Unforgettable, Wild Weekend

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome in podcast listeners. I tried to tell you the Titans,
We're gonna get it done on the road in Foxborough.
I told you to tap the Vein blood Bank guarantee.
I hope you listened, and if you did, you're rich today.
Big time win for the Titans. Did it spell the
end of the Patriot dynasty? We debate and discuss, Plus
we continue to talk about all the fallout. Big wins

(00:21):
for the Texans, the Titans, the Vikings and the Seahawks.
Big defeats for the four opponents. What do we learn?
We got John McLean in from the Houston Chronicle as
well as my guy Dan Wetzel for me ah who
Sports breaking down everything. It's the OutKick Podcast, and it
begins now. I'll Kick the coverage with Clay Travis live
every weekday morning from six to nine a m. E

(00:44):
Stern three to six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio.
Find your local station for OutKick the Coverage at Fox
Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every morning
on the I Heart Radio app by searching FS are
his Parties You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. What an

(01:07):
incredible weekend of NFL playoff games. I watched all four
of the games. I know a huge percentage of you
listening to me right now watched all or some of
the four playoff games, three of which effectively came down
to pretty much the final play of the game. This
is what the three final plays, final scoring plays of

(01:31):
four of the games sounded like. Three of the four
came down to basically the very end. I don't know
what order we have them in. Uh, does it matter,
Danny g what order we play them in. We'll play
them in the order they happened, all right, so we
start with let me just start here then. Uh. There
are so many different little storylines to talk about in

(01:51):
a variety of different games, but we'll play them in order.
We had, uh, three straight games effectively that came down
to the very last play, beginning with overtime Deshaun Watson.
Probably the play of wild Card Weekend gets simultaneously popped
on two different sides by Buffalo Bills players, Bills fans

(02:14):
making noise down in Houston. They haven't won a playoff
game in Buffalo since nineteen. They were achingly close up
sixteen nothing as they started to fade, it's overtime. They
need to play and unfortunately for them. Deshaun Watson was

(02:34):
the one, as he said, somebody had to be great?
Why not me? What an incredible quote that was. This
is what it sounded like as the Texans got to
win in advance to play against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Here's fair Baron for the win. Twenty eight yards right,
hash Mark and snap his down. Fair Barons kick is
up that that's good. On that. Texans go to the

(02:58):
defensional round and try manic fashion pretted uplicant overtime bloody doo,
tonight tea a sensation. All that great for the Texans.
Deshaun Watson puts the Texans on his back and carries
them to a victory. He is now carrying them all
the way to Kansas City where they are a double

(03:18):
digit underdog. A lot of faith and belief in Patrick
Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs to keep this game
from being very close at all. Up next, how about
the game I told you to bet on, I said
tap the vein, I said get rich kids. I told
you it was my blood bank guarantee. We're gonna talk
a lot about this game. I know the Titans go

(03:40):
on the road in Foxborough where seasons go to die
and refuse to lose. Their up fourteen to thirteen, with
about fifteen seconds to play, Brady drops back to pass,
and this is what it sounded like. Brady in the
end zone, takes the snap, looks, fires pass, batted up
in the area, accepted, and returned for a touch that

(04:02):
Titans Logan Ryan with nine seconds to go. That play,
by the way, won me the crown unlock it in uh.
Not not just that the Titans won and covered, which
I told you they were gonna do, but at that
interception hit the over for the team total for the
Tennessee Titans drove everybody crazy. Cousin sal Rachel Bonetta, Todd Ferman,

(04:25):
they lost their minds. Not only did my team go
on the road and potentially in the greatest dynasty of
our lives in New England, like I told you they would,
but the team total also hit near the very end.
The smart play, by the way, would have been for
Logan Ryan to take a knee and not score, because
then the Titans could have just taken a knee and

(04:46):
there would have been no risk at all from the
kickoff or anything else. But that was phenomenal if you
are a Tennessee Titan fan. The biggest win for the
Titans in twenty years since the Super Bowl run way
back in nineteen nine. Here is finally Kirk Cousins. I

(05:06):
think Kirk Cousins is probably the most criticized quarterback in
the entirety of the NFL who has had a decent
amount of regular season success but has never been able
to win a postseason game. Finally, Kirk Cousins overtime on
the road against the Saints. By the way, Saints have

(05:29):
lost three straight playoff games on the final play of
the game. They lost on the craziness, the zane nous,
the wackiness that was the Minneapolis Miracle. They lost in
an improbable fashion after a blown call in overtime against

(05:50):
the Rams to cost themselves a Super Bowl bid. And
is if that were not enough, this is what it
sounded like when Kirk Cousins dropped back to pass on
herd down and looked for Kyle Rudolph in the corner
of the end zone, third and goal from the floor.
Kirk takes this now looks right fade lep end zone end.

(06:10):
It is caught San Francisco and or of waw New
Orleans Saints. The Minnesota Vikings have beaten the New Orleans
Saints twenty six, twenty and overtime. And this game indeed

(06:32):
was a San Francisco treat. Uh that's a heck of
a call there again, that was in order the Texas
radio network, the Titans Radio network, and the Minnesota Viking
Radio network. We also have a great postgame reaction from
Kirk Cousins, who let it all out in the locker room.

(06:53):
If you didn't hear this, this is fantastic Kirk Cousins
in the locker room talking about the big win as
the Vikings get ready for San Francisco. Here's what he
had to say. That's how we've won all year team right,
it was a chance. At the end, I got three
words for you. You like that? The entire locker room

(07:17):
comes undone as Kirk Cousin screamed has become his signature.
You like that? Part two and uh, so there we
have it now. Also, it didn't have any audio from
that game, but there wasn't a lot of drama. The
biggest play in the Seahawks win over the Eagles, frankly

(07:37):
was the dirty hit, and I thought it was a
dirty hit from Jadeveon Clowney that knocked out Carson Wentz
from the game and probably maybe possibly swung the outcome
of that game. Uh. So much to unpack, so much
to discuss. From four different games, we are now set
for the divisional round of the playoffs. Two more games

(07:58):
on Saturday, two more games on Sunday. I actually think
this is probably the best weekend in general of the
NFL season because you have four different playoff games and
a lot of times, frankly, the a f C and
the NFC playoff games, both of them don't usually end
up being good games, and a lot of times there's

(08:18):
one team that runs away with it. Uh. And so
these four you got two on Saturday, you got two
on Sunday. Uh. So close to the Super Bowl now
teams can kind of taste it. There's only eight teams remaining.
I think we've got a lot of interesting games coming
up this weekend. We will have a lot of time
to talk about those games, but we have to unpack

(08:40):
everything that took place. And I want to begin with
what I think was the most significant game in terms
of history and where we are headed from here, and
that was the Titans going on the road and beating
the New England Patriots. Now, the Patriots started off a
season eight no they looked like defensively one of the

(09:04):
greatest teams that we had ever seen. But down the
stretch they stumbled. And I understand a lot of you
out there expected, Oh, it's the Patriots. They will flip
the switch and they'll play great once they get to
the postseason. We certainly had evidence of that being the
case last year. Last year, the Patriots win eleven and five,
finished second. A lot of people were picking the Chargers

(09:27):
to upset them in the divisional round. A lot of
people picked the Chiefs to beat him. A lot of
people picked the Rams to beat them. The Patriots swept
through all their foes and got that sixth Super Bowl
for Tom Brady. But I told you that I did
not believe that this year's Patriots team had that ability
to flip the switch. I think this game really was

(09:48):
decided late in the first half, when the Patriots were
up ten to seven. They had done what they usually
do and had a lot of success early in this game.
Him up ten to seven, they had a first and
goal at the one yard line. First in goal at
the one. If the Patriots score there, they go up

(10:09):
seventeen to seven, take a double digit lead, put some
pressure on the Tennessee Titans. Instead, the Titans bow up,
hold the Patriots with a great goal line, stand to
a field goal, make it thirteen to seven, and then
on the final drive of the h of the first half,

(10:30):
Derrick Henry goes for seventy five yards all by himself,
twenty two through the air fifties VE three. I had
a tough time with math there. I believe it's twenty
two through the air on a screen pass, fifty three
uh through the ground scores. The Titans take the lead
fourteen to thirteen and never relinquish it. I think you

(10:52):
have to give a ton of credit to Mike Vrabel
for being able to get his team ready to go
on the road against the team that he was part
of the dynasty himself and beat Bill Belichick in Foxborough,
something that frankly, just doesn't happen very often what Derrick
Henry did taking over the game physically dominating through the

(11:15):
rushing attack. As good as Derrick Henry was, when you
look at some of these numbers, they are unbelievable to
break down because there was almost no offense outside of
Derrick Henry in particular. I looked at this stat and
I couldn't believe it. As good as Ryan Tannehill was

(11:36):
down the stretch. How about the fact that he threw
for just seventy two yards all right? He also threw
a bad interception in the fourth quarter. He fumbled twice,
including on a read option play late that led to
a punt brilliant run of the clock by Mike Vrabel.

(11:58):
But the leading received ever for the Tennessee Titans was
a guy most of you have never even heard of before,
by the name of Anthony ferks Or. How many catches
did he have? Two for twenty three yards the tight end,
including a touchdown and a big third and eight conversion.

(12:18):
That's the biggest throw of Ryan Tannehill's career. Uh And
as if that weren't wild enough, how many receptions and
yards did Tennessee Titan receivers have on the road against
the Patriots? How about two wide receiver receptions for ten

(12:38):
total yards. I'm not necessarily surprised, as I told you
that the Titans won. I said, and some people thought
I was crazy for saying it. That top to bottom,
I like the Titans roster better than I like the
Patriots roster. I still believe that's true, but I didn't
expect for the Titan defense to have as much success

(13:01):
shutting down the Patriots as they did. Now, if you're
a Patriots fan, the question that immediately arises is what
happens now? Does Tom Brady come back? He's an unrestricted
free agent? Does he go elsewhere? Does he take a
job in maybe l A? Do the Chargers let Philip

(13:23):
Rivers go and signed Tom Brady? Are they desperate for attention?
Do they need to sell tickets? Do they want to
replace one old gun slinging quarterback with another one who
arguably is even closer to retirement. That seems a bit
of a strange move. Who knows? Is their interest in

(13:43):
Dallas in Tom Brady? Seems crazy to me? But who knows.
There is a lot of drama coming this offseason in
the NFL, A lot of different moving parts, But Tom
Brady and Bill Belichick is going to be the number
one story. Are they done? Will they try to come

(14:04):
back and go for another title? Will that be the
final pass that we ever see Tom Brady throw? In Foxborough?
A pick six by Logan Ryan and the Tennessee Titans
to end the Patriot dynasty. For the Titans, do they
have enough juice to head on the road and give

(14:27):
Lamar Jackson and company a challenge in Baltimore? Or was
this their Super Bowl beating the Patriots. Will they be
able to get as fired up and as ready as
we enter the final eight of the NFL season? That
is a phenomenal question. What about Kirk Cousins and the

(14:48):
Minnesota Vikings. Now that Cousins has finally got a win
his first ever as a starting quarterback in the NFL
in the playoff, what in the world is going to
happen now with him going on the road against the
San Francisco forty Niners. Remember, Jimmy Garoppolo has never started

(15:10):
a playoff game either. How much nerves could there be
for Jimmy g with Kirk Cousins coming into town? Could
the Vikings get hot? Now? How about the Texans? No
real pressure now on the Texans. Deshaun Watson gets that
first win after being oh so close to looking like

(15:30):
he was gonna start off oh and two with home
playoff games. Bill O'Brien and Deshaun Watson, We're gonna come
in for an inordinate amount of criticism. Instead they come
surging back. As Deshaun Watson said, somebody had to be great.
Why not me? All of that now off of their

(15:51):
shoulders because they are at ten point underdog on the
road against Kansas City. Does anybody at all anticipate that
they could go on the road and get that win?
How about Russell Wilson, big win again in the playoffs?
Now he goes on the road with his team and

(16:12):
DK Metcalf who went off on the road against the
Packers who no one seems to really respect. Aaron Rodgers
against Russell Wilson. That's a heck of a game to
be able to enjoy. And as if that were not enough,
Ryan Tannehill given up for dead in his career after

(16:34):
what happened in Miami. He is two wins away from
going back to Miami as a member of the Tennessee
Titans to play in the stadium of the Miami Dolphins
after they jettisoned him and said you aren't good enough
for us. Does Tannehill, now with his first ever playoff
win under his repertoire, now feel zero pressure going on

(17:00):
the road against the Baltimore Ravens. I think that's likely true. Meanwhile,
the Ravens and Lamar Jackson and John Harbaugh, they have
not played a game that matters in three weeks. The
pressure gets ratcheted up. Can the Titans take that physical
style of football and take the game into the mud
against the Ravens on Saturday Night? So many incredible and

(17:23):
improbable storylines as we get ready for the Divisional round
of the playoffs. I flat out cannot wait for all
of this. And I'm still walking on air over the
titans biggest win in twenty years. You guys know I'm
a Tennessee Titans fan, But what I have to say
is there was nothing flukey about it. Sometimes you win

(17:46):
a playoff game and you go back and you look
at it and you say, there was no business in
that happening. They blocked a kick, they picked off and
intercepted h picked off a pass and returned it for
a touchdown. The great thing about the NFL postseason is
truly anything can happen. But in that game between the
Titans and the Patriots, there was nothing particularly flukey about it.

(18:09):
The Titans were, as I told you, just the better team.
They're now eight and three since Ryan Tannehill took over
as a starter. Tannehill wasn't even very good. Two fumbles
was lucky to recover both, also through a bad interception
in the fourth quarter. Titans still found a way to
win that football game. They held the uh, they held

(18:32):
the Patriots scoreless for the second half, entirely in the
final two minutes and change of the first half, and
in the process, I think they ended the Belichick and
Brady dynasty. But we're gonna have a couple of months
now to figure out big questions. Do the Patriots want
Brady back? Does Belichick want Brady back? So many great storylines.

(18:57):
What's gonna happen in the next four games. I'll bring
in the trough when we come back. Revel, enjoy. If
you are a Saints fan, what a crushing, utterly crushing
defeat for a third straight year. If you are a
Bills fan, what a crushing defeat for a long long time,

(19:17):
since all the way back to you had that game,
you were so close. What in the world was Josh
Allen thinking with the decisions that he made down the stretch.
What was Sean McDermott thinking, What in the world were
they doing in nearly losing that game uh in the
regulation before finding a way in And then what in

(19:38):
the world is going on with officiating? As so many
of these games are so so incredibly close, a couple
of judgment calls can very often make the difference between
your team advancing or not. And man, if you are
an Eagles fan, how in the world. We had a
lot of discussion about to hit on Trevor Lawrence and

(20:01):
whether or not it should have been targeting, But how
in the world can the NFL allow a hit like
jadeveon Clowney's on Carson Wentz to happen. It was dirty,
it was late, it was helmet to helmet, it was
totally unnecessary, and not even throw a flag on it
and not have any penalty at all happened during the

(20:21):
course of the game. We talked so much about trying
to protect quarterbacks if they get hit after they release
the ball in the pockets. So often we see a flag,
but on the dirtiest hit of the weekend on a quarterback,
we see nothing at all. Unbelievable situation there to see
no call, so much to discuss, so much to dive

(20:46):
into This is outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis Monday morning.
If you're interested what the numbers look like as we
come into the next four and a fell playoff games.
The first game is gonna be on Saturday, Vikings on
the road against the forty Niners. The forty Niners are

(21:09):
a six and a half point favorite in that game.
The evening game on Saturday, Titans on the road against
the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens and eight point favorite. These
are numbers. The latest according to Fox PETUH Houston Texans
comes Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon on the road against the
Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs are out to a ten

(21:32):
point favorite in that one. Pretty big, pretty big favorite
there the biggest of the divisional round weekend, and then
the final game will be the Seahawks on the road
against the Green Bay Packers. The Packers are a four
point favorite. Big topic that is going to continue to
UH to to be much discussed. What is going to

(21:53):
happen with the Patriots. Tom Brady was asked about his
decision making as he comes into for re agency right
after the loss to the Titans. He said this, I
just don't know what's gonna happen, and you know I'm
not going to predict it, and no one needs to
make choices at this point. You know, I love playing football,
I love playing for this team. I love playing for

(22:14):
this team for two decades and and winning a lot
of games. Again, I just I don't know what it
looks like moving forward, so we'll just take it day
by day. Expectation, uh is that Brady is not going
to retire based on what everybody is saying, and Patriots
owner Robert Kraft said to Peter King, anyone who's done that,

(22:34):
meaning had the success that Brady has had, has earned
the right to control his future after twenty years. And
you know, my hope in prayer is number one, he
plays for the Patriots, or number two he retires. So
it sounds like Robert Kraft is saying that he's not
going to allow Tom Brady to leave, at least he

(22:56):
would hope. But Brady is an unrestricted free agent, so
does eighty want to play for the Patriots. Welcome to
a storyline that will not die anytime soon. We bring
in the crew. You're biggest, let me get quickly your
biggest takeaway from wild card to weekend was what Danny
g Man single biggest well, I guess overall, looking at

(23:19):
the big picture, this is why we love the NFL
so much because even if your team sucked this past
season and didn't make the postseason, it feels like they
have a shot next year. Because a crazy stat only
one of last year's final eight teams made it to
the final eight last year that was the Chiefs. We
have all fresh blood. Yeah, that's pretty wild to think about,

(23:41):
and that it's one of the great that that is
what distinguishes I think the NFL very often from every
other sport. I means that, right, seven of the eight
teams that have advanced were not there last year. I
mean the Chiefs were clearly there and lost in the
a f C Championship game. I you know, Kirk Cousins
has never won a playoff game. We've never had a

(24:01):
playoff game one by Deshaun Watson. We have never had
a playoff game won by Ryan Tannehill. Um and did
the Seahawks They lost in the wild card to the
Cowboys last year, right, correct? So they didn't advance UM
and UH and the teams that got to buy UH
the forty Niners warn't in the playoffs last year than

(24:21):
raven Jury, the Jimmy g Ravens Schockers were not, because
that's why they fired Mike McCarthy. The Ravens were. Ravens
lost to the Chargers, and you're number two seed, like
we said the Chiefs. So one of the eight, that's
a great stat I hadn't broken it down that way.
But only one of the eight was in the divisional
round last year. That's that's pretty fantastic, What about you, dub?

(24:42):
I mean, every single one of these games was unbelievable,
even the late game yesterday, the Eagles still had a
decent shot at winning that game with Josh mccownen, they
played incredible and he and how about to come off
the bench and play like he did, and your first
career playoff game to ever come at age forty, first
career you know, uh, past attempts and all that. But

(25:03):
I was so impressed with the Vikings yesterday, going on
the road to New Orleans and really dominating that game,
running the football with Dalvin Cook against the Saints run
defense that has been pretty incredible all years. So that
would to me was my biggest single takeaway from a
single game yesterday, Instead of talking about Kirk Cousins, we
would be talking about Taysom Hill if the Saints had

(25:23):
found a way to win. I mean, he was just
incredible in so many different facets of the game. But
for now, Drew Brees forty years old, what does he
think like and what has happened with Alvin Kamara. I
I just I don't understand. I believe he's in his
third year now, he just at times totally disappears, and

(25:44):
I thought he basically disappeared in that game yesterday. And
I don't understand whether it's his health is not a
hundred percent, whether he took too many hits early in
his career, But if you think about how dynamic he was,
maybe it's that that having mark Ingram alongside of him
has has led to an underwhelming relatively performance. But I mean,

(26:07):
he was Christian McCaffrey a couple of years ago. He
looked like the greatest possible asset to Drew Brees career,
and then he just he's just he's kind of vanished.
I mean, he had seven carries for twenty one yards
in that game yesterday. And if I'm a Saints fan.
You know, I understand Saints fans are upset about the

(26:27):
fact that Rudolph didn't get called for an offensive pass interference.
They're late, uh and all of those things, but usually
that call is not made. And I understand, guy lost
trust me twenty eight thousand dollars betting on you guys
last year. UH in the UH in the non call situation.
But the Saints were really kind of dominated for much
of that game, and they didn't have a lot of

(26:48):
business And what about it. What a throw by Kirk
Cousins to hit Adam Feeling like he did, and what
a catch by Feeling to basically win that game. UH
for the Vikings on the road in the Superdome, one
of the toughest venues to go win. And by the way,
big takeaway, we almost had all four road teams win.

(27:09):
And I'm sorry Bills fans to bring it up, but
you guys were up sixteen to nothing, and if the
Bills don't choke in that game, and I think it's
fair to say there was an element of choking going
on from the Bills. I thought that there were a
lot of decisions made by Josh Allen. I mean when
you dropped back to pass and you find yourself throwing

(27:30):
to a fullback in double coverage down the field. Uh.
There were a lot of decisions that he was making
that I thought were really I mean panic to like decisions,
not early early, when they were in smooth control and
everything was going great. I felt like that game swung,
not necessarily on the twenty yard touchdown run by Deshaun Watson,

(27:51):
although that was a heck of a play, but I
felt like that game swung when they got the first
two point conversion, because when they got the first two
point conversion, all of a sudden, you were like, hey,
they're one you know, they're one score away from tying
this thing up if they don't get that two point conversion,
and that was all Deshaun Watson getting it across the

(28:12):
goal line. Then it's sixteen six and you still have
a two score lead, and I feel like the Bills
could have taken a little bit of a breath there,
but instead it was sixteen eight, and you just kind
of felt like there was that there was trouble brewing,
and I know that they didn't score touchdown on the
next play when they had the fumble. Uh. Josh Allen

(28:34):
turned the ball over and it made it sixteen to eleven,
but you can kind of feel it coming and for
them to get both two point conversions was pretty tough.
For that Bill's defense to to give up like they did,
uh sixteen uh nineteen unanswered after they went up sixteen
nothing sixteen nothing lead for that Bills defense should be

(28:55):
a lot. I mean that that that's like a twenty
eight point lead for most teams. For the Bills to
give that up was I thought, pretty tough. What about you, Eddie,
what was your biggest takeaway? It's got to be the
New Orleans Saints losing once again on the final player
of the game year in a row, two years in
a row, and overtime, and both of those at home.
So and you can talk about oh, push offs and

(29:17):
uh non calls on interference and miracles, but in the end,
the Saints just blowing huge opportunities in the postseason after
tremendous regular seasons. And that's I think a big indictment
of Sean Payton. It is, I mean, I you got
to delay the blame at somebody's feet, and I do
think that and this is this is a bigger topic

(29:37):
of discussion that many of the coaching decisions made down
the stretch. I don't understand why you would save your
time out with Drew Brees, who was forty years old
than a consummate veteran, and allow ten seconds to be
run off the clock. There. Now, they still kicked a
field goal uh to uh to be able to to
put that game into overtime. But you had, I thought,

(30:00):
a chance to throw it, you know, get about seven
or eight more yards and then potentially take a shot
in the end zone to go for the win. With
the way that that situation was setting up, at least
see if you can get a matchup that you'll like,
give Drew Brees a chance, given how accurate he can
be at times, to go for the win. Instead, they

(30:20):
kick it uh in uh in overtime, put the game
into overtime, and then you know, unfortunately for the Saints,
Drew Brees never gets the ball or gets a chance
to come out and uh and win that game. Right,
the Vikings get the ball, drive right down, score a touchdown,
the game's over um and UH and that's got to
be just absolutely brutal. Roberto, your biggest takeaway from the

(30:41):
weekend Patriots losing. Man, I neither they were done this year.
A lot of people who thought that even though they
lost to the Dolphins, like, oh, no, it's still the Patriots.
They're They're never done. Well, the Patriots are done. Were
you happy as a group really quickly that the Titans won,
or were you like Clay Travis is gonna be insufferable.
I don't even want to come into work on Monday.
I was happy. I was thrilled, all of us, the
entire show picked the Titans last one day, remember, and

(31:04):
for a second year, like oh, because sometimes that Jinx
is the team that we all I'm still walking on air,
or that win all right, we come back, we will
continue to unpack. We're gonna I don't even need to tease.
I mean, we're talking the NFL playoff games. This is
outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis. So the Titans got

(31:26):
the biggest win in twenty years for the franchise. I mean,
I really do think that that's true, since they went
to the Super Bowl back in a little twenty plus years.
And uh, my mom and dad are Titans fan season
ticket holders, and my mom's got the flu, so she
has been sick. She's getting better, but she's I haven't

(31:50):
hung out with her since she got back from a
trip during the holidays, and so she's been texting me
and she told me like, so, I'm reading from my
text messages to my mom, and my mom texts me
and some of you may have seen this on social media.
You can follow me on at Clay Travis. My great
aunt her her aunt stayed up and watched the Titans
game late. She's ninety six years old. She roots for

(32:13):
the Titans. She was excited to see them when so
I my mom texts me that, I say, hah, that's great.
So congrat my aunt Priss, who sometimes listens I think
in Birmingham, Alabama, early in the morning and she's starting
offer day. So thanks uh Greg. Glad that she was
able to stay After that, so I text my mom back, ho,
that's great. The next morning, my mom texts me, so

(32:36):
Robert Kraft didn't get a happy ending last night. Out
of nowhere, my southern seventy plus year old mom off
the top ropes on Robert Craft. I mean, so that
was a that was a coup, a big time shot
across the bow from my mom. Robert Kraft Fair or al.

(33:00):
That's pretty fantastic. I think the responses on social media
people loved it, but it came out of nowhere. Uh,
Danny g did you see this on social media? I did.
It was almost as good as you freaking the blank
out on periscope. Yeah. Then a live immediate live reaction.
I couldn't believe the Titans getting done. Dubh my mom

(33:22):
going off the top rope on Robert Craft. You enjoy that? Oh? Absolutely, savage.
I loved every second of it. I saw on Twitter
and it made me literally laugh out loud. I mean
even I was done. I was like, I couldn't believe it. Eddie.
Did you you like mom's mom's attack there on Robert Craft? Yeah?
We know who you take aftern uh Roberto. Are you
all in for seventy year old for Grandma's I mean

(33:45):
that is about as good of a grandma online as
you can get off the top rope on on Robert Kraft.
So yeah, look, I love immediately reacting to two games
on periscope or Facebook live. I do a Facebook in
periscop of live show in addition to everything else. So
everybody in the in the household was ecstatic, But I mean,

(34:06):
what was wild to me um about the Patriot loss
was that, again, it wasn't like remember years and years
ago when Mark Sanchez went on the road and the
Jets got the win. I think that was in was
that in the they went to the a f C
championship game. I think the Jets pulled off the upset

(34:27):
in the divisional round if I'm not mistaken, uh, and
Mark Sanchez got the win. You went back and you
looked at it and you were like, there's just a
lot of stuff there that happened that wouldn't ordinarily happen.
This didn't seem flukish. I think the Titans were the
better team than the Patriots, and the Patriots are not
a bad team, but I think they're somewhere around the
tenth or twelfth the best team in the NFL this year.

(34:50):
And so the poll question that I'm gonna put up
for you guys is I'm kind of curious to see
what you guys believe. Do you think Tom Brady will
be back with the Patriots next year? Easy? Poll question, simple,
not difficult. Do you believe that forty three year old
Tom Brady will be back as the starting quarterback for

(35:10):
the Patriots next year. Brady said he'd like to be
back in theory right after the game. Uh and interesting,
Willie Robert Kraft said that he's earned the right again
direct quote from Peter King's column. Anyone who's done what
he's done basically has earned the right to control his
future after twenty years. You know, my hope and prayer

(35:31):
is number one he plays for the Patriots, or number
two he retires. Will Tom Brady play for the Patriots
or not? I want your reactions, your votes at Clay
Travis on Twitter, simple poll question, will Brady play for
the Patriots when we come back? Continuing to unpack all
four of the big wild card games and what do

(35:53):
we expect from all the winners and the losers. This
is OutKick on Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch
live editions about Kicked the coverage with Clay Travis week
days at six am Eastern three am Pacific. What a
weekend of football. Three of the games you could really
change one play and the outcome would have been totally different.

(36:13):
Patriots could have easily won, the Bills could have easily won,
The Saints could have easily won. Two of those three games.
Went to overtime, and really, if Carson Wentz doesn't get
knocked out of the game, who knows what might have
happened in that game against the Seahawks. I still think
the Seahawks would have won because I think the Seahawks
are the better team than the Eagles. I think it

(36:35):
made sense for them to have to go all the
way on across the country on the road to play
against the Eagles. But it would have been a lot
more interesting if that Jadeveon Clowney hit had not happened
and knocked uh Carson Wentz out of the game. But
as a result, there are eight teams left and the

(36:57):
biggest storyline by four are I believe coming out of
wild Card weekend is what's the future of the New
England Patriots. The poll question is up. You guys can
go vote in it. Uh. We have Robert Craft saying essentially,
after twenty years, Brady deserves to go out on his
own terms, even though he's an unrestricted free agent. Robert

(37:20):
Craft hopes that he is going to come back. Uh.
Two thousand of you have voted in the first five
or six minutes of this poll question. That's up. You
can go vote. You can find me as always on
Twitter at Clay Travis. Will forty three year old Tom
Brady be the Patriots starting quarterback next year? Fifty seven
percent of you say yest of you say no. The

(37:44):
other big question here, in addition to whether or not
Brady is gonna be there, is did the Titans end
the Bill Belichick and Tom Brady Patriots dynasty. I think
the answer is yes. I think the Titans travel hold
up to Foxborough and ended the Patriot dynasty. Doesn't mean
that the Patriots can't make the playoffs again, but to me,

(38:08):
a dynasty means a championship caliber team. A dynasty isn't
you know, if the if the Golden State Warriors somehow
got hot when Steph Curry comes back and they fought
their way in as the eight seed, and then they
lost and they never again contended for a championship. Dynasty
doesn't continue when you lose in the first round of

(38:30):
the playoffs. So the only way the Patriot dynasty could
continue from this point forward is if they came back
Brady and Belichick and went back to the super Bowl again.
You might not have to win the Super Bowl, but
I think you have to get to the Super Bowl.
To still be considered a dynasty, at a minimum, you'd
have to get to the a f C Championship Game,
and I don't think the Patriots with Brady and Belichick

(38:52):
as a tandem, are ever going to do that again.
I think the Titans went up to Foxborough and put
a death knell in as Patriot dynasty. I think it's over.
I just I don't see that Patriot team is fundamentally flawed.
I don't see an easy fix for what ails the Patriots. Yes,

(39:14):
you could argue, hey, maybe they'll go sign Antonio Brown again,
and maybe they're gonna go try to find new wide
receivers because Brady clearly doesn't trust the wide receivers that
he has now. I suppose in the offseason that could
be your attempt to remake this entire offense on the fly.
But I think what made them as good as they

(39:35):
were for as long as they were is gone now.
And I think that was the Brady Belichick mojo, and
I believe the Titans went up and took it from him.
And it's possible that the Patriots will be back in
the postseason, but I don't think they'll ever make a
run again. I think if you look at the youth

(39:56):
in the a f C in particular, look at the
quarterback x that are out there and how young they are.
The the NFC not as much honestly as the a
f C. But Lamar Jackson insanely young, Deshaun Watson insanely young. Uh,
you've got Patrick Mahomes who I think is going to
become the new Brady Manning. I think Patrick Mahomes is

(40:20):
going to be the guy that for the next fifteen
years we talk about as Oh, he's gonna be in
the playoffs every year and his team is gonna have
a chance to win a championship every year. May not
do it, may not do it again this year, but
they were a man lining up on sides correctly from
being in the Super Bowl last year. They're twelve and
four this year, they're the two seed. As long as

(40:40):
Mahomes stays healthy, I think he's the guy who's gonna
have that longevity, that decade plus run in the a
f C. Uh. Not to say there's other there's not
other guys who can blip up and challenge him. We'll
see if Deshaun Watson and the Texans are able to
challenge him. But I just think that Mahomes is on
a different level than every other rterback who's young and

(41:00):
in the a f C. Right now. I understand Lamar
Jackson's gonna be the m v P. I understand Deshaun Watson.
Maybe Ryan Tannehill now is going to have a couple
of good years. He was a number one overall passer
in the a f C this year. Maybe Josh Allen
is going to UH is gonna rise up. There's a
lot of For the first time, it feels like the
a f C is kind of wide open, and I

(41:23):
feel like, to a large extent, what's gonna happen is
Patrick Mahomes is going to sweep into that area and
take over in UH as as the air apparent to
Brady and Manning. But I gotta stat for you that
is that is gonna kind of kind of blow your mind.
Um and and I saw it, and I couldn't believe it.

(41:44):
How look at how many years it has been that
either Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning have been
the a f C playoff representative. I think it's fifteen
of the last six team something all along those lines.
Sixteen of the last eighteen years, either Brady Manning or

(42:06):
Ben Roethlisberger has been the representative in the Super Bowl
for the a f C. And Ben Roethlisberger, I know,
is coming back. It's hard for me to believe that
he's gonna come back at an incredibly high level. Brady
may well come back at the age of forty three,
whether it's with the Patriots or not. But I think
what we've seen happen this year is a generational change

(42:26):
in the a f C. Manning has been gone for
a couple of years now. It feels like Brady's kind
of shuffling off into his final couple of years where
he's not going to be the same relevant figure that
he was before. And I find it hard to believe
that Ben Roethlisberger is gonna come back. So that leaves
the a f C wide open, right. I think Patrick

(42:47):
Mahomes is going to claim the a f C as
his conference, but Lamar Jackson will see how much staying
power he has unquestionably phenomenal year. I just I'm not
a believer in the long run, run range future of
running quarterbacks. I understand people want to say, oh, He's
gonna be the next grade. I I would buy stock
in Patrick Mahomes a billion times in a row, more

(43:10):
than I would buy stock and Lamar Jackson right now,
because I think that way Patrick Mahomes plays is more
likely to lead to longevity. But I don't think there's
any doubt that the a f C is wide open
and uh, and so that's I think the big question
coming out of wild card weekend? Are the Patriots done

(43:32):
as a dynasty? Uh? Let me bring in the crew.
I'm curious whether you guys think that they are. I do.
I I told you coming in I've been wrong about
the Patriots before, but I was right about this game.
I said the Titans are gonna go on the road,
they are gonna beat the Patriots. They are gonna end
their dynasty. I think the Patriots gonna be a good team.
But in order to kind of maintain that dynasty, I

(43:55):
think you need to have an a f C championship
caliber team, which means you have to win at least
one game in the postseason if you get a buy
at least two if you're a wild card. And I
don't think the Patriots are that team anymore. I really don't.
I think that the that there's now blood in the water.
I think that the a f C East is going

(44:15):
to be competitive with the Patriots next year, even if
Brady comes back. The Bills are on the upswing, believe
it or not. I think the Jets are on the upswing,
assuming they can keep their quarterback from getting mono. Uh.
I think if you look down the stretch at what
the Dolphins did under Brian Flores, they went five and
four in the final nine games they played. That's better

(44:37):
than the Patriots did. By the way, in the final
nine games that the Patriots played, Patriots went four and
five down the stretch, with back to back home losses
at Foxborough. Uh. I think that the Patriots rain is over.
I think the Brady Belichick dynasty is done. Doesn't mean
that I think the Belichick can't win another title, another

(44:57):
super Bowl in New England. I think desperately wants to
prove he's a better coach than just happened to have
Tom Brady. I think there's an element of Brady that
would like to prove he's incredibly good without Bill Belichick. Two,
I feel like both of these guys may be a
little bit tired of each other, which makes some sense
after nearly twenty years together, uh in New England. But

(45:20):
I find it hard to believe that that they are
going to be Super Bowl caliber contenders in New England
together again. Do you believe that the Titans killed the
Patriot dynasty Danny G. Yeah, it sure feels that way.
Even when Steph Curry comes back, no one's scared of
Golden State anymore. And that's what it feels like the

(45:41):
NFL's version of the Warriors, which is the Patriots. Yeah.
I think the difference is the Warriors at least you
can sketch out next year if they get a high
draft pick and or they make some moves. I mean,
they'll be back in the postseason and they can still
be good for the But the intimidation factor, yeah, I
mean I can make you a strong, long argument that
the a f C East could rise up next year

(46:04):
and the Patriots could just be an eight and eight
caliber team. I mean, if you look at the way
they finished this year, going four and five down the stretch,
I can make you an argument that they are not
going to win the a f C East next year,
even with Brady and I don't think it's a crazy argument,
and that even if they do, they are another wild
card caliber team as opposed to one of the best

(46:26):
teams in the conference. I think they are trending down
in a big way, and I think the Titans killed
the dynasty dubbed Do you think the Titans killed the dynasty? Well,
I think they killed it as we know it with
Brady and Belichick. I'll be very curious to see this
offseason because you read Robert Craft's quotes earlier in the
show about how he wants Tom Brady to be a
Patriot and if he's not a Patriot, he wants him
to retire. Because I think Robert Craft and Bill Belichick

(46:50):
probably have differentiating opinions on this because I think that
they were solely up to Bill Belichick. I believe the
Patriots would move on from Tom Brady next year and
start the reboot with a new quarterback at the head
of the front. So that's, to me, is the biggest question,
the kind of decision making process between Bill Belichick, Robert Craft,
and also Tom Brady this offseason, because like I said,

(47:12):
if it's up to Bill Belichick, I think he's ready
to move on. Yeah, I mean, let me put it
to you this way. Two is announcing at noon today
his decision on whether or not to go pro. Let's
say that Tah says he's going to go pro. Do
you think Bill Belichick would rather package together a bunch
of his assets, which he rarely does, but go ahead

(47:34):
and draft Let's say let's say he loves Justin Herbert,
or let's say he loves to or maybe he loves
Jake from Do you think Bill Belichick would rather go
in and go ahead and start the rebuild without Brady?
Go get a brand new quarterback? Or if you're gonna
bring back Brady, then the way you draft is different.
I think because you go into the draft saying, Okay,

(47:57):
we feel like we're a you know, a team trying
to contend for a championship, and so you may go
get a guy that that you wouldn't otherwise draft if
you feel like, okay, next two or three years were
in the process of building our way back up as
opposed to trying to win right now, um nikkill Harry
by the way, first round pick. I think that's a

(48:19):
Patriot pick that's made because they think Brady has another
year now they got the wrong guy. Turns out, if
they had taken DK Metcalf or A. J. Brown, for instance,
instead of nikkil Harry, they might well have ended up
in advancing in the playoffs because you saw what DK
Mattcalf did with the Seattle You saw what A J.

(48:39):
Brown did this year with uh with the Titans, even
though he didn't do much in that in the postseason game. Uh. Instead,
I think the Patriots swung for a receiver because they
knew they need to really make a play there. Uh So,
this to me becomes a good question, and I think
you're right, dub. I think there could be a difference
of opinion between Robert Kraft, who doesn't want to be
seen as running off Brady, and Belichick. Now, you could

(49:02):
also say the Patriots potentially are playing a little bit
of chess here, because if Robert Kraft comes out and says,
I want Brady back, what does I want Brady back mean?
Does it mean on a one year deal for twenty
five million dollars? Does it mean on a two year deal?
And does that then put the onus on Brady? Where

(49:23):
the Patriots feel like now they've extended the olive branch
and said we want him back, but maybe they won't
pursue him that aggressively, and Brady may make the decision
to leave, like Joe Montana when he ends up playing
with the Kansas City Chiefs. It doesn't feel right. But
Brady may not feel the love and may want to
move on because he's gonna have to sit down with

(49:43):
Bill Belichick. How aggressive is Belichick gonna be and trying
to persuade him to stay. It's a good question too.
What do you think Eddie did the Titans killed the
Patriot dynasty? I would certainly tend to believe. So, I mean,
this is an aging team. There's so many question marks,
especially obviously at quarterback, and what is Bill belichick status honestly,

(50:04):
I mean his contract has always been clouded in secrecy.
We don't know what kind of outs he has. If
Robert Kraft decides he's going to go against Belichick and
bring back Brady, does Belichick decide he's going to go
somewhere else? I mean, there's so many interesting and intriguing
possibilities with the future of this Patriots team, uh, that
are going to be decided this offseason. Uh. But yeah,

(50:27):
I mean again, they seem to be an aging team
at key positions unless they do something really dramatic to
upgrade I I just don't see this team getting back
to the super Bowl anytime soon. And here's the other question.
I think that's that's interesting for Brady. Is there a
Peyton Manning like future for him? Now? Manning was younger
obviously when he decided to go to Denver. But when

(50:49):
Manning walked away from the Colts, a lot of you
out there listening right now were of the opinion I
can never imagine Peyton Manning playing in any other uniform
other than the Colts. And then he went to Denver
and had a was it four years wildly six? I
think it was four years wildly successful, four years, two
trips to the Super Bowl, a tough loss when maybe

(51:12):
they were the best team because his safety couldn't knock
down the ball against against the uh the Ravens, and
then close it out with a Super Bowl that was
as good of a final four years. Now. I don't
think that Brady's got four years left, But does he
have to on the outside edge? Could he have three?
Could he go somewhere else and win another Super Bowl?

(51:36):
If he could elsewhere, it would go a long way.
I think most people are gonna say he's the greatest
of all time no matter what. But if he won
a Super Bowl without Belichick, I think people would be
even more impressed by what Brady would accomplish, and it
would then sort of militate in favor of Maybe Brady
was the more indistinguishable of the Brady Belichick duo. Same thing,

(51:59):
by the way, for Belichick, I think Belichick desperately wants
to win a Super Bowl without Brady to prove to
everybody that he is the reason why the Patriots were
as good as they were. The reality is they were
the combine the reason why the Patriots were as good
as they were. But I definitely think that egos have
factored in here, uh in, uh in, in many ways.

(52:22):
And I think that Belichick is less of a emotional
guy than Robert Craft is. So does Robert Craft have
to manage this relationship between the two of them. This
is outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis joined now by

(52:44):
Yahoo Sports national columnist Dan Wetzel at Dan Wetzel on Twitter. Dan,
you were up in Foxborough, you wrote about it. You
will be writing about it a lot in the next
weeks and months ahead as the Brady Belichick Robert Kraft
drama continues to play itself out. So I want to
start with the big question that I think a lot

(53:05):
of people are asking, and it's one that we just
started off our to asking. Is the Patriot Dynasty in
your mind over with the loss to the Titans? Uh?
You know, hard to say. Are they gonna win another
Super Bowl? Maybe? Maybe not? Um, it's hard to win
a super Bowl. They make it look easy. Would they

(53:28):
still be the favorite in the FC East and A
and A you know, a likely team that could have
got to get a playoff by next year? Yeah? I
think they absolutely could walk it into next year. Do
you do you think done? Do you think so? You
think Brady will be back? I think Brady. If I
had to had to pick one gun to the head,
I think Brady back next year. Um, Belichick still back.

(53:51):
There's still a lot on the roster that you like,
and so I don't. I'm not ready to say that
the dynasty is dead. We've heard that for a long time.
But I guess is Brady will be back. But anything
could happen on this There's a lot that needs to
get worked out between Brady and the team. UM. He

(54:12):
is an unrestricted free agent in March. He wanted a
contract extension previously that didn't work out, so he restructures
a deal so he now has this option to be
a free agent for the first time in twenty years. UH.
What I heard from him and and words are are

(54:34):
scarce in this whole deal. He doesn't talk a whole lot.
Belichick clearly and talking almost at all. But what Brady
conveyed on Saturday night was he's not ready to retire
at forty two. UH, and he would prefer to be
back with the New England Patriots, and this is the
franchise he wants. And I think it there's a certain
bit of there anything exactly like the perfect option for

(54:56):
him to go to. We're he just gonna walk into
a contender I could use him. So I think he
wants to be back. I think Robert Kraft will want
him back. I think it will come down to how
much money UH New England can offer is willing to offer,
and what kind of situation he and Belichick could work out,
because I think Brady would like to have UM. I

(55:19):
don't mean a stake in the team because you're not
allowed it, but a little more ownership if you will
be a little bit more of a partner in what's
going on in decision making, or have his just you know,
Belichick's pick thing is no one player is more important
than any other. Everybody's equal. Uh. And he kind of
reiterated that we gotta we gotta sign a lot of guys.

(55:42):
I don't want to talk about one guy that's fine
in theory and and and certainly has been effective for him.
But Tom Brady has been there twenty years and won
six Super Bowls. He's not just another guy. You can't
yout a forty soon to be forty three year old
one you would year old you just signed off the
street to be your your long snapper or something like that.

(56:04):
So I think there's a lot to work out. My
guess is that he's back, But I would not be
surprised by any outcome of this. By the way, Robert
Kraft telling Peter King, Uh, anyone who's done what he's
done essentially has earned the right to control his future
after twenty years. And you know, my hope in prayer

(56:26):
is number one he plays for the Patriots, or number
two he retires. Do you think Bill belletts. So that's craft.
That's being pretty straightforward craft saying hey, I want Brady back.
Do you think Belichick wants Brady back? I think Belichick,
Uh yeah, But it's it's like under certain terms, Yeah,

(56:47):
like if you pay, if you play for X number
of dollars, like he even Belichick's got a dollar figure
that he thinks Brady's worth. Even it's not based on sentimentality. Yeah,
there's certainly that, and then there's certainly again, I really
feel that part of this is, you know, I wrote
about this the day, like there's a reason that you
have high performing employees and certain businesses, uh law firms,

(57:11):
accounting firms, things like that, where when you get to
about forty or so and someone's been there a long time,
all of a sudden they're made partner or there's a
track to become partner. And it's sort of an idea
of a big organization where hey, this person, you can't
just keep grinding this this employee forever and then expect

(57:33):
them to keep going. They have to have some kind
of uh of you know, that's clearly more of an ownership,
a true ownership stake. You're not allowed to do that
in the NFL, um got some of these owners with
a mortgaged optres higher very does. But you get the
concept of just it's it's a it's an understanding that Hey,
look man, I've been doing twenty years here. Um can

(57:57):
I be in on when you're trying to sign and
we don't know what the extent is now because these
guys give no information. I mean you could literally hardly
get Bill Belichick to say Tom Brady's name. Yesterday was
at the press conference, right, he finally did admit that
this is an iconic player in the franchise and all
of that, but that was about it. He didn't want
to talk about a single player over any other player.

(58:19):
Every guy. Every decision has to be made about every
single player in the roster who were bringing back. So
but you know, do you use Brady and say you
know Brady? The reason Pictureots lost on Saturday night was
that Tom Brady. He played pretty well. He has nobody
to throw the ball to the offense is a is
a disaster. The wide receiver's kick get open. There's no

(58:40):
tight end. Uh you know, I mean the only reliable
guy at his Juliet Edelman. He drops the key path um,
it's it's a it's a mess around him. So I
think if your Brady, you're like, hey, you know, can
can we can consult me on who we should hire?
You know, could be anything. Can I sit in as
a combine when you're interviewing potential candidates at wide receiver

(59:02):
who you're going to draft or something like that? And
I'm just spitballing here, but can I have some kind
of relationship like that? Which is completely un abnormal? But
I'm in an abnormal situation. No one's ever done what
I've done. And I think there's a part of that
that if it's if it's Belichick saying hey, okay, we'll

(59:23):
take you for eighteen million or twenty or whatever number
it is, but also allowing Brady to be a little
bit more of an owner or executive on a team
and have his voice heard, because I think the frustration
with Tom Brady this year was he gave me nothing
and and and look, there's no moral victories for the
New England Patriots. Okay, you win it all or you

(59:45):
doubt that's it. But it wasn't that bad of a
season when you consider that roster and what they tried
it out when and they won twelve games they wanted
the vision. Uh, you know, four of their five losses
were really one play games. It wasn't that bad of
a year, considering he didn't have anybody to throw to
um and there just was no offense there. So I

(01:00:06):
think it's that kind of stuff that will be a
big factor. Can Belichick and Brady get on the same
page here? Uh, My guess is Crafty pretty much orders it.
And and and that's why I think there's too many people.
There's two of the three people in this decision that
we no want Brady back, and I think Belichick is
gonna be sitting there going what are my other options?

(01:00:27):
Do I, you know, I work a deal for Andy Dalton,
or you know, do I pick up Mariota and try
to go with him? And still, you know, it's not
like there's a great option for for the Patriots either
where they can just automatically get a better quarterback than
Tom Brady. No. I mean, I think if Belichick doesn't
want Brady, it's Belichick saying I'm ready to turn the
page and start building a new Super Bowl contending team.
Maybe I'll go into the draft and get somebody this year. Uh,

(01:00:50):
And I think that's the way you draft. It's different
than if you think, oh, I've got Brady for another
year or two. I also think, Dan, I'm curious if
you think this could be an issue. It maybe that
Robert Kraft wants Tom Brady for one more year, But
does Brady want two years guaranteed? And is there anybody
else out there who might give him two years guaranteed

(01:01:10):
so that he can play for two more years as
opposed to doing this one year at a time type deal.
I don't know that it matters to him to have
a multi year commitment, but it might because if you
only have a one year commitment and things go bad,
I mean, he doesn't want to get benched and finish
off his year. Uh you know, like Eli Manning did
for instance. Well if you don't have multi years, then
that might factor in as well. Yeah, and multi year

(01:01:35):
you know, it's there's not necessarily a perfect situation for
him to jump to. Right. You know we talked about
the Colts. That's a pretty good team. Uh. The Chargers
keep getting you keep getting mentioned. Uh, you know it's
out in l A. They're moving to a new building.
They not have a good season. What's you know, Philip
Bruner's got beaten up? You know, do you want to

(01:01:55):
be that? Uh, there's not. I mean the wild boy Dan,
the wild one that would turn the NFL into the
NBA is if Jerry Jones and whoever he's hiring, said
Dak Prescott, you know what, we're not willing to give
you thirty million. Let's go give Brady thirty million with
this offensive line that we have. Now we don't have

(01:02:17):
to sign him to a long term deal. Let's go
win the Super Bowl next year. That would be the one.
Like if if you told me right now, hey, you
get to pick any storyline that could go on. Here's
my storyline. Urban Meyer gets hired to be the head
coach of the Dallas Cowboys. They jettison Dak, who, like
maybe Bill Belichick decides to sign right like whatever, that

(01:02:38):
would be even better. Uh, And then Brady goes to
the Brady goes to the capitols, like if you told me, like,
you get to do mad libs, like create the best
possible crazy storylines that everybody would care about. That would
be the one phenomenal phenomenal for what I do. But
also just good for sports, Like everybody would be like
every single person listen to me, Now, I was like

(01:03:00):
Brady on the Cowboys and Dad going to the Patriots
or something like that, Like everybody would be interested in that. Um, yeah,
that would be good. All right, So we're talking Dan Wetze, Yeah,
who sports national columnist. Encourage you to follow him on
Twitter at Dan Wetzel, read him at Yahoo Sports. What
was the vibe like in Foxborough? You were there inside
the stadium, Uh, as Brady throws to pick six two

(01:03:21):
in the game. It wasn't just that the Patriots lost.
It was that, you know, they've lost in a way
where every time you got the ball, you thought, Okay,
this is the drive, this is where they're finally gonna
do it. It wasn't like they really got distance ever
put between them and the Titans. Nobody included I think
probably Mike Vrabel really even really expected that the Titans

(01:03:42):
were gonna win fourteen to thirteen. Uh, that there was
gonna be no points scored in the second half and
there weren't still about fifteen seconds to go. What did
it feel like in that stadium? Well, there was a
lot of excitement early. It was a very amped up
atmosphere as that always is in New England. Um, I
you know, they they've never they've never for all the winning,

(01:04:04):
they've never gotten complacent. In the stands. I always thought
that's it's one of the best environments in football. So
you know, it's it's a rainy, cold night, but the
places they apped up. The thing about the Patriots fans
is they know what a good football team is and
they know this isn't it. So there was very little
idea like, oh, we're gonna win the Super Bowl. It

(01:04:25):
felt like, hey, maybe we can win this game. They
should have won the game. I mean they the Titans
had had Derrick Henry and as about it, and and
Patriots had a million opportunities to do something. But every
time they I mean you can watch and you know
Nikiel Harry just is running the wrong routes. He's dropping balls,
and Watson caught one pass as a bad penalty. At

(01:04:48):
the end, it looks like they're gonna get there, and
then Edelman blows up. I mean the easy catch he
gets that he can't the third down for Edelman when
he just drops a wide open pass. This is one
of the most sure and the guys in the history
of the franchise. I mean, like the catchy made against
Atlanta and that's Super Bowl where he juggled it, one
of the all time great catches, and he just drops

(01:05:09):
this thing. I mean, they're they're almost at midfield then.
And usually when you get that avalanche going with the Patriots,
the other team panics because all the players on the
other team grew up watching Tom Brady do that. It's
like getting put into a horror movie that you know
the ending, Like you know this well, I said Dan.

(01:05:30):
I tweeted when when when Tannehill fumbled the snap on
third down and they had that long, prolonged process of
false start off sides, false starts, and and the decision
was made to punt by Verabel, I was like, that's it,
you know, like there's no way that this is going
to end. Well, I covered so many games out there,

(01:05:53):
and you talked to the team and the other guys
after and they literally like I was eight years old
and my grandfather's uh living room, I watched Tom Brady
do this in the Super Bowl. Like my entire life,
I've watched him win this game and and literally the
Titans did nothing to win the game in the second half,
they scored no points, they got no drives. They basically

(01:06:15):
just sat there. I mean, they score au pick six
because there are ninety nine yards away, Brady's gotta throw
it into traffic. But it was like, come beat us,
and New England couldn't and it wasn't Brady, And so
you did. All they needed was a field goal. They're
gonna win this thing. But they knew this team was doomed. Like, Okay,
they beat the Titans, that's great, you have one last

(01:06:35):
night of fun for the season and you can cheer
Brady off. But they're going to Kansas City and getting whooped.
I mean, this just wasn't a very good But there's
the worst gol belich At football team since the first
year there. And I think everybody knew that. And you
just watch and you're like, there is nobody on the
field here that's any good for him to throw too.
I mean, he has had no weapons. They could have

(01:06:56):
run it. Maybe, you know, there's a million little things
you can do, but I mean the Titans just sat
there and said beat us and doing what couldn't literally
couldn't get a field goal. Um, so you know, it
was what it was was this last No one really
knows because Brady didn't he didn't run off the field
like waving, or wasn't this big emotional thing. He just
left and after the game he's like basically said, I

(01:07:19):
want you know, I'm not going to retire. This is
I love the Patriots. Is where I want to be.
I mean, you know, it's also like in theory, it's
like I am out of here, I want to leave.
I'll try something else. But then when in in real practicality,
when you're there, he said there and going where am
I going? I want to move to? You know, I
really want to try that. And so you know, again,

(01:07:39):
I think he wants to be back, and Kraft wants
him back. But there's got to be some kind of
how much money and what is there a little bit
of a different role or acknowledgement that things are different
between Brady and Belichick. That's just my guess. It's very
hard to get accurate information for many of them are
a real honesty mania m That's that's just the way

(01:08:01):
they the Belichick and Brady operate. Last question for you,
and this isn't related to the Patriots and quick do
you think tah goes pro later today or do you
think he comes back for his final year at Alabama.
You know, I'm gonna say he's gonna go pro, but
maybe not. I don't know if it's been such an
unusual situation because everybody, the number of people are like,

(01:08:21):
I think he's gonna stay in around in Alabama. Stunned me.
But in these decisions, generally they all end up going pro.
So I'm just gonna gonna take that bet, but very
very interesting decision for For two, he's certainly they he
and his family love college football. We talked earlier what
would serve the media best. I'd love to see him
come back to college and he's a great story. He's

(01:08:43):
exciting for college football. Cover college football too, But generally
they go pro, so I'm gonna stick with that. But boy,
he's certainly given him way more positive almost any other
top prospect ever had outstanding sub has always go follow
him on Twitter at Dan Wetzel. I'm Clay Travis and
Wen I'm back more on Brady and the playoffs. This
is OutKick on Fox Sports Radio. This is Outkicked the

(01:09:06):
coverage with Clay Travis will forty three year old Tom
Brady be the Patriots starting quarterback next year. Ten thousand
of you have voted, sixty of you saying yes, of
you saying no. One of the things that that that

(01:09:28):
I do think is worth thinking about as they make
the decision is whether Brady might insist on a two
year deal, because if you're willing to go elsewhere, where
are the places that Brady could go that are better
than New England? And this is gonna be much debated,
but just to think about right now, the places out

(01:09:49):
there that have good offensive weapons, a good offensive line.
Let's say Dallas Cowboys, Yes they have you heard me,
kind of toss that out there. They have and uh
and undrestricted free agent or sorry, they can they can
franchise tag him. But they could let Dak walk. Highly
unlikely that they would be willing to do that, but

(01:10:11):
they could. And they have no obligations to quarterbacks. Indianapolis Colts.
They got money invested with Jacoby Brissette. But it seems
pretty clear to the Colts, at least if you watch
this team and you pay attention to them, it doesn't
feel like Jacoby Brissette given the whole year to prove
that he was the guy proved that he was the guy.
So wouldn't stun me if the Colts went into the

(01:10:33):
draft and took somebody in the first round to potentially
groom to replace Andrew Luck and it not be Jacoby Brissette,
Tim Bay Buccaneers. Did they really want to give Jamis
Winston thirty million dollars after he threw thirty interceptions? With
Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Perriman, that's a pretty good trio.

(01:10:54):
You add, uh, you add the talent at tight end
that they have. I mean, I just O J. Howard.
I look at that and I say, man, that could
be a pretty interesting destination for Tom Brady. Now, defense
still not very good. But those are the three teams
right there. And then you go with the Chargers, which

(01:11:14):
I kind of have described as the perpetual side chick
of l A where you don't really have very much
of a fan base. The different the tough thing is
you're letting go of of an older quarterback in Philip Rivers.
If you make that decision to sign an older quarterback,
that part of it just doesn't really square with me.

(01:11:35):
I know, I heard Chris Collinsworth last night at the
end of Football Football Night in America right after they
played their game between the Eagles and the Seahawks, talking
about it. Another team, maybe the Bears. If you're listening
to us right now in the Chicago area, you don't
believe in Mitch Trabiski, is Tom Brady? Maybe the answer?
That's five teams right off the top of my head

(01:11:56):
that at least have some talent and door potential there. Now.
I know that, for instance, the Panthers don't have a quarterback.
Maybe you're Tom Brady and you'll love the idea of
playing with Christian McCaffrey. Maybe that's six. Those would be
the teams that I would say would be out there
in the mix potentially interested in Brady. I guess you
could also throw the Miami Dolphins in. I don't know,

(01:12:19):
if you really love Brian Flores, maybe wherever Josh McDaniels goes.
If you love McDaniels and think he could build around you,
what if he took the cowboy job and brought Brady
with him to Dallas. That'd be a hell of a story.
When we come back all of the wild card reaction,
we're diving into its out kick on Fox Sports Radio
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in

(01:12:41):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports
Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app.
Search f s R to listen live. I said, the Titans,
We're gonna go on the road and end the New
England Patriot Brady Belichick dynasty. I told you to tap
the vein the blood bank guarantee. I went all in

(01:13:03):
on the Titans plus four and a half or five points.
And guess what I was right. Titans went on the road.
Biggest win for the Titan franchise since they went to
the Super Bowl. Big time end of the dynasty in
my opinion, win for the Titans. I don't believe that
Brady and Belichick will ever be in an a f

(01:13:24):
C Championship game again. I don't believe they'll be together
in the Super Bowl again. I think this is going
to turn into a real battle over the future of
the Patriot organization. Robert Kraft has come out and said
that he wants for Tom Brady to be back, but
the question is gonna be for how much money and
how many years? And Belichick is gonna get involved in this,

(01:13:47):
and before all is said and done, much drama is
going to ensue. We have lots of time to talk
about that. But in the meantime, we had four incredible, phenomenal,
downright fantastic wild Car Weekend football games. Three of them
effectively came down to the final play almost of the game.
Two of them were in overtime and came down literally

(01:14:09):
to the last play of the game. Here was the
first when the Texans got down sixteen to nothing against
the Buffalo Bills. They looked dead to rights. Then Deshaun
Watson made a couple of big plays, got into overtime,
made an incredible play, as he said, somebody had to
be great, why not me? And it ended with this,

(01:14:30):
Here's fair barn for the win. Twenty eight yards right,
hash mark and snap is down, fair Barons kick is up.
That that's good on that Texans go to the defessional
round and dramatic fashion beating the bells at overtime twenty
two tonight team a sensational That great for the Texans.

(01:14:52):
That is the way that the game ended for the Texans. Okay,
that was that. That was Game one. Didn't start off
very well, by the way, and I'm sorry to Bill
fans out there. I know it's been since that you
want to playoff game. I thought that the block they
called the crackback block was not a good call. Again,
my position is, swallowed the whistle unless you absolutely have

(01:15:14):
to make the call, unless every single person watching it
would say, Okay, that's a foul, that's a violation, then
don't blow the whistle, don't throw the flag, don't stop
the game unless you absolutely have to. And why was
that significant? Well, I think if they don't throw that
penalty flag, then I think there's a good chance the
Bills would have gone out there and tried to win

(01:15:36):
it with like a fifty seven yard field goal. Uh,
whether or not they would have made it, who knows.
They got a guy who's got a big, big leg
in Hotsky I believe right Hoskin's name. I probably just
just mangled there. But it would have been a very
makeable field goal for him. And he was already what
three for three or was he four for four on

(01:15:56):
the day. He had been on fire, and so in
a do own not anything to worry about. I don't
think you can make that crackback block call in that situation.
But if your Bills, if you're a Bills fan, you
had Deshaun Watson dead to rights on the next drive.
If either of your guys wrap him up, or frankly,

(01:16:17):
if only one of them hits him, he might not
have made that play of the wild Card weekend uh
to put his team into the next round. So the
Texans advancing on the road against the Chiefs. By the way,
according to Fox Bet, the Chiefs a ten point favorite
in this game. That's the biggest margin of spread of

(01:16:38):
any game the four divisional round weekend coming up. We'll
obviously be talking a lot about all these games all week,
but the Texans move on. The Bills are once again
vanquished in the second game. I would say the biggest
storyline by far of the wild Card weekend. The Titans
go on the road and beat the New England Patriots.

(01:17:01):
Nothing fancy about it. That's why I told you that
I thought this would happen. I didn't think the Titan
defense would hold up as well as they did. I
knew Derrick Henry would be a an absolute beast. But
the wild thing is, if you're sitting there looking at
the at the at the at the box score. Ryan
Tannehill was not very good. He had two fumbles. Now

(01:17:23):
he recovered both of them. He had one really bad
interception that he had no business throwing. He threw four
seventy five yards roughly, and the Titan wide receivers overall
combined for two catches for ten yards. The leading receiver
was a backup tight end who had two catches for

(01:17:46):
twenty three yards. Now, one of them was a big
third down conversion and the other one was a touchdown catch.
But the Titans relied on on Derrick Henry. But there
wasn't a lot of sizzle there from the Titan offense
in any way. Notwithstanding that good defensive struggle and the

(01:18:07):
only points scored in the second half, it sounded like
this on the Titans radio network. Brady in the end
zone takes the snap, looks fires pass, batted up at
the air, intercepted, and returned for a touch that Titans
Logan Ryan with nine seconds to go. Now, nine seconds
to go. The play there is actually for Logan Ryan

(01:18:31):
to take a knee and not allow the Patriots to
get the ball back or attempt to return a kick
or anything like that. But he went ahead and scored,
which was great for me because if you watch the
walkt in show that we do every single day. That
won me the crown for the week. So I'll have
the crown on at four thirty eastern, three thirty Central

(01:18:51):
to thirty Mountain one Pacific on FS one on television
today and UH, and trust me, it's gonna be a
lot of fun talking about this Titans when uh for
a bunch of the haters on that show. But the
big question spiraling out of that defeat is what is
going to happen with Tom Brady? I believe we have
audio of Brady talking. The poll question is will forty

(01:19:13):
three year old Tom Brady be the Patriots starting quarterback
next year? Uh. Somewhere around twelve thousand of you have
voted six say yes, say no. That's in the first
hour that this poll has been up. Let me hear
from Tom Brady after the game, asked what he thinks
his future holds. I just don't know what's gonna happen,

(01:19:34):
and you know I'm not going to predict it, and
no one needs to make choices at this point. You know,
I love playing football. I love playing for this team.
I love playing for this team for two decades and
and winning a lot of games. Again, I just I
don't know what it looks like moving forward, so we'll
just take it day by day. Robert Kraft tells Peter
King that Brady has quote earned the right to control

(01:19:56):
his future after twenty years. And you know, my hope
in prayer is number one he plays for the Patriots,
or number two he retires. So the owner of the
Patriots wants a Brady back. But again, the devil likely
to be in the details. For how much money? For
how many years? What does Belichick say? How is this
all gonna shake out? Lots of drama coming in the

(01:20:18):
next few uh weeks and months. And by the way,
a part of that drama could be what Tua decides
to do. At noon Eastern today, Alabama's quarterback to Asovloa
is announcing whether or not he is going to go pro.
And so if you're out there sitting around and wondering, hey,
what in the world might might the Patriots do? Maybe

(01:20:41):
Belichick loves to as he starts to do all his research. Certainly,
the more first round quarterbacks that are out there, the
more Belichick might be inclined potentially to start to turn
the page beyond the Brady era. That's why I think
the Titans ended the Brady Belichick dynasty in New England.
And on Saturday Night. That was Saturday Sunday, another good

(01:21:05):
round of games, beginning with the early game Vikings on
the road against the Saints. The Vikings were the biggest
underdog in wild Card weekend, and come over time, it
didn't matter. Kirk Cousins, who probably is I believe the
most criticized quarterback in the NFL. I really do believe

(01:21:26):
that Cousins is the most criticized quarterback in the NFL.
He dropped back to pass. This is what it sounded like.
Third and goal from the floor. Kirk takes the snow,
looks right, fade left end zone and it is caught
to San Francisco and or of law New Orleans Saints.

(01:21:52):
The Minnesota Vikings have beaten the New Orleans Saints twenty six,
twenty and overtime. And this game, indeed, what's a San
Francisco treat? All right? That's the Vikings radio network. That
is such a scripted call. Everything about that was totally scripted.

(01:22:12):
He had written down exactly what he was gonna say
if the Vikings won, so that he could have a
signature for as everything completely written down, but Vikings advanced.
I'm not sure that I liked that call, but I
did like this. That's how we've won all year. Right
many start us a chance. At the end, I got

(01:22:32):
three words for you. You like that, so you have
to feel good for Kirk Cousins getting his first ever
playoff win, Deshaun Watson getting his first ever playoff win,
and Ryan Tannehill all three of the early games first
ever playoff wins. Carson Wentz tried to make it for

(01:22:54):
for four, but unfortunately for him, he got knocked out
on a dirty play by Jadeveon Clowney. Will never ever
know what the Eagles would have been capable of with
Carson Wentz if he had stayed healthy, and unfortunately for
the Eagles and for Carson Wentz, this is yet another
season where we were not able to see wins finished

(01:23:14):
the season. Now, not being able to finish a game
a little bit different than not being able to finish
a season, But this is something that I think the
NFL has to look at. We've had a couple of
really dirty hits in the NFL, and I know in
the wake of the college football playoff game between Ohio
State and Clemson. A lot of people said, well, you
can't call that hit that Trevor Lawrence took that led

(01:23:37):
to a guy getting ejected from the game for Ohio State.
I disagree. I think that Jadeveon Clowney hit was dirty.
I think it was unnecessary. I think it needs to
be pulled out of the game, and I think the
NFL needs to do something somewhat similar to what college
has done. If you have a call that's that significant,
and a and a violation of the rules that's that

(01:23:59):
significant and there's not even a flag throwne it's pretty
evident that the NFL is getting it wrong. It doesn't
make sense to me when you're protecting quarterbacks and you
have all these different rules about where you can be
hit and how you can be hit, and you miss
a clear, clear hit that would have gotten you ejected
from a college football game and there's no penalty at all,

(01:24:22):
and that hit may well have decided the outcome of
this game, as the Seahawks win and advanced. That is
and was an incredible wild card weekend. Now, it's not
without controversy the NFL. The benefit of the NFL is
every team is so evenly matched, especially when you get
into the postseason with every other team. Okay, yes there

(01:24:45):
are teams that are better, but in a one game,
sixty minute scenario, virtually anything can happen. You could change
one play and the Bills would have beaten the Texans.
You can change probably a play and the Titans would
have lost to the Patriots. You can change a play
and you could have a situation where the Vikings lost

(01:25:05):
to the Saints there's no doubt, and you could probably
change a play just about and have the Seahawks game,
even though they won by eight, completely changed as well.
When that occurs, there's a lot of talk about officiating
because when the margin of defeat ends up being let's say,
sixty three to twenty eight, like happened when LSU played

(01:25:26):
against Oklahoma in their playoff game, nobody really spends much
time worrying about the missed pass interference call that clearly
happened that Oklahoma was was the the unfortunate loser of
there when the call wasn't made correctly. But when you
lose sixty three to twenty eight, you have to be

(01:25:47):
a pretty ridiculous fan to go back and say, well,
the game would have been entirely different if that pass
interference call had been made. But when you lose in overtime,
partly because you're not all out to attempt a field
goal because a crackback block is called that Mike Pereira
says shouldn't have been called. If you're a Bills fan,

(01:26:10):
I understand why you're upset. And if you are a
Saints fan and you have lost three straight years on
the final play of the game the past two years
in overtime, I understand why you're upset about the Kyle
Rudolph play not being called, given what happened to you
last year. And if you are a Eagles fan, I

(01:26:34):
certainly understand why you're upset that Jadeveon Clowney wasn't at
a minimum flagged and potentially kicked out of the game
for the hit that he put on Carson Wentz. And also,
if you are a fan of the Patriots, well, you've
gotten every call for the last twenty years, so I

(01:26:55):
don't think you can be upset at all. Plus, there
wasn't really any calls out there that made a substantial
difference where it felt like the Titans got screwed on them.
My point though, is that so many of these calls
are in the margin that I would be inclined to
not make calls. Right. It's a lot easier unless the

(01:27:18):
call is egregious and everybody would make it. I'll give
you an example. Uh, the New England Patriots had a
big pass play down the field Saturday night against the Titans.
Their offensive lineman was way far down the field outside
of where he could be. Uh. He was ineligible and
he was too far down the field on a pass play. Okay, well,

(01:27:41):
that's the right call, right everybody who can look at
that and say that's a hundred percent the right call
in that situation, that's a violation of the rule. If
that crackback block, if you can watch it in the
Bills game against the Texans and most officials would not
call it, you can't call it in overtime of an
NFL game. You just can't. Uh. And so that's the call.

(01:28:04):
Uh And And I think that as we have HD
and instant replay in these games are so finally fought
and so close, they're oftentimes are major messes when in
terms of what calls are made. Uh and And I
would say in terms of what calls are made as
opposed to what calls are missed, although that happens too.

(01:28:25):
And by the way, if you don't think the NFL
is involved in trying to watch this closely, did you
see how out of nowhere a ton of officials materialized
when it looked like they were gonna give a touchdown
on the opening kick of the second half to the
Buffalo Bills because the Texans kick returner fielded it and

(01:28:46):
then just tossed it to the official. And then suddenly,
like New York got on the phone and they rushed,
uh like their their side, uh, their the their backup
officials onto the field to make sure that that call
wasn't made, because man, can you imagine if at that
point in time, if the Bills had gone up twenty
three to nothing over that play, there would have been

(01:29:07):
hell to pay, absolute hell to pay. All Right, When
we come back, speaking to hell to play, we're going
down to Houston. My guy John McClain, who's been writing
with the Houston Chronicle for a long time, he's been
covering the Houston Texans forever. He will join us and
we will break down things with him about the Texans
big win over the bills. What do we learn, if anything,

(01:29:28):
and what are the expectations as the Texans go on
the road against the Chiefs, by the way, a trip
that they made earlier this year and one can they
do it again? In advance the a f C Championship Game.
Plus John covers all the NFL. What do you think
about the Titans win over the Patriots? How about the
Vikings getting done down in New Orleans and the Seahawks

(01:29:49):
outlasting the Eagles for a second time in Philadelphia. We
will discuss all of that. Appreciate all of your time.
Thanks for hanging out with us on the Monday edition.
Out get the coverage We've been doing basically three straight
hours on the wild Cards. This is Outkicked the coverage
with Clay Travis. John McLean joins us now at McLean

(01:30:12):
Underscore on Underscore NFL. John, thanks for getting up early
with us. You covered the NFL for a long time.
You've covered a lot of big games for Brady and
Belichick over the years. Did the Titans in the dynasty?
In your opinion? On Saturday Night, Clay, that might have
ended the dynasty, but I do not believe they ended
Tom Brady's career. In New England. I think he'll resign

(01:30:35):
with the Patriots after he sees what options are out there.
Titans played a great defensive game, and of course, Derrick
Henry did something that other star players have been unable
to do in Foxborough. Usually Bill Belichick and his staff
take out one player and make sure that one player
does not beat them, and they knew that was gonna

(01:30:56):
happen with Henry and they were helpless to stop it.
Incredible performance where guys in the last year of his
contract about to make a lot of money. Uh. Speaking
of making a lot of money, Deshaun Watson's gonna eventually
make a lot of money. And I wanted, just from
your perspective, how much did the storyline in Houston change
in the final twenty minutes of that game. Let's start

(01:31:18):
with what if the Bills had come in and one
like it looked like they were going to win in
the same way that the Colts did last season, without
really the Texans ever being able to make muster much
of a run against them. What would conversation in Houston
be this morning. But we're down at that time six
in the third quarter, and people were angry. People were

(01:31:40):
going to the exits, and I'll guarantee you this, Bill
O'Brien would not have been fired, but there would have
been a lot of people fans wanted him fired, media
demanding him be fired because it would have been another
ugly hand. That would have been three wild guard losses
at home, all decisive. And then of course Watson started
there come back for the Ages. Uh, and that comeback

(01:32:03):
for the Ages now takes the Texans on the road
against the Chiefs. How confident do you think the Texans
are to win their given that they've already won their once?
They played a good game up there and they won.
They fell behind seventy seventeen to three. Watson brought them
from behind to win that game. Homes through three touchdown
passes to the Tyree Hill, and the Texans played their

(01:32:24):
best road game of the season. They had gone to
Baltimore and gotten beat forty one to seven. So if
you have a chance to go where you want or
go where you got crushed, you think it would be
where you won. But what are the odds Andy Reid
and Patrick Mahomes are gonna lose two games at home
to Houston in one season. On the other hand, where
the odds Kirk Cousins gonna go to New Orleans and

(01:32:46):
winning the Super Dome. Yeah, I mean it was. We
came close to all four road teams winning. You've covered
the NFL for a long time. It's home field advantaged.
The most overrated thing at this point in time in
the NFL play offs, Clay, it seems to be the
visiting teams for whatever reason. And I covered the NFL

(01:33:06):
for forty three years, and I've never seen anything like
what it's become, especially in the playoffs, especially with all
of these games being so exciting. Even the last one
with Josh McCown replacing the injured Carson Wentz was still exciting.
But it I've never seen anything like it. Don't know
why it is, but you're exactly right. Visiting teams went

(01:33:29):
on the road so much more than they used to.
So you said, you don't think it's the the end
of Brady and Belichick. We had quotes come out from
Robert Kraft through Peter King saying basically that Brady's earned
the right after twenty years to go out and the
way that he sees fit. What do you think Belichick
wants considering I don't know what First of all, we

(01:33:49):
don't know what he thinks about his backup, Jared Stidham.
Does he think about Jared Stidham the way he thought
about Brady when he was a backup to Drew Bledsoe
and Bledsoe heard for the way he thought about Garoppolo
when it seemed pretty clear that that that Belichick really
didn't want to let him go and then kind of
did it out of spite and and if we've never
known the true story behind that to give Garoppolo up

(01:34:11):
for a second round pick, and at this point he
would already have left as a free agent because there's
no way he was going to stay there when he
had a chance to be a starter somewhere else. But
I think I would imagine if you're Bill Belichick and
you want to win, you want to win with Brady.
What happened there was not Brady's fault. They didn't replace Gronkowski,

(01:34:31):
They didn't have receivers who were good. They tried with
Josh Gordon, tried with Antonio Brown. That showed you desperate
they were. But the big loss he did not have Gronkowski,
and his offensive line had injuries. It wasn't as good.
The problem wasn't Brady. The problem was the personnel, all right.
So you they are eight teams left and and everybody

(01:34:53):
I lost one of my Super Bowl teams I had,
the Saints. I thought the Saints would bounce back after
last season, not certainly lose to the Vikings. But the
eight teams that remain right now, who do you think
are the two best? Who do you think right now
will be there from the NFC in the a f C.
No way I would think against Baltimore. Not what we've
seen from Lamar Jackson and the Ravens all season on

(01:35:14):
both sides of the ball and special teams, they have
been fantastic. I think it's going to be the Ravens
and the Chiefs Jackson versus my Armes in the NFCC.
I like Kyle Shanahan. It's it's amazing to me. Half
the coaches left in the playoffs have Texans ties. Kyle
Shantien was here, Matt la Fleur was here, Bill O'Brien

(01:35:35):
of course, and then uh Mike Vrabel and there's a
lot of Texans people San Francisco. I like Shanahan. They
had the toughest schedule and they still got home field. Advantage.
Don't know what that means where they play in Santa Clara,
but I still think it'll be the forty Niners. So
if if you break it down and you kind of

(01:35:56):
look ahead, we've had so many years of Brady Belichick.
I mean Brady and Belichick certainly, but Peyton Manning and
also with Ben Roethlisberger. Does it feel to you like
it does to me? Like the next man up is
Patrick Mahomes, absolutely My Homes or Lamar Jackson. What Jackson
has done this year at thirty six touchdowns, six interception,

(01:36:17):
seven rushing touchdowns has been incredible in his second year,
just like my Homes was incredible in his second year.
The quarterback position is in good hands as the guys
like Brady and Breezes and Rivers and Manning as they
get to the near the end of their careers. There's
so many good young quarterbacks and more coming. And I

(01:36:39):
think it's Jackson versus my Homes. Those two are at
the top of what is a talented list of young quarterbacks.
I know you are in illustrious alum of Baylor University.
You guys got a heck of a coach in Matt Rule.
Do you think he leaves for the NFL. I do.
I thought that since he interviewed for the he was
interviewed by Chris Ballard, one of the best general managers.

(01:37:01):
After Baylor won one game, and then last year when
he won seven, he was interviewed by the Jets, and
he could have had the job, but he wanted to
take his coaches. And now he's being interviewed by the
by the Panthers and the Giants. He turned down a
chance to interview for the Brown So if you want
to interview that much, it means you want to coach
in the NFL. Since he was with the Giants, he

(01:37:22):
grew up in New York City before moving to Pennsylvania, uh,
and he knows the franchise. I'm thinking he's going to
the Giants, and Baylor fans should wish him well because
he's leaving that job in a whole lot better shape
than he found the Clay That is a fact, no
doubt at all. What are the Cowboys gonna do? I

(01:37:42):
think I thought for a while they were waiting to
see if Mike zimmer lost and got fired because they
loved the Jones's love Mike Zimber, and he has a
close relationship with them. And then Mike McCarthy been in
Marvin Lewis, they'd interviewed him as well, So it's pretty
us Jerry Jones once in NFL coach, not a college coach.

(01:38:03):
It could have already interviewed Urban Meyer, Lincoln Riley, any
of those guys who were supposedly candidates in the media.
And it's always amazing to me Mike McCarthy. Mike has
a great record, he wanted Super Bowl, his records like
Sean Payton's, and yet people view them in a different
light as the head coach. If I'm the Cowboys, I
am all over McCarthy after coaching far he coach. He

(01:38:27):
coached Daron Rodgers, and I think that Mike would be
an excellent coach, But you never know what the Cowboys
are gonna do. We're talking to John McClean at McLean
Underscore on Underscore NFL. You can find him there. I'll
tweet out the link to his Twitter handle later today
when I put up the podcast. Appreciate him joining us
from down in Houston. What would you tell to what

(01:38:47):
to do John, when you've had as many injuries as
he's had, and while you're in college and they're all
your your hip and your ankles. I think if they
can ll NFL people that he's definitely going to heal
from his hip surgery, I would come out. I would
not risk another injury. And coming out now means he

(01:39:10):
probably is not going to draft be drafted as high
as he was in the lower He goes better chance.
He got to go with a good team with a
winning record. Who knows, maybe Bill Belichick will get him. Yeah,
no talent at all. Uh did you watch the Golden
Globes last night? I did watch the Golden Globes? What
did you think of Ricky Gervais is open? I thought

(01:39:30):
I was so much of it hadn't been leaped out,
and I'm not a lip reador got an idea about
what he did. Says he was not as funny as
he had been, some of his jokes which are written
for him just where they were dead or in the
door doorbell and I and so. But I still like
him doing it, and he's always threatening to make it
his last. But I hope he comes back. What movies

(01:39:53):
and door show you're you're plugged in with with making
sure that you don't miss anything. I haven't seen eighteen seventeen,
which won the Golden Globe, and I've heard is unbelievable.
Have you seen it yet? I have not seen it.
My movie that I would recommend everybody got a lot
of attention knives out. Yeah. I think it's an old
fashioned movie in which all the actors are great, especially

(01:40:15):
Daniel Craig. They're working on a sequel to it with
his character, and uh, I can't wait to see nineteen
seventeen Parasite, which is really good. You know, if you
don't mind subtitles, which I don't, there are a lot
of good foreign movies, led by Parasite. We're talking to
John McLean. We're breaking down the Golden Globes and the

(01:40:36):
wild card weekend in the NFL. What happens with ultimately
officiating in the NFL. It's it feels, and I know
part of it's just that we got h D and
we got social media and everybody can dissect everything. But
at your game, you know, the crackback block that got
called that may have taken away the Bills from a
chance to potentially win the game with a really long

(01:40:56):
field goal. I think there's probably a good chance that
with Stephen Hoshka, they would have been trying that. Uh,
you had the potential, you know. And Saints fans are
up in arms over the Kyle Rudolph catch uh and
the hit that Jadeveon Clowney put on Carson Wentz that
knocked him out of the game. Those are just three,
but they're all three pretty big. That's certainly if you're

(01:41:17):
doing sports talker radio in Buffalo, if you're doing sports
talk radio in uh In, uh in any of these
communities in New Orleans or in um in Philadelphia, that's
what you're leading with, probably to a large extent, as
those calls and how they impacted the game. What does
the NFL do about this? I believe they will do
what the coaches wanted unanimously last year. They want an

(01:41:41):
eye in the sky, somebody in the press box looking
at a big high definition flat screen TV seeing exactly
what we were we see. The plan would be this
is the way the coaches wanted it, and the owners
said no. The coach, the guy would see it. He'd
see what we see. He'd see that beyond clown he's
on with the helm it in. He would see the

(01:42:03):
push up by Kyle Rudolph. He would see the crackback
block or clock expiring in the buff buffalo right again,
and so he immediately called down to the referee and say,
pick up the flag, throw the flag. He could be
an extra official like he's on the field, but he
would be upstairs. That would correct, seemingly correct a lot

(01:42:24):
of calls and non calls. What do you think about
that play clock expiring right before the third and eighteen?
I tweeted about that and it obviously got a lot
of attention in general. Um, you know that. The response
a lot of times and I'm sure this is what
they said, although I haven't even read. The answer is well,
the official may not see it because you know, if
it's close to zero, we tend to give the benefit

(01:42:46):
of the doubt there. What should happen in place like
those we've seen that before. There should be high in
this guy. You should be watching that. That's why it
was unanimous for the coaches to do this, and I
think this year the owners will listen to the coaches
and when they go to the league meetings in March,
they may pass it then and they may table it
till May. But it's pretty simple deal. You've got another official.

(01:43:10):
Hire back some of the guys that retired, seven of
them I believe retired at once. Put them up there
where they don't have to run up and down the
field and let them see what we see immediately. Do
you get the sense that there is this, uh, this
belief among many not just in the fan base that
are listening to us right now, but also people affiliated
with the league and the teams, that officiating is at

(01:43:31):
a crisis moment. Yes, it isn't a crisis moment. It's
not going to change because if you mentioned earlier what
we have at our fingertips to see where we can
see everything in super slow motion high definition. When they
have to make those feels bang bang, they make those
calls on the feel like that, it's almost impossible to
get everything right. A couple of guys, so well, just

(01:43:53):
get rid of replay and let human humans make those calls.
But you can't do it. You got electronics. Think of
all the calls that are changed correctly, and if you
took those away then it would be just mass controversy.
But I think more changes are coming. John McClean, last
question for you, what would have happened if they hadn't
changed the halftime right the first opening kickoff. I'm sure

(01:44:15):
you were watching it, like, oh my god, what are
they arguing? I mean they called a touchdown for a
guy flipping the ball to the official. Uh. The NFL,
to their credit, ran out and basically said, man, what
in the world are you thinking here? We can't make
it twenty three nothing in that scenario. I mean, that
was kind of a wild situation that that kind of
disappeared because they fixed it. I've never seen anything like that.

(01:44:36):
DeAndre Carter, you know, they changed the rule. They said
he gave himself up, and so he did give himself
up and they changed it. But it was amazing. There
were quite a few things like that in the Buffalo
Houston game, and I would imagine with a divisional round
coming up and what could be for more exciting games,
we will have much more controversy. Amen, appreciated brother, thanks

(01:44:57):
for getting up very tips as always outstanding. He's John
McClain at McLean Underscore on Underscore NFL. This is outkicked
the coverage with Clay Traffics. If you missed it last night,
Ricky Gervais, you need to go check out my Twitter

(01:45:18):
feed if you need a decent laugh. You heard me
talking about it a little bit with John McClain last night.
Right after the Eagles game against the Seahawks. The Golden
Globes were on NBC and Ricky Gervais came out with
a flamethrower and wiped out Hollywood. This was the best part,
going after Hollywood hypocrisy for saying that you're so woke,

(01:45:41):
but you're working for all these companies that make money
off of slave labor. Here is a little taste, Popple.
Roll it into the TV game with the Morning Show.
A SUPERB drama. Yeah, a superb drama about the importance
of dignity and doing the right thing, made by a

(01:46:02):
company that runs sweatshops in China. So will you say
you woke? But the companies you work for I mean unbelievable, Apple, Amazon, Disney.
If Isis started a streaming service, you'd call your agent,
wouldn't you. So if you do win an award tonight,
don't use it as a platform to make a political speech. Right,
you're in no position to lecture the public about anything.

(01:46:24):
You know nothing about the real world. Most of you
spent less time in school than Greta Thumberg. So if
you win, right, come up except your little award, thank
your agent and your god. Uh yeah. And then so
that was pretty phenomenal. That was Ricky Gervais last night
as part of his seven or eight minute opening monologue,

(01:46:46):
which is going viral now because I think a lot
of people are so over the perpetually woke community. We'll
have some fun with that tomorrow a little bit more.
But in the meantime, major news. Well, so we've got
the first of the wild card, We've got a lot
of the divisional round playoff games to talk about. But
at Noone Eastern today to what Tikoloa is scheduled alongside

(01:47:08):
of Nick Saban to make an announcement about whether he
is going to go pro or uh he is going
to come back to Alabama. Now, the offshore betting markets
favor to a going pro and Dub, you just shot
me the list of all the draft stock, and your argument,
I think it's a good one is there's no way

(01:47:29):
that Miami would let to a slip past eighteen. Right,
Miami has the number five overall pick and then they
have the Pittsburgh Steelers number eighteen overall pick. I'm with
you there's no way they let to a go past eighteen. Well,
I I don't think they'd let him go past five
personally if that's who they want. But you just look
at the teams in between that as well. You got

(01:47:50):
the Chargers at six, you got the Panthers at seven,
Jacksonville nine, Oakland twelve, Andy thirteen, Tampa Bay fourteen, Denver fifteen,
and then again Miami and eighteen. So between all those
teams that you could argue are in the running to
find a new quarterback. To me, there is just absolutely
zero percent chance he would fall past Certainly. I made

(01:48:12):
the argument that he needs to go pro and that
you can't make up the money that you potentially lose.
I think the risk associated with going uh staying at
Alabama is massive. He's had ankle surgery on both ankles,
He's had the hip issue. Now. To me, you have
to go pro when you can. There's a lot more
risk to coming back than there is to staying. I

(01:48:34):
believe everybody agreed with me that he should go pro.
What do you think he will do? Quickly? As we
finish off the show here, Danny G does he stay
or does he go? Never leave money on the table.
He's gonna go pro. What about you, dub I think
he goes Uh and Roberto, do you make it? Uh? Yeah, Pro.
I think he's gonna come back. I don't think it's

(01:48:54):
the right decision. I said he should go, but I
thought that that there was a good chance that he
might go. I think is what I said. I I
I said, beyond a shadow of a doubt. If this
is my son, I am sitting him down and I'm saying, hey,
I understand, you know you thought process. I understand Andrew Luck,
Peyton Manning. Uh. There are a lot of guys you
can point to that have made the decision to come back.

(01:49:17):
But those guys didn't have major health issues that were
associated with them at the time. I think you need
to go pro. But I think he's gonna come back.
I think he feels like he left unfulfilled business. There
are several of these Bama guys that are going to
come back. Uh. And I think at at noon Eastern
to will announce that he is going to to come back. Now,

(01:49:41):
I think he should go. It's probably better for college
football certainly if he comes back, it's a lot more entertaining.
But I think he should go, but I think he's
gonna stay. I think he wants to win the Heisman Trophy.
I think he wants to win a national championship, prove
he can stay healthy the entire season and be the
number one or number two overall pick. So we will
know by noon Eastern ish what to as decision will

(01:50:04):
be spectacular weekend, A wild guard. Thanks bringing out with us.
This is OutKick. Be sure to catch live editions of
OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am
Eastern three am Pacific

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