Best of Outkick the Coverage: 01/03/19

Clay Travis thinks that Antonio Brown needs to be traded and he proves he is the King Solomon of radio with the Anonymous Mail Bag! Clay ranks the 8 NFL coaching vacancies and a couple of them may surprise you. Plus, Todd Fuhrman joins Outkick with all the best bets for Wild Card Weekend and the National Championship Game!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the best of out Kicked the coverage with
Clay Travis on Fox Sports Radio. Our poll question is
up and it's simple. We got ten thousand votes so far.
If you ran the Steelers, how would you handle Antonio
Brown not showing up for the final game of the season.

(00:21):
If you haven't followed this story, it is wild. It
is diva like. It is absurd and why and and
and and really crazy for a franchise like the Pittsburgh Steelers,
which has long prided itself on professionalism. On Wednesday of
the final week of the NFL season, Antonio Brown got

(00:41):
angry and threw a football at Ben Roethlisberger, his quarterback.
He then did not show up for practice for multiple days.
The Steelers couldn't get in touch with him. They didn't
know what to do. They claimed that he was injured
and was not going to play in the games. Saturday,
Come Sunday, come as Brown shows up watches the game

(01:02):
from the stadium in some way, everything about it is
utterly absurd. Mike Tomlin yesterday had a press conference where
he tried to address the situation. This is what it
sounded like. After Friday's business was done, it became difficult
to to communicate and catch up with him. I wasn't
able to communicate with him on Friday evening or Saturday morning.

(01:24):
So when we had our Saturday morning my game or
walk through and he was unavailable and we hadn't communicated
with him, then it became something altogether different. Circumstances being
what they were and the amount of things that we
were going through, Um, it wasn't allow of communication there. Obviously,
we take his lack of communication and his lack of presence,
particularly on Saturday prior to the game, to be something

(01:44):
that's very significant. It will be handled appropriately. So I'm
not going to speculate on trades and things of that nature.
We haven't formally received a request in that regard. I'm
not going to speculate in terms of where the discipline
might go and things of that nature. Just know, um,
that is going to be addressed, and it will be
address and needs to be addressed for obvious reasons. So

(02:06):
the Steelers under Mike Tomlin have fallen into a mess.
And I think you can make an argument, and a
pretty solid argument right now, that Mike Tomlin would deserve
to be fired over the off field shenanigans that have
gone on with the Steelers over the past year and
change Levian Bell not being able to get worked out.

(02:27):
Maybe you can give Mike Tomlin a pass on that
because it's more of a financial decision than it is
a football decision. Maybe, But not being able to get
your star wide receiver to show up to play in
the final week of the season as you are fighting
for your playoff wife is to me a sign that
Mike Tomlin has lost control of this locker room and

(02:49):
of this franchise in general. So our poll question, which
over ten thousand of you have voted in the last hour,
is if you ran the Steelers, how would you handle
Antonio around not showing up for the final game of
the season. Options are release him, trade him, fine, and
keep him. Fifty seven percent of you are saying trade him,

(03:12):
thirty one are saying fine and keep him, twelve percent
are saying release him. Now. Complicating factor in terms of
all of this is, of course, the contract situation, and
the contract situation in particular is a substantial component of
this story overall, and that is how do the Steelers

(03:32):
handle it? Right now? Antonio Brown is in his third
year of a five year, seventy two point seven million
dollar contract extension that's already been restructured. He has a
salary cap of twenty two point one million this year.
If he's off the roster, the Steelers take on twenty
one million dollars worth of dead money that could be

(03:55):
separated out over multiple years, but it would still been
that that is a substantial dollar figure the Steelers don't have,
which is why trading him is probably preferable. Is there
a team out there that would take on this remaining
amount of salary That is a challenge, particularly considering that
Antonio Brown is a thirty year old receiver right now,

(04:19):
and that you would be uh basically gambling that you
could get him to buy into whatever team that you
are running and that his productivity would continue to remain
at the same level. Remember, thirty one year old wide
receivers typically do not get better. That's particularly the case

(04:40):
if he might be playing for a team that is
not as talented at the quarterback position as what he
has grown used to with Ben Roethlisberger, who goes bends
over backwards to get him the football. Uh. And remember
that Antonio Brown is also going to turn thirty one

(05:01):
years old before the season starts this year. So again,
when you factor in age here and salary, Antonio Brown
is making a lot of money for a thirty one
year old wide receiver when let's be honest, most wide
receivers are not still behaving uh in a or not

(05:22):
not still performing in extraordinary fashion into their thirty twos
and thirty three year old receiving ages. Now. This is
also further evidence of how the NFL standard for behavior
is totally different than almost any other profession. In almost
any other profession, if you threw a object at a

(05:45):
coworker and then did not show up for work for
multiple days, you would be fired on the spot. The
standard for behavior is very lenient in the NFL, particularly
when you are Antonio Brown. You have had I think
it's six straight seasons of over one catches. You were
able to get away with basically any and everything. And

(06:09):
I don't know what the solution is on this, but
Antonio Brown is claiming that he's gonna do an interview
with James Harrison. James Harrison sometimes comes on Lock It
In with Us, my daily television show on FS one.
I've never thought to myself, man, James Harrison seems like
a reincarnation of Mike Wallace on sixty Minutes. So I

(06:30):
have no idea how that interview would go, but I
figure it would not be positive for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
As if all of this drama was not enough, Antonio
Brown has also recently taken to uh not only Twitter,
but also to the television airwaves where believe it or not,

(06:50):
and I swear to god, this really happened. Now, this
was pre taped, but last night he appeared on a
masked singing special seeing along to Bobby Brown's my prerogative
and I think we have actually, this is real. I
think we have actual audio. This okay, sounds like an athlete.

(07:37):
Is there anything else extraordinary here? Or is this just
my prerogatives? Anything else set in this flip? Just as
amazing singing? Yeah, just amazing singing from Antonio Brown. The
concept of this show is that you wear a head,
you know, like a mask and a mask in a costume. Yeah,
in a costume. And so this thing was taped beforehand,

(07:59):
but I think it just kind of speak to Antonio
Brown's larger diva tendencies. And this also reminds me back
in the day, Kenny britt who was a first round
draft pick of the Tennessee Titans, had all these off
field related incidents and nobody had heard from him, and
like months, as he was coming back from rehabbing an injury,
and then I swear to God, this happened. He showed

(08:21):
up on the stage as Britney Spears is Slave during
a concert live in Nashville, Tennessee. I have not even
making this up. You know, you've got a diva receiver.
When nobody has heard from him for months, nobody knows
where he is, what he's doing, what his day to
day is gonna be. And then suddenly he shows up
in a like gimp mask on the stage being written

(08:44):
by Brittney Spears around on the stage in Nashville. This
not quite that. But Antonio Brown, in the middle of
all the news, suddenly appears on Fox on this new
Masks television show. I want to bring in the crew
because the poll question is how you handle this? And
I started earlier in hour one with Eddie Garcia, who

(09:04):
is a Steelers fan. I still want to go back
to him. You've had more time to think about this.
What do you do? I want everybody to pretend that
they are the Steelers GM and they have to figure
out what to do. Here I want your solution. I'm
gonna go around the horn. Eddie Garcia. I start with
you because you are a Steelers fan. Yeah, I'm I

(09:26):
still need to know what the problem is. This is.
This is one of the craziest things about this whole situation.
I don't think they specifically know what Antonio Brown is
upset about. Because he's getting paid, he's productive, he's having
a good season. Uh, you know, there's speculation he was
hurt because he wasn't named the m v P and

(09:47):
another receiver was Juju Smith Schuster and that he's upset
about that. And I mean, I guess is that what
he's upset about? He is he feel like he's not
loved by me. He's already one year old. Man. I
totally agree. And here can you imagine? I mean, I
don't even know what the reaction would be. I have
never missed. Like, if if I am going to miss
one of the days on this show, I tell our

(10:10):
bosses Scott Shapiro and Don Martin, like six months in advance,
I'll email them and be like, hey, here's what the
next six months looks like me, looks like for me
to allow you to plan out what the show would
look like. This show is wildly successful now, the most
successful morning show Fox Sports Radio has ever had. I

(10:31):
think they might fire me if I threw something at
a coworker and then didn't respond to any of their
text messages for the next five days, right, And I
don't think there'd be any kind of defense that anybody
would have for my behavior in that context. So, like
your point of I want to know what he's upset about,
I kind of get that, But he's not six, you know,

(10:54):
Like my position is, our checks aren't bouncing. I don't
care whether you're upset or not. You show up and
you perform. Now, if you want to behave like an
adult and ask for a meeting with your boss because
something is going on that you feel like is hindering
your ability to perform at the highest level and you
want to get it rectified, that's how an adult would respond.

(11:17):
But I think something as a coworker and then just
not showing up for work for the next five days.
Nine nine percent of people, no matter what their job is,
in America, would lose their job for that. But I
think if you're the star of the network and you're
doing really well and the t and the network would
like to keep you, I think you why did you

(11:39):
do that something at one of you and then refused
to respond to text messages for five consecutive days. You
guys have been at the network longer. I've never missed
a day of work so far, right, I've been pretty
easy going. But I think they would be well within
their rights to fire me if that happened. And you know,

(12:00):
like for radio purposes, we're doing about as well as
a radio show can do right in our time slot
and everything else, And I still feel like they would
have perfectly within their rights to fire me. Now, if
they eventually found out that the reason why I hadn't
you know, been in contact was because you know, something
awful had happened, then there's a different storyline there. But
just not showing up for five works like if I

(12:22):
got kidnapped by a Mexican cartel and that's the reason
why I wasn't responding to contact, Okay, Like there's yeah,
that would be a hell of the story. That would
at least be a reason, right, But just not to
show up because I was angry about something like that's
not how an adult behaves, and I I don't think
very many people would keep their jobs. I don't disagree

(12:42):
with what you're saying, but again you're asking me if
i'm the GM. I try to bring him in. I
try to figure out what the problem is, and I
try to see if there's a solution to it. But
I also am taking calls, making calls to find out
what is out there if we want to trade him,
test the waters, see what we can get return. Everything's
on the table right now. But he looked he's too

(13:03):
good for you to say, even with what he's done.
And again, I'll put up with a lot of crap
from a great player, but you got to show up
to do your job. So I'm considering trading one of
the best receivers in the NFL. But I try to
work it out. But if I can't work it out,
then yeah, I'm I'm totally up for getting rid of
him and bringing in somebody. I'm trading him, but I
I can't send the message to the rest of the

(13:26):
team that you cannot show up for a game and
feud with your coach, with your quarterback and everybody else.
I am getting as much value as I can for
him and putting him on the market and never letting
him play for the Steelers again. Danny G, what would
you do? I'm with you. Ain't nobody got time for
DIVA wide receivers right now. And you might have heard

(13:47):
about that report where a teammate said that A B
was talking smack to coaches and teammates right after he
got his big pay day. If that's true, and I'm
the GM that really really bothers me, and I move
away from them. Most likely the Steelers have the twenty pick.
My biggest needs would be cornerback, linebacker, pass rusher, but

(14:08):
I would move wide receiver up to the top of
that list. There's a couple of other Browns available in April.
A J. Brown of Old miss and Marquis Hollywood Brown
of Oklahoma would look good in a Steelers universe. Yeah,
And look, the Steelers are fortunate that they have a
very good quarterback, a Hall of Fame quarterback in Ben Roethlisberger,
and I think they're gonna be able to He makes

(14:28):
a lot of receivers look good. Look at how good
Jujuice Smith Schuster has been in his second year. The
challenge I think for the Steelers more so than anything else,
is I talked about a little bit how this reminds
me of Russell Wilson and the situation that took place
in Seattle where the defense wanted to be the leaders
of that team, and Pete Carroll picked Russell Wilson and said, no,
you're the face of this franchise. You're my guy. That's

(14:50):
easier to do when your quarterback is young and you
know you have a lot of years left. What does
Ben Roethlisberger have left? Two three years at the absolute topic? Yeah,
so when you're choosing Ben Roethlisberger here now. Interestingly, I
think the same thing is probably true of Antonio Brown.
Antonio Brown is gonna be thirty one in July. What
are the odds that he's gonna be a great wide

(15:10):
receiver at thirty four or thirty five? The numbers would
suggest over time in the NFL that the number of
really good thirty four year old wide receivers are few
and far between. What about you, dub how do you
handle this? I don't know, but I just can't stop
thinking about the Steelers replacing Antonio Brown with Hollywood Brown,
which is his cousin. That would be Yeah, you definitely

(15:34):
can't draft his cousin. That's a funny. I mean, I
like the idea of him being a playmaker in the NFL,
but replacing him with his cousin would be would be
pretty unbelievable. It's like when the Titans kicked steaming there
to the curb and then replaced him with his godson
Vince Young. Uh, that was a really awkward situation. He
can't replace him with his cousin. I don't think. I

(15:55):
think a J. Brown would do phenomenally. Um. I don't
know where a J. Brown is projected to going right now,
old miss wide receiver, but he would do phenomenally well.
I think with Ben Roethlisberger now speed and the ability
to stretch the defense, there aren't very many guys in
the NFL doing it better than Antonio Brown right now,
so that would be a challenge maybe finding somebody who

(16:17):
fits in as well with him. Roberto, how do you
handle it? I agree with you, guys, you gotta trade
them if they're not gonna get rid of Mike Tomlin,
who allows these kind of crazy things to happen in
the locker room because who mrs practice during the weekend says, Oh,
you know what, I'm just gonna go. I'm gonna show
up to the game because Mike Tomlin might might let
me play anyways. Yeah, that's crazy, That's that's insane. And
you imagine that working for Bill Belichick. Can you imagine

(16:37):
having your agent called Bill Belichick on Saturday or Sunday
to try to figure out whether or not you're gonna
be able to play in the game despite the fact
that you haven't shown up for multiple days of practice
and haven't shown up at the facility as you get ready.
I mean again, I the only thing I wish, if
I could change anything, is just I wish the Steelers
were in the playoffs and all this news is coming out.
And by the way, I think the Steelers have to

(16:59):
get find a big dollar figure here by the NFL too,
because they lied on their injury report. They lied on
why Antonio Brown was not playing, and those injury report
uh and and statements I think matter a great deal
when you are looking at them to see who might
be playing in games and who might not, and when

(17:20):
you lie and say that the reason he's not playing
is because of injuries when in reality he's just calling
off the deep end and throwing a fit. Um. I
I just don't think that's acceptable. I think the NFL
has to him with a fine. Here. Be sure to
catch live editions of I Would Kick the Coverage with
Clay Travis weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.

(17:41):
It's time for the Anonymous mail Bag live on the radio.
We got callers lined up eight seven seven nine, six
three six nine. You can also hop in as well,
but queue the music boys. Let's hear what this sounds like.
You've got anonymous mail back. There was a problem with Sloman.
Let's go to the great state of Texas. What you

(18:04):
got for me? What's going on? I had a good
New Year's Uh kinda feel like I'm calling then on
the Jerry Springer Show right now. So I got one
of my buddies. She had uh a child or his
life had a child by another man last year. Uh. Now, well,

(18:24):
hold on a sec Hold on a second. How did
he find out that the kid wasn't his? Um, it
was a different race. Oh well that's uh, that's a
that's one way okay, and he stayed with her. Um
did so he didn't know in advance, or he showed
up at the at the hospital and the baby was

(18:46):
a different race than him. She told him, she told
him when she got pregnant. Alright, Now she's messing around
with a girl and they have two kids together. Um,
but he does not want to you know, it'd been
together since they were in there, you know, thirteen years old,

(19:09):
somewhere around there. I don't know, and uh, you know,
I just don't want to give that up. So okay,
so hold on a sex So she uh, they have
three kids total, two or his one are by another guy.
And now she's taken up with women. Yeah, uh, you
gotta just tell him to leave. You gotta tell him
to pull the ripcord. Is she really good looking? I
don't even understand what the attraction here would be. Yeah, yeah,

(19:32):
she's she's decent. It's more so that they does have kids,
and uh, just you know that's all that thing he's
known all this. Yeah, okay, that's this. Thanks for the call. Uh.
I can't even imagine how ridiculous the home life situation
would be if dad and mom were married and mom
has a kid by a different person while she's married

(19:53):
to dad. If you have any self respect whatsoever for yourself,
you bail on that you might be able probably to
get custody of the two kids that are yours. If
there's ever been a situation where you uh end up
looking like the good guy, I think it's probably when
your wife has a kid while you're married to her

(20:15):
by another guy. The self respect level deciding to stay
would have to be about as low as you could
possibly get. I actually feel bad for that guy just
hearing that story. And I feel even worse for him
that he has such a little testicular fortitude that he's

(20:36):
not even willing to walk out on her. What a
total pussy Willow, North Carolina? What you got for me? Hi?
Good morning? UM? All right, So I have a particularly
weird situation and uh you can be the voice the
reason here. So here it is. I met this girl.
She is a freshman of college who met in about

(20:56):
mid September. I live in a pretty small town. How
old are you and I You're twenty six and you
met a nineteen year old eighteen year old? She's twenty.
She took a year off that she's from college. All right,
freshman in college. Okay, yeah right, Okay, So again, I
live in a small town, um and she kind of

(21:18):
grew up in this town, but different high schools. Anyway,
the point is is, you know, we've been dating for
a couple of months and really wanted to wait on
meeting the parents and everything. So I brought her over
to meet my family on Christmas Eve for dinner. And
it was a really odd exchange when she met my dad.
I thought it was odd. I didn't really you know,
we didn't really expand on it. And then I called

(21:38):
her Christmas Day and she didn't answer, and I still
haven't heard from her. And then I finally talked to
her best friend and find out that she My dad
is an O B g U I N by the way,
and so that is how they know each other. They
completely played it off so I didn't know, so it
wasn't awkward because for him, he'd have been breaking hip
hop Uh So, basically, my dad is an OB G

(22:01):
I N who knows my girlfriend pretty intimately. I don't
know what to do. Well, first of all, if your
dad is a is a guynecologist in a small town,
he's seen a lot of pussy willows all over that town.
So the odds are, if you're dating a girl that
has a gynecologist in your small town, your dad might

(22:23):
be her doctor. So I I don't it's it's interesting.
I've never heard of even thinking of this this situation before.
I don't think this is actually really kind of fascinating.
I would imagine that this is like a woman's worst nightmare. Right,
maybe not worst nightmare, but this would be an uncomfortable situation.

(22:44):
Is like, hey, you know, it's a little bit awkward
when I go see this person for the you know,
like gynecological issues that I have, and then I unsuspectingly
realize that I'm dating his son and we don't see
each other until we go for Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner.
But she could just change the doctor, And my thought

(23:04):
would be, we really need the girl to call in
on this side of the story. But my thought would
be that, look, I mean, whatever you do for a living,
eventually you get tired of doing it. It's unlikely that
she has anything going on that he hasn't seen a
billion times before, right. I don't think that if you
talk to your average guy ecologist, he would be like, oh,

(23:27):
you know, I saw this one and it was so
much different than every other one I've ever seen in
my life. So I don't think unless, like, you know,
I can see if she had had like some sort
of like let's say she had had a couple of
different pregnancies when she was like fourteen or fifteen years old,
and he had known about it, like then, I can

(23:49):
see kind of the difficulty for her of being like,
oh my god, I can never date this guy. I
had an abortion when I was fourteen, and this guy
knows my father in law now knows all my medical history.
Unless she has a lot of things in her past
and she's young, she's only twenty. Unless she has something
like that in her past, I don't understand why this

(24:10):
would be a major issue for her. So my concern,
I guess if you're if you're the guy here and
you really like her, and she true truly has freaked
out in this manner, it might be that she had
something in her past that he knows about that she
wishes nobody else knew about, and it's the kind of
thing you don't want your father in law to know

(24:31):
about you. That's my first thought. If it's a typical,
you know, just doctor patient relationship and a small town.
Your dad treats a lot of the women in that town.
It would be hard, I would imagine for you to
find people who don't have some sort of connection in
a small town like that. That's that's a tough Uh.
That that's a tough situation as well. Uh eight seven

(24:54):
seven nine six three six nine is the phone number
going to New York next. I'm gonna go to Eddie
Garcia for an update. Double fields your calls in the
meantime and we will load them up to finish off
the segment. New York. What you got for me? Hey,
cleg morning, all right. So, UM, me and my buddies, Um,

(25:16):
I've been a long time Buffalo Bill season ticket holder
for over ten years. UM, my buddies and I you know,
we pretty much never missed a home game the last
ten years, other than you know, weddings and like, you know,
big events that one of us has had. We have
this Winnebago that we painted, you know, in all Buffalo
Bill's colors. You know, every Sunday morning we leave at

(25:37):
like six in the morning, we go up to the game.
You know, we come back, you know, eight nine o'clock
at night. Um, and recently, you know, I just had
my second kid, thirty five years old. Um. You know,
I've been married to my wife for six years. She
came into the relationship when we first started dating, knowing
that we did this like the ritual. And this past

(25:59):
year she's been really insistent that, you know, I sell
the Winnebago and it's time to basically grow up now
that I have a second child. How many people go
to uh, like you have the bills Winnebago. How many
of you telgate all day? Well, there's four of us
that have including me, that have been doing it for

(26:20):
over ten years. And you know, every week or so,
you know, we'll pick up a couple of buddies here
and there, but for the most part, it's always us four.
But I mean comfortably, it only holds like six or seven. Uh.
You know, my wife, you know, isn't really a big
football fan, so she's probably come with us maybe two
or three times in the last six years. And really,
I mean, this is you being able to get away

(26:41):
from your wife. And I'm assuming a lot of your
guy friends to like, this is your time to hang
out with guys in your mind, right right. Yeah, We've
been doing it for a while. You know, I've tried
to make compromises, you know, like I don't go out
on Friday Saturday nights if there's a Bills home game.
You know, I try to pull my extra weight around
the house, you know, try to do something nice, like
you know she likes theater, get her tickets and you know,

(27:03):
just you know, I know it's a whole day thing,
you know, watching you know, the little two little ones
at the house. How old are the kids for a
whole day time? My son just turned six months and
my daughters too, all right, so and everybody out there obviously,
So do you do this for the preseason two or
do you just do it for the regular season? Just

(27:24):
the regular season? So we're talking about eight different Sundays
or if the Bills happen to be on a Monday
night or whatever, it is eight different days, but primarily Sundays.
You get there at six and you don't get home
until nine. Yeah, roughly, you know, we leave her early
and you know we hang out a little later, all right,
So you know, usually it doesn't help that I come

(27:45):
home drunk either. Yeah, right, that's what I was gonna say,
I'm sure that you've been so. Uh, first of all,
if you're coming home by nine, that's way late, right
because the game is typically at one o'clock and would
be over by four, So I know how far you live. Um,
But but this is an interesting question. All right, So
you're thirty five, you've been doing this for ten years,

(28:07):
You've got two young kids. My first thought that's pretty easy,
is this, why could you afford to hire a babysitter
for your wife for part of Sunday? Yes, I mean
we couldn't. I mean, you know, she wants me to
sell it, but it's not I don't like financial concerns. Yes,
there's no issue there. It's just it's just more of

(28:29):
me not spending quality time with the family. Yeah. Well so,
first of all, the quality time with the family thing.
You've got a six month old, alright, Like the six
month old, there is no quality time with the six
month old in terms of things that he's gonna remember. Uh.
You know, I I've got three boys like that. That's
a that's an age where you're just constantly you're under seat.
I think what this is about is more there's a

(28:51):
couple of things here. It's it's a great question, and
I think a lot of guys have to deal with
this as they add kids to their family. This is
your wife wanting to pull you away from your friends
and your single life them and sort of make you
more of a stay at home dad type on the weekends.
What I think it's significant already that you said you've

(29:14):
done is on game day weekends, you don't do anything.
On a Friday or a Saturday, you stay around the house.
I think this is also about your wife wanting to
hang over your head. Oh, I'm spending all day Sunday
with these kids. Um. I think you already mentioned that
you will encourage her to do other things that that
don't necessarily have to involve you. What I would do

(29:36):
for the next season is I would add a babysitter
to the repertoire. So if you are leaving at six am,
if you could find a babysitter that shows up at
six am when you leave, then I think that would
be fairly substantial asset as well. Let your wife sleep in,

(29:57):
let that babysitter be there for six or eight hours
to help out. The other thing I got to be
honest with you is this six to nine is a
long day, all right, and you're undoubtedly showing up drunk.
If you left to go tailgate at nine, which would
mean that you would get the kids up and help
with them in the morning, and you got back at

(30:19):
six or even five, I don't know that your overall
enjoyment level is going to be substantially declined. And then
it's much more like a normal day as opposed to
you being gone for the entirety of the day. That
would be my suggestion would be babysitter to help her
take care of the kids by herself. And because when

(30:41):
the kid by next season, your son is gonna be
over a year old, and then he does start to
be kind of a handful because he's running around, he
can get into a lot of different stuff. So I
would say babysitter for those eight days. And also you
gotta cut down on the hours. Six am to nine
pm is just waits who long to be away for

(31:01):
a three hour football game? Dub What do you think
of the advice that I gave so far? Your fielding calls?
But how would you assess my my performance thus far?
Solid advice on those first two man, those were some
some interesting, interesting stories that those guys are having to
deal with right now. I thought your advice was solid.
I think the girlfriend and your dad is her guynecologist.

(31:23):
I think it has to be something more than just
he is the guynecologist. The more I think about it, Yeah,
Danny G you've been thinking on that. Yeah. Actually, our
guy Veto texted me when when that call was on,
and he said, hey, you guys, wouldn't the last name
of the boyfriend and the dad's name tipp her off
that there may be some sort of coincidence that First

(31:44):
of all, we don't know his last name obviously, which
is why it's an anonymous mail bay, but many last
names are very similar. But he said, it's a really
small town. Yeah, right, But if your last name is
Brown or your last name is Smith, like, why would
you assume, Like I understand, if your last name is
something that's incredibly unique, then maybe that could be Maybe

(32:05):
that could be a situation where you think about it. Um,
But I I don't really see that as being, you know,
like that common, because in a small town like that,
first of all, there's lots of people that would have
the same last names often, and um, it's not that
small of the town, because he also said there were
multiple high schools, so it's not that small of the

(32:25):
high school. It's the small of the town if she
went to a different high school um than him. And
I also think again that to me when I hear
that story, the alarm bell that goes off is, Oh,
she must have had something in her past that's more
serious than just going to the doctor. Yeah, I mean,
I understand it would be an uncomfortable experience for somebody

(32:48):
who has seen you naked to be your father in law, Like,
that's a little bit icky and weird to begin with.
But in a small town like that, there wouldn't be
that many gynecologists. I wouldn't think so uh for him, him,
I would think that he would maybe uh maybe have
thought beforehand, uh to to say something, right. I mean,
if you're if you're that concerned, you could at least

(33:09):
think about it as a potential outcome there. Um, the
guy with the Buffalo Bills, I'm sure he's a member
of the Bills mafia. Going in tailgating all day. I
think sixth and nine is just too long to go. Yeah,
and also the longer that you're there. The drunker that
you get. I mean when the game ends at four
and you're getting back home at nine and you have

(33:31):
your own bills, Telgate vehicle. Um, I can see how
your wife could be like, dude, you're thirty five years old.
This was funny and entertaining for ten years. And remember,
women marry men wanting to change them. This. This is
I think a great detail that men don't think about
very much. When you get married to your wife, you

(33:55):
probably think she's perfect. You would be very happy with
her looking ideally the exact same for the rest of
your life. You'd like her to be that pretty, you'd
like her to to be that fun. You'd like her
to be almost identical to the person that she is
when you marry her. Women marry men thinking I can

(34:16):
work with him, right that they never like what we
actually are. They think that they can turn us into
something that they are more happy with. So women look
at men as projects like I'm gonna get him to
do X, Y and z O. I can work on him. Men,
I think look at women and say, oh, I like
her just the way she is. I don't think there

(34:39):
are very many men, so I think this is a
common circumstance, like Oh, it's cool. He's got his guy friends.
He goes and he tailgates and he has a good time,
and uh, and I have no problem with it. Oh,
it's so cool that you have your friends. I'm the
cool chick. I got no issue with it. And then
you have kids and suddenly it becomes a big issue

(35:00):
what used to be. Oh, it's kind of cute. It's
kind of fun how he and his friends go have
a day and they just go drink and they watch
the bills and then they come home and like he's
been drinking and ah ha ha ha. Turns into a
major issue when it's happening eight times during the course
of the season. And I don't know where you park,
Like the bills are V. But when the bills are

(35:21):
V that's painted in Bill's colors is parked at your house,
it's not as cool as when you're dating and you're like, Okay,
this is just something that he does. I I think
that that's Uh, the more kids you have, certainly, And
I'm surprised it took two kids. Um, I'm surprised he
didn't come up as a bigger issue with one. So
I think the solution is you can't go tellgate starting

(35:44):
at six and you can't get home at nine, And
I think him coming drunk also doesn't help as well. Yeah,
but in his defense, like, what else are you gonna
do if you're gonna tellgate all day? Like I don't
are there people who tellgate and don't drink like I
I maybe there are, But to me, the tailgate experience
is primarily connected with alcohol. So I think you can

(36:05):
drink before the game, hope to sober up during the
course of the game, and then be able to drive home.
You know, after a three hour football game. Maybe you're
waiting the parking lot for an hour and chill and
listen to the post game breakdown everything that happened, and
then get home. Um, but yeah, I'm certainly coming home drunk.
I mean, you're basically like wiping out the entire because

(36:27):
I'm sure she wants him to help help her out
with something with the kids or something when he gets home,
but he's drunk, and she's she wants him not to
be around the kids if he's drunk. That's an issue.
California last call for the anonymous mailbag of of the week.
What do you got for me? California? A long time listener,
first time caller Clay funny that I'm calling on the
anonymous mail bag instead of sports though. Um so, my

(36:51):
kids mother and I have been broken broken up about
ten years. But to help her out, uh, she moved
in with me recently to you know, help her save
some money get her own spot. Well, since then, she
uh isn't working and she's not holding up a part
of the bargain, which is cooking and cleaning. I decided

(37:13):
to not charge her any rent. What are your thoughts?
How old is a kid? The kid is eleven years
old who has custody. So the kid thinks this is
the greatest thing that's ever happened. Right, Yeah, he wants
he wants us to get back together, but had me
I I don't want to get the you know, the

(37:34):
kids hopes up. I mean you know what I mean.
It's uh, I'm kind of in between a rock and
heart planes. What do I do kick kick the you know,
the mother of my kids out or you know, what
do I do? One kid or more more than we're
just one kid? Yeah? Okay, it's see. First of all,
you gave him thanks for the call. You gave him
false hope when you allowed your ex wife to move

(37:56):
back into the house because every kid, I think out
there on the planet whose parents get divorced, some part
of his or her head thinks, maybe my parents will
get back together again. Right. So, I understand she's having
a tough go of it and you're just trying to
be the nice guy. But when you brought her back

(38:17):
into the house, you gave the kid false hope. And
I also think you created a situation where you can't
kick your ex wife out of the house when she's
the mother of your son, and where is she gonna
go if she's got fifty fifty custody. My suggestion in
general would be that you try and get more than
fifty fifty custody of your kid and uh and allow

(38:41):
her to kind of get back on her feet without
having to worry about finding a place for him to
live in the meantime. But man, this is a tough
situation because you've created a dilemma for yourself where she's
not really upholding her into the bargain, but what exactly
else is going on there? That's a that's a tough situation,
And you've also then brought your kids feelings back into

(39:04):
play and he's got mom and dad back under the
same roof. Oh man, I don't know how to solve
that problem. I don't think you can kick her out.
You need her to make a voluntary decision to leave
on her own. But it doesn't sound like she would
because she's got a good gig right now. She doesn't
have to do anything and you're taking care of her.
Be sure to catch live editions of I would kick

(39:25):
the coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am Eastern,
three am Pacific. Best job of the eight that's open
right now. I guess Cleveland Browns. I think Baker Mayfield
what he did in year one, if you can connect
yourself to him, you have got a lot of opportunity
for success in Cleveland. The Browns are on the upswing,

(39:47):
good salary, cap space, good young talent, and Nick Chubb
and in Baker Mayfield. I love everything that I saw
from Baker Mayfield. He should be the rookie of the
year this season. I ain't. The Browns. I can't believe
I'm saying it are the best of the eight available
jobs right now. Second best. He's flown a little bit
under the radar, and I can't believe this is the
case because he's playing in New York, but I guess

(40:08):
this is what happens when you play for the Jets
as opposed to the Giants. Guys down the stretch, Sam
Donald was fantastic. Some of the throws he made were
downright phenomenal. The Jets have a ton of cap room.
There's talk about them going and signing Levi on Bell.
How much of a difference could he make with Sam Donald.
I think the second best job that's available right now
in the NFL is the New York Jets third. This

(40:32):
is a sign of a quarterback that's a little bit old,
and also a roster that's not put together that well
around him. I'm not convinced Aaron Rodgers is that healthy.
I'm not sure how many years he's going to continue
to play, but I think you have to make the
Packers the third best available job. I would go young
quarterback one and two with the Browns and the Jets,
given how good Baker Mayfield and Sam Donald have been.

(40:54):
But in the three spot, one of the historically great quarterbacks,
I'd go Packers four spot. If you believe that Josh
Rosen is going to be good. Then I think the
Cardinals could be a decent job because they was not
very good in year one, but he showed flashes, and
so I am a little bit convinced that if he

(41:16):
got the right coach, Josh Rosen could be pretty solid.
So I've got the Cardinals as the fourth best job
that is available right now, But the fifth job I'm
going Broncos. I'm not sold on case Keenum, but I
think Vance Joseph did a bad job with a roster
that's very good on the defensive side of the ball.
I think got good young talent at the running back position.

(41:39):
Certainly you got good young talent at the wide receiver position.
You were comfortable firing getting rid of Damarus Thomas, trading him,
I guess not firing him. Uh. And so I think
if you go into the draft and you want to
get a good young quarterback, the Broncos have a good
roster in the meantime, you can win with case Keenum
in the sixth spot. Um, I would argue, I mean,

(42:03):
you're kind of getting into a into a difficult spot
and trying to value all of these, but I feel
like the Bengals are the sixth best team when Andy
Dalton comes back a j Green. Marvin Lewis won a
lot of games there with the Bengals. He went one
thirty one and one twenty two overall, a lot of
trips to the playoffs. I don't think the talent overall

(42:25):
is awful. So I can go the Bengals, the sixth
best team in the seventh spot. I go Dolphins. That's
because I don't feel like they have anything set up
with the quarterback position. You don't really know what you've
got there. You don't think brock Oswiler is the future.
You don't think Ryan Tannehill is the future. Um, what
moves could you make now? Maybe if you've got a

(42:45):
chance to make a run after a Nick Foles or
somebody like that, I could change the situation with the
Dolphins overnight. But I've got the Dolphins in the seventh
spot and then in the eight spot. I think this
is the worst spot by far. I think the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers because I don't believe in Amos Winston. They've
made it clear that Jamis Winston is their quarterback, but
they don't have him under contract for multi years. The

(43:07):
offense was really good under Dirk cutter and they still
couldn't win anything. I don't feel good about the culture
in the Bucks. So that is my ranking one to eight.
Brown's Jets, Packers, Cardinals, Broncos, Bengals, Dolphins, Box That's how
I would rank them one to eight if I were
sitting around making decisions about which roster to go be

(43:27):
a part of for next season. Be sure to catch
live editions of I would kick the coverage with Clay
Travis weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. We're
with Todd Ferman. Now I'm gonna be on television with
him later today. Ferman, Are you with me? That Antonio
Brown as the mass singer Maybe not the greatest sign

(43:48):
that that ever there has been that that show is
going to be a tremendous success. Probably not a good
recipe for a longstanding viability. Every Body Antonio does have
a tracker, could have having been on Dancing with the Stars,
and who knows, maybe the Fox execut decided to bump
this up given all the drama surrounding Antonio in the
sports world, as the Pittsburgh Steelers have become the biggest

(44:08):
drama story in the NFL this side of the Kardashian
If you were a GM for the Pittsburgh Steelers and
you had to make a decision about how to respond
to Antonio Brown's ridiculousness, what would you do. I mean,
it's a tough spot because you look at the salary
cap hit that this team is gonna take. I mean,
they've committed so much to him being that face of
the organization. But when you're not getting along with the

(44:29):
starting quarterback and we know Big Ben is on his
last legs, We're not quite sure how Mike Tomlin has
even been able to retain his job this long given
the underachievement we've seen from the team. I think you
begin to explore every single option at your disposal to
be done with Antonio Brown, because once you lose the
locker room and you don't feel that you can go
to war, so to speak, every single Sunday with the

(44:50):
guys around you. I mean, he was the one that
came out in support of Lavy and Bell rather than
taking the side of every other teammate. The writing was
on the wall, and then this situation just says, hey,
we take the capit shop him around and send him
off to San Francisco Tampa. Lord knows who wants to
pick up his contract, knowing Antonio has all the talent
in the world, but brings a ton of baggage with
it as well. What do you think the when you

(45:13):
think about the overall kind of landscape of available coaching
jobs right like, there are eight different jobs that are
open right now. If you were advising, you know the
talent the rosters pretty well. If you were advising all
of the coaches out there that are considering these jobs
right now, you have the Bengals, the Broncos, the Cardinals,

(45:33):
the Jets, the Browns, that Dolphins, the Bucks, and the Packers.
What's the best job out there? If your goal is
to win early and then also maintain obviously your job.
For me, it's not even close. And the only question
you have to ask yourself is do you have the
right personality to mess with Baker Mayfield? Because the Cleveland
Browns talent wise, have all of their key contributors that

(45:55):
are under the age of thirty. This roster is poised
to win as early as next season. We saw all
the momentum they finished their campaign with. You have a
running back, you can build around you have some wide
receiver talent. I like the pieces they have on the
defensive side of the ball. The Cleveland Browns right now,
from top to bottom of all the coaching availabilities, make
the most sense. But what's interesting about it, Clay, you
kind of have your pick of young quarterbacks if you

(46:16):
don't feel comfortable with the Browns. Is Sam Donald your guy?
Do you think he's headed in the right direction? Maybe
it goes there. Arizona another young quarterback in its own right,
as well as Josh Rosen, and then of course the
Packers a first ballot Hall of Famer Aaron Aaron Rodgers.
But you have to have a strong personality. I think
I'm gonna be very curious to see how all of
this ultimately plays out. But one organization that I'd be

(46:38):
very leery of going to UH. I don't see a
lot of talent in Denver, aside for maybe von Miller
and some of their young receivers. I don't like having
to deal with case Keenum and then with John Elway.
His track record speaks for itself. If it wasn't for
Peyton Manning, we'd be talking about firing a legend that
had nothing to his name as a general manager of
that organization. Wild Card Weekend coming up, two games on Saturday,

(47:00):
two games on Sunday. Which is the best game to
bet for me? I think it's a late game on
Saturday night and at Seattle against Dallas. I look at
the Cowboys and they're a little bit undervalued in the
betting market, given how they struggled in their final three
games of the season once they knew that they only
had to win one out of the last three, whether
it was resting players, whether it was not tipping their

(47:20):
hand as far as offensive game plan, the Cowboys look
like a pretty average football team. Meanwhile, Seattle, they've been
one of the more dynamic offenses since Week ten. I
know you talked about it yesterday on the show about
Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll being such a tough tndum
to go against. But I think Dallas the most complete
football team. Nobody expects them really to win the game,
even with them as one one and a half point favorites.

(47:42):
But I think the Cowboys will run the football with
Ezekiel Elliott, They'll play defense well enough, and we'll be
talking about them finally shedding that mantra of being underachievers
as they move on to the divisional round. All the
teams playing in the wild card round are underdogs to
advance to the super Bowl. If you had to pick
one team that's playing in the wild Card round to
make the Super Bowl, who would it be for me?

(48:03):
I think it comes from the first game on Sunday.
That winner of the Chargers Ravens game probably has a
lot of the pieces you'd like to see to make
a deep run to the postseason. The Chargers, of course,
with Philip Rivers at thirty seven years old, trying to
finally get over the hump as he has all time
record for passing yards, wins, and a lot of other
key metrics, never having played in a conference championship game. Meanwhile,

(48:26):
Baltimore on the other side, number one in the league
in yards per game allowed. From a defensive standpoint, they
can run the ball as well as anybody, and I
know you've talked about it create links. How will the
Ravens fair if they find themselves in a deficit of
more than one score? With Lamar Jackson being somewhat one dimensional,
I trust coach Hardball and amongst active NFL head coaches.
Right now, he has the second best win percentage in

(48:47):
the postseason, behind only Bill Belichick. This is a Ravens
team that's tough to prepare for, and I think that
they have everything going for them right now, highlighted by
a defense. It's only on the field for about fifty
three snaps per game, meaning they're plenty well. Colts are
taken on the Texans. They won the last time they
played there. They lost in overtime thirty seven to thirty
four back in early October. So this is uh. These

(49:11):
are two teams that are pretty evenly matched. I like
the Colt What do you expect here? I lean towards
the Colts with you as well. I don't think there
is a ton of wigger room with this number now
sitting at the Houston Texans minus one. You look at
this Colts team and since weeks seven, best record in
the league at nine and one, the only blemish coming
at the hands of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Best point differential

(49:32):
during that span at plus one seventeen. They extend drives
better than any team in the league. Number one ranks
third down offense, and they actually have one of the
league's top scoring defenses over the last ten games as well,
led by a hot coaching candidate in his own right,
and Matt Ebert flews t Y Helton should be able
to go Ryan Kelly full participant in practice, So the
Colts check a lot of the key boxes. The one

(49:53):
fear I have Clay with the Colts is their inexperience.
Twenty four of the fifty three players on the active
roster are in their their second NFL season. Only fifteen
have ever participated in a playoff game, and while Deshaun
Watson will make his playoff debut on the other side,
there are a lot of these Houston Texans that have
been there, done that, even with some question marks in
the secondary, if things start rolling in the positive direction

(50:15):
for them, How will the Colts handle adversity if Andrew
Luck can't do everything you'd like to as far as
slicing and dicing in the passing game. Last question on
the wild card around the final game Sunday afternoon will
be Eagles Bears. What to you stands out here? This
is the only game that's over a field goal, by
the way, a lot of really tight lines in these games.

(50:37):
And then the Bears are a six point favorite. Is
that too many for me? It's the fact that you
have an inexperienced quarterback laying almost a touchdown against the
team who's playing with house money at this juncture in
the campaign. They were a d to one Philadelphia to
win the Super Bowl at bet online dot a g
back in early December, and we all wrote them off
for debt. Meanwhile, the Bears, we know what this defense

(50:59):
can do, and they thank across the board as a
number one defense and a lot of the most important
metrics highlighted by their scoring defense, their Runde takeaways, passer
rating Aloud, yards for played allowed, and defensive touchdowns where
they have six. First time they'll lead in yards per
game allowed in defensive touchdown since but can they create
short field? Are they able to score on that defensive

(51:20):
side of the ball, Because if they're not, and you
talked about this in greater detail, Mitchell Robinsky hasn't exactly
been the most dynamic quarterback over the last couple of weeks,
so much of the pressure is gonna fall in Jordan
Howard and Tarik weren't shocked me in the least. The
Bears win the football game, but the Eagles ultimately cover
the final game of wild Card weekend. How do you
play the final game of the college football season? Alabama

(51:44):
around to five and a half or six point favorite
over under sixty in this game that's taken place out
in Santa Clara on Monday. For me, it was all
about grabbing a number. Initially when some a lot of
the books opened at seven, didn't think that price was
gonna last, so figured I'd grab a piece of Clemson there.
Now that being said, I'm not sure Clemson will ultimately
grow to become the side, and I have some questions

(52:05):
about their secondary and how they'll hold up against this
Alabama passing attack. But this is a venue where I
don't think you're going to see vertical passing games on
full display. I know you'll be in attendance, and I'm
curious to get a weather forecast, since we know that
is a key crux in the way that you handicap
all of your football. But these two teams know each
other as well as anybody else, and for the first
time in the rubber match in the National Championship, Clemson

(52:28):
enters with a better defense, Alabama probably with a more
dynamic offense, and I can tell you, from a sports
book perspective, the best case scenario for them would be
an Alabama cover. But excuse me, Clemson cover and Alabama
winning outright, Because when the general public bets a championship
game or any game of this magnitude, they don't want
the underdog with the points. They're looking for that huge payout,

(52:49):
and they don't really want to try and run to
lay a money line with Alabama. So when shock me
at all, we're talking about Alabama winning a national title
with this game falling somewhere in that thirty to twenty
seven range, the ticket market is awful. Um. You know,
you can get in for a hundred and forty a
hundred and fifty dollars, which is way below what the
usual ticket face value is. So if you're interested listening

(53:11):
out there right now, this is probably the best number
you're ever going to see in terms of costs to
get in. Todd Ferman, I will see you later on
the television program four thirty Eastern, three thirty Central to
thirty Mountain one thirty Pacific on f S one talk
to them and looking forward to my friends. You can
go follow him on Twitter at Todd Ferman he's on
an absolute role right now. By the way, with this

(53:32):
gambling picks, Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
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