September 11, 2020 • 45 mins
Clay Travis says it was an awesome debut for the NFL, before the game and the play on the field, as the Chiefs had no problem with the Texans. Clay brings in the crew to weigh-in on a letter grade for the NFL. FOX's NFL sideline reporter Shannon Spake is in the house, she's headed to Detroit for Week 1, plus she shares her story about 9/11 (she lived in New York at the time.) Clay gets the crew's Super Bowl picks and dives into the Miami Dolphins decision to stay inside during the anthem.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of out Kick the
Coverage podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
morning from six to nine am Eastern three to six
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for OutKick the Coverage at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every morning on the I Heart
Radio app by searching f s R. This is the
best of OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis on Fox
(00:22):
Sports Radio. The hope all of you are having fantastic Friday's.
NFL's back, major college football is back. The Corona Bros
told you it would never happen, Victory Lap for those
of us who believed that sports would find day way
and we did. I want to bring in the crew.
I'll open up the phone lines, like I said, uh
(00:44):
for the open here of the show eight seven seven
nine six three six nine, and maybe I'll put up
a poll question. I'm actually curious what letter grade you
guys would give the return of the NFL. But Danny G,
how would you assess the NFL per Foreman's last night?
And did it feel to you like a relatively normal game?
(01:05):
Which I think is the ultimate test that the NFL
is trying to pass. Yeah, I would give it an A.
It was a really good presentation. And as you mentioned
in the open, Chris play on the field without all
the flags flying, I mean, without a sellout crowd. Obviously
you're not gonna get a lot of false starts and
things like that. But just overall, it looked like we
gotta give the coaches a lot of credit in these camps.
(01:27):
I think Sunday is gonna reflect it to that. We're
just gonna come out with everybody's best efforts and not
a lot of penalties across our fingers. But yeah, I
think the NFL handled things really well. I mean when
the Marlins mess went down, I even had family members
text me and say, oh, NFL is not gonna happen
this season. That's right. There were a ton of people
saying that on social media the minute the Marlins tested positive.
(01:49):
In your face, yesterday was a beautiful day, probably the
best day of this entire tw COVID situation. Um, you know,
Lakers game goes to halftime, I flip over to the
start of the NFL game. It was beautiful. But we
gotta say that Andy Reid stole the show without face. Yes,
it made me uncomfortable in a funny way though from
(02:11):
the moment I saw it, I mean, it had its
own Twitter account before the night was over All, the
condensation on his mask was unreal. Social media went nuts
with buffet window wiper and defrost button jokes. And then
in the first half when Watson ran out of bounds
and sat next to Mahomes and Mahomes put his arm
around him, that was a cool scene with those two
(02:32):
billionaires sitting next to each other. Uh. And you mentioned
the new running back for the Chiefs amazing, But you
also got to give the Chiefs defense a lot of credit.
They were impressive. They sacked Watson four times. He was
running for his life most of the game. And I'm
sure Chiefs fans are so happy this morning that they
gave Chris Jones that money. Um. Yeah, it was a
(02:54):
great debut for the NFL. Yeah, I don't think there's
any doubt. What about you, dub Oh, how would you
assess the overall, uh you know, scope and circumstance of
the NFL debut? Yeah? I thought it was a tin
out of tin to be honest, because I was like
you going into the game. I thought the pregame would
be the story, and it really wasn't much of a story.
I think we're under Yes, I mean I was stunned
(03:15):
that I know one guy didn't didn't stand for the
national anthem with the Chiefs, But I thought I was stunned.
I mean I thought there would be an ostentatious display
from the from the NFL players. Uh, And that it
would be like I'd be rolling my eyes. I love
the fact that the chief stood for the national anthem,
but for one player. And uh, and look the Texans
(03:39):
not coming out whatever. I mean, I actually prefer a
team not coming out for the national anthem at all.
Uh to trying to draw attention to yourself during the
anthem personally. Uh. And again I think this is significant. NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC,
they're not going to cover the anthems after we one,
(04:00):
so by week two you're gonna turn the game on
and it's gonna be underway. I also thought to mention this.
You know, in the NBA, it feels like every commercial
that occurs during an NBA broadcast is like some sort
of social justice woke message. I thought, for the most part,
all the commercials, even during the NFL game, were it
(04:22):
felt like totally a normal game. And uh, I think
that's what the NFL wants. When you have a dominant product,
you don't need to change. And I thought, compared to
the NBA, where you watch the game and it's impossible
not to realize, hey, we're making political statements every minute
of every game since they started playing the bubble, if
(04:42):
you watch that NFL game, you could think that there
was no difference at all between when the Chiefs won
the Super Bowl and starting week starting week one, and
I think that's a win for the NFL. Sorry to
cut you off, but continue. What else stood out to you? Well,
it also stood out to me as on the foot
ball field itself, was the Chiefs running attack was going
(05:03):
to be phenomenal because if you remember last year, by
the way the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, last year,
they really didn't even have much of a running game
because they didn't have Cream Hunt anymore obviously, and they
never really got the running game going. I think last
night carries for Clyde Edwards Hilaire, I think that's Andy
Reid kind of making a statement, Hey, we're gonna run
the ball this year. We're not gonna rely entirely on
(05:24):
Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes only had two hundred eleven passing yards
and they blew the Texans out. So I think this
is just a frightening offensive team obviously in Kansas City.
It reminds me a little bit of the So Peyton
Manning obviously is probably the most prolific quarterback that's ever
existed in terms of what he could do on the
offensive side of the ball. I know Brady may have
(05:45):
been to more Super Bowls and he may have won
more of them, and but to me, Peyton Manning and
the Colts offense and then later the Broncos offense was
as prolific as an NFL scoring offense can be. And
early on in Peyton Manning's career he had Marshall Falk,
he had Edger and James. And to me, what we're
seeing with Clyde Edwards Hilaire is I think he is
(06:06):
for Patrick Mahomes what those two guys were. Early in
Peyton Manning's career, he was Marshall Falk and then he
was Edder and James. If you remember, if you're an
NFL fan who can go back in time about twenty
years uh, that's what helped to make Peyton Mannings and
the play action game so effective was having a running
back you had to fear as good as Patrick Mahomes
(06:26):
has been in the early part of his career, and
he has been otherworldly. When you actually think about what
the difference is going to be now for him, you're
right of They had Kareem Hunt, they released him over
that video from a Cleveland hotel room, and now things
are starting to Uh. I just think this Chief's offense
is gonna be even scarier than it already has been
(06:49):
in the past. And to me, this is an explosive
and unfortunate, uh turn of events. If you are a
fan of another team that's hoping to get past the Chiefs,
I think they have. I picked them yesterday and I'll
get everybody's picks here in a minute for the Super Bowl,
but I picked them to win the Super Bowl again,
and uh, I think based on what we saw last night,
they should be a substantial favorite. What about you, Eddie Garcia,
(07:13):
did you watch What do you think? Yeah? I definitely
watched um and you know, I when I heard there
were gonna be messages in the end zone and stickers
on the helmet, I was a little bit concerned it
was gonna be something like the NBA, but it definitely wasn't.
It was not noticeable at all. Frankly, I don't even
know if I hadn't known about it, if I would
have noticed it. So um and echoed what the other
guy said, Um, not a lot of flags. The play
(07:34):
was pretty clean considering it. As you said, Clay, I
think this was the biggest takeaway from me out of
it was that the preseason isn't necessary. Yeah, so, and
especially as a season ticket holder who has to pay
for those preseason games. Hopefully that will go away. But no,
I thought it was. I mean, other than the fact
it wasn't a real competitive game, everything else was great.
I know that I think Kansas City is one of
(07:55):
the few places that is going to have fans, So
we'll see how that goes. As far as the action
on Sunday and one day with the majority of stadiums
not having any fans, and how well, you know, we'll
take that in as fans fans watching on television, how
different it may be. But otherwise, um, it was very
similar to what we normally see. Yeah, and look, those
of fans that were there in Kansas City, most of
(08:17):
the time, you're not seeing the crowd, but you could
hear noise, and they did a good job I thought
picking that up on the boom mix so that if
you're just watching the field, it felt and sounded completely normal,
and it wouldn't have been that much different than what
we watched the last season, which I think is a
big win for the NFL. Be sure to catch live
editions about kicked the coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at
(08:40):
six am Eastern, three am Pacific. We are joined now
by Shannon Spake, who I believe is on her way
to the airport to travel to Detroit to cover the
opener of the NFL season. Is that correct, Shannon? That
is correct. It took me about five hours to pack
yesterday because I'm like, it's like a time capital. I
employing stuff out of my two cases. I haven't been
(09:02):
on the road since we were in Miami for the
Super Bowl play. So I mean, like, my my two
cases literally went in the closet and and and they
were there, right, so everything I've had, like granola bars
and and and like all those kind of food in there.
And then I'm like, okay, great, but yes, I am
on my way to Detroit and so Chicago at Detroit
this weekend, and uh yeah, I mean, my goodness, it's back.
(09:23):
I was texting with my crew and with Jonathan Bilma
and Kenny Albert this season, and I was texting with
them last night. As soon as that ball went in
the air, that just NFL back, And I just think
it's a great release for all of us. Did you
feel like I did, and obviously, like a lot of
our listeners did that this felt like a normal game.
And I know normals in quotation marks because everything is
(09:44):
so abnormal in general. But you mentioned being down Super
Bowl and we were down there covering it in Miami,
which feels like ten years ago now, But you know,
the first game played since the Super Bowl. If you
had just been like unaware of anything that's going on,
let's pretend like you were, you know, in a time
capsule and you suddenly popped back up for the NFL.
(10:04):
I think for the most part, the game last night
would have looked normal to you, right, Like obviously when
they showed the crowds, or when they showed Andy Reid
and his face mask, uh that well link type mask
or whatever the heck he was wearing, Yeah, but it
would have looked normal. By and large, it certainly sounded normal,
and I think for a lot of people it was like, oh,
thank God, Like, you know, we're going to get back
(10:26):
to normal at some point, and the NFL being back
is a big part of normalcy. Yeah. I was really
interested to see how sort of like we would intertwine, uh,
the XS and OS with all of this stuff that's
happened before we actually got on the field, between the
social justice stuff and and obviously the COVID and I
thought they did a really good job. I thought Chris
(10:47):
and al when they were talking about the game, with
the exception of the start of the game, I mean,
it was XS and o's right, and Michelle was able
to kind of weave in some of the bigger storylines
that was going on that was going on in the world.
And I thought they did a really good job of
sort of that balance, because I think it's important to
tell both stories because both stories obviously are what we're
we're in right and what we are moving forward through
(11:08):
in this NFL season. I was also really interested to
see how Michelle did her job. Obviously, That's where I
will be this weekend. You could see that she was
in the first row of the stadium. We don't have
access to the field right now, and so I know
all of all of the sideline reporters were watching that
very closely to see how it was done. But Hey,
there was a time where I wasn't even in front
of the television and I heard the crowd noise and
(11:29):
I thought to myself, Wow, this really sounds like a
real NFL game with real fans. I didn't It didn't
miss a beat for me. Now for Detroit, I don't
think they're gonna have fans present, right, So have you
thought about what it will feel like to be, like
you just said, doing your job for maybe the first
row of a totally empty stadium. Yeah, I think, well, yeah,
I don't know how much crowd noise they're going to
(11:51):
pump into Detroit. Yes. Um. I talked to a Keen
Hicks last night on the phone. He obviously played for
the Chicago Bears, and I asked, and I actually so
with Carrie on Johnson as well, and I asked them
about sort of that crowd noise that they've been pumping
in and if it was bothering them because Kyle Shanahan
said it was like human torture to hear that kind
of over the intercom, and they said that they don't
(12:11):
actually hear it. They're so focused on what they're doing.
And every single guy that I talked to you on
the phone yesterday play, they all said that it feels
like this is the week that NFL is back. They
said that their schedule has been so regiment that they
are back on schedule and it feels like game weeks
they have flipped that switch. And it was it was
awesome to hear that from these guys. But I'll tell you,
(12:32):
I was talking to a team right at eight o'clock
when that ball was kicking off, and I mean, I
think I let out a squeal because it was just
I mean, it's it's back, right, yeah. And and not
only is the NFL back, but you think about this
weekend and all of the activity that we have going on.
You've got the US Open tennis tournament, right, which is
going to be resolved. I think this weekend, you've got
NASCAR still going on. Right. If I'm not mistaken, you're
(12:54):
the expert there. The NFL is officially back college football
last night. I know you grew up in South Florida.
The Hurricanes played, even though it kind of got overshadowed.
Major college football and the Power five conferences officially back
Big twelve and a c C will be playing. Major
League Baseball now starting to roll towards the towards the
playoffs there. The NBA is in the middle of the playoffs.
(13:17):
They're gonna shortly have the Eastern and Western Conference finals set.
You've got the p G A that's still going next week,
I believe is the US Open in golf, So you've
got the p G A going on. I'm sure that
I have missed something that is going on out there,
but that's pretty unbelievable, right when you consider all of
the sports options that the average fan is going to
(13:38):
have headed into the weekend play There's so much going
on in this world right now, with the fires out
on the West Coast and COVID and obviously today being
September eleven, So uh sending out my prayers and thoughts
to everyone who is directly involved in that day, which
are so many, so many Americans. But yes, to have
all this sports listen, that's what that's why all of
(13:58):
us are sports fans it's release. It's that momentary release
from all of the stuff that we have to deal
with on a daily basis, and there's a lot of
it right now and that's not going to stop. But
it is nice to turn on the TV and see, uh,
see a touchdown from from Deshaun Watson and from Patrick Mahomes.
You mentioned nine eleven and we were just talking about
that at the end of the first hour. At the
(14:20):
beginning of the second hour, it's anniversary. I believe you
were in New York City working at the time of
nine eleven. It's a stunting to me now to think
about because there's so many people who are probably listening
to this podcast now, young people who really don't have
much of a recollection of nine eleven. It's been almost
twenty years since it happened. Tomorrow, you know, next year,
(14:43):
when we officially get to the twentieth anniversary, I think
will be just an eye opening moment for a lot
of people that an entire generation has passed since nine
eleven happened. For people out there who may not have
experienced it, or may not have experienced it as a
New Yorker, did what was that day like for you?
I still remember it like it was yesterday, honestly. So
(15:06):
I worked at CBS News, the National News UM, I
worked for the Early Show, and I remember taking the subway.
UM I worked between fifty seven between ten and eleventh
and I got off that subway at fifty seven Street
on that morning, and I remember this guy. And that's
one thing that people will tell you a lot. This
guy I was just just like brilliant color blue, and
I remember I like identifying, like, wow, this is a
beautiful day. I made the turn getting off the subway
(15:29):
and there was literally a person running down the street
of New York screaming that a planet hit the World
Trade Center. And by the time I got to work,
we realized that it wasn't just like a small plane.
That day was crazy. I mean we didn't know what
was going to happen next. From the Trade Center to
the Pentagone to you know, Philadelphia. Uh. I had to
(15:49):
walk um from me the city. I was living in
Queens at the time, so I had to walk across
the Queensboro Bridge to get home. That night, I remember
looking back towards the south end of the of the
Manhattan and of seeing that big, huge plume of smoke
and and silence. Um uh ambulances like the lights were on,
but there was silence, and it was just the moment
(16:10):
that I will never ever ever forget. I remember all
of the missing signs. It has directly impacted my life
in so many ways. It's interesting. My dad is he
was an airline pilot, and last night he sent me
a picture of his light release from I guess the
s A A when he was getting ready to I
don't know where he was that day, but it basically
said it described what was going on and at the
(16:31):
end of that God bless you all, please be safe.
So I mean sure that that day has impacted me
and who I am and how it was my life
in so many ways. And uh, it was certainly um.
And my kids know about it. Um, we've been down there.
I haven't taken them to the museum, but I've certainly
showed them the footprint and the memorial. The museum, if
you've never been there, is is beautifully incredible, and so
(16:55):
I I highly recommend anyone to get the chance to
go there. And and for people there who are not
familiar with with that event, it was awful and it
was a tragic day, and the impact of it obviously
has continued to echo for years and years since, not
just for people who lost family, but in terms of
the way that the world has spun since then. The
(17:17):
one positive I would say that came out of nine
eleven was an incredible national unity, the likes of which
I have never seen in my life. And I'm forty one,
um and uh, And you know what I would have
equated for Shannon on some level is probably the way
that America responded. I know you've talked about your grandfather
(17:38):
who fought in in World War Two. There was sort
of a national unity as of common purpose, certainly not
one that we have today, but looking back almost twenty
years now, that is as profoundly and proud I think
as most Americans have ever stood in unity together in
our lifetimes. For you, would that be the positive? And
(17:58):
would you agree at that moment as a New Yorker
but also as an American is probably the most unified
this country has felt in our lifetimes. Meaning you and
I were around the same age. It was an incredible
time to be in New York City. I remember before that,
you know, you get on a subway or you get
on a bus and you'd be isolated. It would be
hundreds of people around you, and you would kind of
(18:20):
be in your own little bubble. And after that, you
knew what every single person on that bus or subway
was thinking. You knew what that when they looked towards
that area, um what they were thinking. I remember being
on subways with rescue workers that that had like a
piece of metal or something that you knew that they
had just come from the area of the World Trade
Center and they were down there risking their lives and
seeing things that human beings should never see. And certainly
(18:43):
being in New York, you know, people on the street
screaming and chanting for the for the New York Fire
Department and for the police department. Just in the middle,
you know, the middle of the day that that fire
truck would go down the street. It was an incredible
scene to be sort of around that, but obviously also
very horrific and scary. As I mentioned, I worked for CBS,
and so when I would go to work in the morning,
(19:04):
there'd be family members out there with their missing signs
trying to get a picture of their loved one on
TV outside of you know, the the National Network and
so you you did have this sort of these beautiful
moments also intertwined with these really tragic one. We're talking
with Shanon's Bak. You follow her on Twitter. She's in
her car on the way to the airport. Have you
flown since h since we got back from since basically
(19:27):
everything shut down back in March. No, And my husband's like,
do you remember how to do it? Like, I don't know.
Are you nervous at all about getting on an airplane?
I'm not nervous about getting on an airplane. I'm obviously
going to take every precaution you should see. I bought
these like onions. I know you if I send you
this picture, you would probably roll your eyes. You like,
I've got um. I'll have my mask on, and I
bought these onion glasses that are supposed to kind of
(19:48):
protect your eyes. I'm gonna take every precaution. We're getting
tested every single week on site, so we'll be tested
on Saturday, which I feel really good about. But obviously
I think it's important for all of us. Fox Sports
is is having us do that. So I think it's
important that we would be kind of are aware that
this is still out there and being on an airplane
is certainly something that can expose us to those situations.
(20:11):
I am going to take every precaution, but I'm not scared. Yeah,
I flew back in May, which is early for a
lot of people, but we went down to the beach,
my wife and I and uh, like I would fly now.
I don't have anywhere to go, but if somebody, yeah,
if somebody needed me to be somewhere, I would be
fine doing it. But it is kind of crazy, like
(20:33):
when you got back from the Super Bowl, as you
were saying, you would have never thought that we were
going to have the six or seven months that we have.
And now it does feel like with the NFL coming back,
in college football coming back, and all of the sports
being played right now, that, at least for the American
sports fan, which is obviously a lot of people who
are listening to me right now, things are getting back
(20:54):
rapidly to some form of normalcy. Clay, you talked about
being at the Super Bowl where you guys had the
fans that came and watched your show and you're high
five and people, I can't even hug my mom right now,
and then like you know, you think about, like how like,
I mean, how crazy it is the time that we're
in People come over and I'm like, are we allowed
to like hug, are we allowed to high five? Uh? So, yeah,
(21:15):
it's it's insane. But again, I'm just happy that the
NFL is making this happen. The players have to be
given so much credit for the way that they've approached it.
I know that you have that sat right. I think
I saw one player tested positive when they did their
last COVID. That's incredible. That's incredible, and uh, you really
have to give them a lot, a lot of credit.
(21:37):
All right. On the field, you've got the Lions with
Matthew Stafford coming back after a season ending injury. They
were the Lions offense and Matthew Stafford personally really productive
prior to that. And then also on the Bear sideline,
you've got the ongoing drama surrounding Mitch Drabinsky, who beat
out Nick Foles. How much of a leash do you
(21:59):
think Mitch dr ski has? In other words, if he
came out and played poorly in the first half, is
this a quick yank situation? Based on what you've heard
and what are you hearing about Matthew Stafford and his
health as he returns to until we Stafford's good everything
I heard. I mean, listen, this is one of the
toughest guys in the NFL. When he sat out last
year and I covered some of those games that he
(22:19):
was on the sideline, uh, it was it was incredible
to actually have him pulled from those games. You knew
he was in a lot of pain. He was amazing
to watch him on the sidelines last year when he
was not playing. He had a clipboard in his hand,
a headset on his head. He was a coach on
the sideline. There was no sitting around for Matthew Stafford.
And I think that, uh, you know, listen, they respected
him regardless. But I mean I did talk to carry
(22:40):
On Johnson and they said seeing him do that just
kind of set another tone for them. As far as
Mitchell Trapisky, I do not think that if they'll pull
him game one, I just don't think they'll do that.
Uh was the least short. I also covered a lot
of Bears games last year and I had to do
those halftime interviews with Matt Maggie when, uh, when Trabisky
was not cant play, and he wasn't very happy at
(23:01):
the end of the season. From everything that I've heard,
Travis Key is walking a different walk. He's talking to
different talks. Who knows how the quarterback battle affected him.
I talked to one of the players who said, like,
that's the grit that we want to see out of
our quarterback. So maybe it went a long way. I mean,
think about it. Just two years ago, you know, he
was he was lighting it up, went to the Pro Bowl,
right and last year had the year that he had.
(23:23):
So I do not think it's a game one will
pull him at halftime if he's struggling. But I do
think the leash is shorter than it would be for
for a normal guy, just because of how last year went.
Shannon will be watching. Have a good flight and enjoy
the Bears and the Lions, and we'll talk to you
next week. Okay cool. Fox Sports Radio has the best
sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our
(23:45):
shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the
I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live.
All right, I told you yesterday my picks. I said,
Chief Saints and the Super Bowl Jags are going to
be the worst team. Hardinals are gonna win the NFC
West as my out on Olympic and I said the
m v P of the league. I thought it would
(24:06):
end up being Tom Brady. Uh. That is my take, alright,
So let's go around rapidly here and get everybody's picks
on the record with the start of the NFL season.
Clay my a f C champ is my out on
a limb, not going chalk. I took Chiefs last year.
This year, I'm saying their defense was the third best
in the NFL last season. I love the Stefon Digs edition.
(24:27):
I'm gonna go out on a limb and take the
Buffalo bill as a huge limb yep. And then the
NFC champ the forty Niners. In honor of the Bay
Area Central Valley radio legend Dave Holmes, who passed away
on Wednesday, close radio friend of mine, number one on
the air for twenty five years. He was a huge
Dodgers and Niners fan. In his honor, I'm gonna crown
(24:48):
the Niners as the Super Bowl champion. Uh, and any
m v P surprise, I'm gonna take Jimmy g as
the m v P. Wow. That that is a lot
of crazy picks from you all right, We're team that's
chalk Jags. Yeah. I don't even think we need to
have that conversation that Jacks are going to be the
worst team in the NFL. Alright, what about you, doub
(25:09):
who you got? All right? Out of the a f C.
I got the Kansas City Chief's feel pretty good about
that one. After last night, NFC, I'm going back to
the well. I think if you remember last year, I
took the Cowboys, I'm taking the Cowboys again. I think
they get it done this year super Bowl champions. I
got Chiefs first, Cowboys and I'm going Dallas just because
if I'm right, I can be a genius and if
I'm wrong, no one will remember. Out on a limb,
(25:31):
I got the Browns winning the a f C North
last year. They were probably the most hyped up team
in the NFL. They have the same roster. The only
thing that's changes they have a way better coach. So
why not worst team Jags and m v P. Mahomes.
So those are my picks. What about you, Eddie, anything
jumping out any craziness, I hate you, dub I've got
(25:51):
the Cowboys over the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Uh,
Mike McCarthy wants to prove that you can do it
without Aaron Rodgers. I got Dak having a huge year,
very motivated. He's the m v P of the league.
My worst team is the Jets. Uh. And what else
was there? I don't know. I got the Ravens having
a terrible season because Lamar Jackson is going to get
hurt early in the season. Yeah, you know it's interesting. Um,
(26:14):
the expect and thanks for those. So all those are
written down now. Roberto is out. Do you know what
his pick was? It was the Raiders going to win
the super Bowl. Let's see. I have his right here
in front of me. He's got the Chiefs and Saints
and the super Bowl. We said, the exact same super
Bowl as me. Yep, Saints winning. Wow. Yeah, same as
you his out on a limb. Bucks missed the playoffs. Yeah,
(26:36):
that would be a surprise. Worst team Jags m v
P Drew Brees. Uh, Drew Brees will be interesting because
he's never won an m v P before. All right,
So that is our predictions as we roll into the
NFL season. We come back, uh to start the top
of our three. Here, a couple of different things we're
going to dive into obviously the return of the NFL,
but the absolute latest on what I am hearing from
(26:58):
the Big Ten. We are all so scheduled to be
joined by Joel Clatt right off the top of the hour,
so we will be joined by him. I need to
figure out what hotel room he's in and see if
he's actually awake, but we can call his cell and
wake him up. He is calling a game tomorrow. He's
the lead college football analyst for Fox Sports, and uh,
(27:19):
we will see where he is. I believe he's in Kansas,
if I'm not mistaken. I think they flipped the game
that he is calling because the Baylor Louisiana Tech game
that they did have was actually canceled. So college football
Power five conferences started last night with Miami College Football
going on. We'll talk to Joel Clatt, will also continue
to break down the NFL game and what the latest
(27:40):
is on the Big Ten. We'll talk about Joel with
that as well. All that's still to come. Encourage you
to go download the podcast make sure you don't miss
a single minute. Thanks to all of you for supporting
out Kick as we roll into the weekend, I hope
you guys are having fantastic Fridays. This is OutKick on
Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch live editions about
Kicked the coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am
(28:03):
Eastern three am Pacific. Our long national nightmare is over.
Sports are officially back, and they are back in a
big way. The Corona Bros. Have taken a big, fat
l on this one. Last night, NFL returns in Kansas
City with fans present. I thought it went really well.
I'll unpack that for you a lot as we finished
(28:25):
off the final hour of the week. Also, as if
that were not enough, how about the Miami Hurricanes playing
in front of crowds down in Miami. Sparse crowds, yes,
but crowd present in Miami for the Hurricanes. Big five sorry,
Power five Conference football officially back last night. I feel
(28:46):
like many people missed the Miami Hurricanes returning because of
all the overwhelming attention that was out there for the
Texans at the Chiefs. Several different things that I thought
stood out on the field. Clyde Edwards lair incredible asset
to uh the Chiefs. He's going to make what was
already the best offense even better youngest running back ever
(29:09):
to go for a hundred and thirty plus yards and
a touchdown in his debut twenty one years old and
about half of a year into his twenty second year.
A big time performance by Clyde Edwards Hilaire last night.
The Texans, they look like they are going to miss
DeAndre Hopkins a great deal. They did not look like
(29:30):
a team with very much explosiveness. They did not look
like a team that had much of a down filled
passing game. Deshaun Watson remember his entire career he's had
DeAndre Hopkins to throw to. How much different is he
going to look without that top wide receiver target. We
will now find out. In the Texans, I believe are
(29:50):
potentially in a really tough spot. As you look at
their first seven games of the season, there's a decent chance.
I think if you're a Texans fan and where you
sit and look at the schedule and think to yourself, oh,
we may end up losing a lot of games this year.
I'm not sure exactly how it's all gonna shake out,
but it's probably not gonna be very good. I wouldn't
(30:12):
imagine for the Houston Texans. As you look at the
early part of their schedule. They lost to this game,
and then you start to think, okay, well can they
bounce back. Will they get the Ravens Good luck with that.
That's a tough game at home for their opener. Then
they have the Steelers on the road. They then get
the Vikings down in Houston, which isn't an easy game.
(30:32):
They get the Jags, which hopefully might be their first win,
because I think there's a decent chance they start off
oh and four. Then they go on the road against
the Titans, that will not be an easy game. Then
they get the Packers. There's a decent chance that they
could start one and seven or two and six in
their first several games. And so if that ends up happening,
(30:56):
this is a This is a tough spot for the
Texans to find themselves. Now, sched gets a lot easier
in the second half. So if they could find a
way to pull off an upset over the Ravens, if
they could beat the Steelers, if they could beat the Vikings,
they could win a couple of those games they can
fight their way through. Obviously the Titans in a big
division game and find themselves in a somewhat decent spot
(31:16):
at the halfway point, but I think you have to
be decently nervous about this overall as you as you
look forward. What about the off the field related discussions.
I thought this went about as well for the NFL
as it possibly could it. Uh, did not feel like
the NFL went full woke and followed the lead of
(31:37):
the NBA. The names on the back of the helmets
and the statements on the back of the helmets are
almost not visible in the end zones. The messages that
are written there are not very noticeable. Uh. The whole
Chiefs team, with the exception of one player, stood for
the national anthem. The Texans didn't come out for the
national anthem, But that process actually managed to create less attention.
(32:02):
If you are out there and you're my listening audience,
and you're a football fan, but you're like, man, I
don't want to watch the NFL because they're going super woke. Well,
in Week two, I've been told that CBS, NBC, Fox, UH,
and the ESPN are not going to cover the protests
at all, and so the national anthem, what teams do
(32:25):
they're gonna start the game after that has already occurred,
and all you're gonna see is what happens as people
run out onto the field to begin the game. And
so I think that is very good for the NFL.
If I am Roger Goodell, I am sitting back and
saying this couldn't have gone any better. It sounded normal.
I know, we had some fun with Andy Reid's big
(32:46):
face shield that started to fog up on him, uh
during the course of the game. That in and of
itself is pretty funny, but that is uh. This is
certainly something worth following as as we move forward. Is
that I believe the NBA is going to find itself
on a woke island. And what I mean by that
(33:08):
is the NBA is going way overboard in terms of
its woke nous, and nobody else is actually following that lead,
uh anywhere. I think this for the NFL felt a
little bit like to me the opening for Major League Baseball,
where Baseball made a bunch of statements about about politics
and social justice and everything else in their opener and
(33:31):
then it's basically vanished. Now it's just baseball, and with
fans present, I thought Chiefs fans did a good job
of making their voices heard during the game. It sounded
and felt almost completely like a normal game, which is
a huge win for the NFL. I believe as we
(33:53):
prepare for their opening weekend now there will be some
attention given to the Chiefs fans who boom. To me,
it's not a big story. The Chiefs were booing most
of their fans the Texans because the Texans didn't come
out for the national anthem, and so that booing to
me felt completely connected to that. Also, fans have a
(34:14):
right to voice their opinion. If you're going to argue, hey,
NFL players or NBA players or Major League Baseball players
or whoever it is, are going to make political statements,
then fans have a right to say, hey, we don't
agree with this. That's what fandom is. Your voice can
be heard in both directions. I think a lot of
(34:35):
times people forget that the First Amendment is a two
way street. You have the right to your opinion and
you can share it widely, but everybody else has the
right to respond to your opinion as well. But I
think the big takeaway here was that the NFL, in
their opener, had about of as good of a debut
(34:56):
as they possibly could, so I wanted to see whether
or not my audience agreed with me, and so I
asked you, guys, what letter grade would you give the
NFL for last night's season opener between the Texans and
the Chiefs. Forty one person well being just run through
an order. Percent of you gave them an A, forty
(35:19):
one percent of you gave them a B, eighteen percent
of you gave them a C. So eight five percent
of my audience, with over twenty thousand votes in gave
the NFL opener and a A B or C percent
gave it a D or inn F. I only have
(35:40):
four options, so D and F is together. And I
think if you're the NFL and you're looking at these
results of my poll, uh, you are gonna be pretty
ecstatic about that. Because I really anticipated that the number
one story coming out of the opening Thursday night game
was going to be politics, so shial justice on field
(36:02):
behavior that had nothing to do with the game itself,
and that was what everybody was going to talk about. Instead,
I feel like the NFL managed to dodge a major
disaster there, and as a result, um this has turned
into a really pretty intriguing open for the NFL, where
(36:23):
I think they're gonna dodge the worst of the disaster
that has befallen the NBA, where their ratings have completely
collapsed as they have embraced woke social justice politics on
the court, on the jerseys and during the anthem. Uh. Also,
I think it's intriguing. I want to play this. Do
we have the audio ready Danny g of what the
(36:46):
Dolphins said right as kickoff happened last night? Yeah? Heads up,
It's two minutes long, but we do have it ready.
All right. I want to listen to this, and I
want you guys to listen to this. Jason Wentlock and
I did a live show last night, and thanks for
everybody who watched at least a part of that, and
we had a live reaction to what happened in the pregame.
Jason Whitlock lived and worked in Kansas City for a
(37:07):
long time, and he is a big Chief fan, uh
and so he was excited to watch this game. And
as you sort of look and think about going forward,
what Whitlock and I were talking about in relation to
this Miami Dolphins video is in general, it's it's like
they're calling out the rest of the NFL over the
(37:29):
empty gestures of kneeling for the anthem or whatever else
that has sort of befallen the world of sports over
the fast of the past year. And what effectively what
it seems like to me they are saying, is the
time for you know, sort of empty gestures and social
justice faux wokeism is past. Make your own decisions in
(37:50):
your own life. The Dolphins, by the way, have said
they're not gonna come out for the Black national anthem.
They're not gonna come out for the United States anthem.
They're just gonna stay in the law a room. They
don't want to be a part of all of this show.
But I thought the statement the video that they put
out right as kickoff happened last night was interesting. Here
was that Is it authentic? That's the mystery or is
(38:12):
it just another symbolic victory. Now there's two anthems? Do
we kneel? Do we stand? If we could just right
our wrongs, we wouldn't need two songs. We don't need
another publicity parade. So we'll just stay inside until it's
time to play the game. Whatever happened to the funds
that were promised, all of a sudden, we got a
collapse pocket. The bottom line should not be in that profit.
(38:35):
You can't open your heart when it's controlled by your wallet.
Decals and patches, fireworks and trumpets. We're not puppets. Don't
publicize false budgets, asked de pundits, and we shouldn't have
a say. If you speak up a change, then I
shut up and play. If we remain silent, that would
just be selfish, since they don't have a voice we're
speaking of for their helpless It's not enough to act
(38:57):
like you care for the troops millions for pre game patriotism.
You get paid the salute, lift every voice. Insane. It's
just a way to save face. Lose the mask and
stop hiding the real game face. So if my dad
was a soldier but the cops killed my brother, do
I stand for one anthem and then kneel for the other.
This attempt to unify only creates more divide. So well
(39:19):
skipped this song and dance, and as a team will
stay inside. We need changed hearts, not just a response
to pression. Enough, no more fluff and mpty gestures. We
need owners with influence and pockets bigger than ours to
call up officials in flix political power, when education is
not determined by where we reside, and we have the
(39:40):
means to purchase with the doctor prescribed, and you fight
for prison reform and innocent lives, and you repair the
communities that were tossed to the side, and you admit
you gain from it, and you swallow your pard And
when greed is not the compass, but love is the god.
And when, of course, don't punish skin color, but punish
the crime. Until then, we'll just skipped the long production
(40:01):
and stay inside. For centuries we've been trying to make
you aware. Either you're in denial or just simply don't
really care. It's not a black white thing or a
left right thing. Let's clean the whole bird and stop
arguing about which wing the dolphins. And look, I understand
some of you're gonna be like that, they're idiots. I
disagree with that. Whatever. To me, the most interesting part
(40:23):
here is they're acknowledging that all of this social justice
warrior dumb is by and large a sham. Right. I mean, oh,
I'm not gonna kneel. Oh I'm gonna change the world
by not standing for the national anthem. No, you're not right,
You're creating more divisiveness in my opinion. But even if
you think, oh, this is changing the world, first of all,
(40:44):
the data doesn't reflect that it is. But secondly, it's
just a big show, right. It's just a big production.
That's all that's going on here. There's nothing substantive or
substantial associated with it. And so I think a lot
of teams are just going to decide not to come
out for the national anthem. And if that, in fact
(41:08):
is what they are deciding to do, then I think
this story is basically just gonna vanish because that's the truth,
right is that? Uh? For many people, especially without fans present,
this is gonna look even more ridiculous. Like that's my
thing about the n B. A kneeling for the national
anthem in the NBA when there are no fans present
(41:30):
is entirely a television production design. It isn't about changing anything.
It's about trying to get social media likes and have
people on Instagram happy and everything. It's a total lunacy, right.
Nine of sports fans look to sports as an escape
from reality, and I understand that athletes, because it's their job.
(41:53):
They're like, this isn't an escape from reality, this is
my reality. I understand that perspective, but that's not why
you paid millions of dollars. You get paid millions of
dollars because you provide an escape from reality for the
vast majority of sports fans who have no interest whatsoever
in your politics. That's the truth. Most people don't care.
(42:14):
I mean athletes may not like this, but most people
don't care about an athlete's life other than for the
three hours that they are providing entertainment and football or
basketball or whatever else it is. And I'm saying that
for all entertainment, right. I don't think most people care
what Robert Downey Jr. Is doing in his life other
(42:37):
than when he's performing as Iron Man. I don't think
most people cared back in the day about Toby McGuire's
life other than when he's being Spider Man. Right. Most
people who are entertainers, whether you're a singer, songwriter or
whatever you do, most people don't really care about a
singer's life. By and large, diehards do, but most will
(43:00):
care about a singer's new album. They care about a
singer at a concert. They don't care about anything else
other than the question of are they or are they
not entertained? I sound like Maximus back in back in
the Gladiator days when he walked around saying are you
not entertained inside of the coliseum when he killed people
too fast. But the truth of the matter is sports figures,
(43:22):
whether they want to be or not, make their money
because they're entertainers. And as soon as you stop entertaining,
then the number of people who are gonna watch is
gonna go down. I mean, this isn't rocket science, and
so I think the Dolphins there are basically calling out
what all of this is, which is a sham. Now
I give credit to the Kansas City Chiefs for standing.
(43:45):
I think some teams will decide to stand. I think
the number of teams that will decide to kneel will
be low. I think there will be fan reactions when
the fans see that teams are kneeling for the national anthem,
because I think there's a big divide between players and
fans over that and Horton's But I think if players
are staying in the locker room by and large for
a lot of this, because uh, there is a major
(44:08):
issue associated with this, and maybe you give the NFL
credit for playing the you know quote unquote black national anthem.
I think players have recognized, Wait a minute, if we
kneel for the black national anthem, uh, and sorry, if
we sneel for the United United States national anthem, and
we stand for the black national anthem, that's gonna make
us look really bad. If we kneel for both, what's
(44:30):
the point. And so I think this story is basically over.
I really do, I think, and I could be wrong,
but I think by week two, when the NFL stops
covering all the protests, I think most people are gonna
be like, yeah, I'm over this. There's so much sports
going on. They're gonna watch the sports that they like.
(44:51):
They're not gonna watch the other sports. If you choose
not to watch because of politics, I respect that. That's
how marketplaces work. You can choose what to consume with
your entertainment dollars. And I always say that no matter what, Like,
if I watch a television show and it stops being entertaining,
I don't watch it anymore. And the NFL is a
television show. It's an entertainment product. Uh, it's a reality
(45:14):
television show. Sports are the best reality television programming that
there's ever been and so if you don't like a
reality show, don't watch it. Same thing I would always say.
But we uh we had the first game played. I
think it went well for the NFL. When we come back,
we will theoretically be joined by Joel Clatt. We may
be waking him up. I don't know. Uh, we gotta
(45:36):
he's not responding to my text messages. He told me
he was good to go. I hope he's okay. I
hope he's in a good hotel. Hope he's ready for
the college football season. We'll see if can get him.
In the next segment, this is Outkicked the Coverage with
Clay Travis
Thanks for listening to the best of out Kick the
Coverage podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
morning from six to nine am Eastern three to six
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for OutKick the Coverage at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every morning on the I Heart
Radio app by searching f s R. This is the
best of OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis on Fox
(00:22):
Sports Radio. The hope all of you are having fantastic Friday's.
NFL's back, major college football is back. The Corona Bros
told you it would never happen, Victory Lap for those
of us who believed that sports would find day way
and we did. I want to bring in the crew.
I'll open up the phone lines, like I said, uh
(00:44):
for the open here of the show eight seven seven
nine six three six nine, and maybe I'll put up
a poll question. I'm actually curious what letter grade you
guys would give the return of the NFL. But Danny G,
how would you assess the NFL per Foreman's last night?
And did it feel to you like a relatively normal game?
(01:05):
Which I think is the ultimate test that the NFL
is trying to pass. Yeah, I would give it an A.
It was a really good presentation. And as you mentioned
in the open, Chris play on the field without all
the flags flying, I mean, without a sellout crowd. Obviously
you're not gonna get a lot of false starts and
things like that. But just overall, it looked like we
gotta give the coaches a lot of credit in these camps.
(01:27):
I think Sunday is gonna reflect it to that. We're
just gonna come out with everybody's best efforts and not
a lot of penalties across our fingers. But yeah, I
think the NFL handled things really well. I mean when
the Marlins mess went down, I even had family members
text me and say, oh, NFL is not gonna happen
this season. That's right. There were a ton of people
saying that on social media the minute the Marlins tested positive.
(01:49):
In your face, yesterday was a beautiful day, probably the
best day of this entire tw COVID situation. Um, you know,
Lakers game goes to halftime, I flip over to the
start of the NFL game. It was beautiful. But we
gotta say that Andy Reid stole the show without face. Yes,
it made me uncomfortable in a funny way though from
(02:11):
the moment I saw it, I mean, it had its
own Twitter account before the night was over All, the
condensation on his mask was unreal. Social media went nuts
with buffet window wiper and defrost button jokes. And then
in the first half when Watson ran out of bounds
and sat next to Mahomes and Mahomes put his arm
around him, that was a cool scene with those two
(02:32):
billionaires sitting next to each other. Uh. And you mentioned
the new running back for the Chiefs amazing, But you
also got to give the Chiefs defense a lot of credit.
They were impressive. They sacked Watson four times. He was
running for his life most of the game. And I'm
sure Chiefs fans are so happy this morning that they
gave Chris Jones that money. Um. Yeah, it was a
(02:54):
great debut for the NFL. Yeah, I don't think there's
any doubt. What about you, dub Oh, how would you
assess the overall, uh you know, scope and circumstance of
the NFL debut? Yeah? I thought it was a tin
out of tin to be honest, because I was like
you going into the game. I thought the pregame would
be the story, and it really wasn't much of a story.
I think we're under Yes, I mean I was stunned
(03:15):
that I know one guy didn't didn't stand for the
national anthem with the Chiefs, But I thought I was stunned.
I mean I thought there would be an ostentatious display
from the from the NFL players. Uh, And that it
would be like I'd be rolling my eyes. I love
the fact that the chief stood for the national anthem,
but for one player. And uh, and look the Texans
(03:39):
not coming out whatever. I mean, I actually prefer a
team not coming out for the national anthem at all.
Uh to trying to draw attention to yourself during the
anthem personally. Uh. And again I think this is significant. NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC,
they're not going to cover the anthems after we one,
(04:00):
so by week two you're gonna turn the game on
and it's gonna be underway. I also thought to mention this.
You know, in the NBA, it feels like every commercial
that occurs during an NBA broadcast is like some sort
of social justice woke message. I thought, for the most part,
all the commercials, even during the NFL game, were it
(04:22):
felt like totally a normal game. And uh, I think
that's what the NFL wants. When you have a dominant product,
you don't need to change. And I thought, compared to
the NBA, where you watch the game and it's impossible
not to realize, hey, we're making political statements every minute
of every game since they started playing the bubble, if
(04:42):
you watch that NFL game, you could think that there
was no difference at all between when the Chiefs won
the Super Bowl and starting week starting week one, and
I think that's a win for the NFL. Sorry to
cut you off, but continue. What else stood out to you? Well,
it also stood out to me as on the foot
ball field itself, was the Chiefs running attack was going
(05:03):
to be phenomenal because if you remember last year, by
the way the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, last year,
they really didn't even have much of a running game
because they didn't have Cream Hunt anymore obviously, and they
never really got the running game going. I think last
night carries for Clyde Edwards Hilaire, I think that's Andy
Reid kind of making a statement, Hey, we're gonna run
the ball this year. We're not gonna rely entirely on
(05:24):
Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes only had two hundred eleven passing yards
and they blew the Texans out. So I think this
is just a frightening offensive team obviously in Kansas City.
It reminds me a little bit of the So Peyton
Manning obviously is probably the most prolific quarterback that's ever
existed in terms of what he could do on the
offensive side of the ball. I know Brady may have
(05:45):
been to more Super Bowls and he may have won
more of them, and but to me, Peyton Manning and
the Colts offense and then later the Broncos offense was
as prolific as an NFL scoring offense can be. And
early on in Peyton Manning's career he had Marshall Falk,
he had Edger and James. And to me, what we're
seeing with Clyde Edwards Hilaire is I think he is
(06:06):
for Patrick Mahomes what those two guys were. Early in
Peyton Manning's career, he was Marshall Falk and then he
was Edder and James. If you remember, if you're an
NFL fan who can go back in time about twenty
years uh, that's what helped to make Peyton Mannings and
the play action game so effective was having a running
back you had to fear as good as Patrick Mahomes
(06:26):
has been in the early part of his career, and
he has been otherworldly. When you actually think about what
the difference is going to be now for him, you're
right of They had Kareem Hunt, they released him over
that video from a Cleveland hotel room, and now things
are starting to Uh. I just think this Chief's offense
is gonna be even scarier than it already has been
(06:49):
in the past. And to me, this is an explosive
and unfortunate, uh turn of events. If you are a
fan of another team that's hoping to get past the Chiefs,
I think they have. I picked them yesterday and I'll
get everybody's picks here in a minute for the Super Bowl,
but I picked them to win the Super Bowl again,
and uh, I think based on what we saw last night,
they should be a substantial favorite. What about you, Eddie Garcia,
(07:13):
did you watch What do you think? Yeah? I definitely
watched um and you know, I when I heard there
were gonna be messages in the end zone and stickers
on the helmet, I was a little bit concerned it
was gonna be something like the NBA, but it definitely wasn't.
It was not noticeable at all. Frankly, I don't even
know if I hadn't known about it, if I would
have noticed it. So um and echoed what the other
guy said, Um, not a lot of flags. The play
(07:34):
was pretty clean considering it. As you said, Clay, I
think this was the biggest takeaway from me out of
it was that the preseason isn't necessary. Yeah, so, and
especially as a season ticket holder who has to pay
for those preseason games. Hopefully that will go away. But no,
I thought it was. I mean, other than the fact
it wasn't a real competitive game, everything else was great.
I know that I think Kansas City is one of
(07:55):
the few places that is going to have fans, So
we'll see how that goes. As far as the action
on Sunday and one day with the majority of stadiums
not having any fans, and how well, you know, we'll
take that in as fans fans watching on television, how
different it may be. But otherwise, um, it was very
similar to what we normally see. Yeah, and look, those
of fans that were there in Kansas City, most of
(08:17):
the time, you're not seeing the crowd, but you could
hear noise, and they did a good job I thought
picking that up on the boom mix so that if
you're just watching the field, it felt and sounded completely normal,
and it wouldn't have been that much different than what
we watched the last season, which I think is a
big win for the NFL. Be sure to catch live
editions about kicked the coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at
(08:40):
six am Eastern, three am Pacific. We are joined now
by Shannon Spake, who I believe is on her way
to the airport to travel to Detroit to cover the
opener of the NFL season. Is that correct, Shannon? That
is correct. It took me about five hours to pack
yesterday because I'm like, it's like a time capital. I
employing stuff out of my two cases. I haven't been
(09:02):
on the road since we were in Miami for the
Super Bowl play. So I mean, like, my my two
cases literally went in the closet and and and they
were there, right, so everything I've had, like granola bars
and and and like all those kind of food in there.
And then I'm like, okay, great, but yes, I am
on my way to Detroit and so Chicago at Detroit
this weekend, and uh yeah, I mean, my goodness, it's back.
(09:23):
I was texting with my crew and with Jonathan Bilma
and Kenny Albert this season, and I was texting with
them last night. As soon as that ball went in
the air, that just NFL back, And I just think
it's a great release for all of us. Did you
feel like I did, and obviously, like a lot of
our listeners did that this felt like a normal game.
And I know normals in quotation marks because everything is
(09:44):
so abnormal in general. But you mentioned being down Super
Bowl and we were down there covering it in Miami,
which feels like ten years ago now, But you know,
the first game played since the Super Bowl. If you
had just been like unaware of anything that's going on,
let's pretend like you were, you know, in a time
capsule and you suddenly popped back up for the NFL.
(10:04):
I think for the most part, the game last night
would have looked normal to you, right, Like obviously when
they showed the crowds, or when they showed Andy Reid
and his face mask, uh that well link type mask
or whatever the heck he was wearing, Yeah, but it
would have looked normal. By and large, it certainly sounded normal,
and I think for a lot of people it was like, oh,
thank God, Like, you know, we're going to get back
(10:26):
to normal at some point, and the NFL being back
is a big part of normalcy. Yeah. I was really
interested to see how sort of like we would intertwine, uh,
the XS and OS with all of this stuff that's
happened before we actually got on the field, between the
social justice stuff and and obviously the COVID and I
thought they did a really good job. I thought Chris
(10:47):
and al when they were talking about the game, with
the exception of the start of the game, I mean,
it was XS and o's right, and Michelle was able
to kind of weave in some of the bigger storylines
that was going on that was going on in the world.
And I thought they did a really good job of
sort of that balance, because I think it's important to
tell both stories because both stories obviously are what we're
we're in right and what we are moving forward through
(11:08):
in this NFL season. I was also really interested to
see how Michelle did her job. Obviously, That's where I
will be this weekend. You could see that she was
in the first row of the stadium. We don't have
access to the field right now, and so I know
all of all of the sideline reporters were watching that
very closely to see how it was done. But Hey,
there was a time where I wasn't even in front
of the television and I heard the crowd noise and
(11:29):
I thought to myself, Wow, this really sounds like a
real NFL game with real fans. I didn't It didn't
miss a beat for me. Now for Detroit, I don't
think they're gonna have fans present, right, So have you
thought about what it will feel like to be, like
you just said, doing your job for maybe the first
row of a totally empty stadium. Yeah, I think, well, yeah,
I don't know how much crowd noise they're going to
(11:51):
pump into Detroit. Yes. Um. I talked to a Keen
Hicks last night on the phone. He obviously played for
the Chicago Bears, and I asked, and I actually so
with Carrie on Johnson as well, and I asked them
about sort of that crowd noise that they've been pumping
in and if it was bothering them because Kyle Shanahan
said it was like human torture to hear that kind
of over the intercom, and they said that they don't
(12:11):
actually hear it. They're so focused on what they're doing.
And every single guy that I talked to you on
the phone yesterday play, they all said that it feels
like this is the week that NFL is back. They
said that their schedule has been so regiment that they
are back on schedule and it feels like game weeks
they have flipped that switch. And it was it was
awesome to hear that from these guys. But I'll tell you,
(12:32):
I was talking to a team right at eight o'clock
when that ball was kicking off, and I mean, I
think I let out a squeal because it was just
I mean, it's it's back, right, yeah. And and not
only is the NFL back, but you think about this
weekend and all of the activity that we have going on.
You've got the US Open tennis tournament, right, which is
going to be resolved. I think this weekend, you've got
NASCAR still going on. Right. If I'm not mistaken, you're
(12:54):
the expert there. The NFL is officially back college football
last night. I know you grew up in South Florida.
The Hurricanes played, even though it kind of got overshadowed.
Major college football and the Power five conferences officially back
Big twelve and a c C will be playing. Major
League Baseball now starting to roll towards the towards the
playoffs there. The NBA is in the middle of the playoffs.
(13:17):
They're gonna shortly have the Eastern and Western Conference finals set.
You've got the p G A that's still going next week,
I believe is the US Open in golf, So you've
got the p G A going on. I'm sure that
I have missed something that is going on out there,
but that's pretty unbelievable, right when you consider all of
the sports options that the average fan is going to
(13:38):
have headed into the weekend play There's so much going
on in this world right now, with the fires out
on the West Coast and COVID and obviously today being
September eleven, So uh sending out my prayers and thoughts
to everyone who is directly involved in that day, which
are so many, so many Americans. But yes, to have
all this sports listen, that's what that's why all of
(13:58):
us are sports fans it's release. It's that momentary release
from all of the stuff that we have to deal
with on a daily basis, and there's a lot of
it right now and that's not going to stop. But
it is nice to turn on the TV and see, uh,
see a touchdown from from Deshaun Watson and from Patrick Mahomes.
You mentioned nine eleven and we were just talking about
that at the end of the first hour. At the
(14:20):
beginning of the second hour, it's anniversary. I believe you
were in New York City working at the time of
nine eleven. It's a stunting to me now to think
about because there's so many people who are probably listening
to this podcast now, young people who really don't have
much of a recollection of nine eleven. It's been almost
twenty years since it happened. Tomorrow, you know, next year,
(14:43):
when we officially get to the twentieth anniversary, I think
will be just an eye opening moment for a lot
of people that an entire generation has passed since nine
eleven happened. For people out there who may not have
experienced it, or may not have experienced it as a
New Yorker, did what was that day like for you?
I still remember it like it was yesterday, honestly. So
(15:06):
I worked at CBS News, the National News UM, I
worked for the Early Show, and I remember taking the subway.
UM I worked between fifty seven between ten and eleventh
and I got off that subway at fifty seven Street
on that morning, and I remember this guy. And that's
one thing that people will tell you a lot. This
guy I was just just like brilliant color blue, and
I remember I like identifying, like, wow, this is a
beautiful day. I made the turn getting off the subway
(15:29):
and there was literally a person running down the street
of New York screaming that a planet hit the World
Trade Center. And by the time I got to work,
we realized that it wasn't just like a small plane.
That day was crazy. I mean we didn't know what
was going to happen next. From the Trade Center to
the Pentagone to you know, Philadelphia. Uh. I had to
(15:49):
walk um from me the city. I was living in
Queens at the time, so I had to walk across
the Queensboro Bridge to get home. That night, I remember
looking back towards the south end of the of the
Manhattan and of seeing that big, huge plume of smoke
and and silence. Um uh ambulances like the lights were on,
but there was silence, and it was just the moment
(16:10):
that I will never ever ever forget. I remember all
of the missing signs. It has directly impacted my life
in so many ways. It's interesting. My dad is he
was an airline pilot, and last night he sent me
a picture of his light release from I guess the
s A A when he was getting ready to I
don't know where he was that day, but it basically
said it described what was going on and at the
(16:31):
end of that God bless you all, please be safe.
So I mean sure that that day has impacted me
and who I am and how it was my life
in so many ways. And uh, it was certainly um.
And my kids know about it. Um, we've been down there.
I haven't taken them to the museum, but I've certainly
showed them the footprint and the memorial. The museum, if
you've never been there, is is beautifully incredible, and so
(16:55):
I I highly recommend anyone to get the chance to
go there. And and for people there who are not
familiar with with that event, it was awful and it
was a tragic day, and the impact of it obviously
has continued to echo for years and years since, not
just for people who lost family, but in terms of
the way that the world has spun since then. The
(17:17):
one positive I would say that came out of nine
eleven was an incredible national unity, the likes of which
I have never seen in my life. And I'm forty one,
um and uh, And you know what I would have
equated for Shannon on some level is probably the way
that America responded. I know you've talked about your grandfather
(17:38):
who fought in in World War Two. There was sort
of a national unity as of common purpose, certainly not
one that we have today, but looking back almost twenty
years now, that is as profoundly and proud I think
as most Americans have ever stood in unity together in
our lifetimes. For you, would that be the positive? And
(17:58):
would you agree at that moment as a New Yorker
but also as an American is probably the most unified
this country has felt in our lifetimes. Meaning you and
I were around the same age. It was an incredible
time to be in New York City. I remember before that,
you know, you get on a subway or you get
on a bus and you'd be isolated. It would be
hundreds of people around you, and you would kind of
(18:20):
be in your own little bubble. And after that, you
knew what every single person on that bus or subway
was thinking. You knew what that when they looked towards
that area, um what they were thinking. I remember being
on subways with rescue workers that that had like a
piece of metal or something that you knew that they
had just come from the area of the World Trade
Center and they were down there risking their lives and
seeing things that human beings should never see. And certainly
(18:43):
being in New York, you know, people on the street
screaming and chanting for the for the New York Fire
Department and for the police department. Just in the middle,
you know, the middle of the day that that fire
truck would go down the street. It was an incredible
scene to be sort of around that, but obviously also
very horrific and scary. As I mentioned, I worked for CBS,
and so when I would go to work in the morning,
(19:04):
there'd be family members out there with their missing signs
trying to get a picture of their loved one on
TV outside of you know, the the National Network and
so you you did have this sort of these beautiful
moments also intertwined with these really tragic one. We're talking
with Shanon's Bak. You follow her on Twitter. She's in
her car on the way to the airport. Have you
flown since h since we got back from since basically
(19:27):
everything shut down back in March. No, And my husband's like,
do you remember how to do it? Like, I don't know.
Are you nervous at all about getting on an airplane?
I'm not nervous about getting on an airplane. I'm obviously
going to take every precaution you should see. I bought
these like onions. I know you if I send you
this picture, you would probably roll your eyes. You like,
I've got um. I'll have my mask on, and I
bought these onion glasses that are supposed to kind of
(19:48):
protect your eyes. I'm gonna take every precaution. We're getting
tested every single week on site, so we'll be tested
on Saturday, which I feel really good about. But obviously
I think it's important for all of us. Fox Sports
is is having us do that. So I think it's
important that we would be kind of are aware that
this is still out there and being on an airplane
is certainly something that can expose us to those situations.
(20:11):
I am going to take every precaution, but I'm not scared. Yeah,
I flew back in May, which is early for a
lot of people, but we went down to the beach,
my wife and I and uh, like I would fly now.
I don't have anywhere to go, but if somebody, yeah,
if somebody needed me to be somewhere, I would be
fine doing it. But it is kind of crazy, like
(20:33):
when you got back from the Super Bowl, as you
were saying, you would have never thought that we were
going to have the six or seven months that we have.
And now it does feel like with the NFL coming back,
in college football coming back, and all of the sports
being played right now, that, at least for the American
sports fan, which is obviously a lot of people who
are listening to me right now, things are getting back
(20:54):
rapidly to some form of normalcy. Clay, you talked about
being at the Super Bowl where you guys had the
fans that came and watched your show and you're high
five and people, I can't even hug my mom right now,
and then like you know, you think about, like how like,
I mean, how crazy it is the time that we're
in People come over and I'm like, are we allowed
to like hug, are we allowed to high five? Uh? So, yeah,
(21:15):
it's it's insane. But again, I'm just happy that the
NFL is making this happen. The players have to be
given so much credit for the way that they've approached it.
I know that you have that sat right. I think
I saw one player tested positive when they did their
last COVID. That's incredible. That's incredible, and uh, you really
have to give them a lot, a lot of credit.
(21:37):
All right. On the field, you've got the Lions with
Matthew Stafford coming back after a season ending injury. They
were the Lions offense and Matthew Stafford personally really productive
prior to that. And then also on the Bear sideline,
you've got the ongoing drama surrounding Mitch Drabinsky, who beat
out Nick Foles. How much of a leash do you
(21:59):
think Mitch dr ski has? In other words, if he
came out and played poorly in the first half, is
this a quick yank situation? Based on what you've heard
and what are you hearing about Matthew Stafford and his
health as he returns to until we Stafford's good everything
I heard. I mean, listen, this is one of the
toughest guys in the NFL. When he sat out last
year and I covered some of those games that he
(22:19):
was on the sideline, uh, it was it was incredible
to actually have him pulled from those games. You knew
he was in a lot of pain. He was amazing
to watch him on the sidelines last year when he
was not playing. He had a clipboard in his hand,
a headset on his head. He was a coach on
the sideline. There was no sitting around for Matthew Stafford.
And I think that, uh, you know, listen, they respected
him regardless. But I mean I did talk to carry
(22:40):
On Johnson and they said seeing him do that just
kind of set another tone for them. As far as
Mitchell Trapisky, I do not think that if they'll pull
him game one, I just don't think they'll do that.
Uh was the least short. I also covered a lot
of Bears games last year and I had to do
those halftime interviews with Matt Maggie when, uh, when Trabisky
was not cant play, and he wasn't very happy at
(23:01):
the end of the season. From everything that I've heard,
Travis Key is walking a different walk. He's talking to
different talks. Who knows how the quarterback battle affected him.
I talked to one of the players who said, like,
that's the grit that we want to see out of
our quarterback. So maybe it went a long way. I mean,
think about it. Just two years ago, you know, he
was he was lighting it up, went to the Pro Bowl,
right and last year had the year that he had.
(23:23):
So I do not think it's a game one will
pull him at halftime if he's struggling. But I do
think the leash is shorter than it would be for
for a normal guy, just because of how last year went.
Shannon will be watching. Have a good flight and enjoy
the Bears and the Lions, and we'll talk to you
next week. Okay cool. Fox Sports Radio has the best
sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our
(23:45):
shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the
I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live.
All right, I told you yesterday my picks. I said,
Chief Saints and the Super Bowl Jags are going to
be the worst team. Hardinals are gonna win the NFC
West as my out on Olympic and I said the
m v P of the league. I thought it would
(24:06):
end up being Tom Brady. Uh. That is my take, alright,
So let's go around rapidly here and get everybody's picks
on the record with the start of the NFL season.
Clay my a f C champ is my out on
a limb, not going chalk. I took Chiefs last year.
This year, I'm saying their defense was the third best
in the NFL last season. I love the Stefon Digs edition.
(24:27):
I'm gonna go out on a limb and take the
Buffalo bill as a huge limb yep. And then the
NFC champ the forty Niners. In honor of the Bay
Area Central Valley radio legend Dave Holmes, who passed away
on Wednesday, close radio friend of mine, number one on
the air for twenty five years. He was a huge
Dodgers and Niners fan. In his honor, I'm gonna crown
(24:48):
the Niners as the Super Bowl champion. Uh, and any
m v P surprise, I'm gonna take Jimmy g as
the m v P. Wow. That that is a lot
of crazy picks from you all right, We're team that's
chalk Jags. Yeah. I don't even think we need to
have that conversation that Jacks are going to be the
worst team in the NFL. Alright, what about you, doub
(25:09):
who you got? All right? Out of the a f C.
I got the Kansas City Chief's feel pretty good about
that one. After last night, NFC, I'm going back to
the well. I think if you remember last year, I
took the Cowboys, I'm taking the Cowboys again. I think
they get it done this year super Bowl champions. I
got Chiefs first, Cowboys and I'm going Dallas just because
if I'm right, I can be a genius and if
I'm wrong, no one will remember. Out on a limb,
(25:31):
I got the Browns winning the a f C North
last year. They were probably the most hyped up team
in the NFL. They have the same roster. The only
thing that's changes they have a way better coach. So
why not worst team Jags and m v P. Mahomes.
So those are my picks. What about you, Eddie, anything
jumping out any craziness, I hate you, dub I've got
(25:51):
the Cowboys over the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Uh,
Mike McCarthy wants to prove that you can do it
without Aaron Rodgers. I got Dak having a huge year,
very motivated. He's the m v P of the league.
My worst team is the Jets. Uh. And what else
was there? I don't know. I got the Ravens having
a terrible season because Lamar Jackson is going to get
hurt early in the season. Yeah, you know it's interesting. Um,
(26:14):
the expect and thanks for those. So all those are
written down now. Roberto is out. Do you know what
his pick was? It was the Raiders going to win
the super Bowl. Let's see. I have his right here
in front of me. He's got the Chiefs and Saints
and the super Bowl. We said, the exact same super
Bowl as me. Yep, Saints winning. Wow. Yeah, same as
you his out on a limb. Bucks missed the playoffs. Yeah,
(26:36):
that would be a surprise. Worst team Jags m v
P Drew Brees. Uh, Drew Brees will be interesting because
he's never won an m v P before. All right,
So that is our predictions as we roll into the
NFL season. We come back, uh to start the top
of our three. Here, a couple of different things we're
going to dive into obviously the return of the NFL,
but the absolute latest on what I am hearing from
(26:58):
the Big Ten. We are all so scheduled to be
joined by Joel Clatt right off the top of the hour,
so we will be joined by him. I need to
figure out what hotel room he's in and see if
he's actually awake, but we can call his cell and
wake him up. He is calling a game tomorrow. He's
the lead college football analyst for Fox Sports, and uh,
(27:19):
we will see where he is. I believe he's in Kansas,
if I'm not mistaken. I think they flipped the game
that he is calling because the Baylor Louisiana Tech game
that they did have was actually canceled. So college football
Power five conferences started last night with Miami College Football
going on. We'll talk to Joel Clatt, will also continue
to break down the NFL game and what the latest
(27:40):
is on the Big Ten. We'll talk about Joel with
that as well. All that's still to come. Encourage you
to go download the podcast make sure you don't miss
a single minute. Thanks to all of you for supporting
out Kick as we roll into the weekend, I hope
you guys are having fantastic Fridays. This is OutKick on
Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch live editions about
Kicked the coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am
(28:03):
Eastern three am Pacific. Our long national nightmare is over.
Sports are officially back, and they are back in a
big way. The Corona Bros. Have taken a big, fat
l on this one. Last night, NFL returns in Kansas
City with fans present. I thought it went really well.
I'll unpack that for you a lot as we finished
(28:25):
off the final hour of the week. Also, as if
that were not enough, how about the Miami Hurricanes playing
in front of crowds down in Miami. Sparse crowds, yes,
but crowd present in Miami for the Hurricanes. Big five sorry,
Power five Conference football officially back last night. I feel
(28:46):
like many people missed the Miami Hurricanes returning because of
all the overwhelming attention that was out there for the
Texans at the Chiefs. Several different things that I thought
stood out on the field. Clyde Edwards lair incredible asset
to uh the Chiefs. He's going to make what was
already the best offense even better youngest running back ever
(29:09):
to go for a hundred and thirty plus yards and
a touchdown in his debut twenty one years old and
about half of a year into his twenty second year.
A big time performance by Clyde Edwards Hilaire last night.
The Texans, they look like they are going to miss
DeAndre Hopkins a great deal. They did not look like
(29:30):
a team with very much explosiveness. They did not look
like a team that had much of a down filled
passing game. Deshaun Watson remember his entire career he's had
DeAndre Hopkins to throw to. How much different is he
going to look without that top wide receiver target. We
will now find out. In the Texans, I believe are
(29:50):
potentially in a really tough spot. As you look at
their first seven games of the season, there's a decent chance.
I think if you're a Texans fan and where you
sit and look at the schedule and think to yourself, oh,
we may end up losing a lot of games this year.
I'm not sure exactly how it's all gonna shake out,
but it's probably not gonna be very good. I wouldn't
(30:12):
imagine for the Houston Texans. As you look at the
early part of their schedule. They lost to this game,
and then you start to think, okay, well can they
bounce back. Will they get the Ravens Good luck with that.
That's a tough game at home for their opener. Then
they have the Steelers on the road. They then get
the Vikings down in Houston, which isn't an easy game.
(30:32):
They get the Jags, which hopefully might be their first win,
because I think there's a decent chance they start off
oh and four. Then they go on the road against
the Titans, that will not be an easy game. Then
they get the Packers. There's a decent chance that they
could start one and seven or two and six in
their first several games. And so if that ends up happening,
(30:56):
this is a This is a tough spot for the
Texans to find themselves. Now, sched gets a lot easier
in the second half. So if they could find a
way to pull off an upset over the Ravens, if
they could beat the Steelers, if they could beat the Vikings,
they could win a couple of those games they can
fight their way through. Obviously the Titans in a big
division game and find themselves in a somewhat decent spot
(31:16):
at the halfway point, but I think you have to
be decently nervous about this overall as you as you
look forward. What about the off the field related discussions.
I thought this went about as well for the NFL
as it possibly could it. Uh, did not feel like
the NFL went full woke and followed the lead of
(31:37):
the NBA. The names on the back of the helmets
and the statements on the back of the helmets are
almost not visible in the end zones. The messages that
are written there are not very noticeable. Uh. The whole
Chiefs team, with the exception of one player, stood for
the national anthem. The Texans didn't come out for the
national anthem, But that process actually managed to create less attention.
(32:02):
If you are out there and you're my listening audience,
and you're a football fan, but you're like, man, I
don't want to watch the NFL because they're going super woke. Well,
in Week two, I've been told that CBS, NBC, Fox, UH,
and the ESPN are not going to cover the protests
at all, and so the national anthem, what teams do
(32:25):
they're gonna start the game after that has already occurred,
and all you're gonna see is what happens as people
run out onto the field to begin the game. And
so I think that is very good for the NFL.
If I am Roger Goodell, I am sitting back and
saying this couldn't have gone any better. It sounded normal.
I know, we had some fun with Andy Reid's big
(32:46):
face shield that started to fog up on him, uh
during the course of the game. That in and of
itself is pretty funny, but that is uh. This is
certainly something worth following as as we move forward. Is
that I believe the NBA is going to find itself
on a woke island. And what I mean by that
(33:08):
is the NBA is going way overboard in terms of
its woke nous, and nobody else is actually following that lead,
uh anywhere. I think this for the NFL felt a
little bit like to me the opening for Major League Baseball,
where Baseball made a bunch of statements about about politics
and social justice and everything else in their opener and
(33:31):
then it's basically vanished. Now it's just baseball, and with
fans present, I thought Chiefs fans did a good job
of making their voices heard during the game. It sounded
and felt almost completely like a normal game, which is
a huge win for the NFL. I believe as we
(33:53):
prepare for their opening weekend now there will be some
attention given to the Chiefs fans who boom. To me,
it's not a big story. The Chiefs were booing most
of their fans the Texans because the Texans didn't come
out for the national anthem, and so that booing to
me felt completely connected to that. Also, fans have a
(34:14):
right to voice their opinion. If you're going to argue, hey,
NFL players or NBA players or Major League Baseball players
or whoever it is, are going to make political statements,
then fans have a right to say, hey, we don't
agree with this. That's what fandom is. Your voice can
be heard in both directions. I think a lot of
(34:35):
times people forget that the First Amendment is a two
way street. You have the right to your opinion and
you can share it widely, but everybody else has the
right to respond to your opinion as well. But I
think the big takeaway here was that the NFL, in
their opener, had about of as good of a debut
(34:56):
as they possibly could, so I wanted to see whether
or not my audience agreed with me, and so I
asked you, guys, what letter grade would you give the
NFL for last night's season opener between the Texans and
the Chiefs. Forty one person well being just run through
an order. Percent of you gave them an A, forty
(35:19):
one percent of you gave them a B, eighteen percent
of you gave them a C. So eight five percent
of my audience, with over twenty thousand votes in gave
the NFL opener and a A B or C percent
gave it a D or inn F. I only have
(35:40):
four options, so D and F is together. And I
think if you're the NFL and you're looking at these
results of my poll, uh, you are gonna be pretty
ecstatic about that. Because I really anticipated that the number
one story coming out of the opening Thursday night game
was going to be politics, so shial justice on field
(36:02):
behavior that had nothing to do with the game itself,
and that was what everybody was going to talk about. Instead,
I feel like the NFL managed to dodge a major
disaster there, and as a result, um this has turned
into a really pretty intriguing open for the NFL, where
(36:23):
I think they're gonna dodge the worst of the disaster
that has befallen the NBA, where their ratings have completely
collapsed as they have embraced woke social justice politics on
the court, on the jerseys and during the anthem. Uh. Also,
I think it's intriguing. I want to play this. Do
we have the audio ready Danny g of what the
(36:46):
Dolphins said right as kickoff happened last night? Yeah? Heads up,
It's two minutes long, but we do have it ready.
All right. I want to listen to this, and I
want you guys to listen to this. Jason Wentlock and
I did a live show last night, and thanks for
everybody who watched at least a part of that, and
we had a live reaction to what happened in the pregame.
Jason Whitlock lived and worked in Kansas City for a
(37:07):
long time, and he is a big Chief fan, uh
and so he was excited to watch this game. And
as you sort of look and think about going forward,
what Whitlock and I were talking about in relation to
this Miami Dolphins video is in general, it's it's like
they're calling out the rest of the NFL over the
(37:29):
empty gestures of kneeling for the anthem or whatever else
that has sort of befallen the world of sports over
the fast of the past year. And what effectively what
it seems like to me they are saying, is the
time for you know, sort of empty gestures and social
justice faux wokeism is past. Make your own decisions in
(37:50):
your own life. The Dolphins, by the way, have said
they're not gonna come out for the Black national anthem.
They're not gonna come out for the United States anthem.
They're just gonna stay in the law a room. They
don't want to be a part of all of this show.
But I thought the statement the video that they put
out right as kickoff happened last night was interesting. Here
was that Is it authentic? That's the mystery or is
(38:12):
it just another symbolic victory. Now there's two anthems? Do
we kneel? Do we stand? If we could just right
our wrongs, we wouldn't need two songs. We don't need
another publicity parade. So we'll just stay inside until it's
time to play the game. Whatever happened to the funds
that were promised, all of a sudden, we got a
collapse pocket. The bottom line should not be in that profit.
(38:35):
You can't open your heart when it's controlled by your wallet.
Decals and patches, fireworks and trumpets. We're not puppets. Don't
publicize false budgets, asked de pundits, and we shouldn't have
a say. If you speak up a change, then I
shut up and play. If we remain silent, that would
just be selfish, since they don't have a voice we're
speaking of for their helpless It's not enough to act
(38:57):
like you care for the troops millions for pre game patriotism.
You get paid the salute, lift every voice. Insane. It's
just a way to save face. Lose the mask and
stop hiding the real game face. So if my dad
was a soldier but the cops killed my brother, do
I stand for one anthem and then kneel for the other.
This attempt to unify only creates more divide. So well
(39:19):
skipped this song and dance, and as a team will
stay inside. We need changed hearts, not just a response
to pression. Enough, no more fluff and mpty gestures. We
need owners with influence and pockets bigger than ours to
call up officials in flix political power, when education is
not determined by where we reside, and we have the
(39:40):
means to purchase with the doctor prescribed, and you fight
for prison reform and innocent lives, and you repair the
communities that were tossed to the side, and you admit
you gain from it, and you swallow your pard And
when greed is not the compass, but love is the god.
And when, of course, don't punish skin color, but punish
the crime. Until then, we'll just skipped the long production
(40:01):
and stay inside. For centuries we've been trying to make
you aware. Either you're in denial or just simply don't
really care. It's not a black white thing or a
left right thing. Let's clean the whole bird and stop
arguing about which wing the dolphins. And look, I understand
some of you're gonna be like that, they're idiots. I
disagree with that. Whatever. To me, the most interesting part
(40:23):
here is they're acknowledging that all of this social justice
warrior dumb is by and large a sham. Right. I mean, oh,
I'm not gonna kneel. Oh I'm gonna change the world
by not standing for the national anthem. No, you're not right,
You're creating more divisiveness in my opinion. But even if
you think, oh, this is changing the world, first of all,
(40:44):
the data doesn't reflect that it is. But secondly, it's
just a big show, right. It's just a big production.
That's all that's going on here. There's nothing substantive or
substantial associated with it. And so I think a lot
of teams are just going to decide not to come
out for the national anthem. And if that, in fact
(41:08):
is what they are deciding to do, then I think
this story is basically just gonna vanish because that's the truth,
right is that? Uh? For many people, especially without fans present,
this is gonna look even more ridiculous. Like that's my
thing about the n B. A kneeling for the national
anthem in the NBA when there are no fans present
(41:30):
is entirely a television production design. It isn't about changing anything.
It's about trying to get social media likes and have
people on Instagram happy and everything. It's a total lunacy, right.
Nine of sports fans look to sports as an escape
from reality, and I understand that athletes, because it's their job.
(41:53):
They're like, this isn't an escape from reality, this is
my reality. I understand that perspective, but that's not why
you paid millions of dollars. You get paid millions of
dollars because you provide an escape from reality for the
vast majority of sports fans who have no interest whatsoever
in your politics. That's the truth. Most people don't care.
(42:14):
I mean athletes may not like this, but most people
don't care about an athlete's life other than for the
three hours that they are providing entertainment and football or
basketball or whatever else it is. And I'm saying that
for all entertainment, right. I don't think most people care
what Robert Downey Jr. Is doing in his life other
(42:37):
than when he's performing as Iron Man. I don't think
most people cared back in the day about Toby McGuire's
life other than when he's being Spider Man. Right. Most
people who are entertainers, whether you're a singer, songwriter or
whatever you do, most people don't really care about a
singer's life. By and large, diehards do, but most will
(43:00):
care about a singer's new album. They care about a
singer at a concert. They don't care about anything else
other than the question of are they or are they
not entertained? I sound like Maximus back in back in
the Gladiator days when he walked around saying are you
not entertained inside of the coliseum when he killed people
too fast. But the truth of the matter is sports figures,
(43:22):
whether they want to be or not, make their money
because they're entertainers. And as soon as you stop entertaining,
then the number of people who are gonna watch is
gonna go down. I mean, this isn't rocket science, and
so I think the Dolphins there are basically calling out
what all of this is, which is a sham. Now
I give credit to the Kansas City Chiefs for standing.
(43:45):
I think some teams will decide to stand. I think
the number of teams that will decide to kneel will
be low. I think there will be fan reactions when
the fans see that teams are kneeling for the national anthem,
because I think there's a big divide between players and
fans over that and Horton's But I think if players
are staying in the locker room by and large for
a lot of this, because uh, there is a major
(44:08):
issue associated with this, and maybe you give the NFL
credit for playing the you know quote unquote black national anthem.
I think players have recognized, Wait a minute, if we
kneel for the black national anthem, uh, and sorry, if
we sneel for the United United States national anthem, and
we stand for the black national anthem, that's gonna make
us look really bad. If we kneel for both, what's
(44:30):
the point. And so I think this story is basically over.
I really do, I think, and I could be wrong,
but I think by week two, when the NFL stops
covering all the protests, I think most people are gonna
be like, yeah, I'm over this. There's so much sports
going on. They're gonna watch the sports that they like.
(44:51):
They're not gonna watch the other sports. If you choose
not to watch because of politics, I respect that. That's
how marketplaces work. You can choose what to consume with
your entertainment dollars. And I always say that no matter what, Like,
if I watch a television show and it stops being entertaining,
I don't watch it anymore. And the NFL is a
television show. It's an entertainment product. Uh, it's a reality
(45:14):
television show. Sports are the best reality television programming that
there's ever been and so if you don't like a
reality show, don't watch it. Same thing I would always say.
But we uh we had the first game played. I
think it went well for the NFL. When we come back,
we will theoretically be joined by Joel Clatt. We may
be waking him up. I don't know. Uh, we gotta
(45:36):
he's not responding to my text messages. He told me
he was good to go. I hope he's okay. I
hope he's in a good hotel. Hope he's ready for
the college football season. We'll see if can get him.
In the next segment, this is Outkicked the Coverage with
Clay Travis
Hosts And Creators
Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
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