January 10, 2018 • 43 mins
Clay Travis talks LaVar Ball, the hiring of Jon Gruden, an appearance from Lane Kiffin, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the best of out Kick the Coverage with
Clay Travis on Fox Sports Radio. Appreciate all of you
joining us early this morning on a Wednesday edition. We're
back from Atlanta. The Albama Crimson Tide continues to be
the ruling national champion of college football, and we are
(00:22):
moving towards figuring out who the champion of the NFL
will be as a Divisional round inches closer and closer
for different games two on Saturday and two on Sunday,
and we'll begin to break all of those down, giving
you a roadmap of where today's show will head. Our one,
we'll talk a little bit with my guy Johnny Odd
shark uh to kind of gets you set for Divisional
round gambling action. Later in this hour will also an
(00:45):
hour to talk with Jeff Schwartz and break down all
the divisional playoff games as well. But I got a
couple of stories off the jump here that I find
to be really particularly intriguing that I want to hit on,
and we haven't had that much time to talk about
them because of the NFL and obviously being in Atlanta
the past two days and our focus on the NFL
(01:06):
playoffs as well as the college football title game, and
the two stories are these. One. I haven't talked that
much about LaVar Ball and all of this story surrounding
the Lakers and all of the comments that have been
made about his attack on the Luke Walton, and I
find it to be such an incredibly fascinating story in
(01:28):
a modern media sense. And we're gonna talk about that
some here off the jump. And also John Gruden officially
ending his tenure with ESPN as Monday night football broadcaster
and becoming the new head coach of the Oakland Raiders.
Why I think it's a really good hire for the
Raiders and why I think he's gonna be great for
Derek Carr as they continue to work on cars evolution
(01:53):
as he moves into fifth years. I don't think there's
any doubt at all for anybody who watched the Raiders
or any casual fan of the NFL that Derek Carr
took a big step back in the year four. Why
was that? And what sort of legitimate goals should the
Raiders have with Jon Gruden now back in charge calling plays.
We're gonna play some audio clips from that, But first
(02:13):
I want to start with LaVar Ball because we haven't
spent any time on it, and or hardly any time
at all. And I want to give you a couple
of thoughts here and then we're gonna play you an
audio clip from I believe it was Steve Kerr that
has got a lot gotten a lot of attention over
the past couple of days. Uh, this story, to me
(02:35):
is emblematic of how the landscape has expanded when it
comes to who is worthy of being a major figure
in the world of sports. And let me explain what
I mean by that. What the Internet really did, I think,
on its largest level when it comes to sports, is
(02:56):
it changed and expanded the the the arena when it
came to who is a public figure and who do
we talk about now? That might sound confusing for a minute,
but let me kind of break that down because I
do think it's a it's a smart way to think
about how sports and sports media changed. Prior to the Internet,
(03:19):
there were very few people out there who could tell
you who the strength coach was for a college football program.
Think about that for a minute. Back in like N one.
Is there a single person out there listening right now
who knew even if you were a die hard fan
(03:39):
who the strength coach of a college football program was,
I would argue to the answer is probably no. And
that's not because you didn't care about your team, and
that's not because you didn't follow them aggressively in the newspaper.
That's because there wasn't that much space to give over
no matter how much you liked your team, there wasn't
(03:59):
that space to give over to the overall entire coaching staff.
And so you might know about several big players, you
might know about several um several coaches, but it's unlikely
you're gonna know, like, say, the strength coach. In this
modern era, I bet just about every single hardcore Alabama
(04:21):
fan knows that Scott Cochran is their street coach and
can tell you a story about him, and probably watched
a video of him destroying the runner up trophy leading
up to this game against Georgia. And that's because the
Internet has expanded the range by which we cover characters.
Same thing is true if you think about, for instance,
(04:43):
recruiting in college football. I remember I had a good
friend uh in a pre internet era, really before rivals exploded,
before seven Sports exploded, before all of the different recruiting
sites took off. Their was a UH the way that
you kept track on recruits if you were a die
(05:05):
hard recruiting junkie. And this is crazy, and I bet
some of you may have done this, but very few
of you who are young or even going to realize
this existed. You would call a one nine hundred number
and pay like you were calling a sex line, a
substantial amount whenever. It was three dollars a minute to
get the latest update on recruiting in a pre Internet era,
(05:26):
and there was a relatively small segment of the population
that was aggressive enough to follow recruiting in that way,
and so that was the way you followed on a
day to day basis the ups and downs of the
recruiting UH universe, and then you know, would be covered
in newspapers a little bit, but by and large, if
you were recruiting junkie, you couldn't cover that. Then the
(05:47):
Internet begins to exist, and those are hundred million dollar
businesses now that are able to satisfy fan demand for
recruiting info by charging ten dollars a month UH two fans.
I got a funny story here, and I wrote my
second book on Rocky Top. Great guy by the name
of Alex Hought. I went to college in UH in
(06:08):
George Washington University UH at AT in Washington, d C.
And I worked in a congressman's office up there as
an intern while I was there, And Alex Haught was
the chief of staff for Bob Clement, who was Nashville's
congressman at the time. Huge University of Tennessee fan, obsessive
University of Tennessee fan. UH. And when he he UH,
(06:31):
it was one of the saddest stories that that I've
ever been involved in. UM. When I was a sophomore.
I believe he was coming back to Nashville to run
Al Gore's campaign in Tennessee in the two thousand presidential election.
And he was leaving al Gore the headquarters of the
(06:51):
Al Gore UH Tennessee campaign and he was hit and
killed by a drunk driver on West End Avenue in Nashville,
tenn See. UM. And he was engaged to be married
at the time, thirty four years old. Incredible guy, UH
killed by an habitual drunken driver. I mean, just an
(07:11):
awful story. UM and UH. There's still a lot of
people who have trouble UM recovering from that. And um,
I I definitely um, you know, I wrote a lot
about it and on Rocky Top and his fiancee at
the time went back to look over all of their
(07:32):
expenses on the on his credit cards and she saw
that he was calling these one nine hundred numbers and
she was like, what in the world has he been into.
I can't believe he was calling phone sex lines while
we were married, uh be engaged to be married. And
she called that eventually she called that one n numbers.
She's like, I gotta figure out what all these charges
(07:53):
are that were going to his his phones and uh
when she called it was one number was four recruiting info.
He had been so obsessed with recruiting. Just about every
day he would call and pay uh, you know, three
dollars a minute to figure out what the recruiting info was.
And that's a remarkable story about just an awesome guy.
(08:15):
But what is fascinating about that is it was before
the Internet really taken off. This is back in and
there's no real ability to to get that info. And
I'm using this all as an example because LaVar Ball,
to me, represents the full fruition of the Internet, expanding
(08:37):
the arena to the point where a guy like LaVar
Ball can become famous without doing anything at all other
than being the dad of a top basketball player and
top basketball players in quotation marks because his Lonzo a
top sixty player in the NBA right now. Probably not,
(08:58):
I mean, he's not a top player in any stretch
of imagination. Yet LaVar Ball in Lithuania has got his
own beat writer following him from ESPN dot Com, Jeff
Goodman goes overseas to Lithuania to follow around the Ball family. Yesterday,
lie Angelo and LaMelo's game is streamed on Facebook and
(09:18):
a hundred and sixty thousand people I think it is
are simultaneously watching their debut as pro basketball players in
Lithuania as its stream live on Facebook. And so the
LaVar Ball story is an interesting one because on so
many levels. But I want to play with Steve Kerr's
(09:39):
comments right here, and then I want to get your
reaction to it. I'm gonna bring in the crew and
get their reaction to it as well. But we didn't
talk about this because the game's going on. But Steve
Kerr kind of went off on the modern media age.
And Steve Kerr has been very talkative in general about
things outside of basketball. This I thought was a particul
(10:00):
early perceptive and astute criticism of the modern media environment
that we find ourselves in. And I'm gonna play that
audio for you here and then we're gonna unpack it.
Let's hit that audio where we're going as we're going
away from covering the game, and we're getting closer to
just sensationalized news. And um, it's not even news really,
it's just a complete nonsense. Um. But if you package
(10:23):
that irrational nonsense with some glitter and some ribbon, people
are gonna watch somewhere. Um, I guess it's in Lithuania.
If our balls laughing people are eating out of his
hands for no apparent reason other than you know, he's
become length Kardashian of the NBA or something, and and
(10:45):
that sells. That's what is true in politics and entertainment
and now in sports. Um, it doesn't matter if there's
any substance involved with an issue. Um, it's just can
we make it really interesting for no apparent reason? And
this is a real to me, big question. And I
(11:07):
want to get you guys reaction. I want to open
up the phone lines at eight seven, seven, six three
six nine. To what extent does a media organization have
an obligation to make journalistic decisions not to cover somebody
if they don't think that person is relevant in a
larger scale, If the media, if if sorry, the fans
(11:31):
at large are gobbling this story up like crazy, like catnip.
I just find it to be one of the one
of the great questions about not just sports media, but
media in general of our age. Is the media Back
in the day, when you wrote a newspaper, an editor
would look around at all the stories and he would
(11:51):
assign them, and he or she would make a decision
about what the newspaper was going to cover. The same
thing would happen in television. What the Internet did was
it broke the idea that there was this gatekeeper who
should decide what people want to read. The Internet told
us exactly what people want to read. And I think
(12:12):
about this because I have a website, right, So I've
had a website for six years OutKick dot com. I'll
kick the coverage dot com does millions of readers a
month and a year and everything else for for the
last several years, and I can see exactly what people read,
and so I always say that it's like being able
to peel back the the external arguments that people make of.
(12:35):
Oh I don't care about whether Brett Farve is gonna retire.
Oh I'm sick of Tim Tebow. Oh stop telling me
about Lebron James versus Michael Jordan's. Oh stop telling me
about LaVar Ball? Why do you keep writing so much
about uh, you know, like insert popular yet overcovered in
many respects subject. And what you would see over and
(12:59):
over again is people may claim that they've got enough
info about a subject, but they consistently click and read
about it. And I'm certain LaVar Ball is that situation
right now. And some of you right now probably rolling
your eyes, like I'm sick of talking about LaVar Ball.
I don't really think we're talking about LaVar Ball anymore.
I think we're talking about the modern media, and LaVar
Ball has become a metaphor for it. And is Steve
(13:22):
Kerr right? To what extent does an organization like ESPN,
or an organization like Fox Sports, or an individual like
me have to not give people what I know they're
going to want to hear and or click on even
if we don't think it's particularly relevant. And I think
that's where the power of the media still exists today,
(13:46):
because they can decide what they think is worthy of
a story. And then I guarantee you the stories about
LaVar Ball on ESPN dot com are among the most
read on the entire website. But just because that's the case,
should the gatekeepers at ESPN say, you know what, on
(14:07):
a pure story basis, LaVar Ball's opinion of Luke Walton
doesn't really matter. It's not a big story. If we're
going to suddenly say every parents opinion of a story
is relevant, where exactly do we draw the line now
in this new expanded scope of where stories expand too
(14:30):
in an Internet era, I just I I I find
And then there's other people out there who are saying, Oh,
you shouldn't be covering him. Oh, we're gonna blame the
reporter who asked the questions. I don't think you can
blame the reporter for asking the questions, but I do
think there's an interesting question there to be had about
just because people are reading it, does that mean it's news?
(14:52):
Because I think that's the easy response, right, Well, the
re why are you covering LaVar Ball? Because people click
on the articles, and people may say, oh, I don't
care about LaVar Ball. I don't click on the articles,
but the data reflects that you do. And the first
time that I remember really noticing this was probably about
a decade ago, when everybody said, why is Brett farves
(15:15):
retirement or non retirement being so obsessively covered. I don't
care about whether he's gonna play for the Minnesota Vikings.
I don't care about this story at all. I'm totally
uninterested in it. And then we would get the site
traffic data. I was writing at FanHouse at the time,
and Brett Farve articles would dominate everything else. So people
(15:37):
like to say, oh, I don't read that, but in
reality they do. And LaVar Ball is basically the porn
of the sports industry right now. People say, oh, I
don't know who are those people who was looking at pornography.
I'm not looking at pornography. Nobody goes on the internet.
I'm not I'm not the guy who goes on the
Internet looks at pornography. Meanwhile, for of all Internet traffic
(15:59):
is porn all right, everybody's looking at porn out there,
but people deny that they're doing it. LaVar Ball is
for the sports media industry porn. He's cheap clicks, He's
not particularly uh in depth. He's UH candy right, there's
no substance to it. But is there still an obligation
(16:21):
to cover it? If we know that everybody's going to
click on it, should there still be a gatekeeper industry?
I just find everything about this LaVar Ball story to
be utterly fascinating. Be sure to catch live editions about
Kick the Coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am
Eastern three am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
I Heart Radio app. Let's roll right into this John
(16:44):
Gruden audio. John Gruden has been the great white coaching
whale forever. He wanted to keep his name in the
mix because he wanted to eventually come back and coach.
It's funny. We spent a lot of time talking about
all the groomers surrounding John Gruden, the John Gruden coach
rumors UH at the University of Tennessee, and I know
he had significant conversations with a lot of boosters. They're
(17:05):
talked about putting together a staff, and the number one
reaction was, why in the world would John Gruden leave
Monday Night Football. I can't tell you the number of
times I heard people say that, and the answer is
because he's a coach, and I thought he's eventually going
to be a coach again. I've been saying that for years,
that John Gruden is not going to become John Madden
and just go into the booth and never return. And
(17:27):
then when he takes the Raider's job, all those people
who were saying, oh, he'll never leave Monday Night Football,
they just vanished. They just disappeared overnight. And we officially
got the introductory press conference of John Gruden twenty years
after the Raiders hired him for the first time. And
my guy Danny g has put together the best cuts
from that press conference, as well as John Gruden appearing
(17:49):
with j T and the Brick, which I believe JT
the Brick, JT and the Brick would be an incredible
combo though U j T the Brick on Fox Sports
Radio in the afternoon. Here is the collection of all
the audio from John Gruden, newest Raider head coach. I
never wanted to leave the Raiders. I never thought I'd
(18:10):
be back, but here I am, and I'm ready to
get to work. There's really four major reasons that I
am here coaching today. Number One, I love football. I
love the players that play it. I love the preparation,
I love the journey. I love football. And I love
the city of Oakland. I had a son here. Some
of my great memories in life are in Oakland, and
I want to give them two of the best years
(18:31):
of football that I can possibly help deliver. And I
love the Raiders. The brand is global. Everywhere I went
as a Monday night football analyst, the Raider nation would
come out of the ground. I love the Raiders, and
most of all, I love to win and I'm gonna
do everything I can. No guarantees, no promises, but I
(18:52):
want to win. He has a great armed talent. He's athletic,
he's got natural leadership skills. He's young, he's in his prime,
he's healthy now. I think he's got a huge upside.
With Greg Olsen in the system that we're gonna put
in place is going to demand a lot from him,
and I think that's what's gonna unlock the greatness in him.
The big reason I'm here is because of the city
of Oakland, uh the Oakland Raiders, that they trained me.
(19:14):
They raised me in the black hole, and I want
to share football with them for two years and I'm
really dead set on giving them everything they've got. I remember,
as a coach of the Raiders, I wondered what Kansas
City's practices were like. To have an opportunity to see
those things, it was incredibly beneficial and I would be
able to go sit in different meetings, visit with different
(19:35):
coaches on different teams. When you're a coach of the Raiders,
you can't get those opportunities. And it did benefit me
a lot. Hopefully it shows and I never really wanted
to leave. I'm thrilled to be back, and very few
people get an opportunity to go back to where it
all started. I'm thrilled and I'm thankful for the opportunity,
but I also consider it a great responsibility to do
(19:57):
something with it, and I just encourage all the fan have. Hey,
I need your help. Let's rock this place, Let's have
some fun, and let's let's play our best football for
the city of Oakland. Raider Nation. This is a big
f and deal. Please welcome the head coach of the
Oakland Raiders, Mr John Gruden. Gruden officially back into the NFL.
(20:23):
And I'm not one of those guys who's out there saying, oh,
I don't believe in him. I have questions about him.
I think he's gonna be good, Like most head coaches
in the NFL are good if they have a good quarterback,
and I do think he's got a good quarterback in
Derek Carr. Even though things have obviously fallen off this
past year. Really ever since the injury, I mean, Derek
Carr has not been the same guy. I mean, if
(20:44):
you go back in time too, and I'll bring in
Danny g to confirm all this, since he's a resident
Raider expert on the show, But if you go back
in time to the moments right before that injury, and
it was looking like the Raiders We're going to potentially
have the number one overall seed in the a f
C contending for the Super Bowl, to having to trot
out their third string quarterback in uh in Connor Cook
(21:07):
against Brock Oswiler in that awful trying to forget that
in that awful playoff game last year, and then this
year he just hasn't been good. I mean Derek Carr
all season long, the Raiders finished six and ten, get
Jack del Rio fired. I mean from potentially having a
chance to win a Super Bowl with Jack del Rio
the year before to getting him fired the next year.
(21:28):
What in the world happened with Derek Carr. Well, Todd
Downing got Jack del Rio fired, and Jack del Rio
got himself fired because he was too stubborn Clay to
change anything and make any adjustments. I think the trouble
started with Derek Carr against Washington. There in d C
against the Redskins. You saw that it was a standalone,
nationally televised game, and the O line fell apart. Derek
(21:52):
Carr fell apart. He was on his back for most
of the game. And then the next week they go
to Denver and they're trying to shake that all off,
and instead he breaks three bones in his back. And
he only looked like himself at home in Oakland against
the Chiefs, which was that Thursday night game where he
had that crazy comeback in the fourth quarter. Remember it
(22:13):
took like six plays at the very end of all
those untimed downs, and yeah, that he looked like Derek
Carr that game. But that was about it. It was
a lot of inconsistencies. The wide receivers dropped a ton
of passes. The old line, the scheme of the new
blocking scheme, the zone blocking instead of the power blocking,
(22:33):
backfired on the team, and so it was just discombobulated.
The team was very disjointed, and you had the stoic
Jack del Rio standing there in his postgame press conferences
where all he could say was, well, we just need
to get our mojo back, and he was never fired up.
And I don't think I need to tell you that
Raider fans are super passionate fans, so you almost need
(22:57):
a coach on that sideline that's just as irie as
the fans, and Jon Gruden definitely is the man for
the job. All right. So right now we have I
would say five young quarterbacks, and I'm still defining young
quarterbacks as Derek Carr and younger. We'll put in Blake
Bortles there as well, since he's now in the second
round of the playoffs. Okay, all of those guys are
(23:18):
in their fourth year, are younger. I'm gonna try to
name them all. We've got Blake Bortles, who's obviously in
the second round now playing against the Jags, We've got
Derek Carr. We've got Marcus Mariotta who is in his
third year and is now in the second round of
the playoffs, having one a road playoff game playing against
the Patriots. We've got Jamis Winston down in uh down
(23:39):
in a really disappointing year with the Tampa Bay buccane years.
We've got the young guys, the second year guys, Carson
Wentz who was injured, Jared Goff who just lost, and
Dak Prescott. I think that is seven guys I want
to bring in all of you guys as the crew.
Who would you take right now of those seven as
(23:59):
your core back for the next decade. There's seven guys
I just named, all in their fourth, their third, or
their second year, all you know, completing their fourth, their
their third or their second. I'm gonna rank them. We'll
talk about this a little bit more, I think an
hour three because I do find this a little bit intriguing,
and I'll tell you who I would take right now.
So of those seven, and you guys are gonna get
(24:21):
you guys are gonna be furious with you. Give us
the seven again real quick, alright, the seven and everybody
you can you can hop on Twitter. You can hop
on Twitter and give me your verdict of who you
would take of these seven. All right, these are the
seven youngest quarterbacks in the NFL right now, all starting,
all either completing their second, their third, or their fourth year.
(24:42):
I'm gonna rank them at the top of our three.
But I'm also curious what Jeff Schwartz is gonna want
to do. But these are the seven, alright, completing their
fourth year right now. We have Blake Bortles, who is
about to play against the Pittsburgh Steelers obviously managed somehow
to win a game, all right. We have got also
completing his fourth year. We've got Derek Carr alright, both
(25:04):
of those guys from the same draft class. Third year,
third year guys, We've got Jamis Winston and Marcus Mariotta.
And then in the second year boat, we have got
all three of that. I'm not gonna do any first
year guys. So people out there who are like, oh,
I'd take Deshaun Watson or whatever, he only played seven games,
whatever it is, I'm not talking about any first year
guys right now. These are just the fourth, the third,
(25:27):
and the second get year guys. Uh. The second year guys.
We've got Dak Prescott, we've got Jared Goff, and we've
got Carson Wentz. Of those seven, and again, i'm gonna
rank them at the start of our three So I'll
give you my rankings one to seven of those young quarterbacks.
Who would you take. I just want to know who
your top draft pick would be right now if you
(25:49):
had to take one of those guys for the next decade.
And I'm thinking about it, obviously, because I think a
bigger reason why John Gruden decided to come back now
to the Raiders was because of the Obviously, he's seen
Derek Carr play a lot of games and he thinks
he can be instrumental in taking Derek Carter the playoffs
and winning some games there. So I think that's a
(26:09):
big part of why John Gruden is coming back. But
if you right now we're in NFL GM, or you
were a coach, whatever you want to say, and you
got to pick one of those seven guys to have
for the next decade. I'm not just talking about next
year or the year after. You've got him for a decade.
That's the benefit of being young guys. Who would you
take as your number one overall. Pick, who would you take?
(26:30):
I'll start with you, Jason Martin. Uh, there's only two
choices for me, and it's it's tough because I really
am impressed with Derek Carr, but I'll put him in
number two. I've got Carson Wentz at number one. Carson Wentz,
before he was injured, was the best under pressure in
the NFL. He was I think eleven touchdowns and no
interceptions when he was facing at least a four man rush.
(26:52):
This is a guy that got it done when they
sent the house at him. What he was able to
do and what the Eagles have looked like since he
went out, and no one here believes that Nick Foles
is complete trash. But if you look at what Nick
Foles has not been able to do and what Wentz
was able to do, you can see you saw a
lot of flashes in the first season, and you saw
what he's done in the second season. At his height,
(27:13):
the way he can look over that defense, get the
ball down the field. He's got a solid arm. He's
a really good athlete, faster than people give him credit for.
So as much as I like Derek Carr, I love
his competitiveness, I love what he's able to do with
his arm, really really Like Derek Carr, I would go
with Carson Wentz right now? What about l A? Yeah,
(27:33):
I would have to agree. Is that is everybody gonna
go car So I think we're gonna go Wentz Car
one two. I can't speak for justin here. You're going
I was gonna say the same thing. So everybody other
than me is gonna go with this is intriguing. Everybody's
going Carson Wentz and then you're you're going you're going
to I haven't. I haven't decided. I'm gonna rank all
(27:54):
seven of them, Okay, I'll go all right. I asked
for your number one. Who's your last? Who is the
one that you would draft last of those seven? Right now?
Jason Martin, I have to throw the caveat in. I
know you're not gonna like this, but if I were
ranking the seven, Winston would be or pardon me, Watson
would be no less than third on this list and
(28:15):
for me, but Blake Bortles is dead last for me
right now, without a doubt. Blake Bortles is last? Is
l A? Do you agree? Yes? All right? So I
think we're probably gonna have unity there, and I do
think Carson Wentz has to be the number one guy
that everybody takes. I mean, I think he would have
been potentially the NFL m v P this year if
he hadn't gotten injured like he did. And I'm not
of the belief that that injury is going to be
(28:35):
so severe that it's gonna somehow alter his trajectory for
the next decade. So I think the Eagles have the
best guy. I think that Bortles is the worst. Would
you right now, regardless of what happens in this game
against the Steelers, is the worst case scenario here, honestly
for the Jags that they beat the Steelers and have
to bring back Blake Bortles for like over twenty million
(28:56):
dollars a year. How many games does Blake Bortles have
to win this in the playoffs for the Jags to
commit to him long term. I think that's a fair question.
I also think you can look at it from this perspective.
It's never good when you're in the NFL, and you
can look at a football team, look at a defense
to give up ten or less points in eight games
this season, look at a stud like Leonard four Nett
(29:17):
and say that team right there is a quarterback away
from a super Bowl. That means they are really far
away because you have to have a quarterback to reach
a super Bowl in the NFL. So that would be
the worst case scenario for me, because even to a
super Bowl, you can't let him go either, Like I
you need him to lose because you need to find
(29:37):
a way to move on from him. Yeah, but it's
not gonna be him winning the game. It's gonna be
their defense winning. But what if he might have a
good game. He might come out and throw for two
hundred yards and three touchdowns, you know, and people are like, oh,
you know, and and he would look even better because
the defense would play like they did and you'd be like, oh,
you gotta give Blake Bortle's credit. He just went on
the road and beat Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers. I mean,
(30:00):
I don't think Blake Bortles can win the super Bowl.
But if he beats the Steelers, does he putting the
onus on the Jags to have to pay him twenty million? Like?
What is? I'm just genuinely curious because I think right now,
the Jags even though they went ten and six, and
even though they beat the the Bills and one of
the worst playoff games in the history of the NFL.
(30:22):
I think even the most die hard Blake Bortles guy,
and there are some of them who come into my
Twitter mentions every now and then that are just die
hard Blake Bortles believers, recognize that if you had Kirk
Cousins on that Jags team right now, they might be favored,
uh potentially next season to win the a f C.
I mean, I don't think that's a ridiculous proposition to
(30:43):
make right now, if you just swapped to Blake Bortles
for Kirk Cousins, God forbid, you got Jimmy Garoppolo in there,
right if they have been able to get him in there,
if you got the right guy in a quarterback, and
I think that's right to say you're a quarterback away
because it's hard to find quarterbacks. But potentially Kirk Cousins
could be a free aid. Will see what happens with
what the Washington Redskins continue to do with the worst
(31:05):
the worst negotiation with a quarterback in in NFL history.
What do you decide to do with Blake Bortles if
he wins this game, because I think that puts the
onus on the Jags in a really difficult way because
they don't want to go with their backup. They don't wanna,
they don't want to suddenly have to roll out there.
I don't think they also necessarily want to go into
(31:25):
the draft, given the fact that they're gonna be picking
in the twenties and go get a quarterback in the draft.
And there's really unless Kirk Cousins as a free agent. Now,
if you could make a play with him, I think
that changes everything. But otherwise they're really kind of handcuffed
here because I don't know what they do to be
able to I mean, you want to go to Chad Henny.
It's not like they even have a young guy on
that roster that they feel like could be much better
(31:48):
than Blake Bortles. I just think they're really handcuffed. He
sure to catch live editions about kick the Coverage with
Clay Travis weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific,
joined now by my guy Lane Kiffin. You can follow
him on Twitter at lane Underscore Kiffin or he enjoys
having a good time, Lane, What's it like, now that
the season is over and you've got to eleven wins,
have you had any time to kind of sit back
(32:10):
and reflect upon what you guys accomplished an f AU
at year one, Yeah, we have Clay I think, you know,
going on the road recruiting. Um, that's when you kind
of you know, you get out of kind of your bubble.
You know, in your season, you're just in office all
day and and working and coming home and so that's
when you really and and Boka really you know, it's
(32:31):
no surprise. Book is not necessarily a football area, you know,
so it's not like everywhere you go you hear it.
You hear about it all the time because you have
a lot of people that don't follow football. Where you
start going up into you know SEC land recruiting and stuff.
You know, um, people no no players on your team
name now you know they're familiar with they know where
FPU is. You know, they watched teams and and talk
(32:53):
a lot about the offense. And we get a lot
of calls from people around the country you know that
you wouldn't expect, you know, gets getting offers an sec
a SEC. You don't want to come here, so you know,
it's definitely changed. One of the things that's also changed
is and I always say, like the university is the
football team and the basketball team often the front porch
of the university. They make people aware of it, They
(33:14):
kind of welcome people in. You guys have got a
surge of applications as well from kids who just are like, man,
that school seems like it would be a lot of
fun to go to. What is the football team meant
to the overall university a lot? You know, we have
a president that understands that, and that was his plan.
He came from Clemson and he saw the impact when
they started winning with Dabo. You know, he was there
(33:35):
for that whole time. And what that does for the
university that's where you know, and these salaries that are
out of whack, you know, he coach salaries you know,
are ridiculous now, you know, because because we have such
a great job. But that's where that comes from, not
just the money for the football program makes, but what
it does to university. You know, I think they told
(33:55):
me last week, you know, our our out of state
applications are up one year. You know, since we've been here.
That's that that doesn't happen. You know, that's that'sn't heard of.
So the impact on that as on the school and
school's budget, you know as well beyond the football program.
Yesterday or Monday, UH we saw Monday night, we saw
Alabama play against UM obviously Georgia, and we were texting
(34:19):
some during that game. But I want to know when
you were recruiting to UH in Hawaii, I think you
made the trip out there to see him when you
watched him on tape or you saw him, what stood
out about his abilities that made you think we gotta
get this guy. Well, I saw him a number of
times he came to Alabama through in the camp. I
(34:39):
went to Hawaii obviously, watched game tape on him, and UM,
you know he just he had this just unusual ability
to to see the field in to make plays. You
know he's looking I mean it happened in the game.
It's the last play. You know, he's looking over to
right and you know you're not really supposed to or
(35:00):
older the guy that you throw to. You know, George
is getting this criticism. You know, Kirby Smart coached the
heck of a game. I mean that game could win
George's way a hundred of times. We all know that.
You know, referee calls, you know, different breaks and and
that's really double coverage. You know, they're playing quarters to
the field and they're playing halfs to the to the
boundary to the one receiver, so that corner is supposed
(35:20):
to reroute him the safeties over the top. You can't
throw that ball, you know, you're not You're not coached
to throw that ball. You're not even coached to look
over there. That's just to a you know, being to
a he just sees looking where he's supposed to do
the right, He feels that guy and then he just
chucks the ball over there for a touchdown. You know,
and in its history, you know, game changing play. You know,
they get it. You know, I always think what happens
(35:43):
if if he doesn't throw over there. You know, they
missed that play. And now it goes to the third
and twenty six and they're out a field goal range
with a kicker that's not doing well, you know, and
now now it's reversed the Georgy. What a great job, Georgia.
Did you know you can't take a sixteen yard sack,
you know in overtime, So um, so why that's why
recruiting so big players make plays in big time games,
and that's what happened in that game. You know, like
(36:04):
I said, credit to coach Saban awesome when but credit
to Kirby too, you know, Todd mcshade, you know, wherever
that's worth was on yesterday. I saw it. I'm fine,
I'm in top fifty players in the draft. There were
eight players in that game. Seven were on Alabama, one
was on Georgia. You know, so, um, you know that
they have they have great players, and that's the credit
(36:25):
of coaches recruiting. When you saw what was happening with
you talked about Kirby smart and the ability he had
done to put in a perfect game plan. It seemed
to give his chance, his team the best possible chance
to win. Were you surprised that Nick Saban was willing
to go to two at the half or did you
expect it? I expected that you didn't have a choice,
you know, um that there was and it really wasn't.
(36:47):
You know, sometimes you change quarterbacks not necessarily because of
the play of the quarterback, because you're just trying to
find a spark. You know, they were doing nothing on offense.
In that first half. You know, they weren't close to
moving the ball so in and it just felt like
a dead energy kind of some looks on the sidelines,
you know, kind of felt like a very unusual Nick
(37:07):
Saban team and game, you know, in that first half.
So I think I don't think it was as much
about Jalen's plastic it was. It was more about just
one just trying to look for something to spark, you know,
spark the team, you know, or if Jalen Hurts reached
out to you for advice, and he may well do
it because you guys have a relationship. You were as
offensive coordinator for almost the entirety of year one. What
(37:28):
would you tell him to do and what would you
advise him? Well, I've already spoke to them, you know,
I think that um, you know that that's that's got
to be a conversation they have with coach Saban, which
they're going to and you know, just what are what
our coaches plans and what does he see? And you
know then obviously and they've got to make a decision,
you know. And there I said yesterday, which I can't
(37:50):
believe he said to a to a transfer, what that
That's that's what we're in nowadays. You know, Blake Barnett
left the year before. You know, once he wasn't the starter.
They actually had three quarters two other quarterbacks left within
the last year. So that's what happens around college football.
I think I think somebody said Easton's leaving. I mean,
when you're young, you know, and the other guy you know,
(38:11):
you feel like you should play, and the other guys
playing you leave, you know, at that position because only
one guy plays at the time, it's not like playing receiver.
Would you expect that both those guys would not come back?
I mean one or the other of them. I mean
that you've got two talented quarterbacks and you just talked
about it like Jacob ees and the reports are that
he is now going to transfer to Washington given the
(38:31):
fact that Jake from looks like he has that job.
Plus they're bringing in a five star guy I think
at justin fields to George as well. Who knows who's
gonna end up actually winning that. Do you think both
those guys go through spring practice at Bama and whoever
ends up getting named the starter at the end of
spring practice the other guy transfers, or do you think
the writings on the wall, and one of those guys
goes ahead and says, you know what, I'll bounce and
(38:52):
go somewhere else where I know I can start. I
would think at a time, you know, um, most people
in jalen situation, you know, and um and and most parents,
which a lot of times kind of lead the thing.
You know, Jalen would would be gone today, you know,
because I think that you know what happened and whatever
(39:14):
he's gonna assume, you know, is that that two is
gonna be the guy. But this is different. Jalen's dad's
very strong personality, old school, great high school coach. Jalen
is such a team player that I don't know, you know,
maybe maybe they both do stay. Is there any way
Jalen could play a different position. I got people blowing
me up saying the guy is just such a difficult
tackle and obviously so shifty in the field that even
(39:36):
if he's not a quarterback, he could potentially play somewhere else.
Is that accurate or is that a ridiculous idea? I
got that question yesterday. You know, should he be play
should he go play another position? I want to take
a poll. I want to go back thirteen months, you know, um,
after the SEC championship as a true freshman, he's the
SEC offensive player of the year, first freshman since herschel
(39:57):
Walker to do that. I think about that, okay, uh,
And I want to take a pull of the hundred
and whatever thirty coaches out their head coaches. How many
would have would have given anything to have him on
their team? Probably everyone, probably every one of them except
maybe Oklahoma. So did the guy break his arm or something? No?
I mean, the guy's an elite talent. And I mean
(40:20):
I I don't know why this year happened, what had happened,
but um, you know I look at the games and
I said, it's yesterday and it's gonna come across arrogant.
You know. They said, would would you? Would you have
hold him? Well? I wouldn't have been in that situation
in my head because that's just how I think. Not
competitive I am. I would have put the guy in
different situations, you know, just like we did the year before.
You know, look at his total touchdowns, you know, as
(40:41):
a freshman versus a sophomore, when this was supposed to
be you know, this great offseason and he faced time
Tom Brady and you know, um, you know for coach Saban.
Coach Saban on the interviewed the day before the game,
you know, the other days, said how much he's improved
in the passing game. So I'm not sure what happened.
You would have thrown the ball down the field a
lot more. Why do you think they didn't? Um, I'm
(41:04):
not sure. I don't have those answers. Um that they
did when two of it in Yeah, you know, so, um,
you know that that would be you know, obviously, you know,
I think if you got Jalen and his father on
the phone, that would that would probably be there their complaint,
you know that the feeling that they have that you
know when twa has gone in this season and in
(41:27):
that game the ball got thrown down the field a
lot more, you know. So, Um, I think part of
that too as they got behind and so they started
going quicker, which in my opinion, you would should have
done from the first snap of the game. Watched the
Oklahoma game in Oklahoma got what thirty five points against
Georgia and four yards and a a half or something like
that because they're going fast. You know that you don't
(41:48):
move the ball in Georgia. You don't move the ball
in Alabama by going old and running the old school offenses.
You know that we saw most of that game on
both sides. You called place for a long time. How
do you avoid getting to consider pervative down the stretch
and trying to be too cute? Because I think that's
something that happens a lot for play callers is you
have some success, but then it's late in the game
and you're like, oh boy, I don't necessarily want to
(42:10):
take the same risks that I would have taken earlier
in the game. How do you manage that? How do
you make smart decisions? How do you balance that in
your own mind as the game progresses, because I feel
like we saw a lot of guys tighten up as
play callers as the game came down towards the conclusion. Well,
I think you know, the assumption is when you when
you need to get conservative, and there are times obviously
(42:32):
you need to, you know that that means that you
need to run the ball, you know, get in our center,
run the ball between the tackles, you know, and you
know that that that doesn't work roo versus you know,
teams with with good talent like Alabama and Georgia. Like
you saw once Georgia went to that. You can get
quote conservative, but but still have motions with things. Give
the balls on sweeps, get the balls. Plays that work
(42:54):
versus those defense you can still run those just for
whatever reason, a lot of people don't do it that way,
you know. They think you got to get get everybody
in tighten. You know, go to what I call like
the Battle of Gettysburg. Everybody just smash. You smash each other.
Twenty two guys smashing each other for six inches. Outstanding
stuff is always. Lane, appreciate you joining us. By the way,
We're going to see you back with the Raiders, with
(43:15):
the with the situation with John Gruden. Are you gonna
see me back there? Yeah, maybe you gotta come back
one day. No, No, I am a Raiders span again though,
good good stuff. That's a Lane Kiffin. Follow him on
Twitter at Lane Underscore Kiffin.
This is the best of out Kick the Coverage with
Clay Travis on Fox Sports Radio. Appreciate all of you
joining us early this morning on a Wednesday edition. We're
back from Atlanta. The Albama Crimson Tide continues to be
the ruling national champion of college football, and we are
(00:22):
moving towards figuring out who the champion of the NFL
will be as a Divisional round inches closer and closer
for different games two on Saturday and two on Sunday,
and we'll begin to break all of those down, giving
you a roadmap of where today's show will head. Our one,
we'll talk a little bit with my guy Johnny Odd
shark uh to kind of gets you set for Divisional
round gambling action. Later in this hour will also an
(00:45):
hour to talk with Jeff Schwartz and break down all
the divisional playoff games as well. But I got a
couple of stories off the jump here that I find
to be really particularly intriguing that I want to hit on,
and we haven't had that much time to talk about
them because of the NFL and obviously being in Atlanta
the past two days and our focus on the NFL
(01:06):
playoffs as well as the college football title game, and
the two stories are these. One. I haven't talked that
much about LaVar Ball and all of this story surrounding
the Lakers and all of the comments that have been
made about his attack on the Luke Walton, and I
find it to be such an incredibly fascinating story in
(01:28):
a modern media sense. And we're gonna talk about that
some here off the jump. And also John Gruden officially
ending his tenure with ESPN as Monday night football broadcaster
and becoming the new head coach of the Oakland Raiders.
Why I think it's a really good hire for the
Raiders and why I think he's gonna be great for
Derek Carr as they continue to work on cars evolution
(01:53):
as he moves into fifth years. I don't think there's
any doubt at all for anybody who watched the Raiders
or any casual fan of the NFL that Derek Carr
took a big step back in the year four. Why
was that? And what sort of legitimate goals should the
Raiders have with Jon Gruden now back in charge calling plays.
We're gonna play some audio clips from that, But first
(02:13):
I want to start with LaVar Ball because we haven't
spent any time on it, and or hardly any time
at all. And I want to give you a couple
of thoughts here and then we're gonna play you an
audio clip from I believe it was Steve Kerr that
has got a lot gotten a lot of attention over
the past couple of days. Uh, this story, to me
(02:35):
is emblematic of how the landscape has expanded when it
comes to who is worthy of being a major figure
in the world of sports. And let me explain what
I mean by that. What the Internet really did, I think,
on its largest level when it comes to sports, is
(02:56):
it changed and expanded the the the arena when it
came to who is a public figure and who do
we talk about now? That might sound confusing for a minute,
but let me kind of break that down because I
do think it's a it's a smart way to think
about how sports and sports media changed. Prior to the Internet,
(03:19):
there were very few people out there who could tell
you who the strength coach was for a college football program.
Think about that for a minute. Back in like N one.
Is there a single person out there listening right now
who knew even if you were a die hard fan
(03:39):
who the strength coach of a college football program was,
I would argue to the answer is probably no. And
that's not because you didn't care about your team, and
that's not because you didn't follow them aggressively in the newspaper.
That's because there wasn't that much space to give over
no matter how much you liked your team, there wasn't
(03:59):
that space to give over to the overall entire coaching staff.
And so you might know about several big players, you
might know about several um several coaches, but it's unlikely
you're gonna know, like, say, the strength coach. In this
modern era, I bet just about every single hardcore Alabama
(04:21):
fan knows that Scott Cochran is their street coach and
can tell you a story about him, and probably watched
a video of him destroying the runner up trophy leading
up to this game against Georgia. And that's because the
Internet has expanded the range by which we cover characters.
Same thing is true if you think about, for instance,
(04:43):
recruiting in college football. I remember I had a good
friend uh in a pre internet era, really before rivals exploded,
before seven Sports exploded, before all of the different recruiting
sites took off. Their was a UH the way that
you kept track on recruits if you were a die
(05:05):
hard recruiting junkie. And this is crazy, and I bet
some of you may have done this, but very few
of you who are young or even going to realize
this existed. You would call a one nine hundred number
and pay like you were calling a sex line, a
substantial amount whenever. It was three dollars a minute to
get the latest update on recruiting in a pre Internet era,
(05:26):
and there was a relatively small segment of the population
that was aggressive enough to follow recruiting in that way,
and so that was the way you followed on a
day to day basis the ups and downs of the
recruiting UH universe, and then you know, would be covered
in newspapers a little bit, but by and large, if
you were recruiting junkie, you couldn't cover that. Then the
(05:47):
Internet begins to exist, and those are hundred million dollar
businesses now that are able to satisfy fan demand for
recruiting info by charging ten dollars a month UH two fans.
I got a funny story here, and I wrote my
second book on Rocky Top. Great guy by the name
of Alex Hought. I went to college in UH in
(06:08):
George Washington University UH at AT in Washington, d C.
And I worked in a congressman's office up there as
an intern while I was there, And Alex Haught was
the chief of staff for Bob Clement, who was Nashville's
congressman at the time. Huge University of Tennessee fan, obsessive
University of Tennessee fan. UH. And when he he UH,
(06:31):
it was one of the saddest stories that that I've
ever been involved in. UM. When I was a sophomore.
I believe he was coming back to Nashville to run
Al Gore's campaign in Tennessee in the two thousand presidential election.
And he was leaving al Gore the headquarters of the
(06:51):
Al Gore UH Tennessee campaign and he was hit and
killed by a drunk driver on West End Avenue in Nashville,
tenn See. UM. And he was engaged to be married
at the time, thirty four years old. Incredible guy, UH
killed by an habitual drunken driver. I mean, just an
(07:11):
awful story. UM and UH. There's still a lot of
people who have trouble UM recovering from that. And um,
I I definitely um, you know, I wrote a lot
about it and on Rocky Top and his fiancee at
the time went back to look over all of their
(07:32):
expenses on the on his credit cards and she saw
that he was calling these one nine hundred numbers and
she was like, what in the world has he been into.
I can't believe he was calling phone sex lines while
we were married, uh be engaged to be married. And
she called that eventually she called that one n numbers.
She's like, I gotta figure out what all these charges
(07:53):
are that were going to his his phones and uh
when she called it was one number was four recruiting info.
He had been so obsessed with recruiting. Just about every
day he would call and pay uh, you know, three
dollars a minute to figure out what the recruiting info was.
And that's a remarkable story about just an awesome guy.
(08:15):
But what is fascinating about that is it was before
the Internet really taken off. This is back in and
there's no real ability to to get that info. And
I'm using this all as an example because LaVar Ball,
to me, represents the full fruition of the Internet, expanding
(08:37):
the arena to the point where a guy like LaVar
Ball can become famous without doing anything at all other
than being the dad of a top basketball player and
top basketball players in quotation marks because his Lonzo a
top sixty player in the NBA right now. Probably not,
(08:58):
I mean, he's not a top player in any stretch
of imagination. Yet LaVar Ball in Lithuania has got his
own beat writer following him from ESPN dot Com, Jeff
Goodman goes overseas to Lithuania to follow around the Ball family. Yesterday,
lie Angelo and LaMelo's game is streamed on Facebook and
(09:18):
a hundred and sixty thousand people I think it is
are simultaneously watching their debut as pro basketball players in
Lithuania as its stream live on Facebook. And so the
LaVar Ball story is an interesting one because on so
many levels. But I want to play with Steve Kerr's
(09:39):
comments right here, and then I want to get your
reaction to it. I'm gonna bring in the crew and
get their reaction to it as well. But we didn't
talk about this because the game's going on. But Steve
Kerr kind of went off on the modern media age.
And Steve Kerr has been very talkative in general about
things outside of basketball. This I thought was a particul
(10:00):
early perceptive and astute criticism of the modern media environment
that we find ourselves in. And I'm gonna play that
audio for you here and then we're gonna unpack it.
Let's hit that audio where we're going as we're going
away from covering the game, and we're getting closer to
just sensationalized news. And um, it's not even news really,
it's just a complete nonsense. Um. But if you package
(10:23):
that irrational nonsense with some glitter and some ribbon, people
are gonna watch somewhere. Um, I guess it's in Lithuania.
If our balls laughing people are eating out of his
hands for no apparent reason other than you know, he's
become length Kardashian of the NBA or something, and and
(10:45):
that sells. That's what is true in politics and entertainment
and now in sports. Um, it doesn't matter if there's
any substance involved with an issue. Um, it's just can
we make it really interesting for no apparent reason? And
this is a real to me, big question. And I
(11:07):
want to get you guys reaction. I want to open
up the phone lines at eight seven, seven, six three
six nine. To what extent does a media organization have
an obligation to make journalistic decisions not to cover somebody
if they don't think that person is relevant in a
larger scale, If the media, if if sorry, the fans
(11:31):
at large are gobbling this story up like crazy, like catnip.
I just find it to be one of the one
of the great questions about not just sports media, but
media in general of our age. Is the media Back
in the day, when you wrote a newspaper, an editor
would look around at all the stories and he would
(11:51):
assign them, and he or she would make a decision
about what the newspaper was going to cover. The same
thing would happen in television. What the Internet did was
it broke the idea that there was this gatekeeper who
should decide what people want to read. The Internet told
us exactly what people want to read. And I think
(12:12):
about this because I have a website, right, So I've
had a website for six years OutKick dot com. I'll
kick the coverage dot com does millions of readers a
month and a year and everything else for for the
last several years, and I can see exactly what people read,
and so I always say that it's like being able
to peel back the the external arguments that people make of.
(12:35):
Oh I don't care about whether Brett Farve is gonna retire.
Oh I'm sick of Tim Tebow. Oh stop telling me
about Lebron James versus Michael Jordan's. Oh stop telling me
about LaVar Ball? Why do you keep writing so much
about uh, you know, like insert popular yet overcovered in
many respects subject. And what you would see over and
(12:59):
over again is people may claim that they've got enough
info about a subject, but they consistently click and read
about it. And I'm certain LaVar Ball is that situation
right now. And some of you right now probably rolling
your eyes, like I'm sick of talking about LaVar Ball.
I don't really think we're talking about LaVar Ball anymore.
I think we're talking about the modern media, and LaVar
Ball has become a metaphor for it. And is Steve
(13:22):
Kerr right? To what extent does an organization like ESPN,
or an organization like Fox Sports, or an individual like
me have to not give people what I know they're
going to want to hear and or click on even
if we don't think it's particularly relevant. And I think
that's where the power of the media still exists today,
(13:46):
because they can decide what they think is worthy of
a story. And then I guarantee you the stories about
LaVar Ball on ESPN dot com are among the most
read on the entire website. But just because that's the case,
should the gatekeepers at ESPN say, you know what, on
(14:07):
a pure story basis, LaVar Ball's opinion of Luke Walton
doesn't really matter. It's not a big story. If we're
going to suddenly say every parents opinion of a story
is relevant, where exactly do we draw the line now
in this new expanded scope of where stories expand too
(14:30):
in an Internet era, I just I I I find
And then there's other people out there who are saying, Oh,
you shouldn't be covering him. Oh, we're gonna blame the
reporter who asked the questions. I don't think you can
blame the reporter for asking the questions, but I do
think there's an interesting question there to be had about
just because people are reading it, does that mean it's news?
(14:52):
Because I think that's the easy response, right, Well, the
re why are you covering LaVar Ball? Because people click
on the articles, and people may say, oh, I don't
care about LaVar Ball. I don't click on the articles,
but the data reflects that you do. And the first
time that I remember really noticing this was probably about
a decade ago, when everybody said, why is Brett farves
(15:15):
retirement or non retirement being so obsessively covered. I don't
care about whether he's gonna play for the Minnesota Vikings.
I don't care about this story at all. I'm totally
uninterested in it. And then we would get the site
traffic data. I was writing at FanHouse at the time,
and Brett Farve articles would dominate everything else. So people
(15:37):
like to say, oh, I don't read that, but in
reality they do. And LaVar Ball is basically the porn
of the sports industry right now. People say, oh, I
don't know who are those people who was looking at pornography.
I'm not looking at pornography. Nobody goes on the internet.
I'm not I'm not the guy who goes on the
Internet looks at pornography. Meanwhile, for of all Internet traffic
(15:59):
is porn all right, everybody's looking at porn out there,
but people deny that they're doing it. LaVar Ball is
for the sports media industry porn. He's cheap clicks, He's
not particularly uh in depth. He's UH candy right, there's
no substance to it. But is there still an obligation
(16:21):
to cover it? If we know that everybody's going to
click on it, should there still be a gatekeeper industry?
I just find everything about this LaVar Ball story to
be utterly fascinating. Be sure to catch live editions about
Kick the Coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am
Eastern three am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
I Heart Radio app. Let's roll right into this John
(16:44):
Gruden audio. John Gruden has been the great white coaching
whale forever. He wanted to keep his name in the
mix because he wanted to eventually come back and coach.
It's funny. We spent a lot of time talking about
all the groomers surrounding John Gruden, the John Gruden coach
rumors UH at the University of Tennessee, and I know
he had significant conversations with a lot of boosters. They're
(17:05):
talked about putting together a staff, and the number one
reaction was, why in the world would John Gruden leave
Monday Night Football. I can't tell you the number of
times I heard people say that, and the answer is
because he's a coach, and I thought he's eventually going
to be a coach again. I've been saying that for years,
that John Gruden is not going to become John Madden
and just go into the booth and never return. And
(17:27):
then when he takes the Raider's job, all those people
who were saying, oh, he'll never leave Monday Night Football,
they just vanished. They just disappeared overnight. And we officially
got the introductory press conference of John Gruden twenty years
after the Raiders hired him for the first time. And
my guy Danny g has put together the best cuts
from that press conference, as well as John Gruden appearing
(17:49):
with j T and the Brick, which I believe JT
the Brick, JT and the Brick would be an incredible
combo though U j T the Brick on Fox Sports
Radio in the afternoon. Here is the collection of all
the audio from John Gruden, newest Raider head coach. I
never wanted to leave the Raiders. I never thought I'd
(18:10):
be back, but here I am, and I'm ready to
get to work. There's really four major reasons that I
am here coaching today. Number One, I love football. I
love the players that play it. I love the preparation,
I love the journey. I love football. And I love
the city of Oakland. I had a son here. Some
of my great memories in life are in Oakland, and
I want to give them two of the best years
(18:31):
of football that I can possibly help deliver. And I
love the Raiders. The brand is global. Everywhere I went
as a Monday night football analyst, the Raider nation would
come out of the ground. I love the Raiders, and
most of all, I love to win and I'm gonna
do everything I can. No guarantees, no promises, but I
(18:52):
want to win. He has a great armed talent. He's athletic,
he's got natural leadership skills. He's young, he's in his prime,
he's healthy now. I think he's got a huge upside.
With Greg Olsen in the system that we're gonna put
in place is going to demand a lot from him,
and I think that's what's gonna unlock the greatness in him.
The big reason I'm here is because of the city
of Oakland, uh the Oakland Raiders, that they trained me.
(19:14):
They raised me in the black hole, and I want
to share football with them for two years and I'm
really dead set on giving them everything they've got. I remember,
as a coach of the Raiders, I wondered what Kansas
City's practices were like. To have an opportunity to see
those things, it was incredibly beneficial and I would be
able to go sit in different meetings, visit with different
(19:35):
coaches on different teams. When you're a coach of the Raiders,
you can't get those opportunities. And it did benefit me
a lot. Hopefully it shows and I never really wanted
to leave. I'm thrilled to be back, and very few
people get an opportunity to go back to where it
all started. I'm thrilled and I'm thankful for the opportunity,
but I also consider it a great responsibility to do
(19:57):
something with it, and I just encourage all the fan have. Hey,
I need your help. Let's rock this place, Let's have
some fun, and let's let's play our best football for
the city of Oakland. Raider Nation. This is a big
f and deal. Please welcome the head coach of the
Oakland Raiders, Mr John Gruden. Gruden officially back into the NFL.
(20:23):
And I'm not one of those guys who's out there saying, oh,
I don't believe in him. I have questions about him.
I think he's gonna be good, Like most head coaches
in the NFL are good if they have a good quarterback,
and I do think he's got a good quarterback in
Derek Carr. Even though things have obviously fallen off this
past year. Really ever since the injury, I mean, Derek
Carr has not been the same guy. I mean, if
(20:44):
you go back in time too, and I'll bring in
Danny g to confirm all this, since he's a resident
Raider expert on the show, But if you go back
in time to the moments right before that injury, and
it was looking like the Raiders We're going to potentially
have the number one overall seed in the a f
C contending for the Super Bowl, to having to trot
out their third string quarterback in uh in Connor Cook
(21:07):
against Brock Oswiler in that awful trying to forget that
in that awful playoff game last year, and then this
year he just hasn't been good. I mean Derek Carr
all season long, the Raiders finished six and ten, get
Jack del Rio fired. I mean from potentially having a
chance to win a Super Bowl with Jack del Rio
the year before to getting him fired the next year.
(21:28):
What in the world happened with Derek Carr. Well, Todd
Downing got Jack del Rio fired, and Jack del Rio
got himself fired because he was too stubborn Clay to
change anything and make any adjustments. I think the trouble
started with Derek Carr against Washington. There in d C
against the Redskins. You saw that it was a standalone,
nationally televised game, and the O line fell apart. Derek
(21:52):
Carr fell apart. He was on his back for most
of the game. And then the next week they go
to Denver and they're trying to shake that all off,
and instead he breaks three bones in his back. And
he only looked like himself at home in Oakland against
the Chiefs, which was that Thursday night game where he
had that crazy comeback in the fourth quarter. Remember it
(22:13):
took like six plays at the very end of all
those untimed downs, and yeah, that he looked like Derek
Carr that game. But that was about it. It was
a lot of inconsistencies. The wide receivers dropped a ton
of passes. The old line, the scheme of the new
blocking scheme, the zone blocking instead of the power blocking,
(22:33):
backfired on the team, and so it was just discombobulated.
The team was very disjointed, and you had the stoic
Jack del Rio standing there in his postgame press conferences
where all he could say was, well, we just need
to get our mojo back, and he was never fired up.
And I don't think I need to tell you that
Raider fans are super passionate fans, so you almost need
(22:57):
a coach on that sideline that's just as irie as
the fans, and Jon Gruden definitely is the man for
the job. All right. So right now we have I
would say five young quarterbacks, and I'm still defining young
quarterbacks as Derek Carr and younger. We'll put in Blake
Bortles there as well, since he's now in the second
round of the playoffs. Okay, all of those guys are
(23:18):
in their fourth year, are younger. I'm gonna try to
name them all. We've got Blake Bortles, who's obviously in
the second round now playing against the Jags, We've got
Derek Carr. We've got Marcus Mariotta who is in his
third year and is now in the second round of
the playoffs, having one a road playoff game playing against
the Patriots. We've got Jamis Winston down in uh down
(23:39):
in a really disappointing year with the Tampa Bay buccane years.
We've got the young guys, the second year guys, Carson
Wentz who was injured, Jared Goff who just lost, and
Dak Prescott. I think that is seven guys I want
to bring in all of you guys as the crew.
Who would you take right now of those seven as
(23:59):
your core back for the next decade. There's seven guys
I just named, all in their fourth, their third, or
their second year, all you know, completing their fourth, their
their third or their second. I'm gonna rank them. We'll
talk about this a little bit more, I think an
hour three because I do find this a little bit intriguing,
and I'll tell you who I would take right now.
So of those seven, and you guys are gonna get
(24:21):
you guys are gonna be furious with you. Give us
the seven again real quick, alright, the seven and everybody
you can you can hop on Twitter. You can hop
on Twitter and give me your verdict of who you
would take of these seven. All right, these are the
seven youngest quarterbacks in the NFL right now, all starting,
all either completing their second, their third, or their fourth year.
(24:42):
I'm gonna rank them at the top of our three.
But I'm also curious what Jeff Schwartz is gonna want
to do. But these are the seven, alright, completing their
fourth year right now. We have Blake Bortles, who is
about to play against the Pittsburgh Steelers obviously managed somehow
to win a game, all right. We have got also
completing his fourth year. We've got Derek Carr alright, both
(25:04):
of those guys from the same draft class. Third year,
third year guys, We've got Jamis Winston and Marcus Mariotta.
And then in the second year boat, we have got
all three of that. I'm not gonna do any first
year guys. So people out there who are like, oh,
I'd take Deshaun Watson or whatever, he only played seven games,
whatever it is, I'm not talking about any first year
guys right now. These are just the fourth, the third,
(25:27):
and the second get year guys. Uh. The second year guys.
We've got Dak Prescott, we've got Jared Goff, and we've
got Carson Wentz. Of those seven, and again, i'm gonna
rank them at the start of our three So I'll
give you my rankings one to seven of those young quarterbacks.
Who would you take. I just want to know who
your top draft pick would be right now if you
(25:49):
had to take one of those guys for the next decade.
And I'm thinking about it, obviously, because I think a
bigger reason why John Gruden decided to come back now
to the Raiders was because of the Obviously, he's seen
Derek Carr play a lot of games and he thinks
he can be instrumental in taking Derek Carter the playoffs
and winning some games there. So I think that's a
(26:09):
big part of why John Gruden is coming back. But
if you right now we're in NFL GM, or you
were a coach, whatever you want to say, and you
got to pick one of those seven guys to have
for the next decade. I'm not just talking about next
year or the year after. You've got him for a decade.
That's the benefit of being young guys. Who would you
take as your number one overall. Pick, who would you take?
(26:30):
I'll start with you, Jason Martin. Uh, there's only two
choices for me, and it's it's tough because I really
am impressed with Derek Carr, but I'll put him in
number two. I've got Carson Wentz at number one. Carson Wentz,
before he was injured, was the best under pressure in
the NFL. He was I think eleven touchdowns and no
interceptions when he was facing at least a four man rush.
(26:52):
This is a guy that got it done when they
sent the house at him. What he was able to
do and what the Eagles have looked like since he
went out, and no one here believes that Nick Foles
is complete trash. But if you look at what Nick
Foles has not been able to do and what Wentz
was able to do, you can see you saw a
lot of flashes in the first season, and you saw
what he's done in the second season. At his height,
(27:13):
the way he can look over that defense, get the
ball down the field. He's got a solid arm. He's
a really good athlete, faster than people give him credit for.
So as much as I like Derek Carr, I love
his competitiveness, I love what he's able to do with
his arm, really really Like Derek Carr, I would go
with Carson Wentz right now? What about l A? Yeah,
(27:33):
I would have to agree. Is that is everybody gonna
go car So I think we're gonna go Wentz Car
one two. I can't speak for justin here. You're going
I was gonna say the same thing. So everybody other
than me is gonna go with this is intriguing. Everybody's
going Carson Wentz and then you're you're going you're going
to I haven't. I haven't decided. I'm gonna rank all
(27:54):
seven of them, Okay, I'll go all right. I asked
for your number one. Who's your last? Who is the
one that you would draft last of those seven? Right now?
Jason Martin, I have to throw the caveat in. I
know you're not gonna like this, but if I were
ranking the seven, Winston would be or pardon me, Watson
would be no less than third on this list and
(28:15):
for me, but Blake Bortles is dead last for me
right now, without a doubt. Blake Bortles is last? Is
l A? Do you agree? Yes? All right? So I
think we're probably gonna have unity there, and I do
think Carson Wentz has to be the number one guy
that everybody takes. I mean, I think he would have
been potentially the NFL m v P this year if
he hadn't gotten injured like he did. And I'm not
of the belief that that injury is going to be
(28:35):
so severe that it's gonna somehow alter his trajectory for
the next decade. So I think the Eagles have the
best guy. I think that Bortles is the worst. Would
you right now, regardless of what happens in this game
against the Steelers, is the worst case scenario here, honestly
for the Jags that they beat the Steelers and have
to bring back Blake Bortles for like over twenty million
(28:56):
dollars a year. How many games does Blake Bortles have
to win this in the playoffs for the Jags to
commit to him long term. I think that's a fair question.
I also think you can look at it from this perspective.
It's never good when you're in the NFL, and you
can look at a football team, look at a defense
to give up ten or less points in eight games
this season, look at a stud like Leonard four Nett
(29:17):
and say that team right there is a quarterback away
from a super Bowl. That means they are really far
away because you have to have a quarterback to reach
a super Bowl in the NFL. So that would be
the worst case scenario for me, because even to a
super Bowl, you can't let him go either, Like I
you need him to lose because you need to find
(29:37):
a way to move on from him. Yeah, but it's
not gonna be him winning the game. It's gonna be
their defense winning. But what if he might have a
good game. He might come out and throw for two
hundred yards and three touchdowns, you know, and people are like, oh,
you know, and and he would look even better because
the defense would play like they did and you'd be like, oh,
you gotta give Blake Bortle's credit. He just went on
the road and beat Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers. I mean,
(30:00):
I don't think Blake Bortles can win the super Bowl.
But if he beats the Steelers, does he putting the
onus on the Jags to have to pay him twenty million? Like?
What is? I'm just genuinely curious because I think right now,
the Jags even though they went ten and six, and
even though they beat the the Bills and one of
the worst playoff games in the history of the NFL.
(30:22):
I think even the most die hard Blake Bortles guy,
and there are some of them who come into my
Twitter mentions every now and then that are just die
hard Blake Bortles believers, recognize that if you had Kirk
Cousins on that Jags team right now, they might be favored,
uh potentially next season to win the a f C.
I mean, I don't think that's a ridiculous proposition to
(30:43):
make right now, if you just swapped to Blake Bortles
for Kirk Cousins, God forbid, you got Jimmy Garoppolo in there,
right if they have been able to get him in there,
if you got the right guy in a quarterback, and
I think that's right to say you're a quarterback away
because it's hard to find quarterbacks. But potentially Kirk Cousins
could be a free aid. Will see what happens with
what the Washington Redskins continue to do with the worst
(31:05):
the worst negotiation with a quarterback in in NFL history.
What do you decide to do with Blake Bortles if
he wins this game, because I think that puts the
onus on the Jags in a really difficult way because
they don't want to go with their backup. They don't wanna,
they don't want to suddenly have to roll out there.
I don't think they also necessarily want to go into
(31:25):
the draft, given the fact that they're gonna be picking
in the twenties and go get a quarterback in the draft.
And there's really unless Kirk Cousins as a free agent. Now,
if you could make a play with him, I think
that changes everything. But otherwise they're really kind of handcuffed
here because I don't know what they do to be
able to I mean, you want to go to Chad Henny.
It's not like they even have a young guy on
that roster that they feel like could be much better
(31:48):
than Blake Bortles. I just think they're really handcuffed. He
sure to catch live editions about kick the Coverage with
Clay Travis weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific,
joined now by my guy Lane Kiffin. You can follow
him on Twitter at lane Underscore Kiffin or he enjoys
having a good time, Lane, What's it like, now that
the season is over and you've got to eleven wins,
have you had any time to kind of sit back
(32:10):
and reflect upon what you guys accomplished an f AU
at year one, Yeah, we have Clay I think, you know,
going on the road recruiting. Um, that's when you kind
of you know, you get out of kind of your bubble.
You know, in your season, you're just in office all
day and and working and coming home and so that's
when you really and and Boka really you know, it's
(32:31):
no surprise. Book is not necessarily a football area, you know,
so it's not like everywhere you go you hear it.
You hear about it all the time because you have
a lot of people that don't follow football. Where you
start going up into you know SEC land recruiting and stuff.
You know, um, people no no players on your team
name now you know they're familiar with they know where
FPU is. You know, they watched teams and and talk
(32:53):
a lot about the offense. And we get a lot
of calls from people around the country you know that
you wouldn't expect, you know, gets getting offers an sec
a SEC. You don't want to come here, so you know,
it's definitely changed. One of the things that's also changed
is and I always say, like the university is the
football team and the basketball team often the front porch
of the university. They make people aware of it, They
(33:14):
kind of welcome people in. You guys have got a
surge of applications as well from kids who just are like, man,
that school seems like it would be a lot of
fun to go to. What is the football team meant
to the overall university a lot? You know, we have
a president that understands that, and that was his plan.
He came from Clemson and he saw the impact when
they started winning with Dabo. You know, he was there
(33:35):
for that whole time. And what that does for the
university that's where you know, and these salaries that are
out of whack, you know, he coach salaries you know,
are ridiculous now, you know, because because we have such
a great job. But that's where that comes from, not
just the money for the football program makes, but what
it does to university. You know, I think they told
(33:55):
me last week, you know, our our out of state
applications are up one year. You know, since we've been here.
That's that that doesn't happen. You know, that's that'sn't heard of.
So the impact on that as on the school and
school's budget, you know as well beyond the football program.
Yesterday or Monday, UH we saw Monday night, we saw
Alabama play against UM obviously Georgia, and we were texting
(34:19):
some during that game. But I want to know when
you were recruiting to UH in Hawaii, I think you
made the trip out there to see him when you
watched him on tape or you saw him, what stood
out about his abilities that made you think we gotta
get this guy. Well, I saw him a number of
times he came to Alabama through in the camp. I
(34:39):
went to Hawaii obviously, watched game tape on him, and UM,
you know he just he had this just unusual ability
to to see the field in to make plays. You
know he's looking I mean it happened in the game.
It's the last play. You know, he's looking over to
right and you know you're not really supposed to or
(35:00):
older the guy that you throw to. You know, George
is getting this criticism. You know, Kirby Smart coached the
heck of a game. I mean that game could win
George's way a hundred of times. We all know that.
You know, referee calls, you know, different breaks and and
that's really double coverage. You know, they're playing quarters to
the field and they're playing halfs to the to the
boundary to the one receiver, so that corner is supposed
(35:20):
to reroute him the safeties over the top. You can't
throw that ball, you know, you're not You're not coached
to throw that ball. You're not even coached to look
over there. That's just to a you know, being to
a he just sees looking where he's supposed to do
the right, He feels that guy and then he just
chucks the ball over there for a touchdown. You know,
and in its history, you know, game changing play. You know,
they get it. You know, I always think what happens
(35:43):
if if he doesn't throw over there. You know, they
missed that play. And now it goes to the third
and twenty six and they're out a field goal range
with a kicker that's not doing well, you know, and
now now it's reversed the Georgy. What a great job, Georgia.
Did you know you can't take a sixteen yard sack,
you know in overtime, So um, so why that's why
recruiting so big players make plays in big time games,
and that's what happened in that game. You know, like
(36:04):
I said, credit to coach Saban awesome when but credit
to Kirby too, you know, Todd mcshade, you know, wherever
that's worth was on yesterday. I saw it. I'm fine,
I'm in top fifty players in the draft. There were
eight players in that game. Seven were on Alabama, one
was on Georgia. You know, so, um, you know that
they have they have great players, and that's the credit
(36:25):
of coaches recruiting. When you saw what was happening with
you talked about Kirby smart and the ability he had
done to put in a perfect game plan. It seemed
to give his chance, his team the best possible chance
to win. Were you surprised that Nick Saban was willing
to go to two at the half or did you
expect it? I expected that you didn't have a choice,
you know, um that there was and it really wasn't.
(36:47):
You know, sometimes you change quarterbacks not necessarily because of
the play of the quarterback, because you're just trying to
find a spark. You know, they were doing nothing on offense.
In that first half. You know, they weren't close to
moving the ball so in and it just felt like
a dead energy kind of some looks on the sidelines,
you know, kind of felt like a very unusual Nick
(37:07):
Saban team and game, you know, in that first half.
So I think I don't think it was as much
about Jalen's plastic it was. It was more about just
one just trying to look for something to spark, you know,
spark the team, you know, or if Jalen Hurts reached
out to you for advice, and he may well do
it because you guys have a relationship. You were as
offensive coordinator for almost the entirety of year one. What
(37:28):
would you tell him to do and what would you
advise him? Well, I've already spoke to them, you know,
I think that um, you know that that's that's got
to be a conversation they have with coach Saban, which
they're going to and you know, just what are what
our coaches plans and what does he see? And you
know then obviously and they've got to make a decision,
you know. And there I said yesterday, which I can't
(37:50):
believe he said to a to a transfer, what that
That's that's what we're in nowadays. You know, Blake Barnett
left the year before. You know, once he wasn't the starter.
They actually had three quarters two other quarterbacks left within
the last year. So that's what happens around college football.
I think I think somebody said Easton's leaving. I mean,
when you're young, you know, and the other guy you know,
(38:11):
you feel like you should play, and the other guys
playing you leave, you know, at that position because only
one guy plays at the time, it's not like playing receiver.
Would you expect that both those guys would not come back?
I mean one or the other of them. I mean
that you've got two talented quarterbacks and you just talked
about it like Jacob ees and the reports are that
he is now going to transfer to Washington given the
(38:31):
fact that Jake from looks like he has that job.
Plus they're bringing in a five star guy I think
at justin fields to George as well. Who knows who's
gonna end up actually winning that. Do you think both
those guys go through spring practice at Bama and whoever
ends up getting named the starter at the end of
spring practice the other guy transfers, or do you think
the writings on the wall, and one of those guys
goes ahead and says, you know what, I'll bounce and
(38:52):
go somewhere else where I know I can start. I
would think at a time, you know, um, most people
in jalen situation, you know, and um and and most parents,
which a lot of times kind of lead the thing.
You know, Jalen would would be gone today, you know,
because I think that you know what happened and whatever
(39:14):
he's gonna assume, you know, is that that two is
gonna be the guy. But this is different. Jalen's dad's
very strong personality, old school, great high school coach. Jalen
is such a team player that I don't know, you know,
maybe maybe they both do stay. Is there any way
Jalen could play a different position. I got people blowing
me up saying the guy is just such a difficult
tackle and obviously so shifty in the field that even
(39:36):
if he's not a quarterback, he could potentially play somewhere else.
Is that accurate or is that a ridiculous idea? I
got that question yesterday. You know, should he be play
should he go play another position? I want to take
a poll. I want to go back thirteen months, you know, um,
after the SEC championship as a true freshman, he's the
SEC offensive player of the year, first freshman since herschel
(39:57):
Walker to do that. I think about that, okay, uh,
And I want to take a pull of the hundred
and whatever thirty coaches out their head coaches. How many
would have would have given anything to have him on
their team? Probably everyone, probably every one of them except
maybe Oklahoma. So did the guy break his arm or something? No?
I mean, the guy's an elite talent. And I mean
(40:20):
I I don't know why this year happened, what had happened,
but um, you know I look at the games and
I said, it's yesterday and it's gonna come across arrogant.
You know. They said, would would you? Would you have
hold him? Well? I wouldn't have been in that situation
in my head because that's just how I think. Not
competitive I am. I would have put the guy in
different situations, you know, just like we did the year before.
You know, look at his total touchdowns, you know, as
(40:41):
a freshman versus a sophomore, when this was supposed to
be you know, this great offseason and he faced time
Tom Brady and you know, um, you know for coach Saban.
Coach Saban on the interviewed the day before the game,
you know, the other days, said how much he's improved
in the passing game. So I'm not sure what happened.
You would have thrown the ball down the field a
lot more. Why do you think they didn't? Um, I'm
(41:04):
not sure. I don't have those answers. Um that they
did when two of it in Yeah, you know, so, um,
you know that that would be you know, obviously, you know,
I think if you got Jalen and his father on
the phone, that would that would probably be there their complaint,
you know that the feeling that they have that you
know when twa has gone in this season and in
(41:27):
that game the ball got thrown down the field a
lot more, you know. So, Um, I think part of
that too as they got behind and so they started
going quicker, which in my opinion, you would should have
done from the first snap of the game. Watched the
Oklahoma game in Oklahoma got what thirty five points against
Georgia and four yards and a a half or something like
that because they're going fast. You know that you don't
(41:48):
move the ball in Georgia. You don't move the ball
in Alabama by going old and running the old school offenses.
You know that we saw most of that game on
both sides. You called place for a long time. How
do you avoid getting to consider pervative down the stretch
and trying to be too cute? Because I think that's
something that happens a lot for play callers is you
have some success, but then it's late in the game
and you're like, oh boy, I don't necessarily want to
(42:10):
take the same risks that I would have taken earlier
in the game. How do you manage that? How do
you make smart decisions? How do you balance that in
your own mind as the game progresses, because I feel
like we saw a lot of guys tighten up as
play callers as the game came down towards the conclusion. Well,
I think you know, the assumption is when you when
you need to get conservative, and there are times obviously
(42:32):
you need to, you know that that means that you
need to run the ball, you know, get in our center,
run the ball between the tackles, you know, and you
know that that that doesn't work roo versus you know,
teams with with good talent like Alabama and Georgia. Like
you saw once Georgia went to that. You can get
quote conservative, but but still have motions with things. Give
the balls on sweeps, get the balls. Plays that work
(42:54):
versus those defense you can still run those just for
whatever reason, a lot of people don't do it that way,
you know. They think you got to get get everybody
in tighten. You know, go to what I call like
the Battle of Gettysburg. Everybody just smash. You smash each other.
Twenty two guys smashing each other for six inches. Outstanding
stuff is always. Lane, appreciate you joining us. By the way,
We're going to see you back with the Raiders, with
(43:15):
the with the situation with John Gruden. Are you gonna
see me back there? Yeah, maybe you gotta come back
one day. No, No, I am a Raiders span again though,
good good stuff. That's a Lane Kiffin. Follow him on
Twitter at Lane Underscore Kiffin.
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