February 8, 2019 • 54 mins
Clay Travis is upset that his Celtics pick blew up by the hands of Rajon Rondo, but will Clay apologize for dissing L.A. or will he be stubborn and call the Lakers season over? Clay has great news about tennis announcer Doug Adler and confusing news from MLB! Plus, Geoff Schwartz joins Outkick and weighs in on all the top sports stories.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of out Kick the
Coverage podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
morning from six to nine am Eastern three to six
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for OutKick the Coverage at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every morning on the I Heart
Radio app by searching f s R. This is the
best of OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis on Fox
(00:22):
Sports Radio last night, gambling Wise, as part of Lock
it In, I went safe what I thought was safe.
I did a three game money line parlay. For those
of you don't know, money line is just betting on
a team to win, not based on a wine. So
(00:44):
I bet on Gonzagata win they blow out San Francisco.
I think it was not remotely close. I bet on
Oklahoma City to beat the Grizzlies, not remotely close. And
I bet on the Celtics to beat the Lakers, and
that was the right side, and I still ended up losing.
And that's why I say I'm cursed, just absolutely cursed.
(01:06):
Now I've lost the week and lock it in again
when I should have if that stupid Rondo bucket hadn't happened,
or if somehow the Celtics had just gotten the ball
as Lebron James is going out of bounds with forty
seconds left or whatever the heck it is, and he
just flings it backwards and what should have been a
clear turnover and somehow it goes right to a Laker
(01:27):
who then kicks it back to him for a three
in the corner. This is a brutal series of bad luck.
Having said that the Lakers are dead, They're buried, put
the dirt on him. They're finished now. I think they're
finished for years to come. Nobody wants to play with
Lebron James. He's an old ass dude who is on
the back side of his career. And then as soon
(01:48):
as Rondo hit that shot, I'm like, I gotta go
in and talk to all these Laker losers on my show,
who are gonna be running around like they just won
a championship back in the eighties with pat Ryle. I
think you're gonna go to us in the last thing
Laker losers. First of all, Danny g is back. Danny
G is like he's sick because he went to the
(02:10):
Super Bowl after all the bragging that he did about
how much better he was gonna be than Jason Martin
because he showed up for five straight days on Radio
Row and he managed to handle it. He misses two
days this week because his delicate immune system fell apart
as soon as he got back. I don't even know.
I gotta give j Mark credit here, because j mart
(02:30):
went nine out of ten days. He also went missing.
He went missing during the biggest week of the year.
Though I was early every single show. He missed one
of the biggest days of the biggest week of the year,
but then the week after he was still healthy, he
was still there. I don't know why I'm surrounded with
people with the worst immune systems on the planet. Do
you know how many days I have missed on this
(02:52):
show in four different calendar years for sickness? Zero? Not
one sick I'm not even sure that's the truth. I do.
You never step outside your house, Well, that's that's but
you know what, I got three little kids bringing in
uh petri dish of of of illnesses all the time.
(03:13):
Well that's true, that's why you have a strong immuney
the deal. I don't even know if I have sick leave,
I asked, I This is not even a joke. I
did I not text you recently and say, hey, do
we get sick leave? Nobody's even told me because I
haven't missed a day for being sick, and I'm probably
jinxing myself now, I'm not even sure. Now, a lot
(03:33):
of people out there like, yeah, but you missed it. Yeah,
I take vacation. I take time off like I'm gonna
be on next week, and then I'll be off the
next week after that, the President's Day week. I usually
try to get away because football season is over, so
I'll get away for vacation. But in terms of actual sickness,
I have yet to miss a day, so I'm not
even sure. I asked, I think we get sick leave.
(03:56):
I texted our boss, Scott Shapiro the other day, never responded.
I don't even know. I like, if I'm near death,
I don't even know that I have to obligate the
opportunity not to come on. So lots people complain like, hey, like,
your voice doesn't sound perfect. Yeah, that's because I'm sick,
and that's because I'm on the radio. So anyway, the
Lakers suck. Sure sounds like Lebron penetrated that amazing immune
(04:21):
system of yours fools gold? Are you really gonna stick
with that fool's gold? Because usually even when you're wrong,
unless you lose like thirty dollars, you're a little more
objective than this. No, this was this was the two
out of forty one you even convinced your TV co
host yesterday. By the end of the show, they were
(04:42):
even agreeing with you about this dumpster fire with a
capital D. The rest of the Lakers season is a wash.
Head shot sixteen for forty one, focus on the lottery,
a phenomenal day three point shooting. They would have lost
by seventeen in this game, Clay, if the Lakers would
have made their free throws, they would have won this
game by fifteen. Well, they're they're not going to It's
(05:06):
true that they would have shot free throws ordinarily better,
but the percentage by which two out of forty one
from three is fool's gold. If you shoot fifty from
three again, if they just shot sixteen forty one, that's
that's a phenomenal day of shooting, by and large. If
any other team had their back to the wall like
(05:28):
this and had the media breathing down their neck the
way you and everyone else nationally was lamb basting the
Lakers all week long, and you thought they were gonna
lay down. You said they were gonna get blown out
by the Celtics. You raved about it all day long yesterday.
Nobody wants to play with Lebron. He's gonna have to
shoot the ball a hundred times because teammates don't want
(05:49):
to play with him. And the Lakers showed up, showed
up in a major way, showed a lot of heart
and proved to you and other people who just started
watching basketball right after the football season ended that they
had a good thing going before Lebron's injury. They are
not going to win a series in the playoffs, if
they even make the play Yeah, and the Patriots aren't
(06:10):
going to make the playoffs now, They're not gonna win
a series even if they make the playoffs. Write it down,
bet as much as money as you want on it.
The Lakers are a dead franchise. Celtics Magic Johnson walking
around like a mummy out there. He's got no idea
what he's doing. They can't get anybody to come join
(06:32):
Lebron James because Lebron is getting old and because none
of the other teams want to deal with them. This
is a team that is falling apart. The best thing
they can have happen for them is if another team
falls apart as well. And that's like Kevin Durant deciding
to go to UH New York and taking away some
(06:52):
of the top talent in the Western Conference. But I
don't think you can grab this audio. You can hold
it for the next ten years, however long Lebron thinks
he's gonna play. Lebron James is not going to win
another championship in the NBA. And I don't even think
he's gonna come close to winning one unless and this
is my caveat unless when his time with the Lakers
(07:15):
runs out in three more years, he still wants to
continue to play in the n b A and he
decides to then be like a vagabond, you know, ninth
guy on a bench where he's going to try to
steal championships by being a low man on the totem pole.
That I I legitimately have no doubt at all about that.
(07:36):
Does anybody else agree with me? Dub Are you with
me here? I don't bet against Lebron Clay. So you
think Lebron is gonna win another championship? Yeah, you're wrong?
Does any what does Eddie Garcia? Eddie? Do you agree
with me that Lebron is never gonna win another championship?
I'm leaning that way. How about that? That's at least helpful.
(07:56):
I can't rely on any kind of reasonable It just
sounds like you're fishing right now. No, let's go and
take some calls. Eight seven seven nine six three six nine.
Tavaris in North Carolina? What's up to VARs C? Team? Man?
I love you, but I have to disagree with you.
We we just witness has some Barns get traded in
(08:19):
the middle of a game and then not play the
second half because of ownership and the way they do
business and the way that they hold somebody's destiny in
their hands when they are a mediocre player or uh
average NBA player. When you are a great player like Lebron,
you can own your own destiny and you make the calls.
(08:41):
What's wrong with that? That's called being a boss and
then letting your He's being a boss, but he's not
that good at being a boss, because if he were,
he wouldn't have totally mishandled and misplayed this Anthony Davis situation,
such that Anthony Davis is never gonna play with the
Lakers until maybe he signs as a free agent in
(09:03):
a year and a half when Lebron is seventy four
years old. But Clay, that's when Anthony Davis, Davis was
on the bench. What did the Pelicans look like? That's
their mistake. They didn't take what the Lakers will offer
them offering them Lebron James. How many times had this
man have been in the finals. He's a winner, He's
a winner. What what? What negative do we have to
(09:24):
say about Lebron regarding I mean, we could talk about,
you know what we don't like as far as basketball
and his decisions that he made. But but personally he's
he's perfect, He's Tom Brady esque. He just didn't win championships.
He takes teams to the finals. What what? What? This
is my question? This is my thing with Lebron stands
(09:48):
out there. Why is going to the finals and losing
an incredible accomplishment? This is all about the millennial generation.
They don't talk about championships anymore. They talk about almost
winning championships. Oh, look at Lebron. He's he's been in
the big Game a ton and he's lost. Wait a second, though,
just a couple of weeks ago, you gave a take
(10:10):
on this show saying that a player's reputation shouldn't take
a ding because they got to the finals Super Bowl
and largue that he deserves to be on a different
caliber because he gets to the finals and loses. I'm
saying I'm putting Lebron James in the exact same spot
(10:30):
I would if he was three and oh right in
the finals as the fact that he's three and six.
But I'm also not going to sit around and say
that if Tom Brady had been to nine Super Bowls
and he had gone three and six in those nine
super Bowls, that a big part of Tom Brady's legacy
wouldn't have been his failure to win Super Bowls when
(10:52):
he got there. Is it still better to get to
the Super Bowl than to lose before you get there? Sure,
but I don't think you can brag about the fact
that you have lost a lot, like I got so
close to making the summit of Mount Everest. All right,
that's kind of a good thing. This dude like imagine
this guy decided he was gonna climb Mount Everest and
(11:15):
right before he got to the summit, six times he
got altitudes sickness and he wasn't able to make it there. Well,
it's still impressive, but it's not like I'm gonna say, like, hey,
look at this dude. He went up nine times to
try to make it to the summit, and six times
he got altitude sickness and didn't make it the rest
of the way. Yeah, it's kind of good. I guess
that you have the toughness to be able to get close,
(11:36):
but I'm not gonna brag about you almost doing something.
I don't think you should be able to say like that.
That's my thing on the Jordan's people. The Jordan people
who are like, well, he's six and oh in the finals. Yeah,
because he lost a bunch of times to the Detroit
Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals. He lost when he
came back to the Orlando Magic. I don't think you
(11:59):
can just ag about being six and oh in the
finals and ignore other losses. But I do think if
Jordan had gone to the finals nine times and he
went six and three like Tom Brady, that's more impressive.
Let me bring in Eddie Garcia find out what Jagen alright, Claire.
We had the NBA trade deadline, of course on Thursday.
Anthony Davis, the big name, did not go anywhere. He's
(12:21):
gonna finish out the season with the Pelicans. Players that
did move included the Raptors getting Marcusol from the Grizzlies,
the Bucks pick up Nicola Meritage from the Pelicans, and
the seventy six ship down former number one overall picked
Marco Folds to the Magic on the court. Lakers beat
the Celtics in Boston and a re Gen Rondo buzzer beater.
Lebron James had a triple double in the win twenty points,
twelve rebounds, and twelve assists. Raptors over the Hawks one
(12:44):
nineteen to one on one. Toronto gets its fortieth win
of the year. Raptors are forty and sixteen on the season.
Thunder over the Grizzlies one seventeen ninety five. Russell Westbrook
gets his eighth straight triple double fifteen points, thirteen rebounds
and fifteen assists for okay See Pacers over the Clippers
one s two. Trailblazers top the Spurs eighteen college basketball
number four, and Zaga had no trouble beating San Francisco
(13:05):
ninety two to sixty two wins for number in twelve, Houston,
Number twenty, Iowa, and Number Cincinnati. This report brought to
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in ten seconds, but first a word from farmers. From
a dog accidentally flooding a living room to a dog
(13:26):
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We know a thing or two because we've seen a
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every state. Not back to Cleet, Travis and the Gico
outkicked the coverage. Studios Eric in Hollywood, Laker fans everywhere
coming out of the woodwork showing up. All the Lakers
(13:49):
are back. What's up? Eric? Yeah, clearly you're wrong. I
think this is a two year plan and I think
this off seasons are going to make the move to
get a dan if they if they don't, don't, they'll
pick it to get another stud along Lebron. And and
we're sure if they're supporting Ky that they would win
a championship in the first year together. And you're seeing
they've got good assets and this this this offseason, Magic
(14:11):
and Blink I are going to make the moves to
surround Lebron. So this wasn't a one year plan. They're
not gonna win in their first year together. And no
Laquor fan and that delusional that that that would happen.
So you're way off and wrong again in the most
delusional fan base in America. They're not gonna win a
championship with Lebron James period. By the way, you can
bet on this at the super book in Las Vegas
if you're so confident, go out to Las Vegas. Will
(14:33):
the Lakers win a championship by the two NBA finals?
So that's nine two, that's the four years Lebron is
signed on for right, yes, is plus one seventy five,
So you can make nearly two to one on your
money if you believe so desperately the Lebron is going
to win a championship. No is minus two ten, So
(14:57):
all the smart people out in the desert will take
your money at plus one seventy five. Trip just passed
that along to me. They're smart. Eric in Hollywood and
all the other Faker Laker fans out there that are
delusional are losing their minds over this. This fool's gold win.
Victor in l A, what's up? Victor? Hey, what's go on?
(15:18):
I love the show? Look, I don't know, give me
your take on this. I would have given the house,
God Davis, I don't play with Lebron. Now got to
lose this season out. Just dip them on how to
be quhiscent with each other. Then next year it wouldn't
be just Lebron pulling in another free agent. They would
have got somebody big. And then when you have three people,
I would have the only person that would not have
(15:38):
given up is Rondal kept Tim giving up the house,
kept them three, got another free agent, and then you'd
be able to make a real challenge for the Well. Look,
I think that the Lakers were willing to give up
whatever they needed to in order to get Anthony Davis.
I think that the Pelicans wanted to wait and see
what happens with the NBA Draft lottery who wins it? Uh,
(16:01):
And then also that the I think the Pelicans believe
they're gonna get Jayson Tatum, and I think they see
Jayson Tatum from the Celtics as the best possible fit
for their franchise going forward. So I think they're trying
to get as much as they possibly can, and they
see Tatum as an incredible possibility that's dangling out there
(16:22):
that Danny Jane just convinced them he might give up,
and they see that as the best route to remake
their franchise as rapidly as they passed up possibly can.
In real time, Andy and tennessee what's up? Andy? What's up?
What's up? Clud? I got I got two things for you. One,
I can't stand when a Lebron fanboy gets on there
(16:42):
and talks about all the finals that he's made in
his career. I would say he's probably had the second
best team three times in his whole career. That team
he had last year was probably the sixth seventh. That's
a really good point about how bad the Eastern Conference is.
So we should also put in the perspective when they've
(17:02):
gotten to the Eastern Conference and they've gotten their ass
kicked and it hasn't been remotely close like the last
couple of years. Is it really an accomplishment to get
there when you're nowhere near the second best team. You
just happened to be in a really weak conference for
the last seven or eight years. And uh, and and
and another thing. I was going to the Lacings game
when they've come to uh Charlotte or come to Atlanta
(17:25):
when they were Sorry, but I did not want Lebron
James on this team because you knew exactly what was
going to happen before he got on the team. You know,
Luke Walton getting fired, that's happening, and you knew that
he was trading players. Douse the clown he's the clowns
he Uh. I did not want that dude on the team.
He's just the cancer. And what k D said about
(17:47):
that man is the absolute truth. And his family's in
the media did not want to hear it. Thanks for
to call eight seven seven n six three six nine. Um,
when you think about it, it's a good point. Should
have just brought that up immediately when you're not remotely
close to winning a championship, and you get there because
your side of the conference is so weak. Can you
(18:09):
really brag about that? Last year? What would the Calves
have been the fourth or fifth best team in the
Western Conference. Isn't that the same argument Brady Haters make
about the division his team plays now. I don't think
so at all, because the a f C is not
overall really weak. You still have to get into the
a f C and win playoff games. Is it true
(18:30):
that the Jets and the Bills and the Dolphins have
been dumpster fires collectively? Yes, but that's only six games
of the season. They still have ten other games against
all the best teams in the NFL theoretically, but it's
still allowed the Patriots to home field advantage and still
have to get into the playoffs and win those games,
and you still have to win the Super Bowl. I mean,
(18:52):
look Lebron. If you think about Lebron in the finals,
he got a miraculous ray Allen three. He's won three
games Evans, right, Am I correct in that? I think
I'm correcting that that if you change maybe there's only
two games sevens. I know they beat they they beat
the Spurs to win in seven I think right when
they hit the Rayal three. They certainly won in seven
(19:15):
against the Warriors, and I believe they won in seven
the first time. Might have been six games the first time.
I can't remember the first championship. But if you go
back and look at those, you change like one play
in each of the three years that he's won the title,
and there oh and nine. I mean, he has been
incredibly fortunate in the way that they have won those championships,
(19:38):
and in the six that they haven't won, they haven't
been close. It's not like you can point to any
of the six that he lost and say, well, if
you change a couple of plays, the Calves or the
Heat could have won those series. No. So Lebron has
been insanely fortunate in the three times that he won
a championship that when he's gotten a there, he's gotten
(20:01):
a big play made by a teammate, made by somebody.
And look he made the block against uh against Andrea
Gudal I think it was in game seven. But this
guy is closer to oh and nine by far than
he even is to four and four and five or
six and three or five and four be sure to
catch live editions about Kicked. The coverage with Clay Travis
(20:23):
weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Two stories,
one positive, one negative. Let's start with the positive year
as we begin hour to appreciate you spending your Friday
morning with us. If you remember a couple of years ago,
I think now, Uh, Doug Adler, who was a tennis
(20:46):
commentator at ESPN, was calling a match from the Australian
Open involving Venus Williams. And there do we have the audio? Guys?
I think we have the audio here. Uh. This is
what it sounded like when he was calling that match.
This is a first serving. Venus is all over her.
(21:09):
Venus move in and put the gorilla effect on. So
he met as guerrilla tennis. If you remember the commercial
with Andre Agassy and uh and and uh Pete Sampras
where they played in the streets of of New York,
(21:31):
he met guerrilla warfare, as in she's he's charging, and
she's charging in unexpected times. Someone on social media clipped this, uh,
this match and then argued that he was calling her
a gorilla as in the animal ESPN panicked. They fired
(21:52):
him after making him apologize, and Doug Adler was publicly
branded a racist. Most people out in sports media we're
not willing to let Doug Adler uh even like show
the remotest uh like sense of you know, questioning whether
or not that was actually anything racist, which it wasn't.
(22:14):
It's a ludicrous era that we live in where people
are so quick to take offense and to label things racist.
So we had him on this show, uh, and we've
had him on this show either two or three times.
The only media, only media entity anywhere in the country
that would talk to this guy. Then the Today Show
ended up doing a story and he filed the lawsuit.
(22:36):
He filed the lawsuit arguing that ESPN had unfairly treated him.
And if you remember this story, he was so crushed
by the negative media attention and the loss of his
good name. Then ultimately ended up having a heart attack,
he almost died. He's been fighting this battle for a
couple of years. Well, he filed a lawsuit and it
(22:58):
was set to go to trial in Los Angeles in May,
and finally ESPN has admitted wrongdoing here. And I gotta
give credit to the new president of the ESPN Jimmy Petaro,
because I'm told that this decision went all the way
to the top of ESPN. They said, you know what,
we screwed this guy. We treated him unfairly guerrilla effect
(23:23):
as in guerilla warfare, not guerrilla as in the animal.
And so they have brought now Doug Adler back. They
have paid him out a big settlement, and he now
has a contract with ESPN to come back and call
tennis matches. So this is I think an ideal solution
(23:46):
to this issue, about as good of a story I
think as you will get in the world of sports,
where a big company like ESPN is effectively acknowledging you
know what, we overreacted to the social media mob. We
over uh, we overreacted to what was clearly not a
racist comment by Doug Adler. And not only did we
(24:09):
do this wrong, We're gonna pay this guy out a
bunch of money and damages, and we're gonna rehire him
and allow him to call tennis matches once more on
the ESPN network. Doug Adler feels like he got his
name back, he feels like he has gotten vindication. That's
what he's been after for two years. It almost killed him.
(24:29):
This is a positive story. I think that we, as
a part of the larger OutKick universe, deserve a lot
of credit for helping to right a wrong here. And
I feel almost confident that if we had never had
Doug Adler on this show, if we also had shunned
him as many people did in the world of media,
(24:51):
he would not have gotten this apology from ESPN, he
would not have gotten rehired, and he would not have
gotten a big settlement check to to help to pay
for ESPN's mistreatment of him over the past couple of years.
So that is a very positive story. A lot of
people have been asking for updates in this story. You guys,
by the way, can weigh in. I'll open up the
(25:12):
phone lines and allow you to weigh in on Doug
Adler eight seven seven six three six nine. But unfortunately,
we still haven't won the war here. We want a
big battle there against the ridiculous political correct army out there.
But I can't I when I saw this story about
Major League Baseball, I couldn't believe that this is where
(25:34):
we are still as a country when it comes to
the world of sports. They are changing the name of
the disabled list in Major League Baseball to the injured list.
The d L will now become a thing in the past.
It will now be the I L. Because they are
afraid that they are defending offending disabled people. I swear
(26:00):
to God, this is real life. I'm not I couldn't
even make up this, uh, this idea. Major League Baseball
is replacing the disabled list with the injured list. I
I mean when I hear this, my head almost wants
to explode. First of all, the word disability. If you
(26:25):
are on disability at work, it means you can't work.
It doesn't mean that you dislike people who are disabled.
It doesn't mean that this is somehow offensive. It means
that you are unable to go to work, which is
how the disabled list came to be. Now it's been
(26:47):
changed to the injured list, and I just legitimately have
to ask, is there a single person in my listening
audience that was offended by the use of the term
disabled list? Is there even one person we're on in
all fifty states, people all over the world are listening.
(27:09):
Is there anyone in my entire audience offended by Major
League Baseball's use of the disabled list, or as it's
often shortened, the d L, that they needed to change
it to the injured list. I'm gonna start with my
crew eight seven seven six three six nine, Danny G.
Doesn't this seem like a made up story that Major
(27:31):
League Baseball is having to do away with the term
disabled list and replace it with injured list? This is
like a bad Saturday Night Live skit. I swear when
I saw this come across the ticker yesterday, I had
to look twice and I still didn't believe it. And
then when we talked about it off the air this
morning before the show started, I still am scratching my head.
(27:51):
I have never connected the dots on those two things
this whole time, my entire life loving baseball. There was
never one time where I heard that phrase and connected
it to that. Even if you did, it's not a negative.
Like sometimes people get hurt and they're not able to
play in a sporting event. They're on the disabled list.
(28:15):
Their body is not abled for that purpose, just like
if you have ever been at work and you got disability,
that means that you're not able to work, or if
you've been in the military and you've got disability, I
just I am like, just totally blown away by the
(28:38):
fact that this was ever an issue. Eddie Garcia, is
this insane? Like Danny, I also did a double take
when I saw this and had to check to make
sure this was not a joke. Uh yeah. I also
never once considered that this might be an offensive term.
(28:59):
But I guess this is the problem with people being
so woke in American society right now is we're constantly
running around doing things that don't actually have any impact,
and in so doing, we are changing things that the
vast majority of people who are reasonable and have rational
(29:19):
thought processes never had any issue with. And I think
the problem is we are enabling and encouraging stupid people
to complain about stupid things. Dub I mean, this is insanity. Right.
Baseball has so many more problems to worry about than
than this issue right here. How about getting kids to
(29:41):
watch the game because the game is so boring that
no one under the age of watches the games. Figuring
out where Machado and Harper are going this is crazy.
I mean they've been free agents now for like a
year and it's still not resolved. I think Baseball, look,
this could be I think a really fun process. If
(30:02):
baseball did what the NFL does, or did what the
NBA does, you know, when their free agency starts, if
we had like a really exciting pursuit to see what's
gonna happen with Manny Machado and with Bryce Harper instead,
like this thing hasn't even been remotely resolved and we're
almost spring training. Uh, Roberto, disabled list? Were you just
(30:26):
like uh in the fetal position, crying over the baseball
man And for them to do this it's been around
since nineteen sixty six, is so stupid. When the when
a guy is hurt, he's disabled, he can't play, well,
that's why they call it the disabled list. It's like
nothing negative at all, is like, come on, really, all right,
So that's the negative and we're gonna open up phone
lines eight seven seven six three six nine on the
(30:48):
positive front. Danny g If we never put Doug Adler
on the radio on this show when everybody else is
shutting him and they're not allowing his story to be told,
is there anyway ESPN basically apologizes, pays him out, and
brings him back. I don't think so. I think you
shed a lot of light on this story. I know
(31:08):
we give you a lot of crap over a lot
of different things, which we should because we're not paid
to kiss your butt and you don't want those kind
of people on your show, which is credit to you.
But the first time you had him on the show,
I think it kind of caught even your staff off
guard because he was so emotional on the air, especially
that first time you had him on. Yeah, And I'll
(31:28):
have to go back to the archives and find that
first interview so we could repost that, Yeah, reposted or
maybe even replay it for people who haven't heard, because
this is I think if we still have that that
that would be a really good interview I think too,
to bring back maybe next week for people who aren't
familiar with that. With that story, now that we've got
some some conclusion to it, um, I think it's it's
(31:50):
it's a rarity, and I hope that we're starting to
move in this direction where the perpetually outraged and the
perpetually offended are not able to expand the scope of
their outrage and offense to things that clearly are not
outrageous or offensive. Now, obviously we're getting the opposite side
of this story, right, now with the disabled List name change,
(32:13):
which is ridiculous, but I'm starting to see good signs
that sanity maybe prevailing in the world of sports, and
that craziness and uh and and you know, the basically
the perpetual outrage machine where people are always always looking
for reasons to be offended. It's starting not to work
in the world of sports. That a lot of good people,
(32:36):
all different race, gender, ethnicities and religions out there are
starting to say, you know what, this whole woke thing
is totally out of control. I I really do think
there's a strong pushback against it, um and uh and
I do think it can be pretty significant. Eddie. Do
you think that this that that we would have gotten,
that Doug Adler would have gotten this, uh, this redemption
(32:57):
if we had not put him on this show. You know, honestly,
I'm not sure, but I will say when I heard
the news, I kind of felt like it was a
win for us in some way. I felt really good
about it. And and you know, certainly credit you for
giving him all the attention that he got and bringing
the story to light. Yeah, I just I think it's
(33:18):
important and that this is kind of my my idea
in general, you know, to the extent you climb up
on a soapbox or you you have the opportunity to
talk to a lot of people, and we certainly do
every morning with this show. I think as a society
in America today, we need to stop assuming the worst
about everyone. And I feel like, and I've said this
(33:40):
for a long time, but the idea that you would
fire somebody because of one Facebook post, or because of
one Twitter post, or because of one you know, ten
second viral snippet, we're all in some way at the
mercy of the larger American community in a way we
ever have been before with social media. And my assumption
(34:04):
is always maybe this is a flaw in me, and
maybe this is just having been raised in a Baptist
church as a kid, where you believe to the very
essence of everything in the concept of forgiveness. My belief
is I don't assume the worst about anyone, right and
you can. You can criticize me for that, say that's
being gullible, you can say that's being too too kind
(34:26):
everything else. I don't assume when I see a viral
video or I see someone's tweet, that everybody is suddenly
outraged about or I see some Facebook page, I don't assume,
oh that person is evil, right, Oh that I don't
automatically go to this person is evil and this is
evidence of their evilness. And I think in order to
(34:48):
fire Doug Adler in that situation, the leaps of logic
you had to follow to believe that he has been
calling tennis matches for twenty years and sudden, lily, in
a random Australian Open tennis match, he decided to call
Venus Williams a gorilla. That's a massive leap and frankly,
(35:09):
it's also more racist in my opinion, by the people
who assume the worst than it is of him to
begin with, because when I heard that, if I were watching,
I would have been thinking gorilla effect. Or I wouldn't
have been thinking, oh, Venus Williams is black. That means
she's an ape, right Like, I'm not wired in a
(35:31):
way to believe in a pejorative about a race to
begin with. And so the people who are, in my opinion,
are actually the racist ones. And I think we're starting
to see some reasonable reasonableness start to govern. And I look,
I have ripped the ESPN because I think they've led
(35:51):
the woke media brigade for a long time. I try
to call spades a spade, right, I try to be
on this show and be as honest as I possibly
can for three hours every day. I think that ESPN
got that right, and I think they're recognizing that many
of the decisions they've made over the last four or
five years have been wrong. And I give them credit
for being willing to step up to the table here
(36:14):
and acknowledge are wrong and fix this situation with Doug
Adler as best they can, because look, it's hard to
make good decisions all day long when you're running a
big company, right, Let's be honest. You've got tons of
things on your desk all day long. And I think
a lot of companies, when they see this viral outrage
start to bubble up, they decide the easiest thing to
(36:36):
do is just placate the angry people. The problem with
that is you encourage them to continue that behavior. Right,
if you're a parent, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
If you allow your kid to misbehave and you reward
that misbehavior, and you continue to do the same thing
(36:56):
over and over again, the results are not going to change.
It's like, I don't know if you guys saw that
Jeff Bezos story. It came out yesterday evening he was
getting blackmailed by the National Inquirer. There's probably been a
ton of people who have gotten blackmailed by the National
Inquirer over the years. Instead of succumbing to their blackmail,
he flipped the script on them and published all the
(37:17):
emails from them trying to blackmail it. Props to Jeff Bezos. There.
Is it embarrassing, yes? Is it probably humiliating on some
level for him, yes? But is he also helping to
disallow that to happen for everybody in the years ahead. Yes.
It's like this is not rocket science, right. I mean,
the reason why the United States government general policy is
(37:42):
we don't negotiate with terrorists because if you negotiate with terrorists,
you set the precedent that terrorists can do things that
require you to take them seriously and sit down and
negotiate with him. And I think the perspective you have
to have with terrorists is, no, we don't negotiate with you.
Got a bunch of calls, guys, one of her way
in on a variety of subject let's let's hit him. Uh,
(38:04):
Tommy and Florida. What's up Tommy? Hey man, I actually
listened to your the interview with Adler, I don't know, a
a year and a half ago, whenever you first did it.
It actually had me in tears. And the question that
I had, uh, there's I have a comment for you.
After the question, um is, what did Venus Williams do?
(38:25):
You should come out that she never commented. I agree
with you? She she she never she wouldn't answer any questions.
She should I agree with you. She should have come
out and said this is ridiculous. I think this is
an example of social media mob losing their minds. I
appreciate you guys trying to protect me, but I don't
need protection here. His his his intent was not ill
will and she could have ended this story. It's a
(38:47):
good point. If she had used her common humanity there,
she could have saved him from this from this social
media mob to begin with. If you remember and and
then I have my comment, but if you remember Tiger
would that for that that girl on the golf channel?
He said that she didn't mean that, she wasn't saying
it like that, and she saved her job. The comment
(39:08):
that I have for you is you people like you
need to keep doing what you're doing because this is
all getting absolutely ridiculous. You should call out of spite
just to say we're not doing this, because you're exactly right,
we're This country is getting out of control with this
politically correct garbage. And you do really deserve a lot
(39:32):
of credit. Nobody knew who that Doug ad guy was
until that your your piece, so thank you very much
for doing that. I appreciate the call, uh Mike and
modesto what's up Mike, Clay very much almost give the
exact same thoughts. I too was listening that day and
was horrified and saddened by that story. And Clay, I
(39:55):
thank you so much that you are willing to take
a stay end on your show and say what you
need to say. And it's different from everyone else. And
that guy owes you a lot because you gave him
the time when no one else will. And I'm so
glad he's been vindicated paid back, and it's about time
(40:19):
ESPN gets the message go woke, go broke. Maybe they've learned. Clay,
thank you great show, as always, appreciate the call Um
I do think that that it's an important lesson. I mean,
I really do. And uh, I think that the thing
that is a little bit scary to me, and not
(40:42):
a little bit, I think it's it's it's it's very scary.
Is there are a lot of reasonable people who knew
that Doug Adler story was total bs and they work
in the media with me, And as soon as I
put him on the radio, my phone blew up with
so many different people that you would recognize saying thanks
for telling that guy's story. But they were also afraid
(41:05):
of coming out and defending him because they were afraid
that the accusations against him would transfer to them. It's
like a scarlet letter if somebody it's viral, right, Like
if a mob is angry at somebody. There are so
many people who are afraid of standing up to that
mob and saying, you guys are losing your minds here
(41:26):
because they're afraid that anger will transfer to them and
they'll end up being the target. And I think maybe
this is my law background, um, where you get used
to defending people who are charged with heinous crimes and
your job is to provide them the best defense possible.
It doesn't mean that you think they're without blame. It
(41:48):
doesn't mean that you don't think somebody should go to
jail for committing a crime. But under our constitution, we
have an adversarial system and it's my job and I've
done this. If I'm representing a murderer, to represent that
murderer to the best of my ability. Doesn't mean that
I think murders okay, doesn't mean that I think that
there shouldn't be consequences for poor behavior. It just means
(42:10):
that I take my duty to defend someone in an
adversarial system in a court of law very seriously. Well, Now,
what I do is I look at cases out there,
like Doug Adler. I look at all the facts, and
sometimes it terrifies me that the guy can be completely
in the right and have done nothing wrong and all
of the consequences are coming down on the wrong side.
(42:32):
So I'm willing to stand out there and give people
a target. You go check my mentions every single day.
The number of people who live to attack me is substantial,
but I kind of enjoy it. Um, I'm perfectly fine
being in the line of fire and having people angry
because I'm taking aside that they're not comfortable with UM,
(42:53):
and I think that's important. I think it's important in
the in the country today to have a wide variety
of opinions and not allow a vocal minority, that is
mob rule driven on social media, to dictate the direction
of our country in sports and otherwise. Nick, let's see
Dave in Florida. What's up, Dave? Hey, good morning man,
(43:14):
love yourself, appreciate that. I want to comment on the
whole MLB. I mean, this is ridiculous. I mean, you
guys are absolutely right. You need to find more ways
to get the youth into your game. You need to
find a way to make your game more exciting. Um.
I love playing baseball, but I hate watching it on TV.
It's boring, you know. Like you said, they need to
find a way to get the off season more exciting,
(43:35):
you know. And also, let me comment on this whole
like you know, politically correct or woke movement. It's it's
it's stupid. It's another way of using the race card. Um,
it doesn't matter if you're black, white, whoever is using
it is wrong. This country is getting a lot softer. Um.
If you don't like it, move on, you know, thank
you very much. Man, Yeah, thanks for the called Jack
(43:56):
in Texas, last call here before we go to break.
Then we're gonna be joined by Jeff Schwartz. Jack, what
you got for me? Hey man, I'm fairly new listeners,
so I didn't hear about this, but I don't want
to thank you for having the courage to to take
the stand and everything you do, because we've got to
be careful of the next thing. Peter will sue and
make NFL change the name of the publicist a bad
(44:17):
thing good point. Physically unable to performalist definitely does give
bad name to the puppies out there. Um, all right,
we come back then we're going next week. We'll play
that Doug Adler clip for you and we'll also put
it out on social media, but we'll play that entire
interview for you now that we've got a good conclusion
to that story, because we do have a lot of
new listeners people who may not be familiar with that story.
(44:38):
It's one of the things I'm proud of that we've
done on the show. Be sure to catch live editions
about Kick the Coverage with Clay Travis week days at
six am Eastern three am Pacific. Jeff shorts with us. Now, Jeff,
you've got two kids with the flu? Is that what
I understand? Yes, one of them I think he is
ready to go to school today. Uh, No, fever last
one four hours. And the other one I thought was
(44:59):
ready to go and she is not. So yeah, it
is Uh, it's been rough. I know that this has
been a rough flu season in general. Did they both
get it simultaneously? And have you and your wife gotten
sick yet? So my son got his like Thursday night Friday,
when I got back from Atlanta, he had his flue
(45:19):
and she got hers like Monday. But it's going through
the class. I mean vaccine, No, vaccine doesn't matter. I
haven't gonne sick. My wife hasn't gunne sick. My parents
are here, they haven't gone sick. I don't think um,
and so I think I think we avoided it. They
don't avoid it. But the kids, Man, it's it's been rough.
I know. You watch and there's a lot of people
out there with sick kids or with sick family right now.
(45:42):
This is uh, I understand the busiest time of the
flu season so far. Um. When you look right now,
you just mentioned you came back from the Super Bowl. Um,
who should be the favorite next year? If you had
to bet right now on a team to win the
Super Bowl, who would you take New England? Why would
you still want? Do not? You? Yeah? Why would you not?
They have like twelve draft picks. Uh, the Isaiah went
(46:05):
back in the drafted last year. You'll probably play left tackle.
When they let Trent Brown go, they have to find
another pass rusher. They're gonna probably let Trade Flowers go,
even though even though they generate the pass rusher with
their linebackers a lot of the time and those twists
and stuff. But how do you know they play again?
They're in then FC East again. They get the Chiefs
at home. Probably that's probably Opening night. I would imagine
(46:25):
it would be Chiefs and Patriots in New England. Um,
And I just I don't know how you you bet
against them, especially if they get to play home again.
They hopefully advantaged about the playoffs. Um, they're gonna be
right back on the set rowl next year. Well, the
Lakers ever win a championship with Lebron James. Uh, I
hope so as a Lakers fan, I mean, last night
(46:47):
was pretty amazing, right, everyone could kind of them out
there down twenty I think in the first half, and
then came back and won that game. I mean they did.
They sailed at the trade deadline, and I saw you
tweet about it, other people talking about I mean, I
just wish they would have done it quietly like everyone
else had done it. It was either if you didn't
get if you didn't get Anton Davis, then you didn't
get him. But they were so public about it, back
(47:08):
and forth with Dell Dems and and leaking stuff to media.
Just get it done behind the scenes or don't report
it at all. Lakers fans are fine with what's happening
right now. We have Lebron. We know, you know Freedencie
is coming up this year. If we strike out a Fredency,
there's a big problem. But the whole trade de Baclers
looks bout all the young guys are pissed. Now. I
(47:29):
just wish, like now that I'm a Lakers fan, I
mean I'm not now that Lebron is a Laker, I
should say. And I love Lebron, man, I could see
why people get tired of him. It's just it's so
much drama all the time. Um, he's trying to play
and be the GM at the same time with his agency.
It's just it's a lot happening. If you're a fan,
do you uh you were an athlete. We're talking to
Jeff Schortz for eight years in the NFL, and obviously
(47:51):
the coverage between an average NFL player and stuff like
what Lebron and Kevin Durant gets is different. But do
you blame the media for covering the question and of
whether or not Kevin Durant is going to go to
New York? Isn't that what fans would rather talk about
in the NBA than the fact that the Warriors are
gonna win another championship. Yes, I thought Durant came off
(48:11):
as real childish. It's funny the guy who has fake
burner accounts is like questioning the media on the way
that they handle everything. There's another case, in my opinion,
you talk about this off about social media influencing the
way that um people react to certain of stories, because
I would say that most people who are fans of
the NBA do not like, do not dislike Kevin Durant.
(48:31):
But you know, but there's a vocal minority on on
social media who probably who probably tweet him all the
time and send them mean things, and he hears he
hears stories about about whatnot and reads blogs on social media.
And then he had this opinion that people don't like
him and therefore he defend himself and going this whole,
this whole speech yesterday about the media. And what's funny
(48:52):
is I saw media members who benefit off this storyline,
right who talk about Kevin Durant going to the defending
Kevin Durant and what he's said to the media yesterday.
I grow up, dude like you. You know how it works.
You have to talk to the media. And the way
you responded the other day gives the media more ammo,
in my opinion, to go after you even more because
now now now they know that you get a story
(49:13):
out of you. Now they know they can irritate you.
And now they know that whenever they ask you this question,
you're gonna have a response that's cage of a viral um.
And I just think it was unfair to the reporter.
He's just his job. They have to come up with
stories every single day and they have to find something
to write about that that's their job, and it's it's
it's writing about Kevin durant to the Knicks and grow up, dude,
(49:33):
you go play basketball, don't worry about it. If there's
nothing to worry about, then why why are you making
a good stick out of this? So I thought it
came up as a real childish um and really just
something that felt beneath one of the better players in
the NBA. Not to mention, his own free agency is
created by him. He could have signed long term deals
(49:53):
instead of creating constant player options for himself. And also,
you already walked away from Oklahoma City and went to
a new place, so the idea you might go somewhere
else knew would not be a shot. Can you come
back with us for the final segment here of the hour?
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports
(50:14):
Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app.
Search f s R to listen live uh shorts. We
talked about the Rondo shot, like your fans can enjoy
their brief moment in the sunshine before the storm returns.
But Nick Foles, where should he go? What's gonna happen?
Where should he go? I think you should go somewhere
(50:35):
like Jacksonville. If you look at the amount of teams
who really need him, it's not a lot, right Jacksonville,
the Dolphins, maybe, Um, I'm trying to rack my head
around who would actually could use this. A lot of
a lot of teams have young quarterbacks that they're working through,
you know, some some growing pains. They're not gonna want
to bring Nix Spols to start. I mean, there's a
(50:56):
very small window of teams that really could use his services.
So I mean Jacksonville would be one of them. They
could use him. I mean, maybe even the Giant that
they don't want to draft Dwayne Haskins or you know,
they don't want to draft a quarterback where they're at,
could use Nick Foles. If I were if I were
the Eagles, I wouldn't bother franchise tagging him. I would
(51:16):
just let him walk. You've gone the most out of
him you can. There's no guarantee, obviously, that you can
trade him for what you expect to get what value
you expect. I think his value is down now compared
to where it was last year. He didn't know he
played okay in the regular season, he played it, you know,
he played well in that three game stretch and he played,
you know, he played okay against the Bears, and then
we saw what happened, um, you know in the New Orleans.
(51:38):
I think it was so um. I think that the
Eagles just won't get what they want, and I just
I wouldn't bother doing it. Plus, it seems like the
Eagles obviously love Nick Foles. They paid him that bonus
this year that they didn't you know, that he didn't
have to get, but they paid it to him for
playing time. And if you franchise tag him and can't
work out a trade, you kind of ruined his market
because if you keep him longer than uh than for
(52:01):
agency and the draft, like you can send his tag
in mid May, like the Panthers due to Josh Norman.
There's no market for him anymore because Jacksonville has found
a solution there they drafted the quarterback, or the Giants
had done the same thing, or Miami, and then you've
kind of strewed Nick Foles. I just don't expect the
Eagles to do that. So maybe they franchised town came
and try to work out the deal before for agency
with someone. If not, I just think they should let
(52:23):
him go. You've got the most out of them. It's
a great story. I don't think we appreciate how remarkable
history is and what the Eagles did last year. I mean,
you don't. You don't have that happen where backup quarterback
comes in and plays better than the presumptive m v
P and Carson Wentz. It's a remarkable story and he
deserves a credit for that, and so is the coaching staff.
(52:44):
I just just let him walk. Just let him walk.
Do you think that the XFL, which starts play next
year and now has somehow managed to snag Bob Stoops
as a coach and general manager, which is a huge
coup or the a FFL or the A A A
whatever it's called the A A F L. I think
do you think either of those leagues will end up
(53:05):
being successful? Is their demand for spring football? Well one
starts tomorrow. I believe the A A F and there's
lines posted I hope that you hope you unlock it
in today. Picking a F game for this weekend um
out of nowhere. The best part about the A A
F this weekend. I thought there's a heated quarterback battle
in Memphis between Zach Mettenberger and Christian Hackenberger. I mean,
(53:27):
who who could stand that out? I mean that actually
just wild right for tomorrow for the Memphis team. Uh So,
I guess survive. I mean the NFL needs a minor league.
I think, in my opinion, it just depends on what
that is. The XFL, to me, we have to see
what what they're gonna be in this new version, how
serious they're gonna take to football is going to be
(53:47):
more more gimmick than not. Um. The a F the
league starting now is backed by Bill Pollium. It's got
some good people, it's got it's got respectable coaches. It
does have NFL players and guys trying to make it
back in the NFL. Remember, the best thing the XFL
brought to the NFL with some of the technology, right
the sky cam that that the XFL had, the NFL
(54:09):
took over. And so I think that the best thing
is gonna happen here is, you know, these leagues to
survive are going to have to embrace gambling. I think
they're gonna have to be um a little bit more
progressive in the way that they view gambling and fantasy
football probably and all that, and there'll be some technology,
some sort of fan experience that probably comes out of
this more than the players that are able to get
to the National Football Agion. Good stuff. As always, my man,
(54:32):
we'll talk to you next week. Have a good weekend.
Good luck getting those kids healthy again from the flu.
All right, thank you guys. Be sure to catch live
editions about Kicked the coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at
six am Eastern three am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the i Heart Radio app.
Thanks for listening to the best of out Kick the
Coverage podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
morning from six to nine am Eastern three to six
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for OutKick the Coverage at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every morning on the I Heart
Radio app by searching f s R. This is the
best of OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis on Fox
(00:22):
Sports Radio last night, gambling Wise, as part of Lock
it In, I went safe what I thought was safe.
I did a three game money line parlay. For those
of you don't know, money line is just betting on
a team to win, not based on a wine. So
(00:44):
I bet on Gonzagata win they blow out San Francisco.
I think it was not remotely close. I bet on
Oklahoma City to beat the Grizzlies, not remotely close. And
I bet on the Celtics to beat the Lakers, and
that was the right side, and I still ended up losing.
And that's why I say I'm cursed, just absolutely cursed.
(01:06):
Now I've lost the week and lock it in again
when I should have if that stupid Rondo bucket hadn't happened,
or if somehow the Celtics had just gotten the ball
as Lebron James is going out of bounds with forty
seconds left or whatever the heck it is, and he
just flings it backwards and what should have been a
clear turnover and somehow it goes right to a Laker
(01:27):
who then kicks it back to him for a three
in the corner. This is a brutal series of bad luck.
Having said that the Lakers are dead, They're buried, put
the dirt on him. They're finished now. I think they're
finished for years to come. Nobody wants to play with
Lebron James. He's an old ass dude who is on
the back side of his career. And then as soon
(01:48):
as Rondo hit that shot, I'm like, I gotta go
in and talk to all these Laker losers on my show,
who are gonna be running around like they just won
a championship back in the eighties with pat Ryle. I
think you're gonna go to us in the last thing
Laker losers. First of all, Danny g is back. Danny
G is like he's sick because he went to the
(02:10):
Super Bowl after all the bragging that he did about
how much better he was gonna be than Jason Martin
because he showed up for five straight days on Radio
Row and he managed to handle it. He misses two
days this week because his delicate immune system fell apart
as soon as he got back. I don't even know.
I gotta give j Mark credit here, because j mart
(02:30):
went nine out of ten days. He also went missing.
He went missing during the biggest week of the year.
Though I was early every single show. He missed one
of the biggest days of the biggest week of the year,
but then the week after he was still healthy, he
was still there. I don't know why I'm surrounded with
people with the worst immune systems on the planet. Do
you know how many days I have missed on this
(02:52):
show in four different calendar years for sickness? Zero? Not
one sick I'm not even sure that's the truth. I do.
You never step outside your house, Well, that's that's but
you know what, I got three little kids bringing in
uh petri dish of of of illnesses all the time.
(03:13):
Well that's true, that's why you have a strong immuney
the deal. I don't even know if I have sick leave,
I asked, I This is not even a joke. I
did I not text you recently and say, hey, do
we get sick leave? Nobody's even told me because I
haven't missed a day for being sick, and I'm probably
jinxing myself now, I'm not even sure. Now, a lot
(03:33):
of people out there like, yeah, but you missed it. Yeah,
I take vacation. I take time off like I'm gonna
be on next week, and then I'll be off the
next week after that, the President's Day week. I usually
try to get away because football season is over, so
I'll get away for vacation. But in terms of actual sickness,
I have yet to miss a day, so I'm not
even sure. I asked, I think we get sick leave.
(03:56):
I texted our boss, Scott Shapiro the other day, never responded.
I don't even know. I like, if I'm near death,
I don't even know that I have to obligate the
opportunity not to come on. So lots people complain like, hey, like,
your voice doesn't sound perfect. Yeah, that's because I'm sick,
and that's because I'm on the radio. So anyway, the
Lakers suck. Sure sounds like Lebron penetrated that amazing immune
(04:21):
system of yours fools gold? Are you really gonna stick
with that fool's gold? Because usually even when you're wrong,
unless you lose like thirty dollars, you're a little more
objective than this. No, this was this was the two
out of forty one you even convinced your TV co
host yesterday. By the end of the show, they were
(04:42):
even agreeing with you about this dumpster fire with a
capital D. The rest of the Lakers season is a wash.
Head shot sixteen for forty one, focus on the lottery,
a phenomenal day three point shooting. They would have lost
by seventeen in this game, Clay, if the Lakers would
have made their free throws, they would have won this
game by fifteen. Well, they're they're not going to It's
(05:06):
true that they would have shot free throws ordinarily better,
but the percentage by which two out of forty one
from three is fool's gold. If you shoot fifty from
three again, if they just shot sixteen forty one, that's
that's a phenomenal day of shooting, by and large. If
any other team had their back to the wall like
(05:28):
this and had the media breathing down their neck the
way you and everyone else nationally was lamb basting the
Lakers all week long, and you thought they were gonna
lay down. You said they were gonna get blown out
by the Celtics. You raved about it all day long yesterday.
Nobody wants to play with Lebron. He's gonna have to
shoot the ball a hundred times because teammates don't want
(05:49):
to play with him. And the Lakers showed up, showed
up in a major way, showed a lot of heart
and proved to you and other people who just started
watching basketball right after the football season ended that they
had a good thing going before Lebron's injury. They are
not going to win a series in the playoffs, if
they even make the play Yeah, and the Patriots aren't
(06:10):
going to make the playoffs now, They're not gonna win
a series even if they make the playoffs. Write it down,
bet as much as money as you want on it.
The Lakers are a dead franchise. Celtics Magic Johnson walking
around like a mummy out there. He's got no idea
what he's doing. They can't get anybody to come join
(06:32):
Lebron James because Lebron is getting old and because none
of the other teams want to deal with them. This
is a team that is falling apart. The best thing
they can have happen for them is if another team
falls apart as well. And that's like Kevin Durant deciding
to go to UH New York and taking away some
(06:52):
of the top talent in the Western Conference. But I
don't think you can grab this audio. You can hold
it for the next ten years, however long Lebron thinks
he's gonna play. Lebron James is not going to win
another championship in the NBA. And I don't even think
he's gonna come close to winning one unless and this
is my caveat unless when his time with the Lakers
(07:15):
runs out in three more years, he still wants to
continue to play in the n b A and he
decides to then be like a vagabond, you know, ninth
guy on a bench where he's going to try to
steal championships by being a low man on the totem pole.
That I I legitimately have no doubt at all about that.
(07:36):
Does anybody else agree with me? Dub Are you with
me here? I don't bet against Lebron Clay. So you
think Lebron is gonna win another championship? Yeah, you're wrong?
Does any what does Eddie Garcia? Eddie? Do you agree
with me that Lebron is never gonna win another championship?
I'm leaning that way. How about that? That's at least helpful.
(07:56):
I can't rely on any kind of reasonable It just
sounds like you're fishing right now. No, let's go and
take some calls. Eight seven seven nine six three six nine.
Tavaris in North Carolina? What's up to VARs C? Team? Man?
I love you, but I have to disagree with you.
We we just witness has some Barns get traded in
(08:19):
the middle of a game and then not play the
second half because of ownership and the way they do
business and the way that they hold somebody's destiny in
their hands when they are a mediocre player or uh
average NBA player. When you are a great player like Lebron,
you can own your own destiny and you make the calls.
(08:41):
What's wrong with that? That's called being a boss and
then letting your He's being a boss, but he's not
that good at being a boss, because if he were,
he wouldn't have totally mishandled and misplayed this Anthony Davis situation,
such that Anthony Davis is never gonna play with the
Lakers until maybe he signs as a free agent in
(09:03):
a year and a half when Lebron is seventy four
years old. But Clay, that's when Anthony Davis, Davis was
on the bench. What did the Pelicans look like? That's
their mistake. They didn't take what the Lakers will offer
them offering them Lebron James. How many times had this
man have been in the finals. He's a winner, He's
a winner. What what? What negative do we have to
(09:24):
say about Lebron regarding I mean, we could talk about,
you know what we don't like as far as basketball
and his decisions that he made. But but personally he's
he's perfect, He's Tom Brady esque. He just didn't win championships.
He takes teams to the finals. What what? What? This
is my question? This is my thing with Lebron stands
(09:48):
out there. Why is going to the finals and losing
an incredible accomplishment? This is all about the millennial generation.
They don't talk about championships anymore. They talk about almost
winning championships. Oh, look at Lebron. He's he's been in
the big Game a ton and he's lost. Wait a second, though,
just a couple of weeks ago, you gave a take
(10:10):
on this show saying that a player's reputation shouldn't take
a ding because they got to the finals Super Bowl
and largue that he deserves to be on a different
caliber because he gets to the finals and loses. I'm
saying I'm putting Lebron James in the exact same spot
(10:30):
I would if he was three and oh right in
the finals as the fact that he's three and six.
But I'm also not going to sit around and say
that if Tom Brady had been to nine Super Bowls
and he had gone three and six in those nine
super Bowls, that a big part of Tom Brady's legacy
wouldn't have been his failure to win Super Bowls when
(10:52):
he got there. Is it still better to get to
the Super Bowl than to lose before you get there? Sure,
but I don't think you can brag about the fact
that you have lost a lot, like I got so
close to making the summit of Mount Everest. All right,
that's kind of a good thing. This dude like imagine
this guy decided he was gonna climb Mount Everest and
(11:15):
right before he got to the summit, six times he
got altitudes sickness and he wasn't able to make it there. Well,
it's still impressive, but it's not like I'm gonna say, like, hey,
look at this dude. He went up nine times to
try to make it to the summit, and six times
he got altitude sickness and didn't make it the rest
of the way. Yeah, it's kind of good. I guess
that you have the toughness to be able to get close,
(11:36):
but I'm not gonna brag about you almost doing something.
I don't think you should be able to say like that.
That's my thing on the Jordan's people. The Jordan people
who are like, well, he's six and oh in the finals. Yeah,
because he lost a bunch of times to the Detroit
Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals. He lost when he
came back to the Orlando Magic. I don't think you
(11:59):
can just ag about being six and oh in the
finals and ignore other losses. But I do think if
Jordan had gone to the finals nine times and he
went six and three like Tom Brady, that's more impressive.
Let me bring in Eddie Garcia find out what Jagen alright, Claire.
We had the NBA trade deadline, of course on Thursday.
Anthony Davis, the big name, did not go anywhere. He's
(12:21):
gonna finish out the season with the Pelicans. Players that
did move included the Raptors getting Marcusol from the Grizzlies,
the Bucks pick up Nicola Meritage from the Pelicans, and
the seventy six ship down former number one overall picked
Marco Folds to the Magic on the court. Lakers beat
the Celtics in Boston and a re Gen Rondo buzzer beater.
Lebron James had a triple double in the win twenty points,
twelve rebounds, and twelve assists. Raptors over the Hawks one
(12:44):
nineteen to one on one. Toronto gets its fortieth win
of the year. Raptors are forty and sixteen on the season.
Thunder over the Grizzlies one seventeen ninety five. Russell Westbrook
gets his eighth straight triple double fifteen points, thirteen rebounds
and fifteen assists for okay See Pacers over the Clippers
one s two. Trailblazers top the Spurs eighteen college basketball
number four, and Zaga had no trouble beating San Francisco
(13:05):
ninety two to sixty two wins for number in twelve, Houston,
Number twenty, Iowa, and Number Cincinnati. This report brought to
you by True Car. Online car shopping can be confusing,
but not anymore with True Price from True Car. Now
you know the exact price you'll pay for your next
car so it's a true car, and enjoy more confident
car buying experience. We'll be back to OutKick the coverage
in ten seconds, but first a word from farmers. From
a dog accidentally flooding a living room to a dog
(13:26):
taking a joy ride, we've covered it. Talk to farmers.
We know a thing or two because we've seen a
thing or two. We are farmers under written my Farmers
truck fire insurance exchanges and affiliates products not available in
every state. Not back to Cleet, Travis and the Gico
outkicked the coverage. Studios Eric in Hollywood, Laker fans everywhere
coming out of the woodwork showing up. All the Lakers
(13:49):
are back. What's up? Eric? Yeah, clearly you're wrong. I
think this is a two year plan and I think
this off seasons are going to make the move to
get a dan if they if they don't, don't, they'll
pick it to get another stud along Lebron. And and
we're sure if they're supporting Ky that they would win
a championship in the first year together. And you're seeing
they've got good assets and this this this offseason, Magic
(14:11):
and Blink I are going to make the moves to
surround Lebron. So this wasn't a one year plan. They're
not gonna win in their first year together. And no
Laquor fan and that delusional that that that would happen.
So you're way off and wrong again in the most
delusional fan base in America. They're not gonna win a
championship with Lebron James period. By the way, you can
bet on this at the super book in Las Vegas
if you're so confident, go out to Las Vegas. Will
(14:33):
the Lakers win a championship by the two NBA finals?
So that's nine two, that's the four years Lebron is
signed on for right, yes, is plus one seventy five,
So you can make nearly two to one on your
money if you believe so desperately the Lebron is going
to win a championship. No is minus two ten, So
(14:57):
all the smart people out in the desert will take
your money at plus one seventy five. Trip just passed
that along to me. They're smart. Eric in Hollywood and
all the other Faker Laker fans out there that are
delusional are losing their minds over this. This fool's gold win.
Victor in l A, what's up? Victor? Hey, what's go on?
(15:18):
I love the show? Look, I don't know, give me
your take on this. I would have given the house,
God Davis, I don't play with Lebron. Now got to
lose this season out. Just dip them on how to
be quhiscent with each other. Then next year it wouldn't
be just Lebron pulling in another free agent. They would
have got somebody big. And then when you have three people,
I would have the only person that would not have
(15:38):
given up is Rondal kept Tim giving up the house,
kept them three, got another free agent, and then you'd
be able to make a real challenge for the Well. Look,
I think that the Lakers were willing to give up
whatever they needed to in order to get Anthony Davis.
I think that the Pelicans wanted to wait and see
what happens with the NBA Draft lottery who wins it? Uh,
(16:01):
And then also that the I think the Pelicans believe
they're gonna get Jayson Tatum, and I think they see
Jayson Tatum from the Celtics as the best possible fit
for their franchise going forward. So I think they're trying
to get as much as they possibly can, and they
see Tatum as an incredible possibility that's dangling out there
(16:22):
that Danny Jane just convinced them he might give up,
and they see that as the best route to remake
their franchise as rapidly as they passed up possibly can.
In real time, Andy and tennessee what's up? Andy? What's up?
What's up? Clud? I got I got two things for you. One,
I can't stand when a Lebron fanboy gets on there
(16:42):
and talks about all the finals that he's made in
his career. I would say he's probably had the second
best team three times in his whole career. That team
he had last year was probably the sixth seventh. That's
a really good point about how bad the Eastern Conference is.
So we should also put in the perspective when they've
(17:02):
gotten to the Eastern Conference and they've gotten their ass
kicked and it hasn't been remotely close like the last
couple of years. Is it really an accomplishment to get
there when you're nowhere near the second best team. You
just happened to be in a really weak conference for
the last seven or eight years. And uh, and and
and another thing. I was going to the Lacings game
when they've come to uh Charlotte or come to Atlanta
(17:25):
when they were Sorry, but I did not want Lebron
James on this team because you knew exactly what was
going to happen before he got on the team. You know,
Luke Walton getting fired, that's happening, and you knew that
he was trading players. Douse the clown he's the clowns
he Uh. I did not want that dude on the team.
He's just the cancer. And what k D said about
(17:47):
that man is the absolute truth. And his family's in
the media did not want to hear it. Thanks for
to call eight seven seven n six three six nine. Um,
when you think about it, it's a good point. Should
have just brought that up immediately when you're not remotely
close to winning a championship, and you get there because
your side of the conference is so weak. Can you
(18:09):
really brag about that? Last year? What would the Calves
have been the fourth or fifth best team in the
Western Conference. Isn't that the same argument Brady Haters make
about the division his team plays now. I don't think
so at all, because the a f C is not
overall really weak. You still have to get into the
a f C and win playoff games. Is it true
(18:30):
that the Jets and the Bills and the Dolphins have
been dumpster fires collectively? Yes, but that's only six games
of the season. They still have ten other games against
all the best teams in the NFL theoretically, but it's
still allowed the Patriots to home field advantage and still
have to get into the playoffs and win those games,
and you still have to win the Super Bowl. I mean,
(18:52):
look Lebron. If you think about Lebron in the finals,
he got a miraculous ray Allen three. He's won three
games Evans, right, Am I correct in that? I think
I'm correcting that that if you change maybe there's only
two games sevens. I know they beat they they beat
the Spurs to win in seven I think right when
they hit the Rayal three. They certainly won in seven
(19:15):
against the Warriors, and I believe they won in seven
the first time. Might have been six games the first time.
I can't remember the first championship. But if you go
back and look at those, you change like one play
in each of the three years that he's won the title,
and there oh and nine. I mean, he has been
incredibly fortunate in the way that they have won those championships,
(19:38):
and in the six that they haven't won, they haven't
been close. It's not like you can point to any
of the six that he lost and say, well, if
you change a couple of plays, the Calves or the
Heat could have won those series. No. So Lebron has
been insanely fortunate in the three times that he won
a championship that when he's gotten a there, he's gotten
(20:01):
a big play made by a teammate, made by somebody.
And look he made the block against uh against Andrea
Gudal I think it was in game seven. But this
guy is closer to oh and nine by far than
he even is to four and four and five or
six and three or five and four be sure to
catch live editions about Kicked. The coverage with Clay Travis
(20:23):
weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Two stories,
one positive, one negative. Let's start with the positive year
as we begin hour to appreciate you spending your Friday
morning with us. If you remember a couple of years ago,
I think now, Uh, Doug Adler, who was a tennis
(20:46):
commentator at ESPN, was calling a match from the Australian
Open involving Venus Williams. And there do we have the audio? Guys?
I think we have the audio here. Uh. This is
what it sounded like when he was calling that match.
This is a first serving. Venus is all over her.
(21:09):
Venus move in and put the gorilla effect on. So
he met as guerrilla tennis. If you remember the commercial
with Andre Agassy and uh and and uh Pete Sampras
where they played in the streets of of New York,
(21:31):
he met guerrilla warfare, as in she's he's charging, and
she's charging in unexpected times. Someone on social media clipped this, uh,
this match and then argued that he was calling her
a gorilla as in the animal ESPN panicked. They fired
(21:52):
him after making him apologize, and Doug Adler was publicly
branded a racist. Most people out in sports media we're
not willing to let Doug Adler uh even like show
the remotest uh like sense of you know, questioning whether
or not that was actually anything racist, which it wasn't.
(22:14):
It's a ludicrous era that we live in where people
are so quick to take offense and to label things racist.
So we had him on this show, uh, and we've
had him on this show either two or three times.
The only media, only media entity anywhere in the country
that would talk to this guy. Then the Today Show
ended up doing a story and he filed the lawsuit.
(22:36):
He filed the lawsuit arguing that ESPN had unfairly treated him.
And if you remember this story, he was so crushed
by the negative media attention and the loss of his
good name. Then ultimately ended up having a heart attack,
he almost died. He's been fighting this battle for a
couple of years. Well, he filed a lawsuit and it
(22:58):
was set to go to trial in Los Angeles in May,
and finally ESPN has admitted wrongdoing here. And I gotta
give credit to the new president of the ESPN Jimmy Petaro,
because I'm told that this decision went all the way
to the top of ESPN. They said, you know what,
we screwed this guy. We treated him unfairly guerrilla effect
(23:23):
as in guerilla warfare, not guerrilla as in the animal.
And so they have brought now Doug Adler back. They
have paid him out a big settlement, and he now
has a contract with ESPN to come back and call
tennis matches. So this is I think an ideal solution
(23:46):
to this issue, about as good of a story I
think as you will get in the world of sports,
where a big company like ESPN is effectively acknowledging you
know what, we overreacted to the social media mob. We
over uh, we overreacted to what was clearly not a
racist comment by Doug Adler. And not only did we
(24:09):
do this wrong, We're gonna pay this guy out a
bunch of money and damages, and we're gonna rehire him
and allow him to call tennis matches once more on
the ESPN network. Doug Adler feels like he got his
name back, he feels like he has gotten vindication. That's
what he's been after for two years. It almost killed him.
(24:29):
This is a positive story. I think that we, as
a part of the larger OutKick universe, deserve a lot
of credit for helping to right a wrong here. And
I feel almost confident that if we had never had
Doug Adler on this show, if we also had shunned
him as many people did in the world of media,
(24:51):
he would not have gotten this apology from ESPN, he
would not have gotten rehired, and he would not have
gotten a big settlement check to to help to pay
for ESPN's mistreatment of him over the past couple of years.
So that is a very positive story. A lot of
people have been asking for updates in this story. You guys,
by the way, can weigh in. I'll open up the
(25:12):
phone lines and allow you to weigh in on Doug
Adler eight seven seven six three six nine. But unfortunately,
we still haven't won the war here. We want a
big battle there against the ridiculous political correct army out there.
But I can't I when I saw this story about
Major League Baseball, I couldn't believe that this is where
(25:34):
we are still as a country when it comes to
the world of sports. They are changing the name of
the disabled list in Major League Baseball to the injured list.
The d L will now become a thing in the past.
It will now be the I L. Because they are
afraid that they are defending offending disabled people. I swear
(26:00):
to God, this is real life. I'm not I couldn't
even make up this, uh, this idea. Major League Baseball
is replacing the disabled list with the injured list. I
I mean when I hear this, my head almost wants
to explode. First of all, the word disability. If you
(26:25):
are on disability at work, it means you can't work.
It doesn't mean that you dislike people who are disabled.
It doesn't mean that this is somehow offensive. It means
that you are unable to go to work, which is
how the disabled list came to be. Now it's been
(26:47):
changed to the injured list, and I just legitimately have
to ask, is there a single person in my listening
audience that was offended by the use of the term
disabled list? Is there even one person we're on in
all fifty states, people all over the world are listening.
(27:09):
Is there anyone in my entire audience offended by Major
League Baseball's use of the disabled list, or as it's
often shortened, the d L, that they needed to change
it to the injured list. I'm gonna start with my
crew eight seven seven six three six nine, Danny G.
Doesn't this seem like a made up story that Major
(27:31):
League Baseball is having to do away with the term
disabled list and replace it with injured list? This is
like a bad Saturday Night Live skit. I swear when
I saw this come across the ticker yesterday, I had
to look twice and I still didn't believe it. And
then when we talked about it off the air this
morning before the show started, I still am scratching my head.
(27:51):
I have never connected the dots on those two things
this whole time, my entire life loving baseball. There was
never one time where I heard that phrase and connected
it to that. Even if you did, it's not a negative.
Like sometimes people get hurt and they're not able to
play in a sporting event. They're on the disabled list.
(28:15):
Their body is not abled for that purpose, just like
if you have ever been at work and you got disability,
that means that you're not able to work, or if
you've been in the military and you've got disability, I
just I am like, just totally blown away by the
(28:38):
fact that this was ever an issue. Eddie Garcia, is
this insane? Like Danny, I also did a double take
when I saw this and had to check to make
sure this was not a joke. Uh yeah. I also
never once considered that this might be an offensive term.
(28:59):
But I guess this is the problem with people being
so woke in American society right now is we're constantly
running around doing things that don't actually have any impact,
and in so doing, we are changing things that the
vast majority of people who are reasonable and have rational
(29:19):
thought processes never had any issue with. And I think
the problem is we are enabling and encouraging stupid people
to complain about stupid things. Dub I mean, this is insanity. Right.
Baseball has so many more problems to worry about than
than this issue right here. How about getting kids to
(29:41):
watch the game because the game is so boring that
no one under the age of watches the games. Figuring
out where Machado and Harper are going this is crazy.
I mean they've been free agents now for like a
year and it's still not resolved. I think Baseball, look,
this could be I think a really fun process. If
(30:02):
baseball did what the NFL does, or did what the
NBA does, you know, when their free agency starts, if
we had like a really exciting pursuit to see what's
gonna happen with Manny Machado and with Bryce Harper instead,
like this thing hasn't even been remotely resolved and we're
almost spring training. Uh, Roberto, disabled list? Were you just
(30:26):
like uh in the fetal position, crying over the baseball
man And for them to do this it's been around
since nineteen sixty six, is so stupid. When the when
a guy is hurt, he's disabled, he can't play, well,
that's why they call it the disabled list. It's like
nothing negative at all, is like, come on, really, all right,
So that's the negative and we're gonna open up phone
lines eight seven seven six three six nine on the
(30:48):
positive front. Danny g If we never put Doug Adler
on the radio on this show when everybody else is
shutting him and they're not allowing his story to be told,
is there anyway ESPN basically apologizes, pays him out, and
brings him back. I don't think so. I think you
shed a lot of light on this story. I know
(31:08):
we give you a lot of crap over a lot
of different things, which we should because we're not paid
to kiss your butt and you don't want those kind
of people on your show, which is credit to you.
But the first time you had him on the show,
I think it kind of caught even your staff off
guard because he was so emotional on the air, especially
that first time you had him on. Yeah, And I'll
(31:28):
have to go back to the archives and find that
first interview so we could repost that, Yeah, reposted or
maybe even replay it for people who haven't heard, because
this is I think if we still have that that
that would be a really good interview I think too,
to bring back maybe next week for people who aren't
familiar with that. With that story, now that we've got
some some conclusion to it, um, I think it's it's
(31:50):
it's a rarity, and I hope that we're starting to
move in this direction where the perpetually outraged and the
perpetually offended are not able to expand the scope of
their outrage and offense to things that clearly are not
outrageous or offensive. Now, obviously we're getting the opposite side
of this story, right, now with the disabled List name change,
(32:13):
which is ridiculous, but I'm starting to see good signs
that sanity maybe prevailing in the world of sports, and
that craziness and uh and and you know, the basically
the perpetual outrage machine where people are always always looking
for reasons to be offended. It's starting not to work
in the world of sports. That a lot of good people,
(32:36):
all different race, gender, ethnicities and religions out there are
starting to say, you know what, this whole woke thing
is totally out of control. I I really do think
there's a strong pushback against it, um and uh and
I do think it can be pretty significant. Eddie. Do
you think that this that that we would have gotten,
that Doug Adler would have gotten this, uh, this redemption
(32:57):
if we had not put him on this show. You know, honestly,
I'm not sure, but I will say when I heard
the news, I kind of felt like it was a
win for us in some way. I felt really good
about it. And and you know, certainly credit you for
giving him all the attention that he got and bringing
the story to light. Yeah, I just I think it's
(33:18):
important and that this is kind of my my idea
in general, you know, to the extent you climb up
on a soapbox or you you have the opportunity to
talk to a lot of people, and we certainly do
every morning with this show. I think as a society
in America today, we need to stop assuming the worst
about everyone. And I feel like, and I've said this
(33:40):
for a long time, but the idea that you would
fire somebody because of one Facebook post, or because of
one Twitter post, or because of one you know, ten
second viral snippet, we're all in some way at the
mercy of the larger American community in a way we
ever have been before with social media. And my assumption
(34:04):
is always maybe this is a flaw in me, and
maybe this is just having been raised in a Baptist
church as a kid, where you believe to the very
essence of everything in the concept of forgiveness. My belief
is I don't assume the worst about anyone, right and
you can. You can criticize me for that, say that's
being gullible, you can say that's being too too kind
(34:26):
everything else. I don't assume when I see a viral
video or I see someone's tweet, that everybody is suddenly
outraged about or I see some Facebook page, I don't assume,
oh that person is evil, right, Oh that I don't
automatically go to this person is evil and this is
evidence of their evilness. And I think in order to
(34:48):
fire Doug Adler in that situation, the leaps of logic
you had to follow to believe that he has been
calling tennis matches for twenty years and sudden, lily, in
a random Australian Open tennis match, he decided to call
Venus Williams a gorilla. That's a massive leap and frankly,
(35:09):
it's also more racist in my opinion, by the people
who assume the worst than it is of him to
begin with, because when I heard that, if I were watching,
I would have been thinking gorilla effect. Or I wouldn't
have been thinking, oh, Venus Williams is black. That means
she's an ape, right Like, I'm not wired in a
(35:31):
way to believe in a pejorative about a race to
begin with. And so the people who are, in my opinion,
are actually the racist ones. And I think we're starting
to see some reasonable reasonableness start to govern. And I look,
I have ripped the ESPN because I think they've led
(35:51):
the woke media brigade for a long time. I try
to call spades a spade, right, I try to be
on this show and be as honest as I possibly
can for three hours every day. I think that ESPN
got that right, and I think they're recognizing that many
of the decisions they've made over the last four or
five years have been wrong. And I give them credit
for being willing to step up to the table here
(36:14):
and acknowledge are wrong and fix this situation with Doug
Adler as best they can, because look, it's hard to
make good decisions all day long when you're running a
big company, right, Let's be honest. You've got tons of
things on your desk all day long. And I think
a lot of companies, when they see this viral outrage
start to bubble up, they decide the easiest thing to
(36:36):
do is just placate the angry people. The problem with
that is you encourage them to continue that behavior. Right,
if you're a parent, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
If you allow your kid to misbehave and you reward
that misbehavior, and you continue to do the same thing
(36:56):
over and over again, the results are not going to change.
It's like, I don't know if you guys saw that
Jeff Bezos story. It came out yesterday evening he was
getting blackmailed by the National Inquirer. There's probably been a
ton of people who have gotten blackmailed by the National
Inquirer over the years. Instead of succumbing to their blackmail,
he flipped the script on them and published all the
(37:17):
emails from them trying to blackmail it. Props to Jeff Bezos. There.
Is it embarrassing, yes? Is it probably humiliating on some
level for him, yes? But is he also helping to
disallow that to happen for everybody in the years ahead. Yes.
It's like this is not rocket science, right. I mean,
the reason why the United States government general policy is
(37:42):
we don't negotiate with terrorists because if you negotiate with terrorists,
you set the precedent that terrorists can do things that
require you to take them seriously and sit down and
negotiate with him. And I think the perspective you have
to have with terrorists is, no, we don't negotiate with you.
Got a bunch of calls, guys, one of her way
in on a variety of subject let's let's hit him. Uh,
(38:04):
Tommy and Florida. What's up Tommy? Hey man, I actually
listened to your the interview with Adler, I don't know, a
a year and a half ago, whenever you first did it.
It actually had me in tears. And the question that
I had, uh, there's I have a comment for you.
After the question, um is, what did Venus Williams do?
(38:25):
You should come out that she never commented. I agree
with you? She she she never she wouldn't answer any questions.
She should I agree with you. She should have come
out and said this is ridiculous. I think this is
an example of social media mob losing their minds. I
appreciate you guys trying to protect me, but I don't
need protection here. His his his intent was not ill
will and she could have ended this story. It's a
(38:47):
good point. If she had used her common humanity there,
she could have saved him from this from this social
media mob to begin with. If you remember and and
then I have my comment, but if you remember Tiger
would that for that that girl on the golf channel?
He said that she didn't mean that, she wasn't saying
it like that, and she saved her job. The comment
(39:08):
that I have for you is you people like you
need to keep doing what you're doing because this is
all getting absolutely ridiculous. You should call out of spite
just to say we're not doing this, because you're exactly right,
we're This country is getting out of control with this
politically correct garbage. And you do really deserve a lot
(39:32):
of credit. Nobody knew who that Doug ad guy was
until that your your piece, so thank you very much
for doing that. I appreciate the call, uh Mike and
modesto what's up Mike, Clay very much almost give the
exact same thoughts. I too was listening that day and
was horrified and saddened by that story. And Clay, I
(39:55):
thank you so much that you are willing to take
a stay end on your show and say what you
need to say. And it's different from everyone else. And
that guy owes you a lot because you gave him
the time when no one else will. And I'm so
glad he's been vindicated paid back, and it's about time
(40:19):
ESPN gets the message go woke, go broke. Maybe they've learned. Clay,
thank you great show, as always, appreciate the call Um
I do think that that it's an important lesson. I mean,
I really do. And uh, I think that the thing
that is a little bit scary to me, and not
(40:42):
a little bit, I think it's it's it's it's very scary.
Is there are a lot of reasonable people who knew
that Doug Adler story was total bs and they work
in the media with me, And as soon as I
put him on the radio, my phone blew up with
so many different people that you would recognize saying thanks
for telling that guy's story. But they were also afraid
(41:05):
of coming out and defending him because they were afraid
that the accusations against him would transfer to them. It's
like a scarlet letter if somebody it's viral, right, Like
if a mob is angry at somebody. There are so
many people who are afraid of standing up to that
mob and saying, you guys are losing your minds here
(41:26):
because they're afraid that anger will transfer to them and
they'll end up being the target. And I think maybe
this is my law background, um, where you get used
to defending people who are charged with heinous crimes and
your job is to provide them the best defense possible.
It doesn't mean that you think they're without blame. It
(41:48):
doesn't mean that you don't think somebody should go to
jail for committing a crime. But under our constitution, we
have an adversarial system and it's my job and I've
done this. If I'm representing a murderer, to represent that
murderer to the best of my ability. Doesn't mean that
I think murders okay, doesn't mean that I think that
there shouldn't be consequences for poor behavior. It just means
(42:10):
that I take my duty to defend someone in an
adversarial system in a court of law very seriously. Well, Now,
what I do is I look at cases out there,
like Doug Adler. I look at all the facts, and
sometimes it terrifies me that the guy can be completely
in the right and have done nothing wrong and all
of the consequences are coming down on the wrong side.
(42:32):
So I'm willing to stand out there and give people
a target. You go check my mentions every single day.
The number of people who live to attack me is substantial,
but I kind of enjoy it. Um, I'm perfectly fine
being in the line of fire and having people angry
because I'm taking aside that they're not comfortable with UM,
(42:53):
and I think that's important. I think it's important in
the in the country today to have a wide variety
of opinions and not allow a vocal minority, that is
mob rule driven on social media, to dictate the direction
of our country in sports and otherwise. Nick, let's see
Dave in Florida. What's up, Dave? Hey, good morning man,
(43:14):
love yourself, appreciate that. I want to comment on the
whole MLB. I mean, this is ridiculous. I mean, you
guys are absolutely right. You need to find more ways
to get the youth into your game. You need to
find a way to make your game more exciting. Um.
I love playing baseball, but I hate watching it on TV.
It's boring, you know. Like you said, they need to
find a way to get the off season more exciting,
(43:35):
you know. And also, let me comment on this whole
like you know, politically correct or woke movement. It's it's
it's stupid. It's another way of using the race card. Um,
it doesn't matter if you're black, white, whoever is using
it is wrong. This country is getting a lot softer. Um.
If you don't like it, move on, you know, thank
you very much. Man, Yeah, thanks for the called Jack
(43:56):
in Texas, last call here before we go to break.
Then we're gonna be joined by Jeff Schwartz. Jack, what
you got for me? Hey man, I'm fairly new listeners,
so I didn't hear about this, but I don't want
to thank you for having the courage to to take
the stand and everything you do, because we've got to
be careful of the next thing. Peter will sue and
make NFL change the name of the publicist a bad
(44:17):
thing good point. Physically unable to performalist definitely does give
bad name to the puppies out there. Um, all right,
we come back then we're going next week. We'll play
that Doug Adler clip for you and we'll also put
it out on social media, but we'll play that entire
interview for you now that we've got a good conclusion
to that story, because we do have a lot of
new listeners people who may not be familiar with that story.
(44:38):
It's one of the things I'm proud of that we've
done on the show. Be sure to catch live editions
about Kick the Coverage with Clay Travis week days at
six am Eastern three am Pacific. Jeff shorts with us. Now, Jeff,
you've got two kids with the flu? Is that what
I understand? Yes, one of them I think he is
ready to go to school today. Uh, No, fever last
one four hours. And the other one I thought was
(44:59):
ready to go and she is not. So yeah, it
is Uh, it's been rough. I know that this has
been a rough flu season in general. Did they both
get it simultaneously? And have you and your wife gotten
sick yet? So my son got his like Thursday night Friday,
when I got back from Atlanta, he had his flue
(45:19):
and she got hers like Monday. But it's going through
the class. I mean vaccine, No, vaccine doesn't matter. I
haven't gonne sick. My wife hasn't gunne sick. My parents
are here, they haven't gone sick. I don't think um,
and so I think I think we avoided it. They
don't avoid it. But the kids, Man, it's it's been rough.
I know. You watch and there's a lot of people
out there with sick kids or with sick family right now.
(45:42):
This is uh, I understand the busiest time of the
flu season so far. Um. When you look right now,
you just mentioned you came back from the Super Bowl. Um,
who should be the favorite next year? If you had
to bet right now on a team to win the
Super Bowl, who would you take New England? Why would
you still want? Do not? You? Yeah? Why would you not?
They have like twelve draft picks. Uh, the Isaiah went
(46:05):
back in the drafted last year. You'll probably play left tackle.
When they let Trent Brown go, they have to find
another pass rusher. They're gonna probably let Trade Flowers go,
even though even though they generate the pass rusher with
their linebackers a lot of the time and those twists
and stuff. But how do you know they play again?
They're in then FC East again. They get the Chiefs
at home. Probably that's probably Opening night. I would imagine
(46:25):
it would be Chiefs and Patriots in New England. Um,
And I just I don't know how you you bet
against them, especially if they get to play home again.
They hopefully advantaged about the playoffs. Um, they're gonna be
right back on the set rowl next year. Well, the
Lakers ever win a championship with Lebron James. Uh, I
hope so as a Lakers fan, I mean, last night
(46:47):
was pretty amazing, right, everyone could kind of them out
there down twenty I think in the first half, and
then came back and won that game. I mean they did.
They sailed at the trade deadline, and I saw you
tweet about it, other people talking about I mean, I
just wish they would have done it quietly like everyone
else had done it. It was either if you didn't
get if you didn't get Anton Davis, then you didn't
get him. But they were so public about it, back
(47:08):
and forth with Dell Dems and and leaking stuff to media.
Just get it done behind the scenes or don't report
it at all. Lakers fans are fine with what's happening
right now. We have Lebron. We know, you know Freedencie
is coming up this year. If we strike out a Fredency,
there's a big problem. But the whole trade de Baclers
looks bout all the young guys are pissed. Now. I
(47:29):
just wish, like now that I'm a Lakers fan, I
mean I'm not now that Lebron is a Laker, I
should say. And I love Lebron, man, I could see
why people get tired of him. It's just it's so
much drama all the time. Um, he's trying to play
and be the GM at the same time with his agency.
It's just it's a lot happening. If you're a fan,
do you uh you were an athlete. We're talking to
Jeff Schortz for eight years in the NFL, and obviously
(47:51):
the coverage between an average NFL player and stuff like
what Lebron and Kevin Durant gets is different. But do
you blame the media for covering the question and of
whether or not Kevin Durant is going to go to
New York? Isn't that what fans would rather talk about
in the NBA than the fact that the Warriors are
gonna win another championship. Yes, I thought Durant came off
(48:11):
as real childish. It's funny the guy who has fake
burner accounts is like questioning the media on the way
that they handle everything. There's another case, in my opinion,
you talk about this off about social media influencing the
way that um people react to certain of stories, because
I would say that most people who are fans of
the NBA do not like, do not dislike Kevin Durant.
(48:31):
But you know, but there's a vocal minority on on
social media who probably who probably tweet him all the
time and send them mean things, and he hears he
hears stories about about whatnot and reads blogs on social media.
And then he had this opinion that people don't like
him and therefore he defend himself and going this whole,
this whole speech yesterday about the media. And what's funny
(48:52):
is I saw media members who benefit off this storyline,
right who talk about Kevin Durant going to the defending
Kevin Durant and what he's said to the media yesterday.
I grow up, dude like you. You know how it works.
You have to talk to the media. And the way
you responded the other day gives the media more ammo,
in my opinion, to go after you even more because
now now now they know that you get a story
(49:13):
out of you. Now they know they can irritate you.
And now they know that whenever they ask you this question,
you're gonna have a response that's cage of a viral um.
And I just think it was unfair to the reporter.
He's just his job. They have to come up with
stories every single day and they have to find something
to write about that that's their job, and it's it's
it's writing about Kevin durant to the Knicks and grow up, dude,
(49:33):
you go play basketball, don't worry about it. If there's
nothing to worry about, then why why are you making
a good stick out of this? So I thought it
came up as a real childish um and really just
something that felt beneath one of the better players in
the NBA. Not to mention, his own free agency is
created by him. He could have signed long term deals
(49:53):
instead of creating constant player options for himself. And also,
you already walked away from Oklahoma City and went to
a new place, so the idea you might go somewhere
else knew would not be a shot. Can you come
back with us for the final segment here of the hour?
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports
(50:14):
Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app.
Search f s R to listen live uh shorts. We
talked about the Rondo shot, like your fans can enjoy
their brief moment in the sunshine before the storm returns.
But Nick Foles, where should he go? What's gonna happen?
Where should he go? I think you should go somewhere
(50:35):
like Jacksonville. If you look at the amount of teams
who really need him, it's not a lot, right Jacksonville,
the Dolphins, maybe, Um, I'm trying to rack my head
around who would actually could use this. A lot of
a lot of teams have young quarterbacks that they're working through,
you know, some some growing pains. They're not gonna want
to bring Nix Spols to start. I mean, there's a
(50:56):
very small window of teams that really could use his services.
So I mean Jacksonville would be one of them. They
could use him. I mean, maybe even the Giant that
they don't want to draft Dwayne Haskins or you know,
they don't want to draft a quarterback where they're at,
could use Nick Foles. If I were if I were
the Eagles, I wouldn't bother franchise tagging him. I would
(51:16):
just let him walk. You've gone the most out of
him you can. There's no guarantee, obviously, that you can
trade him for what you expect to get what value
you expect. I think his value is down now compared
to where it was last year. He didn't know he
played okay in the regular season, he played it, you know,
he played well in that three game stretch and he played,
you know, he played okay against the Bears, and then
we saw what happened, um, you know in the New Orleans.
(51:38):
I think it was so um. I think that the
Eagles just won't get what they want, and I just
I wouldn't bother doing it. Plus, it seems like the
Eagles obviously love Nick Foles. They paid him that bonus
this year that they didn't you know, that he didn't
have to get, but they paid it to him for
playing time. And if you franchise tag him and can't
work out a trade, you kind of ruined his market
because if you keep him longer than uh than for
(52:01):
agency and the draft, like you can send his tag
in mid May, like the Panthers due to Josh Norman.
There's no market for him anymore because Jacksonville has found
a solution there they drafted the quarterback, or the Giants
had done the same thing, or Miami, and then you've
kind of strewed Nick Foles. I just don't expect the
Eagles to do that. So maybe they franchised town came
and try to work out the deal before for agency
with someone. If not, I just think they should let
(52:23):
him go. You've got the most out of them. It's
a great story. I don't think we appreciate how remarkable
history is and what the Eagles did last year. I mean,
you don't. You don't have that happen where backup quarterback
comes in and plays better than the presumptive m v
P and Carson Wentz. It's a remarkable story and he
deserves a credit for that, and so is the coaching staff.
(52:44):
I just just let him walk. Just let him walk.
Do you think that the XFL, which starts play next
year and now has somehow managed to snag Bob Stoops
as a coach and general manager, which is a huge
coup or the a FFL or the A A A
whatever it's called the A A F L. I think
do you think either of those leagues will end up
(53:05):
being successful? Is their demand for spring football? Well one
starts tomorrow. I believe the A A F and there's
lines posted I hope that you hope you unlock it
in today. Picking a F game for this weekend um
out of nowhere. The best part about the A A
F this weekend. I thought there's a heated quarterback battle
in Memphis between Zach Mettenberger and Christian Hackenberger. I mean,
(53:27):
who who could stand that out? I mean that actually
just wild right for tomorrow for the Memphis team. Uh So,
I guess survive. I mean the NFL needs a minor league.
I think, in my opinion, it just depends on what
that is. The XFL, to me, we have to see
what what they're gonna be in this new version, how
serious they're gonna take to football is going to be
(53:47):
more more gimmick than not. Um. The a F the
league starting now is backed by Bill Pollium. It's got
some good people, it's got it's got respectable coaches. It
does have NFL players and guys trying to make it
back in the NFL. Remember, the best thing the XFL
brought to the NFL with some of the technology, right
the sky cam that that the XFL had, the NFL
(54:09):
took over. And so I think that the best thing
is gonna happen here is, you know, these leagues to
survive are going to have to embrace gambling. I think
they're gonna have to be um a little bit more
progressive in the way that they view gambling and fantasy
football probably and all that, and there'll be some technology,
some sort of fan experience that probably comes out of
this more than the players that are able to get
to the National Football Agion. Good stuff. As always, my man,
(54:32):
we'll talk to you next week. Have a good weekend.
Good luck getting those kids healthy again from the flu.
All right, thank you guys. Be sure to catch live
editions about Kicked the coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at
six am Eastern three am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the i Heart Radio app.
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