The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show : Kevin Harlan, The Hub, and Bringing Baseball Back

Episode Date: March 25, 2020

The Matt Thomas Show with @SportsMT, @SportsRV and @ProNickLow 3/25/20How can we bring Baseball back? People We Miss Hearing From : Kevin HarlanMatt's going to call a basketball game tomorrow!Ozark Prob BetsPorn Hub is Free

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 12-0-3 at H-town. What's happening in lunchtimers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show. It's Tuesday, right? Wednesday.

Is it really Wednesday? The week is just flying by for you, Maddie. All right. A Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show. alongside Niccolo, Rossville, Oriana. I'm Matt Thomas. Hope you guys are in a decent mood. For anybody to say they're in a good mood right now would be just false.

I'll take decent today. Definitely nobody's in a normal mood. You can be in a good mood. I'm going to be in a good mood. I'm fine. Yeah, I guess every single day that we go and we're not affected personally by this, it's a good day, right? Correct.

While we pray and hope that those that are affected by it, certainly get the needed help that will help them care of this. I feel like sports is getting a little aggressive here in the last 24 hours. Explain. I'm glad you asked. Mark Cuban said we'd like to get, he's putting the under on a June 1st start date of resumption. Really? Again, there's no proof of anything.

It's just a guess in his part, but it's aggressive. The NFL has said that the draft is going to be. on April 23rd of the 25th. A lot of general managers are not happy about this because they have not had a chance to talk with these people for psychological testing, the physicals, that kind of thing. And the NFL is like, sorry, no. Well, this is good. This should even the playing field for teams that don't draft as well.

So good on the Texans. And then Major League Baseball within the last 24 hours has been talking about they're going to do everything within their power, so to speak, to get to 162 games. I, hmm, hmm. Yeah, that's That's why I said, I feel like sports is an aggressive. Optimistic. I don't know.

I think baseball playing 162 is flat out aggressive. Yeah. And optimistic. Yeah. Oh, I don't know why that phone line jumped in so quick. We'll get to you in a second, Richard. I promise. So what was I going?

Oh, so baseball has said that, you know, Jeff Passon, our buddy, close front of the show, said that it may more than likely maybe July starts the baseball season that go into end October and that there could be a lot of double-hutters Wow

Because I want to get a full 162 But it's not just Honestly, it's not just the owners There's a player contingent out there Because you know what they want? Full paychecks Yes

Do you ever notice No matter what tragedy happens in sports in life. And this coronavirus thing, Rossi, this might be the greatest pandemic that we ever have to deal with in our lives. Hopefully. I mean, if this is the worst, we're living in right now. Well, we've been through SARS and swine flu and some other ones that are probably escaping me right now. But this has been the worst one.

I mean, H1N1 probably was the one up until this point. while the sentiment is consistent with all these sports organizations, we got to be clean, we got to be careful, we don't want to put our players in harm's way. We need to get back on the field, which we do appreciate. There's also we need to get back on the field because there needs to be revenue made. Yeah, we always like to joke about how sports is about, it's about the competition, and it's about legacies,

and it's about greatness, and it's about pitting yourself against the other guy in a contest of wills. That's about money. And it's also about service time. Oh, that's true. Because players get fully vested after 10 years of major league service time, meaning every day in the calendar that you're on an active 25-man roster, it goes towards your service time.

And I don't want to get too much in the semantics of it, but there are guys, especially in years 8, 9, and 10 of their career close to it that watch it service time calendar every day because they know they're going to get full pensions once they clear 10 years. And so I think there's a little bit of the, well, if I play a full season, but the full season is only 125 games. Does that count as a full year of service time when a normal service time is 162?

There's probably some kind of cutoff of what counts as a year of service time, right? I don't know. I don't have to answer that question. But I think everything is based off of a every day off of a 162 schedule. Do you get more points because you're part of 130 game schedule if you're on the roster?

I'm presuming what they want is you play 130 if there's 130 game schedule, you should get a full year of service time. This says a player is deemed to have reached one year. This is from MLD.com, one year of Major League service upon accruing 172 days in any given year. Meaning off days and games play. Right.

172 days. So there wouldn't be 172 games days. So it's just short of six months. If you were to shrink in the schedule. Isn't the season only like 184 days or something like that? It changes because of off days. They've added a few more. but that's what they're kind of fighting through right now and fighting is maybe a strong term they just want

if i guess what the player association is saying is if you're going to shorten the season every day that a guy is on a roster should count more yeah towards the service time proportionate i don't know i don't understand why there would be no reason for major league baseball to disagree with that no and but that is a holding uh that's holding things up right now really yeah well i'm sure what are the owners are saying no If you play the whole, if I play 162 games, I don't get your service time or something, it's crazy. It's major league baseball. It's also, you know, it's the, when you put a guy on full pension for the rest of their lives, Ross, that's a pretty big financial push for that group. Yeah, but they got to be smart about this. I'm sure, though.

They will. I think it'll be, it will be figured out somehow, some way. But I do believe it's not coincidental that they are trying to get as many games in as possible. So they don't have to worry about a fair equation to that. But again, This is a lot of us over our heads, and a lot of it is semantics, and a lot of it is about people's finances as compared to just having the games back. And we will open them up and look forward to that. And I'm telling you, Ross, I don't, I have no foundation for this, but you have to think that television ratings for anything that starts up whenever it does is going to blow the roof off of previous records.

Especially if we're all still in, what does it, stay at homes? work at home or whatever, Sylvester Turner called it. Stay cool, stay warm. Stop drop and roll. High five. No more high fives? Elbow bumping daily. Don't high five stay alive. Yeah. No high five but stay alive. By the way, I was never a high five person to begin with. You weren't. You know, I've been consistent with that. Yeah, that's true. I've always been fist bump. And I kind of miss the fist bump.

Well, I mean, can you still not do that? Is that still against the social distance rules? No, people are doing elbow to elbow. And it looks stupid. It looks like we're doing a bad chicken. Foot to foot. Like some kind of, like we're some kind of Russian dance troop. I'm not going to play footsies with you. I didn't ask you. Well,

you do daily. Matt's always kicking me in the foot and here in the studio. Like Nick, should I come in every day and give you a little bump just kind of welcome you the day? See how things are going? No, I'm good. Okay.

Yeah, sometimes maybe you don't have to have any sort of interaction. You know, athletes hug each other a lot. That's true. You also slap each other on the butt. You know, Matt, I've been told I'm a great huger. So I do miss doling out hugs. Can I ask who? Not to you.

Can I ask who thinks you're a great hugger? My grandma. She's the only person. You're not allowed to hug your grandma right now. No, I haven't seen her. So, Nick, do you hear the proclamation that Ross just said? He's a fantastic hugger. I said, give me evidence.

My grandma. I mean, is that a ringing endorsement? That's like asking your parents, am I good looking kid? Of course they're going to say yes. I can't imagine grandma, Ma Villarreal, says that my grandson, Ross, is a terrible hugger. I've got other answers. I'm just keeping it to myself. Have you seen all these videos of people visiting their parents and grandparents? And it's just them like waving through the window. Yes. It's like going to an aquarium. Yeah. It's like they're visiting their parents and grandparents. Well, how about the guy that's been married for 60 years? His wife has Alzheimer's and she's in an assisted living home and they were going to try to celebrate their anniversary and he couldn't because he was not a lot inside.

Well, thanks, Matt. I want you just rip all of our hearts out right now. But I think I'm going along with what he just said. How about, you know what happened yesterday in the neighborhood? My daughter, who goes in the sixth grade, you junior high now, or they call it middle school, whatever. All the teachers from the local elementary school started a car parade where they were in their own cars. They missed their kids. So they came to the neighborhood. Oh, no, it was really nice. It was really sweet.

Why is it terrible? I don't know. Get a life teachers. No, the teachers miss their kids. So they all got in their own cars. They don't miss all their kids. Trust me. They honked.

No, I'm telling you. It was really nice. Just because you're a curmudgeon, you know, non-suburbian dude. I get it. Yeah, okay. So, yeah, all the, everybody came outside, stayed in their homes, social distance, didn't walk cross street, stayed on front of their driveways, wave of the teachers. It was really nice.

Cool. I don't believe you. Believe that for a second. I wouldn't have come outside when I was good. Let me take something. These, and I don't mean to speak in generalization. but I think kids miss school. I think they're cooped up.

I think cabin fever is hitting the children. Cabin fever is hitting sports. It's hitting the parents. And it's definitely hitting the parents. Just send them out to the woods for a few hours. I have told some very influential people within the last six hours that as soon as Lake Charles opens up, you and I are getting in the car and going. If it opens up on a Tuesday, we're done at 3 o'clock. We will be in the car at 301 to arrive at Lake Charles at 5.

I will try to get to Lake Charles but four or five o'clock. Can I wear like rubber gloves when I touch the chips? I don't know. I mean, that's great question. That's the thing. I mean, as far as spread a disease, casino's got to be one of the worst places. You're all touching each other's money. You're all touching each other's chips.

The waitresses are dropping you off cups and glasses. You're in close quarters, so you can, I mean, you can't social distance at a craps table unless you only have maybe, what, what, three people there, Max? God, you are, you have Debbie down the end of this first segment. Sorry. Sorry, folks. Ross and I are not going to like Charles. Tell us more about the couple with the guy has Alzheimer's and they can't be together on their anniversary. That'll lift us up, Matt.

But at least she waved to him. How am I the most positive person on this show right now? Something has gone very haywire with this segment. I'm going to suspend myself and suspend Ross. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach our program. 7-13-212-5-7-90. An awesome guest at 1 o'clock today. the great Kevin Harlan from TNT and CBS.

People we miss hearing from. We miss hearing from one of the great broadcasters in today. He'll join us in 45 minutes on Sports Talk 790. The pandemic continues. The no damn sports pandemic. I'm not leaving my house. Luckily, the most infectious lineup in Houston sports continues. Now.

Peers masked, rubber glove, but still Jesus sandaled, Matt Thomas. Sanitized. those toes, would you? You don't know where they've been. I don't know. We've got a bunch of those all day. No. We're just going through our few technical issues here. Okay.

I hear you've been out on the microphone. Yeah, I'm not... There you are. Here I am. That was weird. Yeah. By the way, ESPN is trying... And failing.

They're trying to create this poll of the greatest college basketball player ever. and it's fine. But Brianna Stewart being number one in one of the regions is a joke. Matt, you are very sexist and that is unfortunate that you would not recognize the women's game has been around for many years and the years are very talented young ladies. And Brianna Stewart is one of the greatest college basketball players of all time. That is correct. What you just said is 100% applicable.

And then you've got... I choose to include. Shaquille O'Neal beating Lou Alcinder I'm trying to get the bracket up because if that's right I'm just going to I'm going to blow a gasket I think No you don't have to worry about this You have to you have to

Understand that this is America 20 year olds voting for this There's nobody There's nobody at 26 years old That's going to do the research to see how great Lou El Cinder Was as a college basketball player I didn't watch Lou Al Cinder playing college But I'm not an idiot

And I know he's one of the most dominant college forces ever and Shaq played what, one, two years at LSU? Mm-hmm. Come on, man. No, what they're trying to do is trying to generate content, and that's fine. It's working. It's like Liss Radio. But when Maya Moore, I mean, you know, Maya Moore was on there.

She got beaten by Stephen Curry. Okay. Maya Moore versus Stephen Curry. I mean, did they really think Maya was going to beat Steph Curry on this? I couldn't even tell you one amazing thing that Steph Curry did at Davidson, except I was to shoot the basketball very well. Yeah, he was great. And I, well, remember he made that, they made that tournament run where he was dropping 40 and stuff like that. And I remember being like, wow, he's a great shooter, but I don't think he's athletic enough to make it in the NBA.

Well, that's why you're not an NBA analyst. Thank goodness. Because I had that one pegged. Did you? I remember saying multiple times, this Steph Curry kid. Oh, get out of here. It's going to be really good. It is the bad top of show on Sports Talk 790.

Our good friend, I can say good friend, because he's always very nice to me. Now, do we break bread together? No, should we? Yes. Kevin Harlan's going to join us at 1 o'clock today from CBS and from T&T. Wonderful. You talk about it, you know, we're all going through kind of the culture shock of not living normal lives here. You know, he lives out of a suitcase probably five days a week this time of year between the NBA and the college basketball.

He went from five to six days a week out of a suitcase to zero. Wonder how he's doing? I'm sure he's very rested. We'll find out. Yeah. I'm sure he'll be in full throat when he joins us at 1 o'clock. That's a broadcasting term. Okay.

You've never been to full throat? Never been full throat. No, Matt. Okay. Google searching full... No, don't do that. No, no, no, no, no. Especially on a computer here at the station.

Your own personal phone, go for it. Kimba Walker and DeWay... I guess Kimba was pretty good at you, Con. Do you have the full bracket in front of you? I'm trying to find it, and it's only in pieces. Yeah, I can't find it either. I've been looking for the last 10 minutes. It's making me upset.

Not only is ESPN now doesn't have a decent. bracket, but they're making you go to 50,000 pages to find it. Shaq's first round matchup was Sue Bird. And so he beat Sue Bird and then he beat Lou Alcender. That's ridiculous. That's Shaq fans, Ross. That's what that is. That's not anybody that did any homework.

Well, this bracket is shacked and a fool. Let me tell you that. It's probably the correct and true answer is probably Lou Alcender, maybe Bill Walton. So it's an all UCLA bracket then. I mean, who else are we going to throw in there? Christian Leitner? I mean, there's a lot of great college basketball players.

Pete Marevich, Elvin Hayes. Yeah. Half the Duke players were all great college players. Lou El Sender was three times, well, you know, a cream of Duba, of course, three times consensus first team All-American, three times national college player of the year, and three times an NCAA champion.

In those years, freshmen didn't play. But not as cool. Shack, and not on television three days a week. Three championships, three player of the years, three first team all Americans, case closed. And everyone picking the draft. Yeah. He lost his shack. This bracket is a fraud, Matt.

It's a travesty against humanity. I mean, we could do a real bracket. We could. But it's not going to be on something that I'm going to let generational. I'm not going to put something that was really cool in 1973 against something that was cool in 2010, because no matter what it is, 2010 would win. And then you're going to overrate non-year-old. Descript five Slamma Jama players.

I don't even want you to utter the words five Slamma Jemma until we get back to live basketball again. Sorry. Is it still hurting because they're putting on TV every 48 hours? Because my guess is this weekend, it was like CBS, we got good ratings in the North Carolina City, Houston. Let's put it out again. Or let's put it on the Georgetown one.

We didn't even chant. I don't think we were even close in that game. It was a dominant Georgetown team, Matt. And that's why 1994 felt so good to us because Elijah won finally got the best in Ewing. on that one. It's true. In a seven-game series.

One for the ages. By the way, did you see that, I don't know who wrote it, but somebody had a tweet out and said, hey, if you really want to do some old-school television of old games, split Game 5 Rockets Knicks at Madison Square Garden with the OJ Chase. It was going out the exact same time. Put them on at the same time. Just like they did back in 1994. I mean, the chase was just him going 20 miles an hour in a Bronx.

right? It wasn't that thrilling. Well, no, the chase itself wasn't throwing. It was... There's a guy in a Bronco? And it's O.J. Simpson? And he is on a slow speed chase throughout all Los Angeles and a car? Yeah, and who was his friend that was in there with him? Al Cowlings.

Yeah, Al Cowlings. If it had happened today, we would have at least had some drones flying next to the Bronco so we could see him with the gun to his head or whatever. Oh, geez. That would have made a little more interesting. No, they still pretty much do high-speed chases the same. these days. You know, it's crazy. We bring up OJ, and I've mentioned a couple times. I had mono in 1994. And you were going to the, you were spreading it everywhere at the movie theater.

95, not in spread, no. You went to the movie theater, didn't you? At the very end. And no one from that movie theater caught it. You don't know that. I do. I asked ahead of time. No, you didn't. But I, I listened to two songs that entire summer, because they were the only two songs that were on the radio at that time. And I watched the OJ trial day after day after day. The two songs were hold my hand by hooting the blowfish. And that one hit wonder, you know that song, I know what you're doing, baby. I know what you do. Oh, yeah, that woman. Yeah. Sheutsever is a great song. But those two songs were on every radio station, even country stations put them on because they're just like, no else, nobody else listening to anything but these two songs. And I would listen to

those two, and I would get pizza delivered to my apartment, and I would watch the OJ trial. That's how I spent my monolum. That's what that is. We are in 2010. We're all living mononucleosis lives. Yeah, we're in quarantine. We're basically in a, well, obviously, mono's a little bit different because they really, really don't want you leaving the house under any circumstance.

Oh, God, Chris Gordy's weighing in. Shack is the greatest of all time. Did he even want a national championship there? Did he even 10 class? Well, we know that answer to that. Even LSU grads don't attend class over there. All their athletes, 70% of their athletes, when we find them on, believe it or not, their major was general studies. Does LSU even get accreditation?

Is it just like, you know, again, I don't know. Actually, I shouldn't tease about LH because my son wanted to go to LSU. I just was not going to pay $25,000 a year more for out-of-state tuition. And you also shouldn't tease about Shaq not going to class when U of H got dinged for their players getting their test. taken for him. I don't remember that. It happened. No. Recently. Not recently at all. Yeah, they had to vacate some wins. Maybe once by accident, but

nothing of a regular basis. They vacated wins at U of H because people were taking their tests. All right. Major League Baseball has a plan in place for when the season resumes. And again, they're being very aggressive. They want as many games as possible. Details on that next 1228 on Sports Talk 790.

Hi, this is former running back of Herschel Walker. You're listening to Matt Thomas on the Sports Talk 790. What's your thought on hooting and a blowfish? I saw them this summer at Cynthia Woods. They got a fair number of hits. Was it all of them? Yeah, it was a reunion tour. Didn't that guy get mad when they call him hooty?

No, because the name of the band's hooting the bullfish. No, I think it was Gordy or somebody was talking about that. Apparently he doesn't like being called hooty. even though he was the front man of Hooty and the Blow Fish. Darius Rucker. We're supposed to call him Darius. I've interviewed Darius Rucker before. That's right.

At the Super Bowl in Minneapolis. No, when I was in Minneapolis, we were in Phoenix and he was on. Did it over the phone. It was kind of weird. But that's not under here nor there. I remember that. How can you remember? We weren't working together.

No. Didn't you had him on in Super Bowl recently? Was it with you? I thought it was what I was in Minneapolis when I had him on. Are you sure it wasn't Minneapolis in the Super Bowl? I don't know, whatever. Point being is, this song got me through mono.

Darius Rucker has definitely been over the phone while I've been producing. Maybe it wasn't you, maybe it was somebody else. Rate this song one to ten very quickly. This song? This is an eight. Three. An eight? Very catchy.

Now, I give it four. An eight. Gosh, you were so screwed up in the head, Matt. This is my favorite. Who do you song and I didn't close? The rest of them just, you know. Okay. They only had like two hits.

That's not true at all. Yeah, they had a lot of hit. A lot of hits. Let her cry. I only want to be with you. And then that wagon wheel song. Old man and me. Yeah.

Time. Yeah, they did okay. These are all top 40 hits, by the way. Tuckerstown, never heard of that, but it was a 38. All right, let's get to baseball. And then they steeply dropped off a cliff. Then they broke up. He went became a country singer.

It did okay for himself. Then he ripped off wagon wheel. Who sang a wagon wheel originally? I don't remember, but he ripped it off. It's way more popular now. It's like Brooks and Dunn, My Maria, was a cover of somebody else's song. And their song became much more popular than original version. Well, we've done a whole Fantasy 5 on remakes.

Did I win that one? You didn't. I think you picked that one, too. And I think I chose Ross because that one was so much like the original. I think that's what actually lost it for you. Yeah, that's right. We came down to the final one, and then Nick chose against you. Why we allow you to get a vote is beyond me.

The man's got good discerning taste. He gave you a pity vote in the 90s thing, so that was good from you, Nick. I was on board with that as well. All right, let's get to the baseball changes. I toss my bone every now and then. All right. Y'all want to have your own podcast.

Go ahead. I'm going to start talking with this baseball thing here. Major League Baseball says they'd like to later start of the season. Perhaps June would be ambitious, more likely July. They're going to need more time to get ready for the season than say an NBA player because just, you know, building arm strength, getting at bats, live action, getting field. I mean, it's going to take a while. They're thinking July, specifically around the All-Star game in Los Angeles, a potentially

powerful way to kick off the season. You want to start the season off of the All-Star game? That seems a little peculiar. Hmm. Okay. If they started any earlier, then it would complicate the All-Star game because you wouldn't want to have 15 games and then say, all right, well, here's the best of 15. We're going to name to the All-Star team.

That's what I'm saying. You know, we've got to get rid of All-Star games this year. We just do. They're all gone? Well, there's only really one in play at this point. It's the M-LB. Games in front of no fans. Now, obviously, the players want fans, the owners want fans.

Don't look at this. I want you to see if you're going to go. I'm not looking. But we're going to go guessing game. What percentage do you think of the revenue in Major League Baseball comes from gates, meaning people that actually go through the stands and go. I guess 10. I'll go 18. 30%.

Really? I still think that's kind of low. Only 30%. Well, you know what? Because it's, no. Yeah, because it's 30, because it's, I would have thought it would be lower because for NBA, it is like 22%. See, that's the thing is I must have underestimated how much gate does play.

Would you think it was like 50? I was thinking closer to 50. Okay. But then you realize these crazy television contracts that all these. leagues get that maybe it does make sense that it's only a low number. You did the television contract. Well, it's a little higher in baseball than it is in other sports because there are so many games. And that's a reason why, while they would love for you to go to games, you being the fans out there,

it's not the end all. 30% is significant, though. Obviously, if it's way more than the NBA. That's way higher than I thought it was going to be because I thought TV deals and advertising and merchandising would take up like 90%. widespread adoption of social distancing could cut into the number of fans that are 10 games. Now, I could see this, lending some fans in, but sectioning off that group. You know, if you buy tickets through section, let's say you're in row D of a game, seats one and four,

maybe you don't, maybe the next set of seats that are available would be in row F. I could see six feet. I could see crowds of, you know, the minute made seats 40,000. see 15,000 max at a game? What if you want to sit with their wife? Can you be with a couple? I'm thinking, yeah, you buy them in groups of whatever you want to buy them in probably less than 10. And then you separate, you make sure the next set of fans are no more than six feet away. Now, granted, just because you do that doesn't necessarily mean people will sit in there assigned seats.

And then you've got to have security guards going, well, yeah, let me get a measuring stick out here. Yeah, what about the guys in 400s who sneak down to the 100s? It's like me. You can't do that anymore. honest feeling is probably they probably don't even sell those seats. Oh, yeah. I could, could you, I mean, let me have to throw this out there. Could you see Major League Baseball Stadium's capping off at a max of 15,000 people per game with social distancing aspects into it?

Even 15,000 is, I mean, that's too much. Too many. Because here's the thing. If it counts for 30%, and most of it, again, is revenue that's based on corporate dollars in television. If you get any of that 30% back, that's sort of a win-win. Right? I guess. Okay, so let's say you did 10,000. Could you put, would 10,000 people be too many people in a stadium?

And don't forget all the missed revenue from concessions and the 50-50 pool. Although I guess that I don't know. 50-50 pool is not that big of a deal. No, I think the gate revenues, does that include concessions in parking? I would think so, yeah. Okay. So let me go for a few more things. Here's things that are also considering games at neutral sites,

and that would include regular season games, meaning that areas in the country that have lower COVID numbers. Because for instance, as I talked about on the show yesterday, do you think there should be a baseball game played in the state of New York at any point this year? Probably not. I mean, if New York is as widespread and it's been reported, even if things slow down,

you're still looking at a very heavily populated area with an outbreak more than anybody else, why would you dare put anybody at Yankee Stadium or at City Field? It just wouldn't make any sense. So do the Yankees just either play no games in front of a crowd or do they neutral sight them so they can get some game? Like if you put the Mets and Yankees this season, and this sounds crazy,

but what if you put them in an area of the country that doesn't have Major League Baseball for a year? Let's say you put them in Richmond, Virginia, or you put them in Charlotte. They're AAA ballparks there. Okay. We'll put the Astros at Dell Diamond. Well, if Texas is not deemed an area that's got a high population of COVID cases,

then maybe then you can... That's what they're saying. They're saying neutral-site games for places, like Seattle. In all reality, shouldn't play a game this year. First of all, nobody goes to a Mariners to begin with. But if Washington is one of the worst states, California can be put in play on this. Yeah, but I mean, doesn't it seem, I mean, that's somewhat of an oversimplification.

If there isn't cases in Texas say, okay, go ahead and have these big gatherings and there's going to be a ton of cases in Texas. Let me read you to. Let me read you what they're saying. While both sides would prefer games with crowds, an estimated 30% of revenue comes from gate receipts, they recognize that health officials might quash such an idea depending on the severity of outbreaks. Even during the regular season, teams in metropolitan areas with the highest prevalence of COVID-19 could play games at spring training facilities if outbreaks aren't quelled.

I think they should do that for everybody. Have an entire season down in spring training. I don't know. I don't think the scenario is easy to say, well, we can't have it in New York, but let's go ahead and do it in Texas. And then a bunch of people in Texas get infected because you're having large gatherings of people. That doesn't make sense to me. Is it better to play all the games in New York? Just go ahead and they'll just keep getting it.

A hot spot, just let it keep getting hot or keep them all there. Played like the softball diamonds down there or what? A short and spring training. Duh. Carrying extra players. Yeah. A transaction freeze. If an agreement has reached, teams could adopt an embargo on signings and trades, meaning that you're not going to all of a sudden try to improve.

There will not be a trade deadline this year. Why not? Explain that one to me. I don't know. I'm sure they thought about it. I'm sure there's a reason for it. I just don't know what it is either. But my guess is that they just don't want.

anything. They're trying to keep the season as organic as possible knowing that it's not going to be. And a signing freeze? I mean, what if somebody gets hurt and you want to pick up some pitcher who, some veteran pitcher who hasn't landed with the team yet? They may force you to stay out with a 40-man roster this year.

I mean, if this thing is still going around as much as it would need to be for them to consider taking any of these steps, isn't it going around too much for them to even consider playing a game in more rural rural areas because you're going to lead to an outbreak in an area that hasn't had one yet? I just, my feeling is we're not playing games in front of people.

And if we are, it's going to be a very small group. But the question then is, do you open up Minutemade Park for 3,000 people? What number seems okay? Because if any of those 3,000 people get the coronavirus, then we're all in trouble. According to the government, 10 people. These are strange times. Yeah, you got nine on the field already. plus a batter

and the umpire oh no oh geez we're at like 13 well I'm going to presume that nobody's coming back to play they're social distanced the left fielder and the right fielder depending on how the shift is

oh yeah yeah no shifting because of social distance right they're not going to be able to use the dugouts they're going to have to sit in the stands no no I would think that if we're playing live baseball again there's going to be a little

not a little relaxing there's going to be pretty big relaxing of the social distancing rules and grouping people together. What I just described to you is probably the reason why we shouldn't have baseball or basketball this rest this year. Jeez, yeah.

But I don't want to think about that. 1245 is our time. Kevin Harland, in 15 minutes, it's the Matt Thomas show at 713-212-5-790. I'll throw a baseball question on it you real quick because we do have baseball fans listening. How hard would you fight for a ticket if every game at Men at May Park,

provided there were games at Men in May Park this year, or capped out at 5,000 people. Would it be a hot ticket? Would you want that ticket? What's going to happen in the press box? Once every third seat? No, we'll do on deck and tent inning from here. No, I mean like people in the press box who have to cover the games.

Let's let them worry about it. Okay. Just asking. Media people are people too, Matt. Some of them. Some of them I wouldn't mind. Jeff Passon says hello. Yeah, whatever.

If I gave you, if there were 5,000 tickets, how bad would you want to go to a game if there were 5,000 seats available per game? Just for this year. Why should it be more, I mean, why should you want to go worse, more or less than you normally would? No, I mean, that's necessarily a question of more or less. Would you do it? Would you do it at all?

How about they do cap it at 5,000 and triple the price of tickets? No, no, no, they wouldn't do that. Why not? Then it's like you sold 15,000. Boom. That's, that's basic economics, man. That's ridiculous amounts of tremendous greed. Supply and demand.

If I'm going to, simple father question, 5,000 tickets were available for you to purchase to a game at regular prices. Would you go? 713212.579. Frequent hand washing, face mask and toilet paper shortages, and no fucking sports. We have to quarantine ourselves. Strange times, brother. Strange times.

Call for strange sports conversations. Jump on in the freaky pool. Sports Talk 790. So if there were 5,000 tickets, let's put this in perspective here. And again, Kevin Harlan's going to join us in 10 minutes. You separate by rows? Is that six feet enough? That's actually not enough.

Row one to row three would not be six feet. You would have to make basically diamonds or something. Or triangles. Everybody would have to be equidistant via some kind of triangles. How peculiar would that be to see on television? Like at least two rows up and one seat over or something like that. You'd have to tape off. It'll almost be like a pattern.

Yeah, I don't know if you tape them off or what. Like row one. I mean, there's ushers in every section. They usually just kind of don't care and look and watch the game. They would just have to be, right, keeping an eye on everybody. I don't think it would be too much of an issue as far as people switching seats or anything like that. Do you tape off seats, I guess? Yeah.

You sell, you think, okay, this is what people actually in serious. That's a lot of work, though. I mean, how many hours is it's going to? going to take to tape off every seat. I think you would just have the ushers there to monitor it. So roll one, then you skip to row five. That's six feet, right? More than that. Yeah. I think two rows would be enough. I don't know. Do lower level only. You don't do the suites. You don't do the upper level. And you put 5,000 people in. Okay. And you close off entrances that would take you upstairs.

Could you sell the suites to groups of less than 10? No. Oh, you would think so. Why not? I don't know. I don't think sweet sells. What about when you're in line trying to get a dog and some share of Blaylock nachos? You got to stay back behind everybody, six foot? Well, you know, grocery stores are doing the six feet thing now. I have not been to one yet because I told you the one on this weekend. I didn't adhere to that.

No, I went to an H.E.B. this weekend and they had, there were stickers on the ground that said, please stand here and please respect social distancing or something like that. Were people adhering to that? The lines weren't long when I was there. So it wasn't a big deal. So I didn't really see it. Now, again, we're doing all. this in presumption of this is going to be this way forever.

Right. Some of this will be lifted in a couple of months, right? Well, Pres yesterday said he wants it done by Easter, which I think is a bit ambitious. When's Easter? It's like two weeks. Yeah. All right, Prez, calm down. When we talk about this things in all seriousness, I'm thinking about May 15th, June 15th.

Does the NBA do the same thing? Do you, because you could easily section off people in an NBA game, lower bowl, not a as big of facilities as say massive baseball stadiums. You could do it every other row, do your separation, and still probably put, what with the lower bowl to the center seat? Probably, if it's 17,000 seat, facility, probably 8,000 seats are downstairs, 10 or up, give or take. Probably. So if you do half of that, you give 4,000 people in, brings you in some revenue.

Lower bowl has more rows, though, right? No, I think upper bowl's got more seats. Okay, I don't know. Most arenas, upper bowls have more seats because they're, in theory, more affordable. smart. I know that the lower bowl is not usually full at Rockets games anyways, so it shouldn't be an issue. Well, they're full. They just don't get there on time.

We got to work on it and we get back, by the way. When everything is super back to normal? We've been talking about that for a decade plus. Maybe this is the wake-up call finally. Yeah? The wake-up call is a massive pandemic. That's going to get people to the games early? No, it's like, hey, we have games again.

You're allowed to come sit by each other. You're allowed to go. You're allowed to get there on time. You pay this big money for live games. Come sit down in your seats and listen to me to the starting lineups. Yeah, you corporate fat cats. Leave your afterwork happy hour a little bit earlier. No, the problem is this.

It's not the corporate fat cat owners. It's the corporate fat cat owners that give the tickets to their employees. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, this is what happens. You're at some corporation, you're at whatever kind of highfalut in place downtown. They give tickets to like four of their young interns. They're like, oh, cool, we'll head to the game. They're from like Minnesota and Arizona and wherever.

from all of the country, but they came here for an oil and gas job. They're not Rockets fans. They go to Happy Hour. They get hammered. They lose track of time. Oh, you know, it's 7 o'clock. Let's get over there. Then they're there by like 7.30, 7.45.

Well, if you're allowed to go to games, you're allowed to go to happy hour. It's true. How about this? If you're not in your seat by tip time, you're arrested. You're going to quarantine. Yeah. Either you show up at 6.57 or you'll never go to a game again. What would be like the, what's like a clever way?

to get people to be there on time. We've discussed this. I can't think of a clever way. Because they've done the cheap beers, the cheap hot dog, which works sometimes. How about a free drink ticket on the seat? Now you'd have to scan it. People will just steal those.

Yeah. That expires by 7.15. No. No, no. You could, you know, people on apps. There's no reason why you couldn't put a free something on an app. Attach it to the ticket. Yeah.

Say this ticket comes with a free drink as long as you redeem it by 7 o'clock. Well, that's not. redeem. As long as your ticket is scanned by a certain time. That's right. Yeah, because if the chances are if you're in the building, you've got a pretty good chance of being in your seat. Free beer or a soda if you're if you're not a drinker.

Coupon. It has to be a little bit more if you're not a drinker. You need at least a soda and some nachos or something. Fine, whatever. Yeah. It's a penny's a dollar for them. Attach the coupon. But you have to have your ticket scanned by $6.45.

Or, okay. Because that gives you $50. minutes to walk around, get to your seat, get your free stuff, and sit down for the game. I like that. The thing I can't figure out is people go to Texans games and they never sit in their seat. They sit in the club level to watch the game. That's a rocket's problem too. They stay up in the suite and they don't come down to their tickets.

They're spot. You know, they have the club sections. I'm sorry. They have the suite area where you're getting food and they're, you know, paling around and drinking and schmoozing rather than sitting and watching the game. Yeah. But why would you go to a Texan game? Because it's a pain they ask of the Texans game. It's not out there on its own. That's a fact. 70,000 people. It's not close to downtown. You got a part by the team. You know, whatever. And then you sit in the club level and watch the game on television and pay three times what you would pay at a normal bar to watch the game. And then you leave early so you can try to avoid some of the parking mess. There are people that, I guarantee you that go to Texans games, but never sit in their seat.

And they're there. Because every week they announce sellouts, but you guys have seen games even at 1 o'clock, even in the second quarter of games. There are chunks of empty chairs. You're in the fourth quarter of a lot of games, too. Four quarter of that Broncos game. That was more on Bill O'Brien of the team.

The great Kevin Harlan joins us to start the second hour, the Matt Thomas show next. Sports Talk 790 at 1257. KBME Houston, Yardt Radio Station, The Astros. The Astros. The Rockets. Rockets.

You're home for your home teams. This is Sports Talk 790. From the classic Chevy Sugar Land Studios, find new roads. To help you pay your bills, here's another chance at $1,000 on Sports Talk 790. Text the nationwide keyword Couch, C-O-U-C-H, to 200-200. You'll get a confirmation text and info. Standard data and message rates apply in this nationwide contest. Text Couch to 200-200.

Is the Matt Thomas Show. I miss this music so much. We as America missed this music. And on many weekends over the last couple of decades, you heard this voice with this music on CBS, the NBA on TNT, and it made me cry a shed a tear today that I was supposed to be in Milwaukee tonight

for the Rockets and the Milwaukee Bucks, James Hardin versus Janice. Their war awards will be just a war of words at this point because there's no live action. people we miss hearing from has been a segment we've done for the last couple of weeks and this next guest of ours is a guy we've really missed because first of all he's a great human being second he is one of the premier broadcasters in america from cbs tn t and westwood one radio it's kevin harlan here on the matt thomas show kevin i say this i really do miss your voice how are things

my friend well matt it's so nice you'd ask me to join you and it's great really great hearing your voice and I think we're all as sports fans kind of going through some withdrawal. We know the bigger picture, the most important picture is taking a hold of us and that is the way it should be. But nonetheless, all of us, whether we're missing sports or missing going to school or going to work and just being with the people that we are side by side with on an everyday basis out in the world, we're all missing something. But like you, I love the business, love the business, Love the broadcasting. And when you were talking about where you would be tonight doing the Rockets at Milwaukee,

that would have been a premier game in the NBA with maybe a far-reaching look into the playoffs. So listen, it's nice to be with you. And like I said before, when I hear your voice, I think of sports, think of the NBA, think of the Rocket. So it's nice to visit it. I've been following your career ever since the days of you doing the Chiefs games and the Wolves. and then obviously you're run with CBS and Turner. This has to be, per usual, your busiest time of the year because you're bouncing between the NBA and the tournament.

When was the last time you were home for five consecutive days in March? It had to be probably, as a young man, going to college, I would think, right? It probably wasn't. You're right. I can't think of it because I've been with Turner for 24 years. I've been with CBS for 22 years doing the tournament every time before that. I did University of Missouri. And, yeah,

so these March months and days and weeks over the years have been very filled, like all of us, we're all busy doing basketball. And, you know, it's when you see that, I think a lot of us in broadcasting

that have to do this year after year after year, and when the NBA begins, it's fall. And then it goes into winter, so you think of cold and those trips to Boston into Washington into New York and wherever you may go on the East Coast. And then when spring hits, you automatically, okay, playoffs are close. The tournament is going on.

The first pitch in Major League Baseball is around the corner. And so I've really become accustomed to the change of seasons, you know, kind of reflecting where we are in the sports calendars. So what I do see, buds on the trees, and we live in Kansas City, which has a feel for each of the seasons, maybe a little different than Houston, certainly. But I think of, you know, I think of all right, the NBA playoffs are about ready to start

and temperatures warming up and we're consistently in the 50s and the 60s here in the Midwest and grasses getting green and everything else. So, yeah, it's strange to be here and not really have anything to do except clean out closets and get your office organized

and files organized and things like that. How often do you hear? hear from your executives at both CBS and T&T about what they're hearing. Because obviously, Kevin, let's be honest, and Commissioner Sober has said this. I think the NFL feels it right now that we are so thirsty for sports that even if they're not in front of live audiences and, say, arenas that to get games back on television and on radio and whether it be local or regional broadcast, we as a society are missing sports and finding something else to watch. We need sports right now.

Yeah, we do. I do think, you know, if they ever go down that route, and I only say this because of my involvement with the NBA 2K video game series for the league, is that when I am sitting there doing a watching a video of a play or a sequence of plays or a game that I'm commenting with Doris Burke or Chris Weber or whoever is the analyst in that particular game, they will oftentimes pump in crowd noise into my headset. So I was thinking when this initially came out that the league may play games without fans and the tournament may play games without fans in the stands,

they could easily pump crowd noise into these arenas. They could pump crowd noise into the broadcaster's headsets so that you would think there'd be, you know, I never look into the crowd. I'm always looking at the players and the benches and the action on the floor. I rarely look into the crowd. So if you could find a way to televise games just showing the action, for the players, it may be weird, but for the broadcasters, I think it would be pretty close to being the same.

And I would tell you this, too, and I don't know how you are on the road, but when I am doing games, like I never hear. the sound effects that the arena that will put into the game. You know, I never listen to that. But when I go back and watch the game and critique myself, I go, oh, my God, stop with the drum. Stop with the loud music during these possessions. Like, stop it.

Like, it's so distracting. Well, it's funny that you bring that up, because the only time I ever do is because I like to hear other PA announcers and what they do during games. Sure. I do respectfully tease Mason, the Detroit Pistons announcer. I said, Mason, you talk more than I do when I'm calling a game on a radio broadcast. And he laughs about it, and we have a good time with it.

But, yeah, there are some arenas that, you know, like when I was growing up, you didn't hear a pin drop at Boston Celtics games at the garden when you were watching in a television except for Larry Bird passing a ball with Robert Parrish because they let the game dictate it. Kevin, let's be honest. They're in 2020 with today's fans and the culture. You've got to have music. you've got to have drums, you've got to have fireworks and technotronics. Look at the scoreboards that we're seeing around the NBA.

The old school just watched the game bit is long gone, unfortunately. It is. And you mentioned, you know, I did the college tournament for all these years. And see, there's none of that in the college game. The college game has that the band may play, but then when play begins, the bands will stop. And there is none of that in the college arena. So I would tell you, and I appreciate, you know, organizations have got to make the game more than just a game because fans expect it. They want the T-shirts.

They want the dancers. They want the loud music. They want all the different things that are going on. The drums, the sound effects. I get that. And I don't go to games for that. I go for the game. And I understand all those things.

but it is a nice change of pace doing the college tournament, doing the regular season games for CBS, where there's none of that. It's just the game. And you rely on the screaming kids that are there, the students that are there, the alumni that have so much invested in these universities and the bands,

and then the chance from the cheerleaders, you know, there's something kind of nice to step back into a time perhaps gone by when we just had those noises and not all the fireworks and all the things that I know that has made the NBA, the popular game that has meant, it's just old school me talking more than anything else. A couple more minutes here with Kevin Harlan and CBS and TNT. And look, it'd be unfair for me to ask what your favorite event is because all of them, I think, would be amazing. I would say this, you have to miss Marchman.

It's a little bit of special this time of year because not necessarily because, let's say, Kevin, you and Reggie were doing a game between Duke and Michigan, but maybe that three versus 14 were 14 wins. I mean, as a play-by-play guy, when I was doing University Utah games many years ago, when we were upsetting some folks, there's nothing better than having the Cinderella slip around for a little bit. And to call those types of games, have to be something that I would think every year when you get your sled of games, when CBS sends you to a particular region, you're like, which one of these teams are going to provide that major shocker for the rest of America to watch?

Oh, Matt, you're so right. And now, with the college game having far, far, far more parity than ever before, we can see threes beaten four teams and two beaten, you know, losing to a 15 seed. And then we would love to get those 7, 10, 8, 9 matchups because you knew that those teams analytically and statistically were very even, and you could expect that the high emotion and everybody's so focused that you would get a great game. really with an 8, 9, 10, 7 matchup, would you not get a good game? And then you just hope that a 314 or, you know, 512 would be one of those games,

which would really, you know, kind of mark that region where you were, that site where you were. Yeah, you love that. I love the tournament. I never considered it like too much work. It was shocking how fast doing four games in one day would go. And so I love that. And the college game moves pretty quickly.

But listen, when I'd leave the college tournament and go to the NBA, it was stunning the difference in skill level. It was stunning the difference in speed, quickness. Fluidity. Yes. Yes. Unbelievable difference. Well, you've always told me in the past, you took the months of July and a little bit of August off to completely decompress your busy schedule. Selfishly, Kevin, I hope that we are all extraordinarily busy in the month of July, which means we're playing.

I think we are. Don't you think, Matt, we're going to, I know they're going to, I don't know how they're going to put together. We may have a five games first. We may have a five game second round, five game series. But I do think it's smart minds are putting us together. We'll get back out there. It'll happen. It may not have the momentum it had, but quickly when you watch a Hardin or a Westbrook or Janus,

you're going to fall back in stride with where the season left off. And we'll see a thrilling playoffs and conclusion. of the season. Any opinion about moving the calendar back permanently to December to say August? Are you indifferent to? I'm all for it. I'm all for it. I do a 60, 68 games season. Then you'd have no load management. You'd have more games, more time for practicing, more fine-tuning for these players, better health, better games, better focus. We wouldn't, you know, there's games now on nationally on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, there's so many games. But let's not.

make it special. That's why football is thriving in this country. We've got one game a week, whether it's pro or college. Let's separate these games a little bit. Let's figure out for a way for the owners. If we're going to miss 14 games from 82 to 68, let's figure out a way for them to make up that money. They will. The networks will pay for it. They'll be better games, higher ratings. They'll pay, the people will pay more because the games will mean more. regular seasonal mean more. We won't be exhausted by watching 82 games like the players are. Load manager will be gone.

Better health, better focus, more practice time. And let's begin on Christmas Day. And who says you've got to finish in the first week in June? Let's extend it into July. You compete with nothing but golf and baseball. There's room there for the NBA. It can be played. It can be done.

I would love to see that. The gospel from the one in the greats, Kevin Harlan from CBS and T&T. Hey, enjoy your time off. I hope it's very short-lived because we've got to get back in it and tell your TNT people. We've saw Marvin Chris like every time the last two months of the regular season. We need to see more of Kevin and Reggie doing these TNT Rockets games down the road, my friend. Aren't you? I want to see more Matt Thomas. There you go.

I love seeing you on the road. I know we've got many dates ahead of us down the road. So enjoy this time. Catch your breath because I know you'll be working hard here in the coming months. And we miss coming down to Houston, but hopefully we'll be down in that part of the world here sooner than later. Bless you, my friend. Thank you very much for spending some time with us this afternoon. Take care, Matt. All right. We'll see you.

All right. Thank you, friend. Thank you. Kevin Harlan, the great Kevin Harlan joining us here on Sports Talk 790. He says it. Let's play 68 games. The NBA owners are like, what? Take away seven home games? No chance. 116 on the Matt Thomas show Sports Talk 790. If you want to comment anything that Kevin Harlan had to say and it's just great hearing his voice, Again, I cannot tell you, first of all, one of my favorite broadcasters, but even a better human being,

one of the true nice people I've ever met in sports broadcasting, and I know that if you had a chance of meeting yourself, you'd feel the exact same way. 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. Hey, thanks again to Kevin Harlan from CBS at TNT for joining us. Because I'm going to peel the curtain back. There are some D-bags in sports broadcasting.

Like there aren't anything. Matt Thomas. No, I said, no, I didn't say delightful people. I said D-bags. Sorry. And so when one of your broadcasting idols is as good of a person on air as he is off, it makes you feel good. And he is exemplary.

Good. We've had a pretty good run. and the people we miss hearing from me at Kaylee Griffin, Bill Brown. I met Kevin Harlan once at Super Bowl in Indianapolis. I told him he was my favorite play-by-play man.

What do you say? Of course I lied because, of course, everyone knows Matt Thomas is my favorite play-by-to-man. If you said Matt, I like you, but I like Kevin Harlan better,

I would fully accept that. Oh, okay. He was like, that's very sweet of you to say, and he chatted with me for like two minutes. He didn't know me from Adam. Yeah.

Wexler. It's funny. The non-Sarekews guys are as good as a guest. He was a sweetheart. I love Kevin. Arlen. And he made me like him even more.

You know, his dad was a long-time team president of the Green Bay Packers. Bob Harlan. I didn't know that. Yeah, long time. So he had a long NFL background. Two of my favorite calls of all time are LeBron James with no regard for human life. And Tracy McGregory just sucked the gravity right out of the building. And those are both by him.

You know, it's funny, for all the great events that he's called, he may be known for as much as the cat and the football field. Yes, that was great. as well. Or the drunk guy. The drunk guy's onto the field. He's taking off his shirt. By the way, speaking of a guy that's polarizing and Kevin's not polarizing, have you seen Joe Buck's Twitter account? He wants people to send them him messages. He has seen that. So he can keep his play-by-play going. He's got to keep the game sharp, man. Don't you feel like you're not getting sharp? Oh, we are going to sharpen you up. We are going to, should we tell the audience what we're doing? I think so. Okay. We are going to

tomorrow. We're going to tomorrow. We're going to have Ross. Now, help me out with a video game part of it because I don't play video game. So help me out what you're doing. It's easy. Go ahead. Well, we're going to simulate the game. It's going to be Rockets, Lakers, and then you're going to call the play-by-play.

Play-by-play or PA? Play-by-play, we determined. Okay, we did. Because PA is going to be a little too slow. Okay. Because there's going to be missed bass. So Gordy was testing it. This is peeling the curtain back, as Matt would say.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Gordy was doing a little dry run with it, and he was watching it, and there weren't a lot of bath. Sometimes they would miss like five shots in a row and you'd just be sitting there. Yeah. He wouldn't have anything to call. So I think it's funnier if you do play-by-play. So I'll do the play-by-play.

You might have the chart. I mean, you got Lakers and Rockets up here, right? You're good. Yeah, as long as I have a sheet in front of me. Just, you know, because sometimes it'll be harder to see who they are, right? Yeah. St. Vincent, St. Mary's, Ler, James, Ler, 6'8. So it's LeBron, and the Lakers against James Hart and the Rockets,

and we're going to simulate the game tomorrow. Or should we do Bucks since that's supposed to be tonight. No, Lakers Rockets. It should be more intriguing. Plus, I know the Lakers a little better on your own box. You want to be talking about Chris Middleton? What's the... Brooke and Robin Lopez.

Is Delavadovo still play for them? I don't know. I don't think so. Maybe. Can you name three bucks? Yeah. Janice, Tintacoupa. Chris Middleton, Brooke Lopez.

Oh, Eric Wletso plays for them. Eric Bledso. Yeah. They're good. They're really good. I'd be there tonight. Doesn't that suck? I don't know.

What's the weather in Milwaukee? It doesn't matter. You know all the smack talk that Yonis and James had with each other. They're around the All-Star break. Yeah, it would be pretty good. How good would that game been tonight for us to talk about? Damn! Don't forget your boy, Pat.

Connettton? Conantin. C-O-N-N-G-T-O and Conantin. Oh, they also have Dante DiVincenzo. Is Delvedo even the league anymore? I can look. I don't know. You know, it's so crazy.

The Bucks and the Rockets are already played once. It was on opening night. Yes. The Rockets lost by like 10. Was it that many? I thought it was a close game, no? I think the bucks pulled away at the end. I'm not totally sure on that.

I do remember leaving? He plays for the Cavs. Yeah, he plays for the Cavs. Okay. Yeah, Milwaukee Houston tonight. And I don't, Milwaukee doesn't bother me. They won by six, not ten. Yeah.

Milwaukee doesn't bother me as a city. You mean, it's cold A-F there, but it's not awful. Well, you like to go, you just like to jump on all the steps and say Shlamele Shal-Maz. And it's got a casino. That didn't hurt. In downtown. Jesse, pass a get-down-d-Dena at 126. Hi, Jesse.

What's going on, guys? Hi. I just wanted to thank you all for doing a great job, despite pretty much everyone in order to stay home. You're doing a good job. Hey, I wanted to make a comment. I know this may not be the topic that you're talking about, but it's obvious, like everyone is calling regarding Bill Bryan, blah, blah, blah, blah. For me, the kicker has always been this attitude when he cursed out a fan that was caught on camera.

and the very first few games that he coached when he got out of his first year on a preseason game that he snapped at a female reporter with a what. To me, that basically tells me the person that he is, he's real thin skin, and everything that he's gone up to this point, he doesn't have the skins like Bill Belichick to say, that's why I'm doing, and you need to let me do what I'm doing. I'll just take Cal McNair has not done a good job, and to me I'm not going to look at them the same up until they make any.

anything, you know, a Super Bowl or even smell it. That's my comment. Thank you. Yeah, I don't, there's not much more I can say, Jesse. Thank you for the phone call and the nice words. That's something we've been talking about basically this entire time. I don't have anything to it, really? Yeah, Bill O'Brien is, and it's something we can't figure out. Bill O'Brien continues to get more and more and more power within the Texans organization,

and he just doesn't have their results. I mean, guys in recent memory for me, off the top of my head who have been basically running personnel, Belichick, six-time Super Bowl champion. Pete Carroll, won a Super Bowl, went to another. Is he just won one Super Bowl? Yeah. Andy Reid? I mean, Andy Reid did, well, just now won his first Super Bowl, but he's been one of the best coaches in football for two decades. Mike Holmgren had the power in Seattle and in Green Bay for a while, right? Yeah, he won a Super Bowl in both places, correct? Or no, he went to the Super Bowl in Seattle,

won it in Green Bay. Didn't, yeah, he lost to the Steelers with the Hasselbeck. Terrible Super Bowl game, by the way. Yeah. That was, Ben Rothensburg was not good in that game. Who was the MVP of that one? I don't remember. But yeah, there are a lot of Bill Parcells, was his own general manager for a large part of his career.

Multiple Super Bowl wins. Yeah. And Bill O'Brien. One of these is not like the other, Matt. Let me ask you this. I want to give a, I'll give the phrase, I'll give the comparison. You tell me it's right.

There are companies out there that are family-run companies that sometimes just put people in charge and not members of their family, that you just think how they get the job? Nepotism is everywhere. No, no, but this is nepotism. This is just family-operated company, doing fine, making plenty of money,

but the guy in charge is just a bad guy. But the family who's taking all those profits in doesn't see that because their profits are good. And they're somewhat successful, and they don't embarrass themselves. But they could be so much better. That's what the Texans are. A family-run company that could be so much better with better leadership.

But they just don't see it. 129. It's the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. If you want to reach out through via Twitter, you can do that at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Pro Nick Lowe. Hard to get four-three.

Got it. This is Craig Ackerman. My station, your station. Station and the Rockets. Sports Talk 790. Your home for your home teams. We've done Fantasy 5 on movie soundtrack

titles. This would be, of course, from Top Gun, which is a movie I've not seen start to finish ever. There's another one you need to add to your list. Yeah, you're on, by the way. Oh, I didn't know. Now I am. No, I think I bleed through you. I didn't hear myself.

Yeah, we will do I'm watching Ozark this weekend so I'm going to take a break of you choose the movie I'm not going to know Zark this weekend I don't think Top Gun is that higher on the priority list honestly When I get back to my choose a movie list It'll be one of the options

Has anyone seen the new Top Gun? It's not out yet, is it? Come out? Oh, I don't know. I just knew it was Is it supposed to go out of summer? What's it called? Like Top Gun School?

I think it's called Bigger Gun. The two new not spin-offs, what do you call them? Top Gun Maverick? is what it's going. Yeah. And then there's coming to America part two is coming out. Terrible.

He's latent sequels and remakes. Hollywood, you suck. Do you know why they're doing it? Because we go see him. Because first of all, we recognize them. We love the originals

and we're willing to give them a try. They make money, yeah. That's why they do them because they make billions of dollars. Why would you try some bold new idea that you're not sure going to work and sink millions of dollars in it

for a possibility of flop? Or you can make a safe choice as a remake that everybody's going to go The parents are going to go from the nostalgia. The kids are going to go because the parents are taking them in because it's new. So everybody's going to go. It's going to make money. The movie's probably going to be a six out of ten max, but it's going to make a ton of money.

And let's move on to the next. Yeah. I may tell you something. Unless coming to America too is awful, there's no way I'm coming back and going, that was a waste of my time. Because if I get all my characters back, if I get Eddie Murphy back, if I get Arsenio Hall, I get Louis Anderson. I mean, I'll be fine. Louis Anderson's dead. He's not.

Oh, he's not? No. Not even No owner McDowell's dead yet. Now, he's old, but he's not dead. James Evans from good times. Oh, Louis. I swear I thought Louis Anderson was dead. I'm not even kidding. I think that whole cast is still kicking. Yeah, I don't believe it's even, even LeBlanc, the guy with the Jerry Curl stuff. What was the guy's name, the character's name? Well, wasn't that Arsenio Hall? No. No, the other guy, yeah, I don't remember what he was. He looks like he was on ER. He kind of looks like Lionel Richie. Now, what are you talking about?

Yeah. Eric LeBlanc, I think, is his name. Eric LaSalle. LaSalle. I knew it was one of the Lusumptons. Yeah. A little something. Yeah, I'm going to see. He's not that old.

Yeah. I am all about coming to America. You know what I'll do? I'll watch Top Gore. I'll even watch Die Hard 4 if we need to. James Earl Jones is alive too. Is he going to be in it? James Earl.

How old is James Harold Jones? 89. You know, John Amos, who owned McDowell's in there. He's got to be in his late 80s, too, I think, too. John Amos is 80. Oh, okay. He's kicking it. He's kicking it. Yeah, this is going to be great.

What about Samuel Jackson? Remember he was the guy that Rob McDowell's? He, well, yeah, he can put him back as a robbers again? Yeah. Maybe the robber's son? Well, think about the shows on television. I apologize to the Anderson family. I really thought Louis was still dead.

That's fine. I mean, think about it. The television shows that have done well in the last, Will and Grace came back for a couple of years. Oh, you loved it. Loved it. Roseanne came back. You loved it. When Jimmy Kimmel had good times and all in the family. You loved it. And the Jefferson's Brock Bad, people love that.

This is what they're doing all this nostalgia and bringbacks for for you. And it's working. Yeah, I know. Because here's my, and again, I'm far from it. The average person, the only over-the-air shows I watch. Sports. Uh-huh. Young and the wrestlers.

Guiding Light. Bold and the Beautiful. General Hospital. And this is us. There's any other... And God friended me. No. It's one of your face.

That's the reason why... That's the exact reason why Ross I don't watch over-the-air television because somebody at CBS said, you know, this God friend of me thinks like it's a good show. And let's promote the hell out of it during Sunday NFL football. How have the ratings been on God Friended Me? I don't know.

Don't care. What if you put it under your relationship status with God? It's complicated. Oh, I haven't watched some of the late night shows. Do you know that Jimmy Falons doing the show from his house? Is he? Yeah. With no, no audience?

Green screen or something? He's been, no, he's been, um... Is he doing his monologue in front of his kids? Well, his kids have been part of the show. His wife was on the show for like 20 minutes yesterday. What? Yeah. You're not missing anything.

Okay. I'm not, I don't really watch the show. I've been watching more of the political stations than I have any else. The only night show, I used to watch Colbert Report and Daily Show. So, you know... But then I don't really watch it. So here's my daily life. Last night, I did it.

a Facebook live update at 7 o'clock, which I think I'm going to do again tonight. Okay. Just 15 minutes just talking show. Okay. Where I talked a lot about the Tiger King yesterday. Maybe you should do 15 minutes every night. I'm going to, I think, for at least foreseeable future. Then I watch This Is Us.

Then I watched the late night TV shows. And I check Woj and Shams Twitter accounts every five seconds. Because you want news on when you're going back to work. Yeah. I am officially, and thank God I get you guys with me for three hours every day, but man, I am having terrible, terrible cabin fever. Well, we're going to get you on the play-by-play tomorrow for the Rockets simulation.

We're going to do a simulated game on the, and what video system we're using? The video game? Xbox. It's Gordy's Xbox. We're going to film this and it's going to be a viral hit. Well, let's not get crazy. Okay. I ran out of Tiger King yesterday, by the way, Matt.

And? Oh, that's great. Totally absolutely recommend it to everyone. I'm two episodes in. See, I wanted to ask him about Carol, and he didn't. he didn't have an opinion about character he's not there yet you're gonna have she's I could tell within three minutes of her being on on the TV that she's crazy just wait there's a lot more okay 141 is our time we got some folks that want to say hi

appreciate y'all listen to the show and remember if you are stuck at home you're like I can't get to a radio the I heart radio app is amazing I listen to classic Casey Ksum I listen to our station I listen to 70s on I heart 70s there's so many channels but you can also listen to us every day and all while we're plugging things top of every hour we're giving away a thousand dollars in a national contest oh hell's yeah

yes thousand dollars every hour every hour coming up at two o'clock doing that they'll give you the text keyword all right so be listening all right 713 2125790 those of you on hold we get to you next we take it till 3 o'clock believe it or not today is at 252 the category in today is uh one of my crickets At least now we know that losing sucks.

And if anybody knows how much losing sucks, it's Matt Thomas. I'm outstanding. This is Whitney Merciless. Back to the Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790. Time is 146. The Matt Thomas Show Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach our show. 7-13-212-5-790.

We have some exciting news about those of you that need to little baseball fix. We'll tell you about that at the top of the hour here on Sports Talk 790. Let's go to Jimmy and Tomball on 790. Jimmy, good afternoon. So I have this idea for your team like it's a year that didn't exist. In the half of the NBA finals. In Denver Max, he had against Mikey, Florida, and the Bulls. And I just came seven, 15, you're at three minutes left. I think we lost Jimmy.

Bad connection there. I think he wants us to take one great team versus another great team and play them in a video game. Turn your microphone. They do have the they do have some of the old-timey players and the classic teams

and stuff like that on some of these games. We could do one of these every week, honestly. What else are we doing? Yeah, it's either hang out with you guys or go home to see my kids and my wife. You can hang out with us. Hand on chin emoji. Um

Rousse Chris bought us some wine Have a couple of drinks I don't think I want to do Pl by Play of every one of those games Okay I think the The interest of me Would be me doing it

Just up a video game As compared to just You hear me every week We are I am working with something on the Rockets I don't want to give away too much But there may be something A la Joe Buck

That I could do for some of you guys out there Interesting You mean do for What do you mean do for some of us Can't give one? Any ideas? Any details yet? Okay.

But when I can, I'll let you know. Let's go to David and pass a Get Down Dean on the Matt Thomas show. Hi, David. Hey, man. What do you think Florida Evans would say if coming to America, too, was a flock? Let me ask you. Florida, real quick, if you hear that coming to America, too, and you've read it and you've seen the script, she's read the script.

She's read the script. Read the script. Any thoughts about the script so far? Damn Damn. I wish she doesn't like it. I remember watching that episode when I was a kid. Not coming to America.

Is it you were a kid? No, no, no, no. I watched why to live and say that. Oh, well, yeah, of course. I cried like a baby when he died. He went south to find work, and he didn't make it back. And I remember vividly Florida Evans saying that. Damn, down, down.

Thank you very much, David. Yeah. was very stoic during the whole funeral apparently and thelma and j jay and michael kept saying why aren't you crying mom why aren't you sad and she goes i got to stay strong for this family so they had a big reception at the apartment after ross and she's putting stuff away and she has this bowl in her hand and she threw it on the ground and said those magical words that's a shame and the reality is this he didn't have to die. John Amos, who played the character of James Evans,

got fired by Norman Fear. No, not Norman Fear. What was the producer's name? Norman Lear, not Fear, Norman Lear, that he was such a pain of the ass on the set and wanted more money and was upset that J.J. Walker was the star of the show as compared to him, that Norman Lear said, you're fired.

And they didn't recast him. They just killed him off. And the ratings of good times went down after that. Down, down, down. Yeah, I guess you can't bring them back from the dead at that point. Well, it's soap operas you can do that, but not on situation comedies. Or it's their evil twin or whatever? There is a new, you know, I'm not much on like pro wrestling.

Yeah, a little too much. Well, no, I've backed off a little bit. There is a new series on, I think it's on the Reels channel or one of those channels about kind of the behind the scenes of wrestlers dying. Oh. And yesterday was David. Ben-Wass. I got to get, I'm going to watch that when I get home. You're going to watch that? Yeah. That sounds disturbing as hell. America watches disturbing things. That's true.

So I found the plot of coming to America too. They're calling it coming to the number two America, so it's not coming to America too. All right, what do you got? Read the plot. Let's give it an early review. Set after the events of the first film, former Prince Hakeem Joffer, Eddie Murphy, is set to become King of Zamundo when he discovers he has a son he never knew about in America, a street-savvy queen's native named Lavelle. honoring his royal fathers, James Earl Jones, dying wish to groom his son

as the crown prince, Akeem and Send Me, Simi, Arsenio Hall, set off to America once again. It's got Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Wesley Snipes, Tracy Morgan,

what's his name, Amos is back in? John Amos is back in it. Oh, good, with McDonald's. James Earl Jones is back in it. Morgan Freeman? Tell me that's not going to be the funniest movie you've seen in a long time. It might not be the funniest movie

I've seen a long time. Well, I don't know what is the funniest movie I've seen a long time. I like coming to America theme song right now. Let's write a record. Pretty catchy little sound like the opening theme. Yeah, you've heard me. You remember, don't you?

Probably. You know, I only saw that all the way through for the first time, maybe a couple years ago for the first time. I'd seen bits and pieces of it throughout, it's always on Comedy Central and you'd catch you half an hour of it here. Sort of like Shawshank Reception's always on TV. Exactly.

This is getting the people going? Louis Anderson's back in the movie. Is he still working at McDowell's? I don't know. It'd be funny if he was. Is this the theme song to Come in America? Yeah, this is from the opening, isn't it? Yeah, this is the intro of music.

What did you want? I'm not sure what you were. Wasn't there a song called, Oh, say, can you see I'm coming to America? Wasn't that in that? I don't think that was actually in the movie. What? Matt, are you just making this sound? We'll play that song anyway.

That's what I'm... Are you serious? That song is that in the movie? It's scheduled to be released December 18th, 2020. Provide. We can go to movies again. One day before my birthday. You see, studios are moving their...

Are moving movies back? Yeah, they're moving them and they're putting them on on demand. So, I mean, you got to make some money off of them somehow. Oh, say... Can't... Oh, who sang that song? Yeah, that's a Star-Spangled Banner, man. It's Francis Scott Key.

No, no, no, no. You guys don't know what I'm talking about. We'll discuss this more in a minute. Gary and Sprint... That's actually right. I found it. Gary, how are you, friend? Hey, I'm doing my battery's running low, so I'm after making it real quick.

Go ahead. I want to ask the question comparing Bill O'Brien to Bill Belichick because that's who he's wanting to be and seems like he's trying to copy off of. How many years has O'Brien coached so far? He's six years. Okay. Could you give me a couple of things? One, how many years into Belichick did he win his first conference championship? and then also how many years did he win his first Super Bowl?

Do you have that in front of you by any chance? Well, we can look at it. It'll take us a minute. In five years of Cleveland, he didn't do either. In his second year in New England, he was a Super Bowl champion. Yeah, so they won a conference championship, beat the Raiders, and won over the Rams in the Super Bowl in the same year. That was his seventh year.

Seventh year overall as a coach. Technically. Okay. So it took him seven years to get to the championship. and the Super Bowl. Well, I'm not ready to bury O'Brien yet. I didn't like what he did. I think he's got too much on his plate.

But I'm willing to sit back and not bury him like everybody in the world is doing all the talk shows. Sports talk shows are ready to bury. He says he's the worst everything in the world. But I'm willing to give him one more year here this year to see if he can get to the championship.

Finals are the Super Bowl. So I just, you know, I don't think you could form away yet because it took Belichick seven years. I'm going to stop you for a second. Okay. What if I would have told you that Belichick would have done it in four years? Would you have changed your thought then? Well, you could have probably changed me a little bit. I'm a homer.

I've been watching the Oilers, Astros. Okay. But I did not like it at all. I was upset. But he knows more than I do. He's been doing it a lot more time than I am. So I'm willing to give him. one more year to prove that he's going to keep going forward.

If he slides back, then I'll probably be on board with you guys. Well, I would never try to equate Bill Belichick's run compared to what Bill O'Brien has done because thank you for the phone call, Gary. Bill Belichick was doing it with two different franchises and obviously matured and understood the mistakes he made in Cleveland and became a better coach. Bill O'Brien is becoming a worse coach in getting more power. Their pathways to success are significantly different.

And what I'm bothered by is that Gary asked how many years it took. And then we said, well, if it took Belichick 7, then we should give Bill O'Brien 7. If I would have said it took three years, then Gary would have been kind of flummoxed by that, probably. In three of his first five years in New England, he won the Super Bowl. The team is not better today than it was pre-Diandre Hopkins trade. No. And I don't think there's anything they can do draft-wise. It's going to make them better than they were pre-Diondrey Hopkins.

doesn't mean they can't go find some people in the draft and become good players. But they're not better. They're not better in the secondary. They're not better in the receiving core. And frankly, Ross, they may not be better at running back at this point. If David Johnson's even – because right now I would have taken Carlos hide over David Johnson. Especially when you factor in the money. Especially that, yeah, they offered him, what, $5 million of a couple of years?

And he said, I'll go find something else. That's fine. I get that. You want to – Carlos wants to go find something different. because he thinks he's underpaid, sure. But Carlos Hyde was a serviceable running back. We don't even know at this point if David Johnson is serviceable. This is what I was thinking about.

Apparently, this is correct. Who sings this? We even know. This system. Somebody in the recording studio said this song really kicks. It wasn't bad for the time. It's 80s. This is what it is. This is very, very 80s.

Very 80s. Drum machines and synthesizers. It's good enough for an opening credit scene, I guess. Yeah, I'm not downloading the song after the show. All right. Before we get to the crux of the news headlines the day, which isn't a whole lot. I mean, yesterday, Cam Newton was released by the Panthers. No surprise there.

Where is he going, by the way? L.A. Chargers? That makes the most sense. People think Chargers. Dolphins are on the board. I'm trying to remember. We looked at that. Who's got... On the nightcap on Sports Talk 790 at 6 o'clock, we went through the odds.

Did you? I think the favorite was the dolphins. Speaking of that, the folks at Bolvada sent me these emails constantly, and some of them makes sense, and some of them are ginormous waste of time. You guys know how I feel about wrestling. I love it. But I know what it is. Apparently, you can go to betonline.ag, and I don't mean to give them any props, but it is what

it is. And you can bet on who's going to win matches in the upcoming WrestleMania. you shouldn't be able to bet on something that's already been determined. Yeah, they'll probably have a cap on it. There's no way you can just pay, hey, I'm going to put 100 Gs on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, they put caps on those certain types of things to, to limit their risk. They should never even put a dollar on it. Because all it would take would be for someone to find out the information on this.

And either, either it's the bookmaker or the people that are one to make the bets. There's nothing about these things that aren't. pre-eranged. Yeah, well, you can bet on Bachelor winners and Survivor and other shows like that as well. I think it's a dangerous thing to do. You must have a lot of time on your hands. Because again, all it takes is one person slipping out of the information and it could affect the book and it could also affect those that are trying to bet on. Well, first of all, they charge massive amounts of juice on this. What are the, like, what do you see on those? I'll just give you one. Goldberg versus Roman Raines. Okay. Roman rains is a minus 1,000. Goldberg is a plus 550.

See? So that's what? 1,000 minus 550 is 450. Right. Normally in those types of situations, the juice would be like 100 max or 200. They put massive amounts of juice on it, and then they put limits. So they'll be fine. They wouldn't do it if they were losing money on these all the time, trust.

Yeah, you can bet on apparently Becky Lynch versus Shana Basler, Brock Lesnar versus Drew McIntyre. Goldberg against Roman Reins. What are the odds are all going to have a huge juice split, aren't they? And then there's a Smackdown Women's Championship Elimination match winner. There's six different women in there, and there are odds in each one of those people. So think about it this way, right?

You said the Roman Reins, whatever. You either get 5 to 1 or you're betting 10 to 1. One more. Undertaker versus A.J. Stiles. Undertaker minus 400. He's only lost one time at WrestleMania. So 4 to 1. I would also guess that Vince McMahon has contracts with all the people that actually know the outcome,

and if it were ever to leak, they would all lose their jobs and probably be sued. And I imagine these Bavada and any of these other betting houses all know that. So technically, it is as real as it needs to be a bit on. What was the other half of it, minus 400 and what? Oh, AJ Styles is a plus 250. See, that's closer juice. A couple of things. But still, you're getting either two to half to one or four to one.

It should be closer than that. Here's one. Will voting for the presidential election actually take place on November 3rd, 2020? Gosh, that's a really good one. Yes is a minus 500. Okay. No is a plus 300. That one actually wouldn't be a bad bet to put in.

Do you think if it does take place but everyone has to do an absentee ballot, we would actually see better voter turnout? We would see better if you could use an app. If we could use an app for, for sure. Or a secret code. You know, like everybody's got their own individual code. Like the census. You get your own little code for that.

Yeah. Here are the odds for presidential. Trump is 5 to 6. Biden 11 to 10. Bernie Sanders, 25 to 1. Hillary Clinton 33 to 1. Andrew Cuomo, 50 to 1. Mike Pence 50 to 1.

Wow. I remember Hillary Clinton closing at about 3 to 1. All right. Now, there are Ozark bets in place. play. Uh-oh. This is something that I'd be intrigued by.

I'm not going to get any of these. Really quick. You watch Oz, Ross? I mean, Nick? Yep. I'm all got it.

The new season starts Friday. First to die. Darling Snell is at 2 to 1. Wendy Bird 5 to 2. Rachel 3 to 1.

Helen 5 to 1. Ruth Langmore 7 to 1. Charlotte, the daughter, 9 to 1. Jonah Bird, the son, 12 to 1, and Marty Birds

at 50 to 1. It's not going be Marty. Will not be Marty. I could see one of the kids getting killed. That really would throw everybody off. I'd see the wife go before they

knock off one of the kids. They're not getting rid of Wendy Bird. It's going to be Ruth. Mm-mm. Too big of a character. This is a loser. This is all going over my head. I know, so I'll keep it short.

Charlene's the main enemy, though. Wow, I would stay away from that. I just don't know if you'd let you force me. A couple of other ones. for those of you that are Ozark fans. Will Charlotte Bird kill someone? Yes, plus 150, no, minus 200.

I'm betting yes on that. She will shoot someone. Will Darlene Snell die? Eventually, I don't know if they'll see. Minus 200, yes, plus 150, no. Will Jonah kill someone? I think he already has. Does he not?

Didn't he shoot somebody earlier? He shot at someone. I don't think he actually killed him. Will Marty Bird die? Will Marty have an affair with Ruth? An affair is a fair. now that I guess a technical word would be, would that be having sex with her, just having one-time sex or having like your relationship? I think sex would count for the bet, but I don't think so.

And there are a boatload of Ozark prop bets here. This is way more intriguing to me than WrestleMania because, again, we already know the results of that. Why am I changing my opinion on this? You know why? Because I find this much more interesting. But all it would take will be one person to find an advanced copy of an episode of Ozark, right? And the whole thing would crash. And scripts actually do tend to leak every once in a while. Amy, to tell me some, a movie reviewer has not seen any of the episodes of Ozark for season three just yet. I don't believe that. Telling you, they cap the bets and they put a lot of juice, it's fine. If they took a bath on these, they wouldn't put them up. Yeah, you can't run, well, you can't run a Vegas period anyway. But point being is that I've never.

Who you can go? You just won't be able to walk to a casino. Yeah, how are they closed? Is that like a ghost town now? How are they closing these massive hotel casinos? I don't know. Because how many entrances would you say there would be to Caesars? How many different ways you could get into Caesar's Palace?

Would you say probably 10? Probably. Something like that. So you have 10 security guards to close off this multi-acre facility? They don't have locks on the doors? I bet it takes more than that. How do you close off the casino floor? I would have you seen, has anybody seen any TV shots of these casinos being closed?

I think it would be fascinating. Because when you think about casinos, they know. never close. Ever. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, holidays, Easter, gambling. Christmas, Easter, gambling. I guess there's that old comedy bit. Why do they have locks on the 7-Eleven or casino?

And this is why. But have you ever seen a door to a casino? Yeah. What do you mean? Yeah, they have doors. You walk through them. When you get off an elevator at a hotel, you open up the elevator doors and what do you see? The casino.

No, yeah, you can walk in and out of it, though. We're talking about it to the street. Yeah. Oh, it's true. You close those off. It's like, what are you talking about? Rossi, we've got, we need coronavirus. First of all, coronavirus needs to be cured or solved or contained so we can all have regular life.

But more importantly, you and I need to get back on the road. The casino. We can arrange a dice game, Matt. You want me to be the house? I'll run a dice game for you. Can I do a dice game on Facebook Live? I don't know. Y'all can just Vimma.

owe me the results. We can get a poker game gone, but we can only do one table, technically. How do you feel about cyber poker? Online poker? Yeah. I used to play it all the time. It's completely legit.

Well, there's some places that are completely legit. Some are, okay. And some of them are gray areas, and yeah, I had my money seized by the Department of Justice 2012-ish.

And how much the money did you get back? I got it all back, but years later. Took way too long. All right. When the Matt Thomas show returns. We're going to be gone just a very short period of time. The NFL and its general managers are not getting along. We'll tell you why that is. And Major League Baseball believes there is a way to get as much of a 162 game schedule in. They want it badly. We'll discuss that next

plus your phone calls at 713-212-5790. The CDC and health officials are talking about flattening the curve. To us, that sounds like when the Astros beat the Dodgers in 2017. You can kiss that one. Goodbye. Flattening the curve? Yeah. Still champs, pal. Still champs. This is Sports Talk 790.

In 15 minutes, our program director, Brian Erickson, is a member of a certain email club, and he and this website sent out a notice about their service. It's a Pornhub, isn't it?

Bottom of the hour, Sports Talk 790. What do you think about the general managers around the NFL? Saying this is unfair that they had this draft coming out, April 23rd or the 25th. Saying they don't get a chance to talk to these guys. They don't get a chance to have the physicals. They don't get a chance to have the one-on-one face-to-face conversations. I think if they are all saying that, that the NFL should listen. Why does it have to go on as planned if the foundation of every all 32 of these franchises

is the draft. Don't tell Bill O'Brien that because he trades away all his draft picks. But this is the most important time of the year to me. Because if you hit on draft picks, you have them cheaply for up to five years. That's why it's so important. And that's why if they're not able to vet them, they're not able to meet them. You're not able to gauge their personalities and all that type of stuff, which some general managers do better than others.

And they're all saying that, or the majority, I don't know which ones they're saying. which ones aren't. But most of them are saying we're not able to do our due diligence. I think they should postpone it. There were teams in California in New York that were saying this is unfair because we can't bring these people in. Well, the NFL yesterday said nobody can have

anybody in. You can't have scouts. You can't have people working out. You can have trainers that can take care of injuries. You can have some IT people to make sure that the wet information gets flowed properly. But you are, for the most part, closing down all practice facilities. Remember John, Justin Rieman was on the show a couple days ago talking about how he was going over the Texas to work out.

That's gone. That doesn't do with the draft, but they're just saying that the facilities now are being closed, that everybody's got to stay at home and do their business in the work. I frankly, and I don't mean to be a fence center on this, but I really do see both sides of this. These general manager's lives depend on what they do in these three days. You can't possibly argue that. And you'd hate to spend any kind of money on a guy that you felt like didn't pass your face-to-face conversation.

But on the other side of that, Ross, is that I can have meetings over the video on the phone. I can see these people. I can talk to them. And there's also got to be a certain response with the NFL's like, we've got to start conducting business like we're trying to have a season coming up here.

That if you delay the draft a month or two months, does that mean you put everybody behind the eight ball when it comes to trying to start the calendar season? and I think the NFL does not want to delay them. They want to get onto a regular schedule, say, by July with training camps. And if the coach is clear, they don't want anything to hold them back on that. And I'm not saying that's the right answer. I'm just saying that the NFL is like, we have these three days to ourselves

without standing opportunities for lots of viewers and lots of interest. We're not going to give that up because general managers are grumpy. They can't have a face-to-face conversation. If you are worried about a draft pick and having a meeting with them, then get on a video phone and Skype with them. Having them in your offices with the door closed, feeding them wine and cheese shouldn't make ultimately that big of a difference

when you really have, you've done doing your homework ahead of time. I'm just trying to give you a counter to the argument of the general managers. I mean, yeah, I get that, but that's just, the best general manager in the leagues and the worst ones operate in different planes, right? If you want to interview the guys,

or I'll tell you this, what they do sometimes is, for example, when they're having somebody in, they would know that some prospect X or whatever really likes ping pong. So they would have a player there to set up for him and they would play ping pong and see how competitive he is. Do those types of things and try to find things about him that you can't necessarily find out over Skype and find out all these little things and do all these vetting and maybe even have them follow it. There's all these things that they do in the NFL when they're making their prospects. And so I guess over the balance, it's going to be the same pool of players and they're all going to get picked for the most part.

You're not going to have somebody not picked or somebody picked. So it's not going to affect the league as a whole. But imagine if you were a general manager. And you're Bill Belichick or you're whoever. And you're usually pretty sharp. And Bill Belichick has some bad draft picks. But it doesn't matter. Just anybody.

And you say, I have this edge on other general managers because I'm doing this. It's usually going to involve something on the interpersonal side. Everybody looks at tape. So, I mean, you're probably losing some of your edge. And if you're Bill O'Brien, who makes bad draft picks, you're probably going to be fine. Okay, again, I'm just playing counter to what you're saying, because you're making a lot of sense, and I don't necessarily disagree with any you're saying.

What if I just said, look, General Manager Ross, we're in a really strange spot. Tough Nuggies. I get it. Yeah, I mean, sack up one year. We're not asking you to do this for the rest of your life. We're not saying that kids can't come to your facilities in future years, but we're in a little bit of a strange scenario here.

But if I'm a general manager, one bad draft can cost me my job. If I have a bad draft and then these guys, these five to seven guys are however many we're drafting, all, don't pan out the way I want them to, which may have happened, may have happened anyways. It might, but it might affect the draft. And then I'm,

it doesn't matter. In three years from now, when they say, wow, look at this crappy draft class. They're not going to really give you excuses. They're probably not going to give you a break. They're going to say, you should have done better. This team,

Team X drafted well and got some good prospects, and you didn't. Well, maybe I didn't get to do everything I wanted to do. And then now I'm out of a job. Mickey Loomis is the general manager of the New Orleans Saints. He says this. I'd be personally in favor to laying the draft so that we can get some of the work done that our scouts and our personnel people ordinarily do. And then just the logistics for trying to conduct the draft with not having access to your draft rooms and your offices creates a lot of logistical problems.

This is not a fantasy draft where you conduct out there with just a list of the things on a piece of paper. There's a lot of work that goes into the prepare. There's a lot of work that is done during the draft. Listen, it'll be very, very difficult to conduct that and you do it in a way that you're doing a job. best us to the process. He's not telling the truth. We can all empathize with that. But if anybody fires a general manager over this year's draft under the circumstances

in, then they're pretty short-sighted general management ownership group. What if they did something like have all the prospects in a hotel? Like, okay, how many, what is, how many draft picks are they normally? Like 200. Oh, seven rounds. So that's 214. 200. Yeah, whatever.

Well, more than that. No, 224. Yeah. 224. So you get 224 hotel rooms or I guess 300 hotel rooms. And then you can sign up, right? You can sign up for meetings and you go from, you get the, you know, you Purell in and out. And then you sign up for a meeting for each one of them.

You sign up for a time. What do you think? Just like that kind of the face-to-face meetings? I guess. I don't know. Honestly, if I'm one of these cigar-smoking, dinner jacket wearing Uber billionaires, I tell my general managers, look, I'm going to give you a pass. I'm going to give you some more leeway. Look, if you go four and 12 this year, you're going to be fired regardless of the draft in front of players or not, that's just the truth.

But they need these days. These NFL owners understand that America's crave for sports. and they're going to say general managers, we understand the situation we're in, but you know what? Tough noggies. How much? I mean, it's April and you're going to have the draft,

and the season doesn't start until September. You're going to tell me delaying the draft a month or two is going to really throw off the timeline that much? So let's say I did it. Let's say, I say, okay, May 23rd. Yeah, okay. But what if we don't have rules in place to visit? They say June.

I should keep pushing it back. No, then you're really putting yourself in a bind. Why? You can't just keep pushing back over and over and over again. I think that's what the NFL is saying. I mean, you do rookie mini camp. How many is that? That's a few days.

And then you do mini camp. That's a few days. You do training camp. That's not as exhaustive as it was in years past either. You have to also take time to sign these guys to contracts. There's general, I mean, it's slotting. There's slotting now in the NFL. My feeling is.

There's not a whole lot of negotiating going on from pick to pick. I'm not going to say I don't feel, I don't feel sorry for the general manager. Because if I was in their position, I'd be fighting the same thing. I just think that for one year the hundred of the rules are off. How much is it throwing off the clock if you delay it a couple months? That's what I want to know.

Because free agency is basically done. You're good there. Could there be some owners that say... What is it hurting? Could the owners be saying, you know what? Maybe my guys aren't ready that this is a stall tactic.

This is them... The reason the NFL would be pushing this to go on as planned is because they want as many eyeballs on them as possible. If they push it a couple of months and the NBA started back up and baseball is going, they're not going to be watching. That's why they're doing this is greed. This is for TV ratings, I think. Yeah, it's not, I think, I think it's, and I know that April 23rd, there's nothing else going on.

They get the eyeballs. NFL draft Ross for three days for somebody like me who's not a big draft Nick, we're watching every minute of it. I might still be on Tiger King. You better not, but you better have Tiger King done by like Friday. meaning tomorrow. Okay. Larry and Stafford on 790.

Larry, where you've been, my friend? Hey, MT just been out here trying to do the right thing by staying at home and just listening and just trying to, you know, make sure my family good, man. And I hope you and the boy that 790 are doing the same thing, man. But we appreciate your role being on. Where are you going? Yeah, MT, let me ask you something, man. You've been on board a long time ago saying that you were never going to be an OB faith.

Never. Never. By the way, I've been calling you out a little bit, and I got a small bet with somebody, okay? I got you at the first Texans game this year. MP, you, hey, man, before you made that bet, you know your man should have text me, babe. Oh, that ain't going to happen. No, I mean, have you given up for now, or have you given up, giving up? Look here, I'm a Texan fan.

And I've gone through some very hard seasons, MP, and been able to manage to come. back. I will not do anything Texans related as long as Bill O'Brien as a head coach over there, man. I'll continue to have my tickets because I want my son to be able to pass them on to my grandkids or whatever. But as far as me sitting in that stadium, when Bill O'Brien's a head coach, that won't happen in 2020, Matt. I'll leave those damn seats open before I go sit in there. and that's a promise. So you're going to lose that bad. All right.

It's a small wage, I don't feel too bad about it. But Larry, I'm just telling you, I was thinking about you when I brought this up several times because, man, the fire and brimstone coming out of people's mouths right now is pretty intense.

But I got a feeling come first game of the 2020 season. There'll be a lot of people that might say, you know what? He's not our guy, but they're our team. We're going to be there to support him. And that's what concerns it. Because that's the only way Cal sees any of this difference. of people say, you know what, I'm done with you.

I really am, and I don't know if there's enough people that will do that. And MP, and I believe you made you absolutely right if this was normal times. But we have seen this jackass O'Brien in the last five years do things that we never even sawed on papers our Kubiak do. And he's intentionally doing things to ruin this franchise not to make us better, but to make us worse. And I'm on record as to say it, if you're in a conference that has Lamar Jackson and Pat Mahomes in your conflict

where you're trying to get to the Super Bowl and we had Tom Brady, but he had moved on to the NFC East. Why the hell are you getting rid of real dogs like DeVeon Clowney and Deerre Hopkins? This tells me that this egomaniac has no interest

allowing our team to even sniffle Super Bowl. Because if you think you can make it to the Super Bowl with the likes of Jacob Martin and all these special team-ass players you sided, I'm going to get to the Eric Martin, the Murray signing from Cleveland in the minute. But if you think that's what's going to get you over the top,

you are sadly mistaken because if I'm not mistaken, I know damn well Cleveland, not Cleveland, but Baltimore and Kansas City hasn't gotten rid of anybody. Well, let me ask you this, M.T. Bill O'Brien did this whole deal when everything was on hush, because people couldn't really go over there and ask him no questions. But getting rid of DeAndre Havkin, when you knew that you got to relate, he got a relationship with your quarterback.

What do you think in his mind is the logic behind it? Because it can't be about money because we've heard capitalologists and everybody says it's not about money. It can be about production because we know D'Andre Hawkins had 100 young, 100 catches and a thousand yards of season. And you could just go back and look at the Buffalo game and a Kansas City game and see how it was. What do you think is in Bill O'Brien, M.T?

He is power hungry and he's got all of it. And his owner doesn't care. His owner writes off, signs off on everything he does. Larry, imagine how good that is to work for somebody that accepts every one of your moves. And when you have that, you think you're invincible. And, oh, by the way, you get to hoist another AFC South Banner in the building, and your owner loves that, period. And to you, nobody that I know of can be just damaging in their job and continue to get a check with the name of that organization on it. Let me say this, and I know y'all probably need to go.

I'll say it to you this way. I don't know why the Houston media, like the John McLean of the rules and all these other people are trying to push this narrative that they're going to be better without DeAndre Hopkins because if they can go out and sign these journey men-ass people. But if you're giving Eric Murray $20 million and not a damn person in the history of the world know who the hell that clown is, and then you see you come back and you see the likes of Justin Reed's brother, Rick Reed, who is a damn good safety out there. And you're giving these guys this kind of money, it makes no sense.

And you've got to look at it in a total picture of what they did when they resigned merciless. These kind of things are confounding to people. And I'll tell you what, M.T., I'm going to be a Texan fan until I die, and I'll never give a damn about Bill O'Brien and I'll holl. See you, Larry. Good to hear from your friend. 231 is our time. The next segment of the Matt Thomas show is for adults 21 and over,

older only. 21 and over. If you are under the age of 21, you may not listen to the next segment of the show. We are offering some very positive information from our boss's email account. 232 on Sports Talk 790. Stay calm. Stay informed. We'll let you know when first pitch is moments away. Your games will be back on.

Yeah? And it looks like we'll be dusting off the Reggie Bush Vince Young debate in the meantime. And what should they do with the dome, huh? And is Matt Schaub and elite QB? Just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding. No, really.

We're just kidding. The Houston Sports Talk continues on Sports Talk 790. I like big bucks and I cannot lie. 237 on Sports Talk 790. Believe it or not coming up in about 20 minutes from now. Okay. I've got to tell the truth. Our boss did not get this from his personal email account.

he got it from a news site over 21 only plays in this segment if you under 21 don't listen there is a website that features adult films isn't 18 okay yeah but I think 21's better why I don't just Is there alcohol involved?

No Backo products Pornhub premium is free to fight coronavirus Oh great First route of hands at and now we're out of hand lotion. Awesome.

The Pornhub website hopes to keep you safe at home with free premium content to enjoy. Oh, do you not need to be broadcasting this, Matt? The offer is going on until April the 23rd. A free month. P-Hub. We'll just keep it at that. How about the Hub? The Hub.

I like that. Is also donating 85% of its video sales to adult performers who have been economically hit by the crisis. Let me just, let me, let me, okay, issue number one, who's ever paying for it? There are people that do that. Okay. Number two, why has the adult industry been hit harder? I mean, I'm going to assume that if you're doing an adult film, you're doing it in an area that people don't know that you're like, no, like in the ninth floor in the office building next to us, there could be an adult film studio. We don't know it.

Well, you're trying to social distance, Matt. You can't social distance. and some of them may be having problems with being in groups that are fewer than 10. The company has also donated 15,000 surgical masks to New York's first responders. Surgical masks. 20,000 masks to Mount Sinai, South Nassau Hospital

and money for organizations to purchase masks in Europe. How did Pornhub get so many masks? Well, they probably bought them. I don't know where they got it from, but they bought them. Yeah, I don't know if I want to... Would you accept Pornhub masks? So if your P-Hub or the Hub, the Hub, I like that.

Buy our super premium service, and you can help those that you just watched pay bills. What's the difference between the free premium and the super premium? Couldn't tell you. You're going to go find out later? Nope. That's why I put Ross on the assignment. Ross, your assignment tomorrow will give us the update on what exactly the hub's premium service is. So wait, how's Ross going to possibly finish Tiger King if now that?

The HUB's for you. I'd rather you... The Hub or Tiger King? Well, you know, you get a whole month for the premium. So you might as well watch the premium first. The Hub. And then you can go back and catch Tiger after that. Of equally alarming news.

Yeah, don't. Yeah, you got to take a break from the Hub to rehydrate. Yeah, how much can you watch the Hub in one sitting anyway? Five, ten minutes? I don't. All right. I can go a little longer than that. Does Mrs. Lono you go more than ten minutes?

Well, I've never had Pornhub before, so I guess we'll find out. I guess you'll find out. Give us a report tomorrow. One of my all-time favorite restaurants. Scattered, smothered, covered, chopped, diced, sliced. Chonies? Oh, the Waffle House. Shutting down 365 locations across the country.

Oh, God, society's about to break down. Let me tell you something. Waffle House has been basically the Hallmark. of everything's okay and normalcy. Yeah, because you go in there, no matter what time of day, you're getting the same service at 4 a.m. as you are at 4 p.m. No, like literally when there are national disasters, now I know this because of writing, believe it or not,

which is how I know anything I know, when there are natural disasters, and they say there's like a hurricane, one of the things that the experts look to, is a waffle house running because they'll run under any conditions. There are lean as it gets. If a Waffle house is running, they're like, okay, we're getting close to being back to normal. So up to this point, were they still running 24 hours a day with just to go?

It'd have to be. For the most places, anyway, big cities anyway. Yeah, there's still 1,600 locations that will stay open. See, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Waffle House is one of the top four corporations, along with Walmart, the Home Depot, and Lowe's for disaster response. Because you go in there, you eat a big, hearty meal. you're not there for an hour and a half, two hours. You're out in 35 minutes' tops.

You get a couple songs in the jukebox. They don't come on until you're leaving. Once a month, I go to the Waffle House by the Intercontinental Airport. We're on my way to work. Well, is it still going to be there? I don't know. I should find out. But I'm going to start doing takeout a Waffle House.

I got a lot of places to take out. Can't support every business, Matt. I'm going to try. Waffle House is Americana. Waffle House is a part of my childhood. Waffle House is me as a young adult. What do you mean? Were you born in a Waffle House or something?

No, I'm just saying that when money was lean and you wanted to go out and get something to eat, you get that All-Star Special for 975 and your belly's full for two and a half days. That's not a cheap meal, Matt. It's not, but it's a lot. You get the eggs, the bacon, the sausage, the browns, the toast, and the waffle. When money was lean, I'd give it a 99-cent double cheeseburgers from Burger King. A couple of those and a 99-cent fry, and I was set. Ross, we used to go to the horse tracks in Oklahoma City.

We'd go to the Waffle House after and have the All You Can Eat Special for $6. I used to take the money out of the cup holder in my dad's car and then head on over to the Burger King. Man, man, we are different. We are born differently. Fagged up. Well, you listen to this show for 10 minutes. You can tell that. All right.

So Waffle House employees, we're thinking about you. We stand in solidarity. Go get you at three waffles. You know what, in solidarity, I'm going to watch more Waffle House fights on YouTube tonight. Why don't you do this? Why don't you support two groups? Get some Waffle House to go and watch a little bit of the hub. I'm not going to watch the hub.

It's not support. them. Woofell house brawl compilation. Here we go. That's a rabbit hole you can't get out of. I bet the hub has a Waffle House fetish section.

Who do you think's got better fights? That might be the super premium section. Inside of a Waffle House or inside of a flight on Spirit. Probably the Waffle House. Probably more of them. Less danger. Yeah.

Ooh, this guy's in a brawl with a cigarette still in his mouth. All right, Matt, you've lost me for the rest of the show. Believe it or not, it's next. 244. If you want to play 713, 212, 5, 790, we've got no prizes, but we have shotouts. And shoutouts would be quite a bit of a popular gift giveaway here on the radio program. Believe it or not next on 790.

Rip it H-Town, like five, slamma, jammer. Yo, what's up, this you boy, bumbeat, the Trill O.G with the whitest man in America. Matt Thomas. You are now tuned in to Sports Talk 790, man. Please check out our website at Sports790.com, A, because we get great blog material. Secondly, we have some great news that we're going to be broadcasting some old Astro games. Because tomorrow's opening day.

Sadly, it's not going to open on time. But tomorrow will be the combined no-hitter for the Astros against the Mariners. It'll be tomorrow 9 at 7 o'clock here on 7.90. Friday night at 7. Texas versus USC and the Rose Bowl National Championship game in 2005. Ross would be all over that. Saturday night, it's the Astros home opener against the Oakland days of 2019. And Sunday will be Justin Verlander's no-hitter against the Blue Jays in Toronto.

Oh, wonderful. Craig Way on the call. When is that going to be? That'll be Friday night at seven. All right. I'll be tuned in. That means you'll have no plans because you're going to be in home. I'll be on a nightcap six to seven. Should I do a full one-hour pregame? Like set it up? Like you're there live? Yes.

How old are you? at 2005? I was 21. Okay. To me cut your teeth, getting your first pregame show underway. Yeah, okay. I like it. So tomorrow's no combined no hitter. Friday is the national championship. Saturday is the home opener against the A's in 2000. Does something special happen then? Oh yeah, I just turned 21 when that game happened. We went to Vegas. We just gotten back from Vegas. We went for my birthday. And Sunday will be the Verlanner no hitter against the Toronto Blue Jets. Wonderful. All right. That is on the show tomorrow. and then we'll have some

I think some astro-related guests concerning that tomorrow. We're going to kind of make it kind of a baseball-de-show tomorrow. All right. We're talking baseball. We're going to talk about why the Red Sox are not being punished as of yet.

It's going to happen. Are you sure? I think so. Now it would be the time because it will get swept on the rug kind, right? Or would it be, why don't we wait until the start of the season when everybody's talking about the games

and we'll throw the punishment again? And that'll really sweep it under the rug. Right now there's nothing else to talk about so maybe it would be a bigger deal. Yeah, five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports game. Shall we simply call it believe it or not?

And here's how it works. You'll call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe it or not is brought to you by Woodhouse Day Spaws. Print out your gift card for the gift of relaxation in Houston Woodhouse Spas.com. The category today is all things about The Office yesterday was their 15th year anniversary. Rossi, the number of episodes of The Office I've watched.

Zero? That'd be correct. Wow. It's... People love it more than I do, but I like it. It's good. It's good. It's worth your time.

It's put it on the list, though. I'll read you a question about the Office. The statement is completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. If it's erroneous photo bunk in a man up, you will say this. Not. Two believe it or nots in a row.

Correctly answered on The Office. Well, win you a prize. Ross, what's the prize? Yeah. winner, we'll get a shout out. You can shout out your podcast, your website. You can just shout out how much you love won Matt Thomas in the AtSportsMT Twitter account or anything like that. That's a great prize right there. Wonderful. Let's play. Neal on 790, Neal, you're ready to play, believe it or not?

Well, Matt, I've seen about as much of the office as you have, so can you help me on these questions? I have the answers, so I really can't help you. Okay, well, I guess not. Then if you've got the answers, okay, I'm ready. All right. The show was supposed to be called the American workplace before it was changed to the office. Believe it or not? Believe it. Hey, you're halfway home.

The show was nearly canceled after poor ratings in the first season, but the writers made Michael Scott more likable and ratings improved. Believe it or not. Believe it. No. Sorry, I wish I could have helped you, but I had the answers. That's a shame. Let's go to Elwood on 790. Elwood, you're ready to play, believe it or not?

Elwood Blues? Yes, sir. Elwood, in season one, Michael Scott pretends to fire Pam over abusing sick days. Believe it or not. Not. It was stealing post-it notes. Statement number two for the win. Angela, Oscar, Phyllis, and Creed are all characters that share the same first name as their actors.

Believe it or not? No. Believe it. I don't even understand Nick. question. The characters and the actor who's played them, they all have the same first name. Like if you were to play a character named Matt. I like that.

713, 212, 5, 790. Anaconda. Oh, boy, this is Bill. Bill. Hey, did it? Wow. Hey, did they have any black people in the office? Yes, Stanley.

Believe it or not. Oh, okay. That's not your question. Bill. He was like a Tyrone or Leroy, come on, dude. Okay. When the producers wanted to make up an American version of the office, they originally had Ben Stiller in mind to play Michael Scott,

but he turned down the role, believe it or not. That's unbelievable. Believe it. No. God. Thanks, Bill. Slash Anaconda. Yeah.

I'll never shake that name. Chris on 790, ready to play, believe it or not? Hell yeah. Steve Carell sweats so profusely. that the sets had to be kept at 84 degrees so his scenes wouldn't get ruined. Believe it or not? Not. Believe it.

We actually watch the office? It's a big yes from him. He's plugging in every electronic that he has. This is absurd. What are you inputting over there? My God, we're not running a laboratory here. Eesh. All right, let's go.

Joe on 790, Joe, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. There was supposed to be a spinoff of the office called the farm that followed Dwight on his beat farm, but the project was eventually scrapped. Believe it or not. Believe it. Statement number two for the win. When Michael Scott kissed Oscar in the episode, Gay Witch Hunt, it was completely improvised.

Improvised by Steve Carell. Believe it or not. Believe it Believe it Good job, man I was not worried For the hard word What's your shout-out

Go ahead Go ahead, go ahead, Joe Yes Believe it You want to shout out Believe it No, just no, you want What's your shout out?

Go ahead Oh, what's my what? Shout out Say something nice about something Oh, the show man Y'all doing a good job Oh, thank you Joe I have a great day

Appreciate you, see you All right man All right. Let's wrap it up, Ross. Yes. The right way, please. Matt, you feeling sluggish? Nope.

Lack of energy. A little bit, yeah. There's a lack of motivation. There's a lot of people feeling like that right now, and that's why I need to send you to my friends over at Synergenics. They are Houston's highest rated low testosterone clinic, and they can build a custom plan specifically designed for you. Not everybody else is going to do that, but synergenics will, so you're going to get the best help at the best possible time. You can find them online at 833335. 6-3-3-6-2-T, where you can get a free low-tie test.

You're feeling sluggish. You're feeling tired. Maybe you're not ringing the bell in the bedroom. They can help you with that. It might not be your fault. It might be low testosterone. So go to synergenics, testosterone clinics at 833-fixed low-tie. 833 Fix-low-T.

That's going to do it for the radio show today. Thanks to Kevin Harlan for joining us. It was an excellent, excellent visit. So, Astro-related guests tomorrow, as we saw, celebrate what would have been opening day 2020. Wexler, Clinton. They're the A team, and they're up next on Sports Talk 790.