Best of Outkick the Coverage: 06/17/2020

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,
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Radio app by searching f s R. This is the
best of OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis on Fox

(00:22):
Sports Radio. We have got a lot to dive into.
We got a loaded show, lots of guests, But I
would say probably the most interesting story that is out
there right now is many of the protocols that now
exist for the NBA as they have released. And you

(00:44):
just heard from there in the the update. You just
heard all of the different wacky details that surround uh
the NBA's return from Brian Finley there. I grabbed several
of these details. It's a hundred and thirteen pages this uh,

(01:05):
this situation, and there were so many details that were
flashing last night and into this early morning. As the
details have come out, and so UH here are several
different things that I think stand out, and I'm gonna
bring in the crew and see what they think. By
the way, Shannon Spake schedule to join us an our one, Uh,

(01:25):
then an hour two, I believe we are talking to
Jeff Schwartz, and then an hour three we will talk
with John Morrossy for the latest on Major League Baseball.
And yes, I'm still fired up about the stupidity of baseball.
And we'll see what John Morrossy thinks of the absolute
latest news. I believe that is correct, right, Danny g
that I get all the details there, correct, all right,

(01:48):
all right, So here are some of the amenities that
the NBA players will have in there Orlando Bubble. They
will have UH lots of different places where they can
play video games. UH. They will have barbers, manicurist, and
pedicurist on site. They will have a twenty four hour
v I P concierge, daily entertainment, movie screenings, some of

(02:13):
which have not yet aired in movie theaters, DJs, video games,
ping pong, pool lawn games. UH. Players can attend other
games so they can go watch other teams play. UH.
They are being if you're familiar at all with Walt
Disney World, they are being put in a variety of

(02:33):
different hotels based on seating UH and the players that
are theoretically going to be staying longer are in UH
this are in the same hotel, So I'm not an
expert on all these places. I've been to, uh to
one of the three hotels. Grand Destino on Disney World's
campus will have the Bucks, Lakers, Raptors, Clippers, Celtics, Nuggets, Jazz,

(02:58):
and Heat. That is, the eight best seeded teams. Then
the Grand Floridian will have the Thunder, the Seventies, Sixers,
the Rockets, the Pacers, the Mavericks, the Nets, the Grizzlies,
and the Magic. The Yacht Club will have the Blazers, Kings, Pelican, Spurs, Sons,
and Wizards. Remember, six of these teams will be eliminated

(03:20):
in the first two weeks, so then we'll be down
to sixteen, and then after the first round of the playoffs,
you'll be down to eight teams. So pretty rapidly, two
thirds of the teams that are in Orlando will be
able to leave and go back to normal normalcy. Now,
this hundred and thirteen page health and Safety protocols also says,

(03:42):
I mean, it's incredibly detailed. No doubles in ping pong
uh quote until directed otherwise by the NBA, players should
play singles only so that they can maintain six ft
of distance from each other. Also, probably another wacky wacky

(04:03):
element is that the NBA, well, there's so many different
angles here. Uh. The NBA also has protocols even for
card games UH, and it says UH that they require
anyone playing cards indoors to wear masks. Players staff must
dispose of the deck at the end of each game

(04:24):
and session, sufficient packs of cards will be available. So
it's pretty funny actually to think about there being like
this huge depot for cards. So anybody who's playing, uh,
any type of game, there's just a huge stack I
guess of constantly rotating new, h new cards. The most
important detail is that, again, somebody testing positive doesn't require

(04:52):
everybody else to quarantine. This is a pretty significant detail. Uh.
The occurrence here is from woe. The occurrence of a
small or otherwise expected number of COVID nineteen cases will
not require a decision to suspend or cancel the resumption
of the twenty nineteen twenty season. So that is pretty

(05:15):
significant in the grand scheme of things. As you kind
of break down the direction in which things are going, UH,
players and team staff are not allowed to leave absent
extenuating circumstances, UH to leave the Orlando bubbles and what's
an extenuating circumstance a medical care off the campus, birth

(05:40):
of a child, severe illness, death, and family or family
wedding and only with prior league approval. Anyone who leaves
will have to quarantine for up to two weeks on
their return and anyone This is ridiculous and interesting too.
It makes me think we need a reality tell levision

(06:00):
show surrounding all of the NBA bubble. Anyone who tests
positive for coronavirus must immediately enter quote isolation housing, which
will be a house, hotel, or other facility separate from
the rest of the NBA campus. They will remain and
said isolation housing until they are asymptomatic or cleared. The

(06:24):
NBA will also create an anonymous hotline to report potential
violations of protocols in Orlando. All of those details that
I just ran through are a little bit silly, but
also speak to how incredibly detailed the NBA has been

(06:44):
in coming up with their Orlando bubble idea. Again, the
positive that I would focus on here is it's not
a positive in the sense that that your team loses,
but rapidly, relatively few NBA teams will actually be present
in this venue. Six of them will be eliminated before

(07:04):
the playoffs starts. Remember we're starting with twenty two teams.
Then we'll get down to sixteen, and then we will
be working towards rapidly. After the first round of the playoffs,
will be down to eight teams, which means, you know,
sixteen of the twenty two teams if I'm doing my
math right, or fourteen of the twenty two teams I'm sorry,

(07:26):
will be gone pretty quick. Within basically a month or less,
most of these teams will be gone. Now Here is
what is a little bit ridiculous from my perspective is
if you look at the coronavirus numbers, they are continuing
to decline precipitously. In particular, they are declining in a

(07:49):
big way when you look at the number of people
that are dying of the coronavirus. So why is that significant? Well,
obviously we're all hoping that the number of death will decline,
but you can kind of plot the death rate declined
pretty significantly here, and the people who are getting sick

(08:10):
are not getting as sick now, and that's because we're
keeping this knock on wood out of nursing homes where
around half of all the people that have died have
actually been so Typically, when younger, healthier people get the coronavirus,
their their impact is relatively small and not very substantial.

(08:37):
So while the cases are staying the same or just
declining a bit in terms of the percentage of people
that are positive and the overall test case numbers, the
number of people that are being hospitalized is declining pretty
substantially because the people that are getting sick are younger

(08:57):
and healthier than you uh have seen in the early
days of the outbreak. Having said all of this, the
crew has had a chance to diagnose and review the
hundred and thirteen page document here laying out a lot
of the particulars for the n b A. Danny G.

(09:18):
What's the and so the reason why I bring up
the current coronavirus cases is by the time NBA players
get down to Orlando and start actually playing games at
the end of July, I think there is a very
good chance that the overall impact of the coronavirus is

(09:38):
significantly below where it is right now in our country.
And remember, on July fifteenth, the NASCAR and we'll talk
about this a little bit with Shannon Spake, but on
July NASCAR is going to have up to thirty thousand
people present at Bristol for a sporting event. That's two

(09:59):
weeks before the NBA season actually starts. I think the
NBA is proceeding here with a tremendous abundance of caution
which may not frankly be that necessary by the time
we get to uh to to to late July and
into August, with the trajectory of the outbreak that we

(10:22):
see right now. So keep that in mind. But Danny
G what stands out to you about this hundred and
thirteen page manual that was released last night. I guess
how specific things are, like how you need to wear
a mask if you're gonna play war Go Fish and
Jin Rummy. Uh. And it's a good thing Michael Jordan
is not playing these days, because how in the world
would he be able to sit there in the hotel

(10:44):
and play cards and smoke his cigar with a mask
on um. You know, I asked you this months ago
when you first came up with your biodome plan, before
most of the country did about the groupies. NBA groupies
are famous. Nothing in here in the byelines of about
how many groupies you're allowed to have in the dome.
The answer is none. I can't be none. It has

(11:06):
to be none. There is a hundred going to be
a scandal about a player or players trying to sneak
girls into the NBA bubble. I mean that is just
that is a one percent reality because those guys are
going to be there for a little while. They're going
to uh the and look, there's a difference between because

(11:27):
if you bring your side chicken right or your girlfriend
or whatever you say. There's a lot of guys that
enjoy being around a girl for I don't know, a
couple of days. They don't want him there for three
and a half months. You don't think they'll be like
presidential treatment or maybe a top security staff will whisk
the girl in and out because it violates the principles

(11:48):
of the bubble. You could test her though, you could.
You could run all the tests on her before you
bring her in and out. Yeah, but I think the
problem is you can test negative and still have the coronavirus.
Because I'm not we don't know we're not experts yet
on how many days are you contagious and what exactly
is involved in contagion. So you could come in and

(12:12):
uh and have your girl, uh you tested your groupie
tested for the coronavirus. You could test negative. Yeah, right.
You might want other test to run as well, might
I hope maybe may may need a whole battery of
of of medical medical analysis. But you would test You
could test negative, is my understanding. I could be wrong
about this, but this is why I could be wrong,

(12:33):
because I don't think they know medically a hundred percent
the answer to the question you just had. But I
think you could test negative for the coronavirus and still
potentially be contagious because you're in the early days of
of of having been exposed, but you haven't test positive yet.

(12:53):
I think this is one of the challenges of testing
in general, is that, for instance, it's Wednesday, you could
test negative today and test positive on Friday, Which is
why testing isn't really that helpful, by which I mean
it doesn't tell you very many days that you're not

(13:14):
going to be negative. Does that make sense? Like if
you in theory, you could test negative on Wednesday and
positive on Friday, And the question is, could you have
been able to infect someone on Wednesday even when you
are testing negative for the coronavirus. I think the answer

(13:35):
is it's unlikely, but I haven't read data that proves
a hundred percent if you test negative that you can't
then also still be possible of spreading it now most people.
This is why the straightforward answer for everybody out there
is if you feel poorly, stay home, because the time

(13:56):
when you are the most infectious is obviously when you
have a fever. Um. But uh, this this whole isn't
it the same though as some of the Disney staff
that's not gonna be required to stay inside. I think
that's kind of defeats the entire purpose of the bubble.
This is what we talked about with UH, with UH,
with Chris Mannix, because if you're not requiring all of

(14:20):
the staff to stay inside of the bubble, then why
are you requiring the players? Now? I think the answer
would probably be because in general, your interaction, like every interaction,
is not a potential exposure. So in other words, um,
if you go to the grocery store and somebody who

(14:41):
works at the grocery store has had the coronavirus. It's
not like everybody who went to the grocery store has
to quarantine themselves because the average person who works at
the grocery store, you didn't come into contact with them
long enough or significantly enough to be a part of

(15:03):
the quarantine zone, so to speak. So you know, if
you're walking down the aisle and you go shopping at
the grocery store and somebody who is there stocking the
grocery store test positive, you merely walking past the person
in the grocery store has not had a significant enough
exposure that you need to quarantine. So I think the

(15:24):
answer would be inside of Disney World, almost everyone that
you would come into contact with one will have a
mask on, right, I would imagine they'll have everybody covered
in mass and everything else. But two, you aren't exposed
to them enough to have actually had an issue with
the likelihood of of getting the virus. So that would

(15:46):
be the answer to that question. I think dub is
the are the protocols here just absolutely insane to you? Well,
I obviously read all one left. Yes, I know, I
appreciate you. I appreciate you being on the ball and
reading all DRED pages I think my favorite rule is
the no doubles and ping bong, which takes me back
to the times which seems like a few years ago,
but in reality was a couple of months ago in

(16:07):
California with Gavin Newsom and the whole bad Mitton versus
Tests ordeal, So that really wrung about with me. Um.
Other than that, my favorite is probably the anonymous hotline
basically line we need, we need, like we used to
have the and maybe we need to set this up
again at some point. But for people who've been reading
I'm sorry listening to the out Kick radio show for

(16:29):
a while, our old producer Jason Martin set up a
phone line where you could call and leave a message
for me which was open, and then he would go
through and listen to them and play the best ones,
or you could react to football games that were going
on and everything else. I think we should reset that up.
But it used to be people that hated you, And

(16:50):
what wound up happening was there all these callers in
love with you at call after call, and so I
hate you Clay Travis turned into I'm kissing your butt
Clay tras well. That's what happened in general, people who
listened long enough. But I mean, that's that's the truth.
The more time people spend with me, the more time
they end up liking me. I'm a very lovable person.

(17:11):
But but so, that phone line that existed was an
anonymous theoretically phone line. It was pretty popular. We I
would love to hear the NBA UH calls on that
anonymous phone. Yeah, I mean, to see what people are
trying to turn in as a violation. I think it
would be Again, I think the NBA Bubble reality show

(17:35):
would be must watch television. And I say that as
somebody who's been sitting around watching Fuller House with my
five year old and my nine year old who were obsessed.
If you remember full House, there's now a new five
season string in the same house setting called Fuller House,
which has many of the kids that were on Full

(17:57):
House grown up. Not by the way, the Oldson twins,
they were too big to come back on to h
Fuller House. But the whole thing is UH is pretty fantastic.
So dub this whole this whole scenario is is patently absurd. Yeah,
it seems a little ridiculous. And you know, we keep
coming back to the point of By the time the

(18:17):
NBA players are playing games, the Disney parks are gonna
be open, and there's gonna be guests, thousands and thousands
of them outside on the roller coasters and whatnot, and
at the hotels exactly, and all the NBA players are
gonna be stuck in their hotels with their three meals
a day and their masks and no double decks of cards,
and they're just gonna be sitting around asking themselves what
are we doing here, guys, because it's just gonna look

(18:40):
utterly ridiculous. In my opinion, when late July rolls around
and this actually goes in full swing, I think what's
likely is this is my my bet. I think what's
likely is they end the Orlando experience when the NFL
and college football come back and they have fans present,
because I think people are gonna look around to be like,

(19:01):
what in the world is the NBA doing that They
are that they are requiring their players to stay in
a bubble while NFL and college football players are playing
the games with fans present, and I think NBA players
are gonna be like, this is ridiculous, and they're going
to eventually move the NBA playoffs back to the arenas

(19:26):
in the respective cities without fans present. That's what I
would expect to end up happening before all is said
and done. Uh as as a way to to handle this.
But who knows for sure how exactly this will shake out.
I just think that the bubble experience is gonna look
ridiculous when football is back and uh and we've got

(19:47):
fans present. What about you we've got right now, We've
got Brian Finley sitting in for Eddie Garcia who is
out this week. This this as crazy to you, Brian
as it is to everybody else. What's fascinating is readings
the of the the hygiene discussion and what the players
have to do when they're on the court. They cannot
play with their mouthpiece and you know, kind of pull

(20:08):
it in and out like a nervous tick. Steph Curry
would have been in trouble, he would have. And then
there's also the no spitting or clearing of the nose
or shall I say, firing of the snot rockets on
the court. So these are important things. Like you said,
it's very detailed. Oh and also clay no licking of
the hands. So it gets very detailed. Yeah, this is

(20:28):
this is wild, Roberto. How long do you think this last?
I don't know, man, I think that my last untild
and of the fire. They will finish the We'll talk
about this maybe a little bit later in the program.
But I I have serious reservations or questions about whether
this will continue. And it's dumb. It's not like they're
gonna be like in like prison, right, it sounds like

(20:49):
prison food. People are gonna make the food for you, right, everything, everything, Yeah,
it sounds dominant. Individual teams can bring their own chefs.
So but but it's gonna be interesting. I'm actually intrigued
to see how many players bring family members, and I
mean something other than a girlfriend or a wife, because

(21:12):
I want to know how mom is responding to the
idea of being in a quarantine zone. The players, I think,
will be at least busy enough with the games that
they'll have something to focus on. But if you have
a wife or kids, that is insane that they would
theoretically be in the bubble for that long as well.

(21:33):
Because I can only speak for my wife and if
you if I told her I've said this before, that hey,
we're going to a fox Sports radio, and we have
to go to a location to do the show for
three months and stay inside of a hotel bubble basically.
But the good news is you can come along with
the kids and stay at the hotel with me. She'll

(21:55):
be like, there's no she would just roll her eyes
and be like, there's no way I'm bringing our kids.
And again, if you can ask for something that you
can't give them, you know, well at twelve, nine and
five year old, like the the in the in an
earraw when everything else is opening up, like when you
can go to amusement parks and zoos and uh and
and and all and all, but just regular parks and

(22:16):
all these other different things to do with young kids.
The last thing most parents would want is to have
to move into a hotel and keep your kids there.
So maybe people will come and visit for a for
a little bit. You know, I'll stay with you the
first two weeks or something like that, because otherwise you
have to quarantine before you go in anyway, there's a

(22:37):
lot to unpack about. This will continue throughout the show,
but up next Shannon Spake. NASCAR is planning for thirty
thousand fans present on July fifteen plus, Shannon told me
that she has a quiz ready for me. Uh and
we have done quizzes on this show before and hate
to brag or draw attention to myself, but I'm usually
pretty outstanding at them. This is outkicked the coverage with

(22:59):
Clay of this, we are joined now by Shannon Spake
at Shannon Spake on Twitter, NASCAR Expert Extraordinaire. Thirty thousand
fans in Bristol, in my home state of Tennessee here,
that's a pretty big deal on July Shannon. Yes, and
all the fans will have personal chefs and they will

(23:21):
be able to play games inside the No, I'm just kidding.
Oh sorry, go ahead and tell us about that, and
then I've got a question to follow up. Yes, huge deal, right,
So it's a big deal for a lot of reasons. Clay.
First of all, like this is the first time really
since the NASCAR All Star Race began, so it's only
really the second time that they've ever had in a

(23:42):
separate location outside of the Charlotte area. Of course, most
of the NASCAR drivers lived here. We've always done the
All Star Race here in Charlotte at the one and
a half mile track in May and for them to
move it as a big deal. But but really the
reason is because I mean, obviously, as you know, living
in Tennessee, you guys are allowing fans in, and so
thirty thousand fans are going to be allowed. And that's
only of the capacity of Bristol Motor Speedway, so you

(24:06):
do have to kind of keep that in mind. It's
much much larger than like your regular NFL stadium. But yes,
thirty thousand fans will be able to see it just
next month, all right. So we were just talking about
the NBA quarantine bubble rules, which are funny and like
you probably are like me and would enjoy watching a
reality show about this. But so a first question for you,
because I was just talking about my wife's reaction if

(24:27):
your husband was being quarantined in a bubble. Let's pretend
that he was an NBA coach and he said to you, Hey,
you can come stay with me for three and a
half months, meaning like it's the Lakers or like he's
on a good team right that theoretically could win a championship. Uh,
and you can bring the kids. We're staying in a hotel.
You can't go to Disney World or anything else. You

(24:49):
have to stay in the bubble. Your reaction is what
enjoy your summer and yourself and the kids and moving
into a hotel no way. I mean, and you know,
we see it with NASCAR drivers as well play. I mean,
I think it's different times of your life, right, Like,
so when the drivers first start dating, you know, they're
their girlfriends. A lot of the girlfriends go to the

(25:11):
racetrack every single week, stay at the motor home because
I mean, that's what they do, right They stay at
a motor home from like basically Friday till Sunday during
the normal season, and those I mean, it's in a
motor home lot in the middle of the track. And
so when the guys first start dating the girls a
lot of times they're there all the time. And then
when they have families and kids and the kids are
in school, a lot of the wives, I mean, they'll

(25:32):
go to big races like Talladega this weekend just because
of you know, and obviously they can't go this weekend
because of what's going on, but this is a race
that they'll go to because of the danger of Talladega.
They do like to be there, obviously, Daytona the start
of the season, and then like the big races, right,
if you go to l A, or if you go
to Miami, or if you go to Chicago, because those
are places that they want to go. But if you
can't get out and you can't go see the city

(25:52):
and do things, yeah, I think that they'd be staying home. Yeah.
I don't think there's any doubt at all. Okay, so
as things are getting more and more normal towards NASCAR,
here's the question that I think is intriguing about the
NBA bubble, maybe the most of all, which is is
the NBA bubble going to look ridiculous if there are
fans present for NFL and college football games and other words,

(26:17):
our NBA players going to rebel against this idea if
they're sitting around in an Orlando bubble and they're watching
the NFL and college football season taking place, and they're
seeing fans in the crowds there, and the NFL and
college football players are basically living at home while continuing
to play their sport. I mean, I think that's one

(26:37):
of the reasons they have the amenities that they're having, right,
so that they don't start to feel like you know
what I'm getting out of here, Like I'm leaving. I'm
not gonna stay here. You can't make me stay here
because they have everything right there. But I think so,
I think if you told me to stay in a
place for three months while I'm watching the rest of
the world kind of get back to normal, I think
I'd have a hard time with that. I don't know.
I think most people would write it's like, hey, people

(26:59):
are out out my window right now. I'm seeing people
live their lives and I can't I can't go anywhere. So, um, yeah,
I think I think that that's one of the reasons
that they've done all of these things for the players, right,
give them all of these things that they don't have
to go anywhere. It's kind of like Apple, right, Like
you go work for Apple. They have everything on campus.
You don't have to go anywhere. You can go take
a nap in like one of the rooms that they

(27:19):
have on a building. Um, everything that you need. And
so yeah, I think that that's why they're doing it.
But I would have a hard time kind of staying
in one spot when I am starting to see the
rest of the world. We're all doing that, right, they're
still asking people to stay at home, and then you
look down the street and you see people out having
dinner or you know, with their families and all that stuff,
and you're like, Okay, what's going on here? So yeah,
I think could be a problem. How many awkward conversations

(27:41):
do you think there are with NBA players and their girlfriends.
Girlfriend is ready to take the next step in the
relationship and go move into the NBA bubble with him? Uh,
guy is like, I don't think we're there yet. How
many fights are going to and too over whether or
not she may not even want to go, but whether

(28:03):
or not she gets the invite. So there's gonna be
some interesting conversations, right, I mean, there has to be there.
There has to be there. I want to go. You
can't go three months long time and then breakups, you know,
I mean, gosh, no, I mean I can't even imagine
how many people have um, you know, we've we've talked
about during this quarantine, like your relationships with your husband
or your kids go one way or the other. Uh,

(28:25):
It's it's a lot of time to be sitting inside
of a room and to not be able to go
out despite the fact that you can play whatever, ping
pong and get your hair done and get your nails done,
which is just crazy to me, all of those things,
as as we're all sitting here with our roots grown
out and not being able to do things that that
we want to do. Um and to see all that
stuff that they're getting. But but hey, you know, don't
hate the play or hate the game. Right. Speaking of which,

(28:46):
how much groupie drama is there going to be of
players trying to sneak girls into the bubble? Because I'm
gonna be honest with you, if I were let's say,
you know, six years old, I'm an NBA you know player, right,
so you're pretty famous, you do well for yourself. If
you're single, I would one hundred billion percent be trying

(29:08):
to scheme away to sneak girls. You know, probably a
group because it would probably be me and the other
single guys that are trying to get girls snuck in.
Is there any doubt that there will be a story
that erupts about players trying to sneak girls into the bubble? Yeah? See, Hey,
I think nowadays with the social media stuff is when
that stuff happens. I don't know how much you can

(29:30):
hide that stuff anymore, right, because you're you're constantly there's
social media, there's constantly pictures. I'm sure that it does
happen a lot, but I think we hear about it
a lot too when it happens. So I think they'll
just be on a greater stage. Oh, I think that
these guys, I know when I was twenty five years old,
you're gonna be like James Bond, Like you're gonna be

(29:50):
like you're gonna be like red and in Shawshank Redemption,
you know, when they're trying to scheme ways to get out,
like there's not a lot of things to do in
the bubble. Like you're gonna be probing for the weaknesses
of the bubble. You're gonna be meet meeting security guards,
giving guys some you know, hey, guy, I give you
a couple of hundred bucks Disney. I don't know who
the Disney security guards are gonna be, but I bet

(30:11):
if somebody wants to give him a couple of hundred
bucks and a couple of autograph basketball's we're not talking about,
you know, secret Service agency here, I bet they're very
bribable um to look the other way. Yes, that would
be the person that would have to write a book
is the NBA security guards on security duty for for
the next couple of months. That would be and it's like, Hey,
meet me in the stairwell. This is outkicked the coverage

(30:35):
with Clay Travis joined now by Jeff Short. You can
follow him on Twitter. There a lot of times sits
in as a guest host on this show. Jeff. When
you were a single guy and you were in an
NFL Walcker room, if your team had been quarantined, like

(30:55):
the NBA teams are talking about quarantine, how much discussion
would have focused on trying to sneak in girls. Probably,
Like you, guys, my theory is, I'll tell you this,
I know you pretty well, you know me pretty well.
If I were a single guy and I'm quarantined at
Disney World, I would be studying the the the Orlando

(31:15):
bubble like I was inside of a prison, like trying
to probe all the weaknesses, trying to meet the security guards.
There's a hundred percent chance I would be trying to
sneak girls in for not just me, but for the
for the team as well. Don't you think that will
be a huge point of discussion with these guys with
tons of time to fill trying to figure out how

(31:36):
to sneak people in Oh, for sure. Look, I mean
the closest I can relate to us this training camp
where we would go off campus because you're not supposed
to have girls at training camp, right, No, but we
would get like a day off. We would get, you know,
Wednesday nights off, and my now wife, my girlfriend would
drive down from Charlotte and you would just started dating

(31:57):
and we would find places to do it. Maybe a
hustle of parking lot, maybe not. I can't confirm deny that,
but you would wait, hold on, you would have sex
in a hospital parking lot. We did one time. Well
hold on, can you imagine if you had gotten arrested
as a member of the Carolina Panthers for trying to
find a way to sneak your girlfriend sex while you're

(32:19):
at training camp. I was it was a night off
at least. No, no, I'm saying, but it's still it's
still technically illegal. I would imagine to have sex in
a hospital parking lot, probably if you're in if you're
in the car, though, it is totally illegal to have
sex inside of a car in a parking lot. This happens. Yeah, yeah,

(32:40):
that's a good defense officer. I had no I had
no idea that it was illegal to have sex in
public at a car. It was. It was my wife's
three series. First of all, I don't even know how
you fit in the three series being w period. I
had a double hamstring cramp. It was not it was
not a good practice. You know, I'd be going I

(33:03):
r as a as a rookie on on like seventh
round draft pick, because I was I needed I need
it so badly. No, that is to find a way
that you can get it done, and that the thing
is like, I just don't know. I saw stuff today
about you know, the Ramona Shelburn reported that you know,
there's gonna be like a hotline to call in if
like someone breaking the rules. There's gonna be you know,
the NBA parts are worried about uniform punishment for guys

(33:26):
that break the quarantine or don't follow the rules. I mean,
it just it just doesn't feel like this is gonna
work as well or smoothly as I think it is.
I mean, I just I understand you want to keep
everyone safe, and it's the probably the best way to do.
It is kind of have this sort of bubble idea,
but I'm just not sure that it's gonna be a wreck. Man,

(33:47):
it's gonna be it's gonna be bad. I don't know
how they're enforce these stuff. I don't know how you
expect guys to go three months about seeing anybody outside
of the players on the team. Uh, you know, guys
are gonna want to eat out, They're gonna want to leave,
they're gonna want to relax, And just feels like this
is not gonna actually happen. So I also think it's
gonna look ridiculous because it seems as if, for instance,

(34:10):
July fifteenth, which is two weeks before the NBA season
is supposed to return, NASCAR is gonna have thirty thou
fans present. I don't know what the total number of
fans present is going to be an m b A,
I mean, sorry, NFL and college football, but there are
going to be some fans present there. I feel like
the NBA is gonna look ridiculous when it's September and

(34:32):
college and NFL events are occurring with fans and they're
still playing in a bubble, and they're all going to
totally rebel against this idea, right, but you can you
can add fans back in, right. I mean, like you
could start with no fans and eventually add them back.
Even maybe it gets to a point where you go,
you know, you have NBA Finals in in the arena

(34:54):
in Orlando. Where where the magic plan? I mean, like
I think they can they can make it to where
you can open things up more as you know, as
regulations change. But the NBA players, out of all the
players of any league, seem to be most concerned about
the health and welfare of themselves. I mean, there's baseball
players that have have talked about it, but it it seem like
baseball players are now just like all right, we'll just

(35:15):
tell us when we're playing. The NBA players have seen
most concerned about their health. I mean, they'll get me
started with Kyrie and stuff. He's been talking about. Um,
it just seems like they're more concerned about that than
any other sports and book. I'll tell the NFL players
there might be some that are like you know what,
I I don't. I don't know about this, but I
would I'd say that of NFL players just want to play.

(35:38):
I mean, Richard Sherman came out was quoted by you know,
Josie Anderson. He's like, look, we get it, man, Like,
we understand the risk that are there, but we got
to kind of continue with life, and you know, we're
willing to kind of accept, you know, the risk of playing.
And just feel like the NBA players just have not
been on board with the idea of getting back to

(35:58):
work as quickly as as I leave. How much of
this has to do You mentioned major League baseball in
the NFL, but as a former pro athlete, I feel
like there is now in pro athletics not much recognition
that fans are who pay salaries, and that that athletes
have gotten so used to salaries continuing to go up

(36:21):
that they don't really understand that if they make the
wrong decision. In baseball is a great example here that
fans can abandon a sport pretty quickly if they're making
poor decisions. And if fans abandon a sport eventually, that
means players make less, right. I mean, the reason why
the w NBA players make a lot less than the
Major League Baseball players is because way more people like

(36:44):
major League baseball. But there's nothing to guarantee that twenty
years from now, major League Baseball players are going to
continue to make more money. I feel like athletes have
gotten so used to it, because, for instance, I'm forty
one years old, and the amount of different in money
that athletes make now compared to when I was first
becoming a sports fan at six and seven and eight

(37:05):
years old is seismically different. But that's because the business
has grown and fans have been able to be monetized more.
That can change, right, Is there a recognition of that? Like,
do you think players believe they could actually end up
making less money? Not in the long term, I mean
possibly in the short term. But you look at it.
I'll give you two examples of of where revenue went down,

(37:28):
then it went back up, and we just keep seeing
going back. Right. Look, the striking baseball strike happened to
return to baseball, and three years later we have season
and baseball revenues continue to go up. Even the last
couple of years as baseball has seemed to be less popular,
the revenues and profits have been soaring in baseball, um

(37:50):
because of the TV deals and there's a lot of
actual local interests. Though for basebook, you look at like
the RSN numbers they're really good for baseball and local
base cardinals. Local baseball teams crush local basketball teams and
ratings because the NBA gets more national discussion then the
Major League Baseball does. But if you look at individual markets,

(38:12):
I think it's like twenty four out of the thirty
or twenty five out of the thirty, Major League Baseball
crushes the NBA in terms of how many people watch
an average game in the local market exactly. And then
look at the NFL and look sixteen, right, Collins Happerner
takes a knee. Ratings go down in sixteen and seventeen,
and they just go right back up in eighteen and nineteen,

(38:33):
and the profits continue to rise. And I think there
is a disconnect. And you know, for me, look like
I'm an NFL player, the way we generate our money
is different than baseball and different than basketball. You know,
the NFL generates most of its money from TV revenue,
and you can argue that, yes, fans are the ones
watching the games being played, and you know, therefore we
kind of get the money because they're watching, and it

(38:54):
goes the TV and AD revenue and then its eventually
makes us way over to us in you know, in
the c B A and whatnot, so you know there's
where multiple stages removed from the actual fan being. In
the NFL, you think they lose three billion dollars and
no fans showed up, but you know they're still gonna
make eighteen billion dollars, you know if if there are
no fans, right, it's it's such a tevy generated product

(39:17):
revenue stream. I should say that I do think the
NFL there is a disconnect because um of that reason.
You know, Baseball obviously it's a very fan driven eighty
one home games, right, people showing up to your games
is a big part of your revenue. Um. But I
do think though that that right now, you know, if
you're a player, um, you know you do have to
kind of fight a little bit for what you think

(39:38):
is is fair in this in this art, in this discussion,
looks there's no point of said like let's play like
just tell us to when the show up and will
show up. And I think Trevor Bauer laid out best.
It's it's very clear that Manford wants this kind of
fifty sixty games season really not him, but the owners,
and that's what they're gonna get. I mean, then they
get fifty games season and the part of the players,
you know, the promited chie for for fifty games. Um,

(40:00):
but this is more of the owners, of my opinion,
less of the players. Look, I I am furious at
Major League Baseball that they're not playing in June and July,
like they should be playing a dent. I believe by
right now, as soon as it opened up spring training
sites in Arizona and in Florida, they should have been
there on May fifteen. They should have been getting ready.

(40:21):
They should be back playing the season now. Having said that,
a fifty game Major League Baseball season is actually whenever
they were to start. If they played around that many
games would actually be really interesting for one season because
usually we're playing a hundred and sixty two and we're
gonna talk with John Morossy about this in the next second,
next hour. But you kind of roll your eyes because

(40:41):
you're like, oh, you know, each of these games doesn't
really matter that much when you only play fifty baseball games, Like,
there's craziness that can happen, right, I mean, a team
that's not very good at all could easily win a
division because if you take any sort of fifty game scenarios,
wacky things can happen. Yeah, what the National is like

(41:02):
thirteen and thirty seven after fifty games last season, So
that definitely would would change the way you look at things.
I mean, you know, I'm a Giants fan. Were terrible,
But let's say we get off to a hot start
in a fifty games season and we win the West.
I mean, I'd be incredible. I can happen obviously, right
you start fat, you gonna you know, you go, you
go thirty and twenty and and and you win the division,

(41:25):
um by half a game or by by game. I
should say, you can't really win by half a game,
by by a game. Um, it would be incredible. But
I just think that that just feels sort of I'm
a baseball fan, and it just feels like, yeah, I
would be a waste. I don't know. I think that
I get why they're gonna do it, and maybe it
generates interest and it's a way for maybe a way

(41:48):
for fans to kind of enjoy a sped up product.
You know, people are complaining baseball is too long, but
it just would feel I mean, he started pitchers would
just have you know, nine. You know, they just had
what nine starts and start. It's just it's an odd
cent I think there's no doubt that it's an odd
set up, and everything about sports right now is odd. Um,
when you look at the NFL, is there any doubt?

(42:10):
I mean, we're not really that long from from when
training camp would officially start, right where a little bit
over a month out, maybe six weeks from when training
camp starts. I asked you this question for a while ago. Um,
when once training camp starts, is it just basically a
full on ride? I mean, I think you're Richard Sherman

(42:31):
quote is an interesting one because there's so much risk
involved in an NFL game compared to most other athletic
endeavors that I don't think there's any doubt that every
NFL player is under more danger playing in an NFL
game than they are from the coronavirus. Like I I
mean that legitimately, because the risk of your body and

(42:53):
your health is more substantial playing an NFL game than
it is the virus. Do you think that your average
NFL player is going to understand that? I think NFL
players by nature are um. You know, they they're macho guys. Right,
we're very confident. We don't think that we can get hurt.

(43:14):
We don't think that any bad is gonna happen to us.
I's just it's just who we are. I think that
that you can't play the game scared, you really can't
be scared in life. I mean, just at least while
you're playing. I think now that you know, I'm removed
from the game now, I was very hurt when I
when I did play. But just you feel invincible, right,
I mean, you're twenty seven years old, you're in the NFL,

(43:34):
your body is feeling good. You just play the season
like you're in your prime. You don't think like, hey
I can get coronavirus, or hey I might pass this
on to someone, or hey I like this, and that
you think to yourself, I'm fine, I'm healthy. Um, there's
no concern with I think that's the way NFL players think. Now.
There are guys obviously that UM that do understand there
you know, there are risks for this, and they have

(43:55):
family members that are at risk that they can give
it to them. But I just think a lot of
NFL players feel invincible to a lot of things in
life and I would imagine they feel invincible to coronavirus
even though we saw Zeke you know, test positive. I
don't know if he's symptomatic or not. I haven't seen
any of that yet. Um okay, So I just think
that your players players here the see Zeke asymptomatic. Okay,

(44:17):
Well I can get it too, or I'll be fine.
So I think a lot of players generally, I just
want to play. I I think that's the diference between
other leagues, Like the way our salary structure set up,
the way attitude is about playing. I just want to play, man.
And I think some of these physical distance guidelines the
locker rooms don't feel very realistic in my opinion. I

(44:37):
don't know how they're gonna pull them off. They're just
not space to do it. Um. I don't think guys
just want to play. I think I think they just
want to get in the field. They want to get
their paychecks, they want to do their jobs. It's a
short lived career, and they'll take the risk of getting
sick um over not playing losing a year salary. Look,
I think that's a big part for the NFL. The

(44:57):
average career is three or four are years. So if
you're a guy out there and you're trying to make
a living, a loss of a season to an NFL
player is likely to be way more significant than a
loss of a season to a Major League Baseball player,
a hockey player, or or a basketball player or a
soccer player. Right. I mean this, the careers are just

(45:19):
so much more compact. That's potentially of somebody's career earnings. Correct.
And this is why you know, we don't have football players,
you know, saying where like Dwight Howard was talking about
our Kyrie dwightne tyree to take dwyt Hour I think
is one of the top ten highest paid players of
all time in NBA history. Even for him to stay,

(45:41):
you know, we'll sit out a year or we'll sit
out to this change. Um NFL players besides maybe quarterbacks
J J. Watt, you know, Aaron Donald and even those
you're Aaron donalder mine for probably another two contracts. Eventually
this career goes away. It goes you know a lot
of guys just they don't have time to sit out
and and and they have to weigh the risk of
laying right now versus not And a lot of guys

(46:01):
will say, look, I'll take it. You're right young players
right now, I would guarantee you that every player on
a rookie contract who's not that you know, doesn't have
a precissing condition, doesn't have any auto eune problem, doesn't
have a family member direct family member who has an
issue that that they can get really stick from from
COVID would say, hey, I'm playing. I can't afford to lose,

(46:22):
you know, like you mentioned a fourth of my earnings,
my career earnings because coronavirus. Um And, I think the
the NFL and will be able to to, you know,
don't manipulate the cat. Moving forward to trying to make
sure everyone still kind of gets paid too. If I
think that's different than other sports that it might be
a struggle to figure out how to kind of come
up with some money, but there's a windfall because of

(46:45):
less fans. They'll find a way to kind of massage
it and make it work. It's done in the past.
Um And I kind of I've always trusted the NFL
would play. I feel like they're the one league that
would figure out how to do this, especially all the
time they have to figure it out what do you
think about Kyrie Irving saying that he wants the players
to leave the NBA and start their own league. I
don't really understand that guy. Um. I mean, yeah, it

(47:07):
sounds great, and I guess technically speaking, if everyone left
the NBA, that can start their own league without the owners.
But I just I think, Look, I'm not pro owner,
I'm not really pro player. I'm kind of in the middle.
I feel like there's some issues where I side more
with the owners and issues where it side more with
the players. But there is some value to see the
ownerships understanding TV deals and marketing and advertising and making

(47:31):
sure that things are kind of done in a certain way.
You might not agree with that as a player, but
they have that background. They have that business side background
we don't as play. A lot of players don't have,
Like like if I just joined a league run by players,
to be so disorganized like would be absolute wreck. I
won't trust any of these guys to make sure that
we knew we were doing so like the idea. It

(47:52):
sounds great in theory, but there also is a business
part to sports league, and some players have figured out something,
so there are something that I don't really I wouldn't
trust the NFL players to lead the business side of
the league that was run by only players. Outstanding stuff
is always Jeff Schwortz. This is OutKick on Fox Sports Radio.
Be sure to catch live editions of Outkicked the coverage

(48:13):
with Clay Travis weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific,
joined now by John Morosi. He's our Major League Baseball insider, John.
I just I don't know what's going on here. I
keep asking you the same question now for what feels
like months. What in the world's going on? Do you
still feel like we will have baseball this year? Good morning, Clay.

(48:36):
I do feel like we will have baseball this year.
I am surely confident, although I will admit, my friend,
there are times during the week and in the last
couple of weeks, when my overriding emotion has been the
shrug emoji, as if to say, I just don't know
what's going on right now. And and there have been
moments like that, I think in recent days. But I

(49:00):
cat it, and and there are reasons, There are areas
to compromise the gap between the sides. And I can't
stress this enough. The gap between the sides in real
dollars is considerably smaller than the gap will be when
they stake out their initial positions in the subsequent rounds

(49:22):
of actual bargaining once the currency b A expires. And
so there has to be a way to to make
this agreement and to bridge this gap, because if they
cannot do that, then then the larger questions of the sport,
I think become even more concerning because the simple fact
that the gap is actually much narrower now than it

(49:45):
will be in the future. So I am I am
optimistic in part because of that reason. Is simply because
I think both sides are wise enough to realize the
need to have the understanding and the compromise reached out
to somebody get the game back on the field for
this year and then the next couple of years to
come as well. So how many games can we play
at this point? I mean, there's been a lot of

(50:06):
dialing and dalling. I thought I probably talked to some
of the same people you do behind the scenes. And
I've said this on the show before. What I use
as a gauge is lock it in right, my my
gambling television show that I do on FS one, they
told us hey, be ready to go June twenty nine,
with an idea being that Major League Baseball could be

(50:27):
back that week around July four. Then a couple of
weeks ago they said, yeah, June twenty nine, don't be ready,
We're not going then, And then they said July fifteen,
now is our new potential return date. I don't feel
very good about July fift either, because I think that's
even optimistic now for Major League Baseball. What are you

(50:49):
hearing about in terms of a return date and how
many games are likely to be played if a deal
gets worked out at this point? Great to me, I
think eventually looking somewhere in the range of sixty games.
I think that is that is a number that is
significant enough that it will represent at least a portion

(51:11):
of a year where where we'll see numbers that certainly
now they could be skewed. If you have a batting
average and someone hits four thirty, that's that's the possibility.
But when you look at the calendar, and if you
allow for another week or so uh to go over
the details, we're dark near. Obviously we're in the second
half of June, and and so if you think about

(51:33):
just the mechanics of all this. If you're able to
strike a deal and get the whole thing figured out
by the end of June and the beginning part of July,
then you probably still have to take a few weeks
to to have everybody report and then have spring training,
and by then it would take a lot of effort
to to get the season going much before the end

(51:56):
part of July at this point in time. And so
when you consider where we're at with that, there was
a statement made by Dr Faucci in fact yesterday to
the l A Times about his his advice to try
to have the season done entirely done by October. So
if you're still able to have at least some post
season in October, you really have to hit a window

(52:17):
if you're going to heat his advice. And then also
still good things started on time. So uh, to me, Clay,
it's it's probably around sixty games beginning in the later
part of July early part of August, and that's if
things go pretty well in the next ten days or so.
You said I think on the show that you felt
like that there was an eight out of ten positivity

(52:40):
in terms of a of a season coming back. If
you had to put it on a scale of one
to ten that there will be baseball this year, what
number would you put on it now? I would I
would bump that down a little bit just because of
all the uncertainty, but I would still say a seven.
I'm still more than confident that will have a year.

(53:00):
I really do, Clay And and I think it comes
just from from both sides realizing the gravity of the
circumstance here and and the fact that when you really
look at it, they are not that far apart. And
I also make this point that we are obviously our
world has changed and turned upside down since the beginning

(53:20):
of March, and I understand that, but I want both
sides here to take a step back and look at
what happened in the winter. We have completely forgotten the
amount of money that was that was signed in the
contracts that were given out during the wintertime, to Garrett Cole,
to Steven Strasburg, to Anthony Ran. Don't you had teams
like the Reds and the White Sox and the Blue

(53:41):
Jays spending heavily on free agents like Nicolas Castianos. And
he has Monty Grand and Dallas Kikel and hung and rue.
And it's as if we have forgotten about that for
understandable reasons. But the industry from a health standpoint and
the players were actually quite happy with the way that
the off season went, and that has been long to
history and what we have we have got to find

(54:02):
a way to remind everybody about that on both sides
and say, listen, you guys were pretty good shape six
months ago in terms of the economics of the game.
Don't totally scramble up the economics of baseball when when
six months ago you had a pretty good situation on
your hands and and and to me, there is reason
to hope that in the in the medium term at least,

(54:24):
you've got a chance to get back there. All right,
let me give you an example. I want to see
if you buy into it. So I'm a Southerner, so
I can say this, big SEC football fan, I know
you're a big ten guy. If you're in the state
of Mississippi. People in the state of Mississippi think there's
a big difference between whether you're an old miss fan
and whether you're a Mississippi State fan. Right when you

(54:45):
are in that state, it's a big difference, right that
they they see each other as being very different when
you are outside of the state of Mississippi. And I'm
just I'm not trying to pick on Mississippi. I like,
it's a fun state. People are Oh, everybody from Mississippi
is just a bunch of dumb rednecks, right Like, that's
what they would say about Mississippi. And I'm from Tennessee

(55:08):
and that's what people would say about us as a nation.
But when you are inside of the state, there's a
big difference between those different groups, right Like old miss
fans are like, we're the elite, you know, like they're
this they're the cow college, right and everybody else would
be like, oh, everybody in mississippis a cow college. Right.
That's what I'm trying to to kind of put into context.
And you could say the same thing about like Texas

(55:29):
and Texas A and M. Right Like, the way they
look at each other in state is different. I'm using
that as an example here the way Major League Baseball
players and owners are looking at each other. They are
really kind of getting into the fine two details. They're
defining each other differently. They may think, oh, we're winning
this debate, Oh we're a lot different than they are. Oh,

(55:50):
our side is better when you pull back and look
at it from a national perspective, everybody is just like
the entire baseball industry is filled with idiots. Most people
aren't saying, oh, the players have made a better argument,
the owners have made a better argument. Everybody is looking
bad right now. And I think sometimes when you get

(56:12):
involved in the nitty gritty of a negotiation, you get
convinced yourself that your side is winning, when in reality,
everybody is losing. Does that make sense to you, Like,
if you're a hardcore baseball guy, and so to speak,
you're focusing on the inside baseball, I think you're missing
the larger picture, which is how angry the overall fan

(56:33):
base is at the fact that you can't get a
deal worked out. I think Clay that you you are
hitting on a really key thing here, which is a
lot of for a lot of Americans. Uh, they say
a couple of things. Number one, I want to have
American team sports back on my TV as soon as possible,
and I'll be grateful when we've got it. But to

(56:53):
baseball into Baseball's point, some Americans say, listen, I'll watch
baseball all all get baseball another chance. But when the
fall rolls around, or even when August rolls around, I've
got other stuff going on. I've got the NBA playoffs now,
the NHL playoffs. If you like hockey, you've got preseason
football coming up. At that point in time, your your

(57:16):
your schedule is about to get more crowded. Setting aside
the fact that a lot of Americans are dealing with
job loss and and family concerns and and one of
my kids going back to school, we've got a lot
as a country on our minds right now. And I
think that baseball would do well, and we we agree
on this, they would do well to get back as

(57:36):
soon as they can, because history is going to remember
well the sports that come back soon and the sports
that don't come back until it's a crowded month of August,
when you've got the NBA playoffs and you've got football
already ramping up again, it's it's going to be lost
to some extent, and and that that's a huge missed opportunity.
It's and to your point, play it's difficult to to

(58:00):
be able to explain to the two sides that are
so immersed in the granular details of what is fair
and what is not. Based on one paragraph in an
agreement that was reached in March about UH the ability
to go back and renegotiate the salary structure. A lot
of fans don't care about that. That they want the
games back on TV, and if you're not on TV

(58:21):
soon or reasonably soon, they'll move on. And I think
Baseball has to find ways to to internally reckon with
that and realize that that it's not just a small
that for again, I would never say that the difference
of money right now is small and real dollars, because
it's it's huge money to anybody that from a reasonable
conception of it. But you have to realize the value

(58:46):
by an exponential measure in coming back now and doing
it the right way, versus coming back when you're gonna
be obscured by other stuff in American life and in
American sports in August, when your potential for future growth
is going to be stifled. Talking to John morrossy, do
you buy into the idea that some Major League Baseball
owners don't want to have a season at all? I

(59:09):
the wad phrase it is. I believe in the reporting
of of Ken Rosenthal that a segment of owners and
it could be as many as as eight, as as
Kenna's reported, under the current circumstances, believe that they would
be better off not playing, and that and I think
it's certainly they all thirty want to play in some way,
shape or form. This is a question of do they

(59:30):
want to play under the current circumstances. And and Kenna's
reported that it's a pretty significant number, uh, such as eight,
which by the way, is enough to to block the
the overall vote of ownership to move forward because it
requires twenty three votes. It requires three quarters support, So
twenty three if there's eight nose in twenty two yes,

(59:52):
is it's it's not gonna be enough to move forward.
And that's where I do think Commissioner Rob Manford has
been under a lot of scrutiny from a public state
and point about the changing statements of last week, what
he said about likelihood of playing now this week not
being under percent confident. I think that what what has
changed is is the UH is the willingness of his

(01:00:14):
constituency to move forward on on a certain plan and
and and the risk of what's been said on the
player's side of agreements. That is what's changed, I can
I can promise you the opinion of Commissioner Rob Manford
has not materially changed in the last week. But it's
almost like, to use the political analogy, he's got to
be able to deliver the votes. And if his his

(01:00:36):
conference so to speak, has changed in its opinion, um,
then it then that that ability has changed. And he's
trying the best that he can to stitch together twenty
three votes to support a plan that is also amenable
to the players, and that is a very difficult task.
Having said that, and we understand the commissioner doesn't have
sort of uh authority to bind the owners with out

(01:01:00):
the owners agreeing to be bound. It is a misstep
on his part to one week say a hundred percent
we're going to have baseball, and then the next week say,
I'm not confident in that anymore. Because I think for
a lot of people out there listening, when you say
a hundred percent, that means that you're certain, right, I'm

(01:01:21):
a hundred percent certain that that I'm going to be
doing the show tomorrow if I am alive, right, I
believe that my radio show. If I then say, well,
maybe not like you can't give a d percent certainty
and then walk it back without looking like your ability
to be trusted is severely impinged. Well, I think it's

(01:01:46):
it is uh. Certainly a difficult situation to have to
walk back a statement of that magnitude on on draft night. Um.
And either it's either because the one of the two
statements was for negotiating purposes or because materially the the
opinion of his of his conference change. But I get

(01:02:07):
your your statement that that it's a it really from
a credibility standpoint is damaging to the game. It is, UH.
And and the ability to be able to to negotiate
from that position where everybody's gonna take faith in what
you're saying, it's it's a it's a very very Um.
It's a very tricky spot that he's in. And I

(01:02:28):
think part of the reason play is because of how
public the negotiations have become. And it didn't have to
be this way, and it wouldn't be this way if
there was greater trust between the two sides. And this
is the other key point here, but if this was
only about safety protocols for the next month, if this
was only about a renegotiation of what amounts to a

(01:02:50):
relatively small percentage of industry revenues in a normal year,
UH that would be able to be bridged. But what
we have here is a is the compounding effect of
years of mistrust mutually between the players and MLB about
the way the free agency was operating, the way the
teams have been rebuilding dramatically, and therefore their payrolls have

(01:03:13):
been stagnant or in some cases moving down in recent years.
And and then in that atmosphere, it's hard to develop trust.
And we never had a chance to see the positive
effects in terms of actual earnings and revenue of of
what was done this past winter and spending, because the
world changed in March. And I think that we're we're
seeing now what's been left behind his mistrust. And when

(01:03:35):
you have a negotiation of this sensitivity and this emotional
level in an atmosphere of mistrust, you get statements back
and forth, and and now it's difficult to put the
tooth basted back in the two from the standpoint of
having a reasonably productive conversation. And you, you and I
both seen it in sports that have worked well in
the last couple of months. The NHL, NBA come to mind.

(01:03:56):
Adam Silver In about the first paragraph of what he
had to say. He credits Chris Paul same thing with
the NHL, Gary Bettman to Connor McDavid and Mark Stifling,
a lot of stars in the NHL. It's it's a
working relationship, a partnership based on trust. We need trust
to get through this time as a country, as a
sports world, and right now, trust is what baseball does
not have. We're talking to John Morosy. How much worse

(01:04:18):
would this be in your mind than the season win
baseball didn't finish. Uh, it would be worse by magnitude,
hard to determine, but it would be worse. It would
be worse because we are at a time in our country, Clay,
and I think you notice where we are reassessing on
a family basis, community basis, country basis. What is going

(01:04:40):
to matter to us? What we've had, We've aught a
lot of time to think and and and order our
priorities and things that we believe in and want to
spend our time and money on in the last few months.
And if if you're not part of that conversation, if
you're if you're not even gonna take an at bat,
so to speak, by not having your sport on TV.
And in the American Paul like I, Um, if you

(01:05:02):
risk a multiplying effect for generations, you've got uh. You'll
very soon have the NBA Playoffs on on TV and
you'll have families around the TV set watching different players
and different teams getting to know them. And that's a
very powerful thing. And if you're if you're not having
that experience as as a as a baseball community, it's
going to be damaging in the long term. I think

(01:05:25):
I made the point before that that I was at
a conference once where one of the speakers got up
and said, Hey, in the nineteen fifties, the three most
popular sports in our country were horse racing, boxing, and baseball.
It's not the case anymore in the case of horse
racing and boxing, and they sort of they have fan bases,
but they're not on the front page of the sports
section every day then the way that football and basketball are.

(01:05:45):
So if you're gonna have a reallocation of priorities, um,
it really is going to be damaging to baseball to
not be part of that conversation. If in fact that
happens again, I don't believe it's going to happen, But
if it does happen, to your point, Clay, I think
it becomes more damaging. Even last question for you, I
think there are a lot of people who have just
feel like they're in the fog of misinformation and disinformation

(01:06:09):
surrounding this entire story. What is worth paying attention to
at this point as a significant factor if you're trying
to look for the signal amid the noise, so to speak,
to be able to actually pick up on what's going
on here. The key thing here play is that the
commissioner has not canceled the season. And and it's a

(01:06:32):
very different thing to go from either saying you have
no plans for another proposal, uh, to actually materially canceling
the season and we're shutting everything down. And that's not
what's happened here. Uh. There has been no statement about
canceling the season. The players, I still think want to play.
And the other the other part about from what they

(01:06:53):
have said that they have said materially, hey show us
to the time and day where we're supposed to go.
They clearly want to play. Because what Clay, if they
don't play, what does free agency look like for all
those players this wintertime? What does that look like? If
your owners have no revenue, how much are they going
to spend on you in a situation where you don't
have a salary cap or flour and and so they

(01:07:15):
want to play. The owners also want to play. The
television networks also want to play. So there's a deal
to be made. But it's going to require something that's
really important, Clay, and that something is humility. I I
will be eager to see which side and hopefully both
sides show the requisite amount of humility, shake hands, get

(01:07:35):
a deal done, and I think then you have a
chance to prosper together in the future. Outstanding as always,
John Morosey. Go follow him on Twitter at j O
N M O R O S I. I hope that
by next week we have some some actual movement here,
but if not, we'll talk to you again next week
and I'll ask you what I've enjoyed our conversations, and

(01:07:56):
I look forward to having better news to share my
friend in due time.

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