethic that separates you from the rest of the people.

Thank you, Matt. It's because I just think you talking is way more compelling, Matt. Two, third, you know, we have not. We've only talked to like two or three people today. That may be the only listeners we have, but you know what? If you're out there, we can do a segment with just random questions coming from the audience, right? Okay. You feel like we should do an Ask SportsMT?

What are we going to ask you? Well, what are you getting started? Okay. What's the last time you went to the grocery store? Well, we need some Ask SportsMT&T music, by the way. Okay. 713-212-5-790 7-13-212-570

Joan says on Twitter shocking that a fake industry would do something dishonest in its dealings in other areas I feel like yeah Vince is sketch is sketchy at best I think it's a little sketchy

I think okay I think it could work maybe Vince had legitimate gripes and what this is what Oliver looks our side is probably going to argue if the league weren't folding because of the coronavirus pandemic, would you have

still fired him on April 9th? And that's where he has to have the evidence of... And the answer is probably going to be no. Right. In all honesty. Will Vince argue yes? Probably. He'll have to come up with an argument by then.

Yeah. No, is it written down and verified? That's a different situation. That's going to be definitely interesting to see the way that it turns out. Did we find these sports as sports MT music? We did not. Oh, okay. So, you know what?

We're working on. I'll put a song on my phone. No, don't do that. Do you want me to just hum something? Well, you have to ask the questions. What is this? I hear something in the background. I don't hear anything.

Okay. I think you're going crazy. Yeah, here we go. How about this? Well, this is good. It's time for this week's edition of Ask SportsMT, where you can ask me anything you want, whether it be sports leader or not,

and I'll give you the advice of a sage, seasoned, veteran, father, husband, leader. I'm a man, man, leader, but I'm not definitely not a follower. Ross, your question was? When's the last time you went to the grocery store and how did it go? And how many cooks did you steal? The answer is I stole zero.

The answer is I went a week ago Monday with my daughter. And we bought probably about $150 worth of stuff. My wife today got delivery service for the first time in quite some time. Oh, really? Our H.E.B.W. go to finally has slowed down enough where we had the curbside pickup. So she did the shopping today. Well, it wasn't delivery. It was pickup. Yeah, curbside pickup.

I just don't trust them to pick my produce. That's my only concern. That's my only hangar. Yeah, we bought strawberries, two packs, but they were already packaged inside. I'm very picky about my, I mean, sometimes, you know, you'll get berries and pineapples. I'm especially picky about. Yeah. So that's the only reservation I would have about the curbside pickup.

Joe, what do you got? Matt, if I was thinking about shaving my head, how often do I have to shave it? Excellent question, my friend. During a pandemic or not in pandemic time? I'm going to say non-pandemic. Non-pandemic time. Once every two weeks. Okay.

I'm once a week during normal times. Okay. So during pandemic, once every two weeks, non-pandemic, once a week. I think you should let that bad boy flow for a good, solid month. I'm rarely shaving, period. Like, I can go two weeks other shave on the face. Yeah. And sometimes it looks really good.

Sometimes I look like... How does the wife feel about it? She's mixed. Okay. on how many cocktails. What if she's had four cocktails? She loves it. Okay.

Three or less, not a big fish. What's your drinking choice? Hers? Yours. So, what's empty? Oh, I like beer. I love margaritas, although I have really, for the most part,

cut them out completely. Sugar. The sugar. So I'll drink a Mick Ultra. I'll drink any of the Coors lights. And if I really want a mix drink badly, I go for the gusto. I go for the Long Island iced tea.

What about a ice cold refreshing? Dosaki? Do secs? Sure, absolutely. What I don't? I don't drink bourbon, whiskey. What? I thought you said you were on Jameson cake for a little bit there.

The brown stuff? Brown liquor, yeah. I could. I do a little vodka once in a while. You said you were on a little jameson cake for a bit there. It's gone. I'm just not in big drinks. James is delicious.

I will drink vodka cranberries at the craps table. Yes, you will. Like a champ. And spill them on your shorts. A little bit. Because I'm raking all that money. and that's a reason why it is. It's been a good year for that.

It's not the violent throws of the dice. Correct. I was going to say the slamming of your hand after I throw a seven on the point. Mr. Seven here, constantly across my way. They call me seven out. 7.13, two, one, two, five, seven out. Johnny and Tomball, welcome to Ask SportsMT. What can I do for you today?

Yeah, I would like to know which appear sport I should play with my son as we go to the beach this week. Which sport he said? Which what sport? Beach. Beach sports? I would get a Nerf football and throw it around a little bit. Oh, good choice. I think Beach volleyball is also a good one. Yeah, but one-on-one is not fun beach volleyball.

Why not? A little back and forth? Beaches are open? Those rallies are very, very, yeah, in Florida they are. That's what you try to. He's called football. Well. No, but you play the game where you see how many you can hit in a row. Why you play Beach, how you get the nerve is because you can throw it a long way.

You can feel like a quasi-ethal. And if it hits a girl, especially attractive one, she won't get mad at you. She's going to get mad. You don't three? Why don't you? Because you do intentionally try to throw the football. You're trying to hit a woman in the back of the head in order to talk to her. It's the five yards short of the sand.

It rolls up right next to their beach time. Yeah, and you suck in your stomach when you go over there? Yes. She goes, excuse me. Puck your chest out. Sorry about that. So, yeah, I'd go with the Nerf football. Follow by beach volleyball, followed by Fris.

me, do not play baseball. See, but Beach volleyball, Matt. That's where you recruit her to play. You go over there and chat with him. Hey, we're looking for like two more for volleyball. You guys want to play or? Luser chugs their beer. Oh, you want to get on my shoulders? That's cool. You want to take your top off? Okay, that's fine.

Now this is get a little too much into fantasy, Matt. Patrick and Belair, welcome to Ask SportsMT. What's your question, please? Okay, so the neighbors and I, you know, we get the chairs and we're all six feet apart and being respectful and everything. I just wanted to know when discussion topics come up, is it okay if I talk about STDs or my syphilis that I've had in the past, or do you think that's going to be like a downer? I'll hang out. Yeah, thank you very much. I wouldn't bring that up at all. Yeah, I would only consult your physician about that. Yeah, STDs don't work around

neighborhoods, your employees, your employers, your wife, your mistress, or anyone. Just you and your doctor. That's the best advice I can give. STD conversation, you and a medical physician. That's why I'm here for you on these questions such as this. Tom and Spring on Ask SportsMT, what is your question, please? My question is, what do you think of MLB not refunding to the fans, their season ticket money? Interesting question. Yeah, there's a lawsuit, right?

There is a lawsuit filed on behalf of all, it's a class action, I think, on the behalf of all 30 teams. let me ask you this is the reason why they're doing that is because there is hope that they're going to at least try to have fans in the stadium that they have not officially canceled the season and not officially send we're sending teams Arizona that they're going to hold on to the money as long as possible

no my dad was told that his season tickets for the Cubs will just be rolled over to next year with a 5% interest rate hmm so I mean look is your dad mad or upset or indifferent I mean he's giving them up soon because they keep jacking up the prices, but he's not happy with the way it works because, you know, they make them pay for

like playoff games that literally don't happen. If the Astros or a team wins their division, you have to pay for a home wildcard game. And it just goes towards next season. You just have to pay for it still. It's dumb. Yeah, I don't know enough about that, to be honest with you. We'll have to ask our legal expert, Charles Adam. We're going to get Charles on a shuttimore. We got two things to ask about these lawsuits and what's going on on Vince McMahon. And more lawsuits. probably another lawsuit by then. One more. Ask SportsMT. Jamaica, what's your question, please? Yes. Mike, you know, so Mike?

I'm Matt, this is, for some of the way, I think Ross, I have to answer to this question. I've been on vacation. I'm my heavy equipment operator. I'm getting ready to go back to work, but I've been enjoying myself with a good high-grade hydro, some good weed. So where, so where can I, what place can I go to find something? because we get a random drug test equipment operations. It will come back. So I could pass my drug test. Oh, thank you for that.

Ask SportsRV. I don't know the answer to that. A lot of water. There you go. Ask Joe. A lot of water. And buy a lot of tests and just take as many as you can. I have.

But don't dilute your sample because then you fail. So there's a balance. Interesting. Good luck. I have been asked before, by you. by certain people to provide a sample in order for them to have a clean one.

That's a bold strategy. You can get somebody and then you could presumably tape it to your leg. By the way, you guys wanted me to get my Twitter account up so I can take you guys to base. So far since you started that campaign, I've lost a follower.

I gained one. I got Ken Hoffman to follow me finally. Oh, wow. I only saw him every day for like six months. I didn't follow me, but now he does. He does not follow me, I don't think, but that's okay. Come on. No, I don't need it.

I don't need it. I'm not here begging anybody to follow me. Yeah, but we want to have a 10,000 party for you. That's fine. So do I get a 5,000 party? Sure. Where are we going to party? We'll party at thresholds.

Where? On Zoom? Well, by the time you get to 10,000, hopefully the economy's open. Yeah. Well, how close are you? I'm at 96-something. Yeah, we got time. 9640.

I lost three yesterday. What did you tweet yesterday? I retweeted about the Monday night meeting. Oh, yikes. Yeah. Not popular. Yeah, by the way, a friend of ours the show says they have told,

the Asteros have told no one about their season ticket money yet. So the Asteros have been quiet on that point. It's interesting. Wrap it up in a minute 244 on the Matt Thomas show. This is Sports Talk 790. Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson here. You're listening to the Matt Thomas Show. on Sports Talk 790.

Matthew? I was going to be surprised until I saw Wex's treat. Well, thanks, I didn't know. Thanks, Wax. Thanks, Wax. Boo.

Ian Arapapour. With a T. Sources. Retired Patriots tight-in. Rob Grancowski has told New England that he's interested in playing football again and would want to do it with the Bucks and QB Tom Brady.

A trade would have to be worked out for this to happen. This is the official. Wait a minute. This is not going to work out. Because as Joe George knows, Grunk is the 24-7 champion in the WWE. He's way too committed to play football.

No chance. He'll do back. What is a 24-7 champion? The hell does that even mean? So, like, in theory, Ross, if you were the 24-7 champion, I could knock you out and pin you right now and take the belt. Like, I could be on the pot at my house, and if you show up and pin me, then you're the champ now.

In fact, champions have been on a run before. by their house and been pinned. Speaking, and we don't talk wrestling on the show very often. But I mean, outside of that, am I really kind of recognize,

who's, so there's the heavyweight champion? Let me just, first of all, there are way too many belts as most wrestling organizations have. If you don't, I mean,

if you don't have a belt, you must suck, or you must be not very marketable to the WWE. Secondly, I tried to watch an hour raw last night. It was awful.

Absolutely. brutal. They had a match involving most people I didn't. Usually the last hour raw is supposed to be the best hour. Did you see it last night, Joe? No, I haven't watched it since WrestleMania. There was a guy that was some Japanese wrestler. I didn't know who it was. Whoa. No, no, whoa about it. I'm just telling you, it's Japanese.

156 pounds. What's wrong with that? I don't need it. You need them at a certain weight? Well, yeah, because wrestlers are supposed to look a certain way. They're not supposed to look like wax? So you like them bigger and girthier? Well, I mean, I would think 215, 220 would be okay with some muscle definition. Okay. Not some boy band?

So you want big, ripped wrestlers who are going to be oiled up in their underwear rather than the smaller guys. There's no oiling up. Yeah, they oil up. When? Nobody oils up anymore. What? No. Have you seen macho man Randy Savage?

He's been dead for a decade. He's fine. I mean, fine, but you know what I'm saying. It's just a. absurd. Coming in at 6-2, 181 pounds. What's wrong with that? Go eat something.

Go put some blubber on. Something. You have a light heavy champion? They don't. They treat them like heavyweight. There's a Welfareweight. There's a WVE champion. He's listed at 156?

How do you know he's 156? The ring announcer announced him as much. So he's probably really like 145. I just, again, I don't need 400 pounds of blubber, like King Kong Bundy or one-man game. Okay. But at least look like that you look like a wrestler as compared to. You look like you should be on a skateboard. So Matt, his biggest problem is with tiny Japanese wrestlers.

Joe, do you agree or disagree? There should be at least 200 pounds per wrestler. I disagree. I like the cruiser weights. They're fun to watch. Snore. Now, the one woman that was a manager for all these guys was kind of hot. I don't know what her name was, but she was attractive.

That's out of here nor there. What are you laughing about? This is a great segment. It's not a great segment. I think it's amazing. This isn't a great lead for Wex and Client. No chance. It's more about Matt being upset about wrestling.

Let's get back to the headlines. All right. Rob Gruncowski coming back. That's what we're talking about. Yeah, so he's going to the Buccaneer, so what? What is he worth? Well, Marshawn, I was just reading Tweet. Marshawn Lynch, when he did this with the Seahawks was traded for,

a fifth and a sixth round pick to go to the Raiders. And I think Rob's got more in the tank, although Rob's got a greater injury history than Marshaun Lynch does. I mean, he's so, he looks tiny. And what's his contract? Yeah, and what leverage and what leverage, I guess the Raiders didn't have leverage. I'm sorry, the Seahawks didn't have leverage. I mean, I would give up like a third or a fourth.

Third? Really? To make Tom Brady happy? Or would you just, could you flip O.J. Howard and Gronk? Yeah, I mean, what do you get? O.J. Howard and Gronk. Why would they flip O.J. Howard? They just drafted him in the first round a couple years ago, right?

He's like their number two tight end right now anyway. Right? I mean, he's not even the guy who caught the most passes from Winston. Who is it, Cammer and Brate? Yeah. So trade OJ Howard and a seventh for a gronk? I'm sure the Patriots would take that. I think that's a great deal.

But why would the Bucks do that? Because you make Tom Brady happy. Screw him. You're already paying him all that money. He's your quarterback. You've got to make him happy. Yeah, okay. That's what good organizations do.

He's not going to play because Tom Gorris, what's he going to hold out because Rob Gruncowski's not on the team? Look, if Tom Brady was in Boston, he wouldn't be getting kicked out of parks. He got kicked out of a park yesterday in Tampa. That's true. Was that set up by his PR people? Oh, I bet it was. I mean, come on, Tom.

You've got all this new land. Don't you live at Jeter's house now? Yeah, there's got to be enough room to work out of Jeter's house. That's crazy. He doesn't have like a half of football field at his house? He's good. He did it for attention seeking purposes, for sure. Tom Brady?

When you guys listen to Adam and Adam, they're going to talk about the conversation that Greg Bishop put up in his article today on SI. I don't know if he'll play a couple minutes of our visit with him today. Greg Bishop, we had it from ASI. You were sleeping during that second. He was really, really good. I asked him a great question. What was it?

About the relationship with Bill O'Brien and how did it deteriorate? And he really didn't have the foundation of it. No, he did. I guess it's a big question is when did it ever, was it ever good? We'll never know the answer to that question. We will never know if it was ever good. Or how could something get surly so fast so early? We're talking about the A team?

No, well. Oh. That made him laugh. You did it. You got Wexel laugh. I love it. That is coming up. And then at 6 o'clock after that, it's the A-Team where he'll replay most of the interviews we had on the show today.

That'd be the nightcap. What is that what I call it? The 18 post game show. Hey, thank you to Julia Morales. Thank you to Greg Bishop. Thank you to Robert Covington. My good friend now, we call him Roco. Up next, Clanton and Wexer.

They are affectionately known as the A-Team. and they'll entertain you between now and 6 o'clock. I'm out. Talk to you guys tomorrow at 12 on Sports Talk 790.