Best of Outkick the Coverage: 09/06/2019

 Clay Travis tells you what he thinks about the NFL opener between the Packers and Bears and then gets to the real juicy story: Antonio Brown... do Clay and Danny G. butt heads about CTE again and what would the rest of the crew do with AB at this point? Alex Marvez weighs-in on Antonio Brown and two controversies arise from Alex’s appearance (1 that could get the show shut down!!) Plus, Joel Klatt is in the house to preview this weekend’s best College football match-ups.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of OutKick the Coverage podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday morning from
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by searching f s R. This is the best of
OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis on Fox Sports Radio.

(00:27):
What is available in all areas? How about OutKick What's
not available in any areas? The Bears passing game last
night ugly, ugly debut for the Chicago Bears. It wasn't
a very good debut for the Green Bay Packers really either.
But anytime you win, it feels pretty good and you're
willing to overlook the fact that things might have been

(00:48):
ugly during the course of your game. We've been waiting
a long time for the NFL to come back, and
I'm not sure that people felt, like, my god, this
was amazing. I enjoyed this so incredibly much. It was
Lee not a lot of offense at all. Two hundred
and thirteen total yards for the Green Bay Packers, two
hundred and fifty four total yards for the Chicago Bears.

(01:09):
Passing wise, it was tough to watch Mitch Drabinsky just
neither team. We're able to get the ball down the
field very much at all. Four point seven yards per
pass for the Packers, four point two for the Bears.
The defense is way ahead of the offenses. Forty seven
rushing yards, forty six rushing yards, bunch of sacks. I'm

(01:30):
not sure we can take much away from this at all,
except that I think it's going to concreasingly grow the
apprehension in Chicago about whether or not Mitch Drabinski is
the guy going forward. And for now, at least, if
you are a Green Bay Packers fan, you're gonna say, Okay,

(01:50):
maybe our defense is much improved. Let's see if Matt
Lafleur and Aaron Rodgers can come along a bit on
the offensive side of the ball. And anytime you go
on the road and get a division win like the
Packers did last night, it's hard to be upset with
the outcome. Here is the only touchdown of the night.
If you weren't watching, the Bears came out took a

(02:14):
three nothing lead. Uh as a really slow and low
scoring game for a while, and then early in the
second quarter. Midway in the second quarter, this happened, and
it was the only touchdown, and this was the only
time that the Packers took the lead, and after this
nothing much really happened. Here it is the touchdown. Rogers
takes a quick snap, penalty, market down, free down for Rogers.

(02:37):
He lost right side of the ends, on end of
a crowd that's put puts down. Jimmy Graham like fine
wine there, old old old but still making plays. And
he made the only touchdown of the night. And so
the NFL season has returned, NFC North, Major battle and
the Green Bay Packers go to one and know the
Bears fall to oh and one. There was a lot

(02:59):
of booing of the of the Bears by the fans
that were there, who are probably still a little bit
upset over the way things went down with the postseason,
the playoff game where the double doings happen. Uh, the
Bears at least made a field goal, which was which
was enjoyable on some level. And now, honestly, if you
look around and you're a Bears fan, I still feel

(03:21):
like you have to be okay with what's coming up next.
You go on the road against Denver, your offense didn't
look very good obviously Denver appears to have a good
pass rush, and then you go on the road against
the Redskins. So I think it's unlikely you would start
off oh and three. But the difference between uh, you know,
oh and two and one and one is always substantial.
The odds of making the playoffs if you're O and

(03:42):
two versus two and oh is pretty substantial. So we'll
see what ends up happening there. But again, the the
opening part of the Bear schedule really not very difficult,
so I don't think it's time to hit the panic
button if you are a Bears fan, although it is
a little bit nerve wracking. As for the Packers, look
got an early opportunity now, uh, when they play their

(04:02):
next game, they got first of all several extra days.
Then they go back to Lambeau and they get the
Vikings in Green Bay, so they have an opportunity to
start off the season two and oh in the division
and uh, and I think there was important win for
the Packers because you know, things are not necessarily that
easy with the Eagles and the Cowboys in their first

(04:23):
five games, so this was important. I think there's a
decent chance that they start off too. And oh, that
Vikings game is gonna be massive. Now. Uh, to start
off two and oh in the division with the first
two games would be beyond you, especially because one of
those wins is happened on the road. Now, for all
of the talk about the start of the NFL season,
Antonio Brown basically took a huge cannonball into the NFL pool.

(04:49):
And I'll just say this, Antonio Brown is so far
off the reservation right now that yesterday O J simps
and came out and essentially told him he needed to
chill in one of those videos that o J is
doing on Twitter of late and I watched o J

(05:10):
and I found myself nodding along, and I was thinking,
you know, you have made some bad decisions in your life.
When O J. Simpson is analyzing your behavior and he's
the logical one, I found myself thinking, you know what,
o J makes some good points. Here, here's a life lesson.

(05:31):
If O J. Simpson ever criticizes your behavior, and most
people watching would be like, you know what, oh J's
right here. You have done some really dumbass things. And
right now, Antonio Brown is truly behaving like an insane man.
If you missed all of the story that occurred yesterday.

(05:53):
Reports are that the Oakland Raiders and Mike Mayock in particular,
approached Antonio Brown during practice on Wednesday to talk about
the post that he put on Instagram of the internal
discipline letter. Now, this is what I said yesterday, you
can't do. Virtually every employee on the planet would be

(06:16):
suspended or fired from their job if they posted an
internal discipline letter and ridiculed their employer on social media.
Doesn't matter if you work at Walmart or if you
work at the White House. Just about every single person
who is an employee would get fired over this. Looks

(06:38):
like Mike Mayock wasn't having it. He approached Antonio Brown,
they got into an argument about it, and Antonio Brown
is so out of control that Vontes Perfect had to
step between Antonio Brown and Mike Mayock. Antonio Brown threatened
to beat up Mayok and then he grabbed a football

(06:59):
punt at it and said find me for that. And
now these are all according to multiple reports. I think
Ian Rappaport had the the find me for that line,
and then the uh, the Raiders have now announced that
Antonio Brown was not at practice yesterday. There are reports
that they're planning on suspending him, although officially there has

(07:23):
been no word about what that suspension might look like,
what the length. Maybe they could suspend him for up
to four games. The letter is a clear attempt to
create legal precedent in the event that they decide to
end their relationship with him and try to get back

(07:43):
the thirty million dollars in guarantees over the next two
years that Antonio Brown is entitled to as a part
of the contract that he signed. So putting on my
lawyer hat here. The reason why you write letters and
find players and here it was a fine of around
fifty four thousand dollars, is because you want to establish
a legal precedent to allow you to fire someone for

(08:08):
violating their contract. And Antonio Brown just took it to
the next level. None of us would ever know that
these fines had occurred. I I would imagine unless Antonio
Brown had decided to go public with him, which is
thoroughly ridiculous. Now I believe we have Mike Mayock uh
discussing this suspension. Here is what he had to say.

(08:30):
Antonio Brown is not in the building today. It won't
be practicing. I don't have any more information for you
right now. And when I have some and it becomes appropriate,
you guys will all get it, I promise you. But
that's it for today. So so far, no official word
he's not in the facility. He was at least sent
home for that Thursday now, Drew Rosenhouse, who is the

(08:52):
agent for Antonio Brown, appeared on the NFL Network and
discuss the fact that he had been having conversations with
the Ray there's brain trust, whether it's Gruten, whether it's
Mayok in an effort to try to get Antonio Brown
back in Oakland. Here's what Drew Rosenhouse had to say
yesterday to the NFL Network. I believe he wants to

(09:12):
be an Oakland Raider. I believe he wants to play.
I believe he's gonna have a great season. I believe
some things that happened we're outside of his control. The
foot injury was not his doing. The helmet would try
to address that professionally. We got it worked out back.
I think moving forward everything can work out. That's really

(09:34):
up to the Raiders. My hope is there won't be
a suspension. I'm not aware of any as of yet.
That's third decision. I'm working with them to try and
avoid that scenario. My objective is to get things worked
out between Antonio and the Raiders so he can fulfill
his contract and do what they brought him in to do.

(09:56):
I don't think it's too late to salvage that relationship.
Hundred absolutely, I have no doubt in my mind about that.
I don't think there's any issue in that capacity. We
have had some obstacles and through training camp, but Antonio
is fine. He's great, and he's going to continue his

(10:16):
career and do some great things. That's something that we
discussed with Antonio and the team and we're trying to
all get on the same page moving forward. All right,
that's Drew Rosenhouse. Yesterday I said that Antonio Brown was
off the reservation, that he'd gone crazy. Unfortunately for him,
Raider super fan Danny G defended Antonio Brown. Danny G,

(10:41):
the floor is yours. Would you like to acknowledge that
I'm a genius and everything I said yesterday is correct.
A genius is pushing it, especially when you picked the
Bears to win the game last night. You should have
took our pick here in the studio, clay Um. Look,
I did uh have the back of Mike Mayock, not
just yesterday morning, but back in August when the whole

(11:01):
thing came down with Mike Mayock walking out and telling
the media that A B was either all in or
all out. So I'm happy that I had Mayo's back
where you and I got into it a little bit
an hour three yesterday was discussing whether or not Antonio
Brown was worth the headaches as far as his talent goes,
and you seem to think that he should have been

(11:21):
cut because he has ct E. Now I am starting
to agree with you that this dude's mind is just
garbled because being a villain or or i'm sorry, a
victim rather on Instagram is one thing, but in person,
going at it with the general manager in front of
your teammates. If I own the Raiders, that's where I

(11:42):
would put my foot down and draw the line. So
you would cut him at this point, well, that was
my first thought, but as the hours passed and listening
to all of our listeners on Twitter say that they
would at least like their team to give him a shot,
which kind of surprised me because at first, I think
everybody's knee jerk reaction was this guy is never gonna
be able to play in the NFL again after something

(12:05):
like this. But then all these tweets started pouring in
of well, I could totally see Bill Belichick signing them
and trying to turn things around. I could see this
team doing this, and hey, maybe Clay gets his wish
after all and he signs with the Titans. Maybe Vrabel
can get I don't yeah, I mean, I understand all
of those perspectives, and maybe that's what Antonio Brown needs

(12:27):
almost is a come to Jesus moment where suddenly somebody
sits him down and says, listen, dude, you have so
misplayed your hand here that the Raiders are. Here's what
I would do. Let me take a step back. If
I am right now Mike Mayock, or I am Mark Davis,
the owner of the the Oakland Raiders, or I am
anybody out there Jon Gruden, who is sitting around, and

(12:48):
that's probably the brain trust sitting around trying to decide
what to do. Right now, I cut him and I
try to get my thirty million dollars back to me.
It is a no brainer at this point in time.
Let me explain why. First of all, the Raiders are
not a Super Bowl contending team, so at best, you
are in a division where you maybe could be the
third best team in that division. We'll see what happens

(13:09):
this weekend against the Broncos. You're coming off an incredibly
mediocre season. You have had one winning season since two
thousand two. At absolute best, Antonio Brown might be worth
a game and a half more in wins if he
played flawlessly for you, went for a thousand yards receiving,
went for double digit touchdowns, and he's not going to

(13:31):
be on the team given his age. I believe he's
thirty one now at the time that you make the
transition into a winning playoff contending team. So right now,
I think what the Raiders are trying to do under
John Gruten and Mike Mayock is demonstrate what their culture
is going to be, what is acceptable behavior, who they

(13:52):
want to be, the guys who are going to be
leaders in their locker room. If you allow Antonio Brown
to become what he is, a astraction from head to toe,
whether it's the helmet or the cryogenic feet, then you
are permitting him to set the culture more than you're
permitting Mike Mayock and John Gruden to set the culture.
I think ultimately culture matters in a big way. And

(14:15):
whether or not Derek Carr is going to be your
quarterback of the future, I don't think that he is.
I don't think that he is because I don't think
Nathan Peterman and Mike Glennon and Deshaun Kaiser would all
be out there as backups if John Gruden was really
strongly committed to Derek Carr as the long term future
for his franchise. So I think what you're doing at
this point is still trying to set the culture. I

(14:37):
think there's a very good chance that Derek Carr is
gone in the offseason unless he has a tremendous year
this year. I believe you save that thirty million dollars,
you bring it back in for salary cap purposes. You
can spend that money next season on a variety of
different free agents. With thirty million dollars back, you can
get at least two big time starters on the free

(14:58):
agent market that would make a big difference, or three
or four if you're going for a relatively lower cost
free agency, especially with the money you potentially have saved
from Derek Carr going forward. I just I don't think
it's a difficult decision at all. And if somebody else
can pick up Antonio Brown after you cut them, and
they can make him make it work for him, more

(15:20):
power to him. If Bill Belichick can get him, if
Andy Reid can get him, and they can have a
come to Jesus moment with him and suddenly he sits
down and is better. I think the amount of money
that Antonio Brown would get is very low. I think
the number of teams that would be interested is similarly
very low. I think the number of teams that would
be willing to make a move for Antonio Brown is

(15:40):
predicated almost entirely on how many teams think he can
be the difference between winning a division and making the
playoffs and not so. I think it needs to be
a team that's already good. I think it needs to
be a team that's already got a culture established, somebody
like the Patriots, Somebody like that who has a strong
leadership coming from the for Echelon's and also the kind

(16:01):
of place you know, the Patriots they talk about guys
who come in and make a difference. What the Patriots
have shown is if you're not willing to get in
line and do your job with them, they don't have
any issue with cutting you. And sometimes it works with
Corey Dillon or Randy Moss. They bring in and mal content,
a guy who has a bad reputation, and he buys
in and you start to see, hey, maybe he just
didn't like playing for a bad franchise, like Randy Moss did,

(16:25):
like I said, like Corey Dillon did. Sometimes it doesn't
remember they brought in chado Jo Sinko, it didn't work out,
and they immediately cut him. So far, it hasn't worked
out for Josh Gordon, but they've been willing to stand
beside him because his issues have been almost entirely off
the field. It doesn't sound like on the field related.
So if I am the if I'm the Raiders, I

(16:45):
cut him. We'll put up a poll question. I'm curious
whether or not, uh the audience out there agrees. Would you?
So you're saying you would not cut him, you would
suspend him for how long? Danny g Well, No, I
think what I would do is I would sit in
a room with the Raiders brain trust, and I would
try to move them first, and if that didn't work,
then I would cut him. All right, what about you, Roberto,

(17:05):
You're a big Raiders fan. How would you handle this?
I'll suspend him, spend him one game. I feel like
the Raiders are I fault here. If they really wanted
to change the culture in the locker room, they should
have never brought in Antonio Brown if they thought that
he was gonna come in and somehow change and be
a different player. They're completely idiotic about it. So I
think that now how I'm on the team, they should
spend them at least one two games. Uh what about you? Uh?

(17:29):
What would you do in this situation? You said the
max number of games they can suspend him as four.
That's what I read under the collective bargaining agreement, the
max they could do. Well, I would suspend him those
four games and see if he really if he understands
the point, and if he still doesn't, then you try
to move on from him or trade him first, like
Dang says, And if you can't, then you just gotta
let him. If they suspend him, he's not allowed around

(17:49):
the team facility for four weeks. I just wonder what
in the world he's gonna be doing on Instagram, what
in the world he's gonna be doing on social media
during those four weeks. And I think the idea that
suddenly he's gonna come back in a week five and
be a changed man is is wild, exact and and
and crazy. But maybe depending on what your lawyers are
telling you, they may think they need to go from

(18:10):
fifty four thousand dollars in fines two suspensions in order
to be able to argue, Hey, we want out of
this thirty million dollar contract. I'm not sure. I'd love
to get an expert on the NFL CBA right now.
It's rare that guys try to avoid contracts over behavioral
related issues, but I think that's where we are with
Antonio Brown. What would you do, Eddie Garcia, Well, I

(18:32):
would cut him. Uh, it's um, it's not going to work.
And as I said as a Steelers fan, after Antonio
Brown left Pittsburgh, he became empowered. He won his battle
against the Steelers. He loved all the attention he got
over it, and he was not going to just now
suddenly become a good team player and a good soldier.

(18:52):
It's this is not gonna happen, and he's not gonna change.
So I would cut my loss as while I can
and try and get back as much money as I could.
I agree. Interestingly enough, for all the people who are
obsessed with social media, Antonio Brown has stopped following the
Raiders and Derek Carr on Instagram. He is, by the way,
thirty one years old. Grow up, dude. Be sure to

(19:13):
catch live editions about kick the Coverage with Clay Travis
weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio. App appreciate all
of you come by and hanging out with us as
we talk about the beginning of the NFL season and
the continuing fallout of Antonio Brown with the Raiders. We
bring in Alex Marvez at Alex Marvez on Twitter. Alex,

(19:35):
what did you think as this story spiraled out? Um,
just an update for you. We have a poll question up.
Should the Raiders cut Antonio Brown and try to get
their thirty million dollars back by arguing he has violated
the terms of his contract. Nearly ten thousand people have
voted so far in our Twitter poll. One percent say yes,

(19:56):
how would you respond if you were a member of
the Raiders brain trust, if you were Gruden, if you
were Mayok, if you were Mark Davis. Well, my question is,
I don't if I'm not mistaken, I don't know if
he's even received any of that cash yet, right, So,
I mean they would they be able to avoid it?
Not when when I say get it back, I mean
that he hasn't physically received it, but they would not
be entitled. They wouldn't be obligated to give him the

(20:17):
rest of that money, right See. And this is the
whole thing about it. If you go ahead and suspend
him for week one, you avoid the guarantees and at
that point then you know you're you're potentially able to
get out of this. And you put Antonio Brown on
that that you know, shoe string type notice that, Oh yeah,
you know, listen one more time, and you know we
were gonna cut you and we don't know you any money,

(20:40):
and I you know what, I'm just I'm not surprised
about it. I don't I don't get it. I really
don't get what is what is happening. I know you've
talked about CTE factor and possibility is this man brain
damage from playing football. I see mental illness perhaps when
I just look at a pattern of behavior because Clay
it goes from it's not just the arguments with the

(21:01):
Raiders that he's having, but think about how he was
in Pittsburgh. Think about the lawsuits that he's got off
the field for you know, behavior. Think about you know,
a guy who was throwing deck chairs off of his
balcony and having some situations, you know, a legal situation
involving that. I mean, this has just been a you know,
and he's been enabled of course, right. I mean, the
Pittsburgh Steelers sent him down this road when they didn't

(21:22):
put their foot down with things such as, does Antonio
Brown have to stay with the team during training camp
in Latrobe like everyone else? No, he can go somewhere else.
Does Antonio Brown have to show up on time to
a meeting? No, you know, and we're not going to
find him. We just wanted to play on Sunday, and
you know, it just reached a point and the Steelers
were really lenient. But when he walked out before that
week's seventeen game against the Cincinnati Bengals, that was it.

(21:45):
At that point, they just couldn't go any further with
Antonio Brown. And that's why there was a fire sale
for his services. And now you can understand the reticence.
And look, teams know a lot more than we know,
but you can understand the reticence of the Buffalo Bills
a little bit. People forget they had a d basically
in place with the Buffalo Bills for Antonio Brown. The
way it got scuttled was the Bills didn't want to

(22:05):
redo his contract and give him any more new money.
They wanted him to stick out of the contract that
he had. When Antonio Brown's camp boxed and they said, nope,
he's gonna retire, he's not going to report, etcetera. The
Bill said thanks, but no thanks, and they moved in
a different direction. The Oakland Raiders picked it up. Do
you figure out it's John Gruten. Everyone wants to play
for John Gruten, right, John knows how to coach superstars.

(22:26):
And honestly, I don't think John has done a bad job.
He's made Mike mayokt too heavy and all this, you know,
and having Mike and try to enforce these rules, and
I get it from Gruden standpoint, the guy needs to
show up and practice the big egregious thing with him.
It's one thing to miss practice one day because of
the helmet situation. I get that. I mean, look, the
guy had to break down, he's upset about his helmet. Whatever.

(22:47):
It was, right, fine, you can, you know, fool me one,
shame on you. But when he went ahead and missed
the walkthrough practice while they were in Winnipeg, Winnipeg of
all places you traveled with the team for season game,
you were't even gonna play and play doesn't show up.
It set it in motion. And listen news last night,
by the way, huge on NFL Network from David Carr,

(23:07):
Derek Carr's brother, who says that the Oakland Raiders team
captain captains have gone to John Gruden and said, whatever
you want to do with Antonio Brown, We're fine with it.
We support you on it, and then included Derek Carr
and Derek Carr told his brother that he did not
expect Antonio Brown to play Monday night against the Denver Broncos. Thus,

(23:27):
you maybe this explains why Antonio Brown unfollowed the Raiders
unfollowed Derek Carr on social media, because maybe he figures
more people are conspiring against him Ala Ben Roethlisberger and
Juju Smith Schuster. Have you have You've covered the NFL
for a long time, and we're talking to Alex Marves.
You can follow him on Twitter at Alex Marvez. You've
covered the NFL for a long time. Have you ever

(23:48):
heard in an open practice like this of a player
threatening threatening to beat up a GM and having to
be restrained by other players? I mean, like, have you
ever heard of this happen, not in an open practice.
There was an incident at the Miami Dolphins UM and
I'll just I'll keep the names out of it, if
that's okay. But there was a general manager who's still

(24:10):
in the league, by the way, in that position, who
got into it with another player and it had to
do with it with a contract situation, and it was
just an ugly deal and they had to be separated.
I mean, listen, sometimes things get heated, but the way
this one went was just bizarre. And we didn't have
social media back then, okay, I mean you know, because
remember Antonio Brown posted his fine letter on Instagram and

(24:32):
and put some cryptic message I don't understand and and
I'm maybe I'm just not hip but I don't understand
what Antonio Brown is putting out there half the time.
I don't get the vernacular. But obviously he was displayed.
He's played with what was done with Mike Mayock, and
then they went ahead and took it. He took it
to another level. And when Vontes Berfect is reportedly the
peacemaker holding back Antonio Brown and trying to defuse the
situation with Mike Mayock, you know, because he was upset

(24:54):
about getting fine like that, Well that'll sort of tell you,
you know, when Vontes Berfect is a good guy that
I think of put this all in perspective about how
crazy this whole situation is. Okay, Let's presume that the
Raiders are trying to get rid of Antonio Brown's contract
and that they're going to say, hey, we want you gone,
we're avoiding your contract, You're done here. Let's presume that happens.

(25:15):
We don't know that it's going to happen. It hasn't
officially happened. Let's presume it's gonna happen. How much market
is there for Antonio Brown in the rest of the league,
in terms of teams that might be willing to sign
him with the season actually beginning right now, effectively right
he's coming into camp in week two. I think at
the absolute earliest. How many franchises out there do you

(25:38):
think are willing to sign Antonio Brown zero? I mean,
I just don't know how you sign him because you
start going first, you're gonna have to pay him, you know,
I mean, the guy has made money and I don't Again,
you're dealing with someone here who to me just doesn't
seem all that stable in the decision making. So what
does he want to get paid? You know? Number one

(25:58):
to come in and play football. And then if you
do sign him, how much are you willing to tolerate
You're willing to tolerate them, mister me. I mean, this
man made this decision play knowing that he could lose
twenty nine million dollars. He already has shoot a million
dollars in offseason workout bonus to go work out on
his own rather than show up for the Raiders, you know,
and do his thing with them. So you're talking about
someone here who doesn't really seem to have a grasp

(26:19):
on on the financial realities of what goes on. You
bring him into your team and you know, it's almost
like in the case look New England. Everyone talks about that.
Would Bill Belichick be tolerant of an Antonio Brown? What
do you think that he's a bargain? Would Antonio Brown
change his ways? But you know, you think when you
think about what happened with the Patriots last year, they
had to make a major adjustment when Josh Gordon, you know,

(26:40):
you know, fell off the wagon and got suspended, and
you know that was it. And you know, you talk
about integrating a guy into your offense. Not everyone's the Patriots,
Not everyone as Tom Brady, Not everyone can adjust to
you know, with a Josh McDaniels, who is, you know,
as despicable human being as he is, is a pretty
darn good offensive mind, right. You know with xs and ohs,
they were able to adjust and get you of the
loss of Josh Gordon. You start putting Antonio Brown in

(27:02):
your offense, he's got to be your number one wide receiver.
Were you gonna have him from week to week? You
know it's interesting to Clay and I'll just play this
out by extension. Let's say Antonio Brown doesn't change his ways.
Let's say the Raiders release him. Let's say he doesn't
find a home right now in the NFL. Is he
custom made for the XFL? Would he become the biggest
must see type of train wrecked type of television that

(27:25):
Vince McMahon would be looking for as he tries to
pedal a minor league product. I mean it, you know,
because they're Vince McMahon doesn't care about, you know, finances.
He's willing the throw three million dollars down a rabbit hole,
you know, at seventy four because he's bored and he's
tired of wrestling. So it's just you know, and he
wants to try to do something different. So would he
be willing to make Antonio Brown the star of the league?

(27:46):
I mean, he fits in with so much of what
the w w E does, right, I mean, so I'm
just saying, maybe there's an option for Antonio Brown here
that we don't even see, or maybe he tries to
pursue things in other ways. Maybe he tries to become
a journalistic. Did you know, does he go on does
he become a commentator? Do people go to him pay
him for his opinions? I mean, there's other ways of
revenue for Antonio Brown but how do you trust this guy?

(28:09):
There ain't no way to make thirty million dollars doing
any of that stuff? You're sure? I mean, I heard
Colin you know on Fox. Oh wait, I shouldn't talk
about that with you. I'm sorry. I'll just keep it quiet.
Uh heard? Who? What? I don't even know what you were?
Just what you were? Just a thirty million dollar figure? Yeah? Yeah,
where would he ever be able to make He wouldn't,

(28:30):
he wouldn't. I agree with you, But again, when you're
talking about someone, he's not going to be able to
make thirty million dollars, I get that, you know what
I mean? But is he gonna make enough that he
wants to be Antonio Brown and still make cash? The
only I think, in all honesty, and I feel this
about almost all athletes, the only reason why most athletes
are relevant is because they're good at sports. And so

(28:51):
if Antonio Brown is good at playing wide receiver, then
people care about what Antonio Brown puts on Instagram or
what he tweets or all those things because they're connect
did to sports. The minute that Antonio Brown is not
connected to the NFL anymore, not connected to the Steelers,
not connected to the Raiders, not like in that sort
of purview, then I just I don't see any way

(29:12):
imaginable that he's able to be relevant. And and a
bigger issue is I think he's likely to spiral even
more out of control because right now there's at least
some basis of reality in his life where you have
to show up for a job, even if he's not
consistently doing it. You have obligations to stay in shape,
you have responsibilities to your teammates, like there is a

(29:33):
guiding force in some way in his life. It seems
like if he doesn't have football at all and he's
got all day to kind of just spiral into his
own you know world, that that's the worst thing that
could happen to him. Well, right, because football provides structure.
Why do so many athletes struggle once they're done playing.
They don't have a plan, right, I mean, and they're
so used to being told where they have to go.

(29:55):
You know what they have to do. Your whole year
is you know, basically you know how you're year agoes.
You know what's going to happen from the time that
the preseason starts up until you know the end of
the regular season. Or in the playoffs, if you will
be offseason program all of those things your programmed. Then
that day when you're done playing football, you wake up,
it's like where do I go? What do I do?
And you're lost, And Antonio Brown could be very lost

(30:17):
and also to play. I agree with you, although I
think that there would always be even if he's out there,
there's always going to be an interest in Antonio Brown
and the goofiness of it and the questions we can
channel it financially. But you're right, thirty million dollars, you know,
in guaranteed money that's not happening for Antonio Brown. And
you know Drew Rosenhouse is trying to salvage this. And
you notice there's no official announcement yet from the Raiders,

(30:38):
and you know, Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock have been
very careful with the wording of what they've said because
I really think they want to make sure that what
Antonio Brown did would constitute a violation of his contract
if they don't feel strongly enough by the way that
they could win this, because you know that Antonio Brown
would appeal the voiding of all this money. If they
don't feel like they can win this. Well, maybe, just

(31:00):
maybe Antonio Brown is just a healthy scratch on Monday
night against Denver Broncos and you don't suspend him, but
you know you're not going to plan. So that's one
thing that we have to consider here. Just how far
the Raiders feel that they can push this if indeed
they wanted to employ those guarantees. Yeah, I think the
lawyers are all doing the work right now and the
due diligence to verify that they can in fact release him,

(31:20):
and that's why they haven't issued an official statement yet. Okay,
let's let we actually had football last night. What Yeah,
what did you think of the Packers and the Bears game?
What were your big takeaways? How nervous should Bear fans
be about Mitch ter Biski? What did we learn, if anything,
last night? Well, a couple of things about that. I'm
still not sure if that was actual NFL football in
Week one and what it's what it shows you is

(31:42):
right now the teams basically are willing to look terrible
in Week one something. I mean, this is what the
NFL has come to. You know, if you're a season
ticket holder and you pay for product, you not only
get screwed for preseason games, but I think you may
get an inferior product early on in the season as well.
Mitchell Trobiski played one series the entire season, Aaron Rodgers
played O point oh. And I'm talking preseason games. And

(32:04):
you can talk practices and scrimmages and simulations all you want,
and I get it. Teams want to mitigate against injury.
They don't want to risk their star players. I mean,
the theory is right, you'd rather look bad in Week
one because at least you have a chance to get better.
If you don't have your star players and someone suffered
a torn a c L, you're not going to get
them back to the entire year. And just what you
saw was really subpar Week one football. And I think

(32:26):
you're gonna see that in a lot of places around
the league. You know, Tremont Williams spilled the beans, you know,
from a Green Bay Packers standpoint after the game, the
Packers cornerback saying we wanted to force Mitchell Trobinsky to
play quarterback. And when you have a situation like Matteggie,
a guy in the first two series of the games
play they ran the football five times with running backs
carrying the ball, you know, David Montgomery and Mike Davis

(32:48):
the rest of the game, the entire game after the
first two series, running backs touched the football and a
carry six times Arko and didn't get a single rush
after that. If you're gonna try to put the game
in Mitchell Trobinsky's hands at this point, I think they're
making a big mistake, especially against the Revam Packers defense.
Darius Smith, Preston Smith. These guys play accounted for fourteen

(33:09):
of the eighteen pressures that the Bears put on Mitchell Trabiski.
Let me put this in perspective, how much of an
impact these two free agents made last year in two games.
According to Next Gen Stats, Chicago had nine overall I'm sorry,
green Bay had nine overall pressures on Chicago. They doubled
that in one game last night. Green Bay's defense they

(33:30):
are the ones that they were the heroes of that game.
But I'm telling you, we may just see some really
crappy football Week one, and we just gotta hope it
picks up and looks more like the real NFL in
a couple of weeks. Outstanding stuff as always, these Alex
Marvez go follow him on Twitter at Alex Marvez. Be
sure to catch live editions about Kick the Coverage with
Clay Travis weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific.

(33:51):
All Right, controversy on spooling in several directions from Alex
Marvev's Alex Marvez is hit. We gotta check the tape
to figure out exactly what went down, but we're to
start here. He was trying to make a joke and
I didn't understand what was going on. What let's go
to the audio, Alex Marvez in with us and he
tries to make a joke and I didn't really understand
here's the joke. Or maybe he tries to pursue things

(34:13):
in other ways. Maybe he tries to become a journalistic pundit.
You know, does he go on does he become a commentator,
Do people go to him, pay him for his opinions?
I mean, there's other ways of revenue for Antonio Brown,
But how do you trust this guy? There ain't no
way to make thirty million dollars doing any of that stuff.
You're sure? I mean I heard Colin you know on Fox.
Oh wait, I shouldn't talk about that with you. I'm sorry,

(34:34):
I'll just keep it quiet. Uh to heard? Who? Um what?
I don't even know what you were? Just what you were?
Just a thirty million dollar figure? Yeah? Yeah, Where would
he ever be able to make? He wouldn't so he
I I was like, what in the world's he's saying?
Like you think it's a reference to Collin cow Hurt. Yes,

(34:54):
it definitely was. He was taking a jab at you,
saying that Colin gets paid way more than you. He does.
He makes a lot more money for the company than
me too, but he doesn't make thirty million dollars. I
mean I wish he did. Look. I am of the
opinion that a rising tide lifts all boats. So I
want people to make as much money as they possibly can,
Like steven A Smith's contract is coming up soon. I

(35:16):
want steven A Smith to make twenty million dollars a year.
I want somebody to give him Howard Stern money because
if steven A makes a ton, ultimately that trickles down
to me. People are like, well, if steven A's worth twenty,
Glay Travis gotta be worth eight, right, I mean, like,
I don't know what the number is, but that's what
my agent would say, right, So I want the rising
tide to lift all boats. I want calling to make

(35:37):
as much money as possible. Ain't nobody in the sports
media making thirty million dollars a year now? Uh? And
I don't think. I don't even buy into the idea
that anybody's gonna pay Antonio Brown for his opinions on
anything if he's not playing football. If he's playing football,
he's a celebrity. People care about him. But I think
that's one of the difficulties that guys run into, is
you get all hyped up on how much people care

(36:00):
about you, and as soon as you stopped performing in
the limelight in big games, you vanish. Now you can
show back up as kind of a legend, and and
you have that sort of dull uh dull and not
meaning dull in a bad way, but just kind of
fading and dull recognition based on your talent. But by

(36:20):
and large, people don't care about you very much in
the world of athletics once you're athletic career is over.
There are a few exceptions. Charles Barkley maybe the most
valuable media prognosticator out there in terms of what he
brings to the NBA and inside the NBA, the show
that he's on. But that's a rarity that anybody out

(36:40):
there is able to extend their career after they play
because of how good they are outside of being in
basketball as a commentator, and I just I don't buy
into the idea that that Antonio Brown is one of
those guys. And I thought it was fascinating, but so yeah,
that was Alex Marvest trying to make a joke. Make
a joke. I mean, I think Colin makes ten million
a year thanks Skip Baylis will make ten million a year.

(37:02):
I think Stephen A. Smith will make ten million a year.
I want him to make twenty. I want him to
make thirty. I want those salaries to skyrocket because I
look cheap compared to those guys, and I can get
more money as well. So I always think some people
sit around there like, oh this guy makes X, I'm
so disappointed. I always say, if he's making X, you
should try to make X two. So yeah, that's uh,

(37:26):
that's the one story. The other story is that maybe
we got a Eddie Garcia incident. May have had an
F bomb Eddie. Do you hear it? Marvett? Not you?
Not you? He's up, not you. But we might have
had an F bomb issue with Alex Marvez. Oh, why
am I being dragged? Could you drop the F bomb
almost in your update the other day? Do we have that?

(37:48):
Can we play that quickly? I don't know, I know, Eddie,
you might be catching, might be contagious. Marves been on
the show for years, no issues. You nearly drop an
F bomb in an update? Maybe Marvez dropping F bombs? Now? Uh,
that was real, that's real, that's Eddie. Given the update,
did Alex Marvez drop an F bomb? We've gone back

(38:09):
over the tape. Can we play it? We're pretty confident
because he did not want to clear up the aspersions
that many of you were casting upon. Alex Marvez is
bad name, good name. Sorry, he has a good name,
not a bad name. He has never cursed in his
life so far as we know, certainly not on the
radio show. This is what it sounded like. It's a
little bit of a Yawnie and a Laurel situation. As

(38:31):
he discussed last night's preseas last night's first game of
the regular season, Travisky played one series the entire preseason.
Aaron Rodgers played O point oh in the preseason games.
Is that it? That's it? Cl and he said games plural.
So that's why when people were saying, oh, did you
hear he said F in preseason game? Play it one

(38:52):
more time. I don't even hear it. Now. I didn't
hear it listening live, and nobody else on the radio did.
But Twitter blew up a lot of you out there
accusing Alex Marvez of dropping an F bomb. Here it
is again. Tripsky played one series the entire preseason. Aaron
Rodgers played O point oh in a preseason games. I
don't even remotely hear it. Are you? Are we sure

(39:13):
that introversial point? Yes, it is for sure. Eddie came
in and listened to it because it was in our heads,
like Joannie and Laurel, we were kind of hearing it.
But he says, I'm talking about That's what he says.
I don't even hear it in the replay. So listen
when he says, I'm talking about preseason games. People said
it's a blanket in preseason game is what they thought?

(39:34):
He said. Trubisky played one series the entire preseason. Aaron
Rodgers played O point oh in a preseason games. Yeah,
I mean I'm and I'm talking preseason games, not even
remotely close. Some of you need to get your minds
out of the gutter. Fox Sports Radio has the best
sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our
shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the
I Heart Radio app. Joel Clatt joins us. Now he's

(39:57):
up in an arbor, Michigan, getting ready to call Michigan
and hosting Army tomorrow. Uh. Meanwhile, Ohio State just down
the road you called them last weekend. They are playing Cincinnati.
Either reason for a reason for either team to be nervous. Joel,
I hear, I hear. You've taken shots about me living
in the gutter. We all know that you are the
king of the gutter. I am the king of the gutter.

(40:20):
You are the president of the gutter. There's no doubt
about it, especially after I I like to stay. You
have eight seen hurricanes roll out there and take a
little dirt nap. There's there's a video of me. Um,
what year was that? It's like five years ago when
we were down in New Orleans. Okay, So the setting
is is that Clay goes down. This is when Clay

(40:41):
was doing stuff for like Fox Sports Live or something
like that. Yeah, that's right. And and because you were
on the show, it ended up getting canceled, so they
had you and Stewart Mandel and Jenny Tath go down
to New Orleans to cover like a sugar bowler. No,
it was the first year of the playoff. It was
Alabama against Ohio State in New Orleans. I believe, Yes,

(41:06):
Clay the Sugar Bowl. Oh yeah, right, it was the
Sugar Bowl, but it was the playoff sugar Bowl, not
just a regular sugar Bowl. Listen, I don't care. It
was the sugar It was actually correct. Anyways, there's a
picture of them, the three of them sitting in these
director's chairs getting ready for a hit and and Clay
literally looks like he walked out of the bar and

(41:27):
like sat in this director's chair just disheveled and hungover.
And there's Jenny Tasson Stuart Mandel just like all ready
to go, you know, like well kept. And so I
tweeted to Hurricanes. What's funny about that is it's totally true.
Jenny and Stu were like, you know, in bed at

(41:48):
nine o'clock and I was out on Bourbon Street toil
like three Am, and we were doing like a nine
am hit from the Cafe Dumont. If people know New Orleans, well,
like they had the cool back top of the Cafoe Daman.
They have everything set up and uh and I'm just
sweating bullets there. Somehow it's you know, even though it's January,
it felt like it was a hundred and fifty degrees.

(42:09):
All the bright lights are on me, and I thought
it went pretty well. I was like, oh, I killed this,
and then I get on Twitter and Joel is like
grabbed a screenshot of that appearance and been like and
then it went everywhere. Everybody was commenting on it. I
mean it was it ricocheted everywhere. I think. Actually, I
didn't even hear your question because I didn't hear your

(42:30):
first question because I don't pay attention to you. That
isn't that well, So if you could repeat, please, Yeah.
So you've got coming out of the morning show for Fox,
which did really well in week one, eleven to noon Eastern.
You come on at noon Eastern with the biggest game
that Fox is trying to promote for the day. Last
week it was Ohio State against f AU. This week

(42:50):
it is Michigan against Army. Which of those two schools
do you think should be more nervous this week. That's
a good question. Um, this is gonna go against conventional wisdom,
but I'm actually a bit more concerned after watching Michigan's film.
I'm more concerned with actually Ohio State. Um, maybe that's

(43:11):
surprising to you. Maybe not. You know, people thought, oh,
you know, they were amazing and then just took the
foot off the gas against FAU. But in reality, if
you actually like watch that game through, Um what happened
is is they came out, yes and played amazing. Their
top end. Listen, no one's going to argue that Ohio
State's top end isn't like really good. They've got great players.

(43:34):
I would say it's probably like the third or fourth
best roster in the entire country. So at the top
end that they're great, and and they have a really good,
smart coach and Ryan Day and his game plan was
terrific early and so they got a couple of really
easy touchdowns, a wide open receivers play like wide open
because there was some missed assignments in the back end.
Then all of a sudden, f AU blows a run

(43:55):
defense and field drums for fifty one yards and it's like,
oh route is on it's and he ate nothing. And
it felt like there was like eight minutes still left
in the first quarter. But here's the deal. From that
point on, f f Au basically beat him. I mean,
they outscored him the rest of the time. All of

(44:16):
a sudden, Ohise State could not run the football one plane.
Kiffin understood that Ohiose States defense defense had changed and
that they were running zone defense. He started kind of
picking them apart with their tight ends in the middle.
And then more alarming for me is that Justin Fields
could not throw the ball from the pocket unless there
was a wide open wide receiver. Remember now there's he

(44:40):
lost a quarterback battle. You know, this is not Russell
Wilson leaving North Carolina State because the coach was an
idiot and told him that he couldn't even think about
baseball anymore, and so he went to Wisconsin. This is
very different. This is even different than Baker Mayfield who
kind of left on his own because there were some
weird things with Cliff Kingsbury or even Kyler Murray. You know,

(45:02):
like he lost a quarterback battle to Jake from and
and I think there's a reason, and the reason is
is because from the pocket he doesn't throw the ball
all that efficiently. So all of a sudden they had
to start rolling them out. They started getting stopped in
the run game. JK. Dobbins was not getting the holes
that he got early. And I came away from that

(45:24):
game and it was such a weird game to broadcast
play because here's this team that gets up twenty eight.
Nothing there ranked in the top ten against f AU,
and yet for three quarters plus of that game, I
thought FAU was almost better, you know what I mean.
So like it felt like I was criticizing Ohio. Stayed
in the booth and people are like, what are you

(45:45):
doing the backups around I'm like, no, they're not. It
is the first minute of the second quarter. The starters
are for sure in and so anyways, I don't want
to go overboard. I'm just saying that that concerned me.
If if Fields can't throw it from the pocket, then
you know how State is going to get into a
situation or two this year where they're they're gonna be

(46:06):
in trouble. Meanwhile, Michigan, they also didn't look quote unquote
great against Middle Tennessee but I can't explain that one
away more because it's it's like penalties and and putting
the ball on the ground, you know what I mean,
Like that can get cleaned up. But when a guy
is just not showing the ability to throw the ball
from the pocket, that worries me. So that's why I
would actually say Ohio State is a touch more concerning

(46:29):
than Michigan early in the year for me, And I
know that goes against conventional wisdom. All right, let's go
into the two big games that are going on this weekend,
major intersectional conflict here L s U Texas. L s
U is going on the road against Texas and they
blipped all the way up to a seven point favorite
against Tom Herman's team. And then Texas A and M
is traveling across the country a little bit and going

(46:50):
to take on Clemson in Clemson, South Carolina. There, what
do you see happening in these two games? First of all,
it's so like you guys, you people in the South
that you think going from college station to South Carolina
traveling across the country, that is not going across the country. Okay,
but I hope you're such a cloud. Okay, So let's

(47:17):
get to that game. In the second, I want to
talk about L s U Texas if you don't mind,
because I think there's some really interesting things going on
in this game. Um. I think these these programs, wouldn't
you agree, are almost at the exact same point, and
in that they've got these coaches that are in their
third year. They finally won double digit games last year

(47:38):
after being kind of like historically really solid programs in
the early two thousand's, and they're both looking for the
exact same thing, which is to get back into kind
of that championship discussion, wouldn't you agree, Almost identical spots,
which is just fascinating in particular when you look at
the fact that LS you desperately wanted Tom Herman and

(47:58):
kind of had to settle for at Ozern, and now
these two are going to get to go against each other.
Now when you actually look at that on the field,
what's going on, UM, L s U has changed drastically
in the last alcohol it eight to ten football games
play drastically. Let me give you a snapshot of that.
In the last four games, okay, dating back to last year,

(48:22):
UM Joe Burrow is averaging three and twelve pass yards
per game. He's got fourteen touchdowns and one interception. That's
like that much of fire L s U quarterback we're
talking about, right, Historically, these guys are just trying not
to turn the ball over so that they can turn

(48:44):
around and hand it off. To that point, in the
last five years, they were one of the most run
heavy offenses in the entire country. The percentage of run
for L s U run game over the last five
years was, okay, one of the heaviest run teams in
the country. They brought in an offensive assistant coach this year.
I'm sure I don't know if you've mentioned or not,

(49:05):
but Joe Brady is his name. Okay, Joe Brady came
from the New Orleans Saints staff and he is now
the L s U passing game coordinator. Well, they come
out there and Joe Brady's first game as the passing
game coordinator last week, and they threw thirty nine pass
attempts and only ran at thirty three times. That's pass.
That is a drastic philosophical change for L s U.

(49:30):
This is not the same team that was rolling out
of the gates even early last year. You know, Joe
Burrow and L s U scored on seven of the
eight possessions against Georgia Southern that they were in the game,
six of them touchdowns. He had more touchdowns than incompletions,
Like we normally talked about stats like that for teams
like Oklahoma or even like Alabama last year. So I

(49:54):
say that to tell you, like L s U is
not bringing some lumbering offense into Austin hoping they're running
back can go off. Meanwhile, Texas is replacing two d
and thirty three starts off of their defense from last year,
graduated eight players off of their defense. I love Sam Ellinger,
I I really do. I think Sam Ellinger is phenomenal.

(50:15):
I love the fact that they played tough in one
possession games. But it seems like to me L s
U has hit kind of another gear and found what
they're looking for from their offense. We know they are
a great defense, one of the most talented defenses in
the country. Um and so I'm actually gonna go I
don't love seven. If you're just talking from a Vegas perspective,

(50:36):
that's a lot. That's a lot in particularly on the road.
That place is going to be on fire. I mean
on fire. They have been waiting for this game for
so long. Uh, so I don't love seven, but I
think L s U actually wins that game. What do
you think about the A and M Clemson game? UM,
I think it's it's a big number. I think Clemson
is gonna win, But that's a big number. I think.

(50:59):
I don't know it's gone since I last look, but
it was like sixteen and a half maybe seventeen. Um,
Texas A and him is one of the teams that
with Jimbo Fisher is going to be able to Yeah,
he's uniquely familiar with Clemson, obviously with his history in
the A SEC. Uh. That was evident last year when
texting him was one of the few teams them in
Syracuse to play within the score of Clemson. He understands

(51:21):
how to attack that second theory they threw for over
four yards. I think kell Human is a better player
than he was last year. So I think Texas A and
and M keeps it close, but I think Clemson ultimately
wins that game. And remember, Lawrence is going to bounce back,
right he had a poor week. I fully believe that
Trevor Lawrence comes out and plays really well. So I
like Clemson and that one outstanding stuff. As always, he'll

(51:42):
be in the gutter with you at noon Eastern Joel
Claque calling the Army at Michigan game. Good stuff and man,
we'll talk to you next week. Later. Be sure to
catch live editions of I Would Kick the Coverage with
Clay Travis weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.