September 15, 2020 • 60 mins
Clay Travis is running on fumes after last night’s insane Titans/Broncos game, where kicking was a lost art and Clay is very critical of Denver's head coach. Clay is joined by Jason Whitlock for some fun breaking down Week 1 of the NFL and they tackle a couple of serious topics, where social justice, police and the sports world meet. Plus, Tuesday means Petros is in the house for his usual shenanigans!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of out Kick the
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best of OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis on Fox
(00:22):
Sports Radio. A bleary eyed out kick Studios, which many
of you also are now experiencing, at least if you
stayed up for the double header last night of Monday
Night football, which did not end until around one thirty
am Eastern, So there are probably a lot of bleary
(00:46):
eyes across the country. We are here and we want
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(01:07):
Monday Night games. We're gonna get into what did Ben
Roethlisberger look like? Because I think that's the biggest story
by far coming out of the Steelers and the Giants game.
But that game didn't have a lot of drama. The
ugly battle between the Denver Broncos and the Tennessee Titans
had a lot of drama, even though it was a
(01:29):
little bit like a mud wrestling event. And I'm still
kind of fixated on the end of the game situation,
and in particular, the way that Vic Fangio basically managed
that late game situation makes no sense at all to me.
You're playing at altitude right, you have a great kicker
(01:51):
in McManus who has made a fifty seven yard field
goal in your stadium before, and you don't use your
time outs as the Titans attempt to bleed out the clock,
and you finished the game with two timeouts remaining. It
doesn't make any sense at all, and this is just
(02:11):
a failure of game management strategy of an epic magnitude. Now, look,
the fact that the Broncos even had a chance to
win this game is a testament to Stephen Gotskowski having
one of the worst kicking games in NFL history, and
that is not an exaggeration. I got a couple of
stats for you that we're coming across. Last night, this
(02:34):
was the first time in Stephen Gotzkowski's career that he
had missed three field goals in the same game. The
Titans have made only now I guess it's nine of
their last twenty two field goals, which is unheard of.
Last year, the Titans only made forty four point four
percent of their field goal attempts. That was by far
(02:56):
the worst in the NFL. That's also the worst in
the NFL by a substantial margin in the twenty first century.
In fact, it's the only time in the twenty one
century that a team has made less than six of
its field goal attempts. So it's not just that Gaskowski
was awful last night, it is he was the choice
(03:19):
to cure all that ailed the Titans field goal kicking issues.
Stephen Gatskowski had six seasons where he missed three or
fewer field goals, and he also, of course missed an
extra point last night. I mean, this was just failure
of an epic magnitude. I don't know. Maybe he decides
(03:40):
after this game, I don't have it anymore, and he
decides to retire, and he goes back to UH to
to to just living his life. He's been as a
very successful career as an NFL place kicker. Maybe he
decides to continue. Maybe he's not a hundred percent healthy.
I don't know for sure, but what I do know
for sure is down the stress of this game, there
(04:02):
was absolutely no logic being utilized at all by the
Denver Broncos, and I feel like again, even though Guskowski
missed three field goals and an extra point, leaving ten
points on the field, the Broncos still, if they had
just used their time outs, had an opportunity there to
(04:22):
put the Titans in a tough spot because they would
have forced the Titans to maybe be more aggressive in
their play calling. Also, they would have had over a
minute left there at the end of the game, which
is plenty of time to get into field goal range.
It's one of and by the way the announced team
and their inability to actually point out what was going
(04:43):
on there, and the fact that it was not in
any way a rational decision that was being made by
Vic Fangio. Even if you go back and you watch,
it was as if Mike Vrabel was sitting there confused
as to what actually was going on in disbelief that
Fanagi was letting him continue to run Derrick Henry and
not actually calling any of his time out. It didn't
(05:05):
make any sense at all on a logical basis, unless
you just decide that Fangio had reached the decision that
he didn't care about the time on the clock because
he thought Gotzkowski was so rattled mentally that there was
no way he would make the field goal. I I
don't know exactly what he was thinking. It's not a
(05:27):
smart decision making by him. And if I'm a Broncos
fan waking up bleary eyed early this morning in the
Mountain time zone or anywhere across the country for that matter,
I'm thinking to myself, why how did we lose this
game without giving our offense a chance to come back
down the field and put the kicker in a position
to make a make a kick. I mean, the situation
(05:50):
was they got to run two plays. I believe it
was two plays with basically seventeen seconds left, and they
got nothing out of it. Maybe it was three a's
with seventeen seconds left, I guess, but they got nowhere
near actually being in position to attempt a field goal,
and so it was just a fundamental failure of coaching
and the Titans one. I guess you can always say
(06:12):
a win as a win as a win, but there
wasn't a lot of reason for optimism. I don't think
if you're a Titans fan either, because there was a
lot of incompetence there, a lot of early penalties, a
lot of missed field goals, um and you got the
one goal line stand where Jeffrey Simmons kind of blew
up what was an awful play call. I thought, uh,
(06:32):
you're running your quarterback to the right from the one
yard line and you tried to do a shovel pass
back in the opposite direction from the goal line. I
just it was a really questionable I thought play call
from Denver there. But that completed all of the NFL
games of the opening weekend. Now I want to circle
back around a little bit and talk about what we
(06:55):
saw in the earlier game as well with the Denver Broncos,
sorry not the Denver Broncos, with the Pittsburgh Steelers returning
Ben Roethlisberger, and what we thought about his performance, because
I think that's probably the most significant aspect of that
game overall, and I thought Roethlisberger was just okay. I
know we had three touchdown passes, but he didn't look
(07:18):
like he had the same explosiveness in his arm. And
maybe it's not gonna matter because maybe the Steeler defense
is just so good and Juju Smith Schuster is gonna
be back to being a big time playmaker and you're
finally gonna get James Washington as a distance guy down
the field. Maybe it's not gonna matter that Ben Roethlisberger
doesn't seem like he's got an explosive arm anymore. But
(07:41):
I just I didn't see the same pop in his
in his throwing ability. Now, Daniel Jones made a couple
of really awful throws. Otherwise, I think you would have
left that game as a Giants fan feeling like, hey,
he's shown some decent growth. You had set Kwan Barkley
not be able to do anything in the rushing game,
(08:02):
and that's just because of this great Pittsburgh Steeler defense.
So it may be that after having a few years
where Ben Roethlisberger had to come out and win games
by himself effectively, it may now be that Roethlisberger really
just has to be more of a game manager. Doesn't
need to force the ball, uh, and Mike Tomlin can
tell him, hey, if you get us twenty four points,
(08:22):
we're gonna have a really good chance to win almost
all the games, especially if we don't have any bad turnovers.
And look, that's kind of what Ben Roethlisberger did. He
got your three touchdown passes, he put twenty whatever it
was twenty six on the board, and that defense really
tightened up after getting down ten three early in the game.
So those were the two Monday night football games. UH.
(08:44):
In totality there breaking down everything that we saw to
complete the thirty two game NFL season in general. UH,
thirty two NFL teams in Week one, and I I
just I mean, it was great to see the NFL back.
It was fabulous to see all sixteen games, all thirty
two teams being able, uh to be out on the field.
(09:06):
It seems like there have not been any major issues
with the coronavirus, at least occurring from the games. Will
find out over the next couple of days. But what
based on the fact that there were five thousand negative
tests last week, it would seem highly unlikely that anything
is going to occur that would be a super negative
(09:26):
in that respect. But man, I don't know, you know,
the Week one in the NFL has an outsize sort
of standing in the way that you think about your
team because there's so much that gets put into Week one.
After this, you got seven days in between games, six
days to get ready, and so a lot of different
(09:48):
things happen over the course of the NFL season. But
I feel like we learn a lot about the teams
in Week one, about their ceilings, about their floors, and
everything else associated with that, and that Week one momentum
seems to carry a lot of juice with it. So
what do we learn and what do we think we
know after Week one in the NFL. I'm gonna start
(10:10):
to kind of put some put make some sense of this.
Also going to continue to unpack what we just saw happen,
uh in this game between the Titans and the Broncos,
and certainly what we saw with the Steelers finding a
way to get a win against the Giants. I'm gonna
run through sort of the larger universe of the NFL
and try to tell you a bunch of different thoughts
(10:32):
that I have as we move forward. Also want to
give you a roadmap of where we're headed on the show.
Lots of good stuff coming your way. We're gonna talk
with Jason Whitlock. He's gonna be up early with us
as well, joining us for the final UH segment of
the show UH in our one that he's gonna be
with us for much of our too. Petros Papadekas, as
he always does, will join us in our three AM
(10:54):
five seventy l A Sports. So we have a lot
coming in your direction. This is outkicked the coverage with
Clay Travis. We are rolling through the program, finishing off
the first hour. Jason Whitlock. All of the NFL officially
in the books now and we talked a lot about
(11:16):
this yesterday. I think we're gonna be talking about it
all week. But where I want to lead with you
here is what happened with Tom Brady And how nervous
do you think Tampa Bay buccaneer fans should be based
on the performance that we saw from Brady and the
Bucks on the road against the Saints in Week one. Look,
as I said yesterday in the return of my NFL
(11:39):
True's column, UH, Tom Brady is currently in hospice in
Tampa and I've said that old quarterbacks, like most old people,
they best die at home surrounded by friends, loved ones,
family members, and longtime fans. And so moving Tom Brady
(12:01):
from his home in Upper New England, uh, Boston, down
to hospice in Florida is going to be a disaster. Yeah,
a football hospice. It's going to be a disaster because
those Tampa Bay fans won't be satisfied that they have
(12:21):
their I said on a Super Bowl and they think, oh,
we're getting Tom Brady. No, you're getting forty three year
old Tom Brady who retired in New England and has
moved down to Florida for a retirement. And and I
just don't think Bruce arians Byron Leftwich are going to
(12:42):
be able to care for Tom Brady the way that
Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels cared for him. And Tom
Brady was was awful on Sunday. And that's not people
think I hate Tom Brady. I have immense respect for
Tom Brady, one of my favorite football players. Uh, but
the guys old and washed up, and that's how he
(13:03):
looked on Sunday. He's blaming Mike Evans or the Troy
Aikman blamed Mike Evans for one of the early interceptions. No,
that was a bad read by Tom Brady. And then
the pick six was right out of the Jamis Winston playbook.
Tom Brady cost the Buccaneers that game. He looked just
like Jamis Winston on Sunday. Were you surprised that Bruce
Arians didn't tiptoe up to the criticism of Tom Brady,
(13:27):
because I actually thought this was interesting. I don't even
know if you saw these quotes. I'm reading from out Kick,
which is obviously the website that all of you should
be reading from every single day, and we pulled the
quotes out Bruce Arians, uh said, and I quote, um,
both interceptions were on, Brady said, there was nobody else
(13:47):
to explain it. Away said the Brady pick six in particular,
he threw the outlet pass instead of a screen. It
was a bad decision. Uh. He looked like here's Bucks
coach Tom Brady, continuing, he looked like Tom Brady in
practice all the time. So it's kind of unusual to
see that in the ball game because they didn't do
things that we didn't get ready for. Everything they did
(14:09):
we thought they were ready for. That's pretty strong. I mean, uh,
you know, for Bruce Arians to come out and go
after Brady, Now, maybe Brady is gonna respond well to
the tough love approach. But he said he looked like
Tom Brady in practice and obviously didn't think he looked
like Tom Brady in the game. Uh. That I thought
was pretty intriguing. Uh, As I stated, when you go
(14:32):
to hospice, they don't take care of you the way
your family would take care of you. Bruce Arians hasn't
won anything with Tom Brady, and I think he obviously
he wants us to work. He's enthusiastic about it, but uh,
he may be shocked and like, oh my god, he's
deteriorated more than I thought. And and at the end
(14:54):
of the day, who's gonna take the blame. Who's gonna
get criticized because the media as again the Mike Evans
interceptions early in the game or that that Brady looked
like and Troy Aikman certainly defined it as Mike Evans
made the wrong read, he quit on the route. People
through Mike Evans under the bus. Mike Evans actually made
(15:14):
the right read. He was bracketed over the top by
a safety He wasn't running in there. He didn't want
to force Tom Brady to throw him the ball into trouble,
so he quit on the route. Uh. So that's fascinating
that Bruce Arians is handling it that way. But it's
not really surprising because if this doesn't work a lot
(15:37):
of people are gonna take blame Byron Leftwidge, Bruce Arians,
you know. And and as I got over by, somebody
tweeted at me, I mean, you can't expect Tom Brady
to carry a team with three excellent wide receivers too
great tight ends at a running back. He needs real support. Uh,
speaking of Brady, I mean that was obviously one of
(15:58):
the big stories. What did you think of out Cam
in New England? Because I came on and I said,
straight up, I mean, look, I don't know if Cam
can carry the ball fifteen times a game like he
did in the win over the Dolphins on Sunday. But
it feels like Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels have a
heck of a a new weapon, you know, sort of
(16:18):
to work with here, and I'm not sure where it's
gonna go. I'm not sure that the Patriots with all
the guys that they had elect not to to play
are very good, but I'm not sure how many good
teams there are in the a f C East in general?
What letter grade would you give Cam's debut at the Patriots?
A minus to a B plus, somewhere in that range.
(16:40):
And the only the only knock I would have is
I'm concerned whether it's sustainable and whether or not the
same reason I am because of the running the ball
fishing times. Yeah, and it's like, are they just putting
a saddle on Cam and just gonna ride him until
the wheels fall off? And look, we didn't draft him,
we got him for cheap. Uh, He's probably not done
be here long term. Let's just milk this cow for
(17:03):
as much milk as we can while we got him.
And will he survive it? Now? Trust me? Cam Newton,
I think is is happy. He's playing the way that
the only way he's really been super successful. But it
got off to a nice start. And you know Bill
Belichick is is if Cam can survive sixteen games of
(17:25):
playing football that way, Bill Belichick is gonna win a
lot of games. He's gonna win the an FC East
and he's gonna get the last laugh on you know,
he sent Tom Brady down to Florida for retirement while
he gets one year of Milk and Cam Newton and
they'll draft a quarterback or figure out their quarterback long
term later. I'm reading your column right now from Monday,
(17:48):
uh and UH making sure I got tabs on all
your big takeaways. And first before we go into the
next hour here, I would like for you to apologize
to everyone because you had the worst clock management of
anyone that I know out there. You managed to somehow
decided to go for Errand's Sunday morning in Nashville, and
(18:10):
you missed the kickoff of all the NFL games and
what might be this single most uh you know, necessary
time to see the pre game of any of your
life as a journalist. UH, please explain why you were
so hamstrung with an inability to look at your clock
and make make good decisions. I went on a ten
minute Errand and it turned into ninety. I was just
(18:34):
out trying to get a power chord for one of
my laptops and I ended up having to go to
three different stores before I got to a Best Buy
that had a power chord. I get back and the
damn power chord doesn't work, and so yeah, I missed
kickoff and all that, but you know, I got caught up.
I missed all the kneeling or whatever it is people did. Uh,
(18:56):
So when we come back, I want to dive into
dive into well, by the way, before we get to that,
you also texted me, oh man, I blew it. I
didn't get my bets in. So, first of all, for
people who don't know, you won your over in the
Kansas City game by a half point, so that was
a good, good gambling start on the opening Thursday night
football game of the year. The Chiefs covered as well
(19:18):
all that, but didn't you text me, Yeah, my big
bet was gonna be on the Eagles and they were
up seventeen nothing, and you're like, oh man, I blew it.
I didn't get my bets in in time because I
was running around looking for things. And then how lucky
did you get that you didn't get your big bet
in on the Eagles. Well, I had two picks that
(19:39):
I was gassed up for on Sunday. The Eagles. I
just Dwayne Haskins first year and and Ron Rivere's had
health issues. The Redskins are gonna the Washington football team
is gonna be a mess. Eagles are gonna jump out
early and just crush them, and you know, look great
in the first half and then fell apart apart. And
then my second bet was uh. And people that followed
(20:03):
my Twitter feeds sophisticatedly know who I bet on them
by what I complained about. And I did a lot
of complaining about Tom Brady because because that was my
other bet. I thought the Buccaneers were gonna shock New Orleans, uh,
and Tom Brady was gonna play well with you know,
I figured, oh, he worked so hard during the off season,
(20:25):
and so those were my two big bets, and I
was I was dead wrong, and I did get that, uh,
Buccaneers be yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately that was an afternoon game,
so he didn't have any excuse there. Be sure to
catch live editions if I would kick the coverage with
Clay Travis week days at six am Eastern three am Pacific.
We're having a good run through all of the games
(20:47):
that have been going on. We're talking with Jason Whitlock
and uh. Much to discuss, of course, But what's really fascinating,
I think if you look at the Monday night football games.
Titans find a way to win even though they missed
three field goals in an extra point. Ben Roethlisberger looks
back to Ben Roethlisberger like status a lot to be
(21:08):
excited about. I think if you're the Steelers and you
still have that defense and now you're mixing in everything
from Ben Roethlisberger, I think you're fired up about Vic
Fangio's decision making down the stretch. Drew Lock showed flashes there,
but the Titans found a way to win even with
all those mishaps in the kicking game, all of that
going on. But we bring in now Jason Whitlock, just
(21:29):
resetting the table there for everybody on Monday Night football.
And I just teased as we went to break that
I was going to ask you about the Dallas Cowboys,
which is a big topic of discussion, and it felt
to me as a guy who've watched the Dallas Cowboys
a lot over the last twenty five years or thirty years,
or whatever the heck it is the last several years.
(21:49):
Every time the Cowboys lose, people come out and they say,
Jason Garrett is the reason why the Cowboys lost. He
was a convenient scapegoat. He was the perpet chewel blame
factory for why the Dallas Cowboys lost. But I gotta
tell you, I watched them play against the Rams, and
I think the Rams deserve a lot of credit. They
were physical, Sean mcveigh's team was well prepared. I thought
(22:12):
they were the better coached and the better prepared and
the better team on the field for much of Sunday night.
But the Cowboys were one in six last year in
one score games. They got the ball back with two
and a half minutes to play, they were perfectly poised
to be able to make a play come down the field.
(22:33):
And we can argue about the past interference call or not,
But the bigger issue to me, Whitlock, was the defensive
line of the Rams was dominating the offensive line on
that final series. If you went back and charted almost
every play, you'd give a w to the Rams, with
the exception of the one play, which we can argue
(22:53):
about whether or not the past interference should have been
called the offensive pass interference call. Did you think to yourself,
this is the same old Cowboys. Maybe, just possibly, Jason
Garrett wasn't the biggest issue that they had no, Jason
Garrett was a major issue, and in Week one, Mike
McCarthy was a major issue. Mick McCarthy should have early
(23:15):
in the fourth quarter kicked the field goal and tied
the game up. Period. It's fourth and three, not fourth
and three inches, fourth in three yards, Kick the damn
field goal. Now you got eleven minutes to figure out
who the better team is. The idiot went for it.
And and by the way, Jason Garrett would have kicked
(23:37):
the field goal there probably yeah, And you know, rookie
wide receiver ran a rookie route short of the sticks.
Uh dat probably made the wrong throw. But and and Clay,
I'm just sorry that was not offensive past interference. Dak
Prescott and Michael Gallup made a huge play. The one
thing everybody was talking about how good the quality of
(23:59):
play was in the NFL yesterday, and there is some
truth to that, but the only truth to it is
the referees had clearly been given directive stay out of this,
don't don't turn this into a penalty flag fest, and
that made the quality of play look really good. And
that because that's what fans want to see. The players
(24:21):
decided not the referees and So here we get to
Sunday night football and time to put an exclamation point
on week one or the first Sunday of Week one,
and the damn ref injects himself to the end of
the game calling that offensive past interference. It's a joke.
It cost Dak a great moment. It cost the Cowboys
the game. But I blame Mike McCarthy. I I was
(24:45):
halfway impressed. I thought Zekiel Elliott looked good. I thought
Dad played relatively well. I I thought their defense played
pretty well. I was kind of impressed with the Cowboys.
Mike McCarthy did something really stupid. It cost him a game. Uh,
the Cowboys themselves may have the benefit of being again
(25:06):
in a not very good division. Um you know, I mean,
I think that's probably true with the NFC East. But
as h as you started the pregame you saw, let
me go back to the past interference called Jalen Ramsey
just signed a seventy one million dollar deal I think
guaranteed money as the highest paid corner in the league.
If that's not Jalen Ramsey and it's your average corner
(25:28):
in the league, did he get the does he get
the benefit of that call. I I think Jalen Ramsey
the reason they paid him seventy one million, not just
because of his coverage skills, but the little way he
kicked his head back and kind of exaggerated that push
he drew. He drew a foul basically, that's how that's
(25:48):
why you pay a guy that kind of money. So
hats off to Jalen Ramsey. Great play by him. Reff
shouldn't have gone forward in terms of injecting yourself at
that point. That foul needed to be really bad and
and so, but hats off to Jalen rams I thought
he baited the refs in the calling something that they
did all right. We usually don't want to give a
(26:08):
ton of attention to the one guy who's doing something different.
I actually was impressed with the number of players, specially
top players, who decided to stand for the national anthem
after all the pressure we've seen MLS players, neild, NBA players, obviously,
even a lot of Major League Baseball players. Neil one
player kneeled for the Dallas Cowboys. I think that's the
(26:29):
first time that anybody from the Dallas Cowboys has not
stood for the national anthem. Don Terry Poe. If I'm
not mistaken, what did you think about his decision? What
did you think about the logic that he used to
justify his decision. It's why I just think we can't
take these athletes this seriously on any of these issues,
(26:50):
because I think he said, this is this is how
I'm fighting racism. Basically, this is how I'm doing. I've
got his quote. If you want me to read it,
go ahead and read it. I wrote about it. Yeah,
it's up in Jason Whitlock's Monday Morning column, which I
would encourage you just to be following Jason Whitlock at
Whitlock Jason on Twitter, uh and he said he was
(27:13):
asked why he decided to kneel, and he said, and
I'm reading his quote, it's just bringing more awareness to
what's going on in this world, to the racial injustices
that's going on. It's not something that's going to be
solved in a day. People keep asking me what is
he doing. It's bringing more awareness, this is letting people know,
and this is my way of fighting it. It's the
(27:33):
beginning of it. We might not see change in my lifetime.
I do want to start doing the simple things such
as kneeling to let people know that I feel this way.
Your thoughts that this is when you're counting on athletes
for leadership and in their spare time, their spare job
(27:55):
playing professional football's don Terry Pole's real job. So he's
come up with a very simple way to improve the
life of black people national anthem. I'm gonna take these
three minutes and Neil boom and again, that's nothing that
won't impact anything. He's not bringing awareness to anything. He's
(28:15):
just doing something simple, a gesture that accomplishes nothing but
makes him feel and creates the appearance that, oh, he's
really concerned if athletes need to simplify their message, and
they won't because you know it calls on them to
actually do something. But there's a real simple solution to
(28:38):
a lot of this. If you want to lessen the
impact of racism, it's it's too easy steps and athletes
need to be promoting it. Commit to a family that's one,
where a condom that's two. You do those two things,
create a family and commit to do it, and wear
(29:01):
a condom. You would be shocked at how hard it
is for racism to limit your opportunities. I want to
build on that because I actually uh tell my kids
a version of this, uh, and I think it's the
most important thing that we should be telling kids. And
I would love to see athletes pick this up because
(29:23):
this is statistically proven. And I don't know if we've
had this conversation before, Jason Whitlock, but it kind of
builds on what you just said it. I can't prove.
I can't guarantee to anybody out there listening to me
right now, that you're gonna grow up and be rich, right,
can't do it. Lots of variables in play there. Everybody
starts at a different place. You might get the right job,
you might not. But I can virtually guarantee you that
(29:47):
there is a zero percent chance you will be poor,
which is a pretty big deal, right, if you can
just avoid being poor. Can't guarantee you're gonna be rich,
but I can guarantee that you're that you're not gonna
be poor. All right, here's what you have to do.
This is statistically proven. Race doesn't matter, where you start,
doesn't matter, none of that. Every single kid out there,
(30:09):
number one graduate from high school. Not telling you to
go to college, not telling you to get into advanced
graduate degree. Those are good things. I'd encourage everybody to
be able to do them. But I'm saying right now, baseline,
graduate from high school, get married, get married at some
point in time. Do not have a child before you
(30:31):
are twenty five years old. If you do those three things,
there is a virtual zero percent chance that you will
be poor in your life, no matter where you are starting.
And I feel a lot of times like, imagine how
much more impactful it would be if every athlete started
drilling this idea into the entire nation's core. Right, all
(30:56):
these young kids who look up to athletes three steps,
graduate high school, get married, wait until you're twenty five
years old to have a kid. Your poverty rate is
virtually zero. Now, whenever I say that, somebody's like, well,
I didn't graduate from high school and I ended up
being a millionaire. Or I got married when I was
eighteen and I had four kids by the time I
was twenty and I'm doing fine. Okay, All that's fine.
(31:18):
You are the exception to an overall rule those three things.
Graduate from high school, get married, don't have a kid
so you're twenty five, you won't be poor. That is
something that I feel like everybody can grasp and understand,
and I feel like it should be shared way more widely.
Those things also will probably prevent you from ever going
(31:43):
to prisoner jail to a large extent. I think that's
likely true. And so and again, when you look at people,
I guarantee if they did a statistic or analysis of
people killed by the police, and you just said, uh,
did do they have kids out of wedlock? Did they
come from a two parent structure? I get those two things.
(32:07):
If you just looked at I guarantee it's a virtually
none of them killed by the police. I they didn't
come from two parent families or they had kids out
of wedlock. It just creates all kinds of complications, all kinds. Again,
if you go look at Jacob Blake, I think he's
arguing with a woman he had a kid with. In
that part. I know he had three chields. She called
(32:29):
nine one one on him. I'm not sure about whether
one of the kids was were or multiple kids were
his or not. She called nine one one on him
and accused him of sexual assault. But it's clear he
wasn't married to her right and it's clear that that
that they didn't have an ongoing relationship in some way.
He had a trespass uh restriction out against him and
(32:50):
a sexual assault felony charge out against him, according to
her as the alleged as the alleged victim. So yeah, look,
I mean there there was no sort of larger family
structure there and and honestly, we talked about this before.
I think Marcellus Wiley did a really good job and
has been arguing this pretty vociferously that the reason he
(33:11):
doesn't support Black Lives Matter is because they're opposed, at
least theoretically in their mission statement to the idea of
a two parent household. And one of the best advantages
you can give your kids is to be raised by
two parents. Now again, just because if you happen to
be a single parent, and you're listening to me right now,
it doesn't mean that your kids are not going to
(33:31):
grow up and be successful. But I've got three kids.
I got a twelve year old, and nine year old
and five year old. There's zero doubt that those kids
are healthier and happier with my wife and I both
raising them than they would be if my wife had
him by herself, or if I had them by her
by myself, and there's nobody out there that's ever been
a parent that can argue in any way that being
(33:54):
a single parent is easier than having a two parent household.
So uh, the data is pretty clear. Are on that
yet Black Lives Matter as part of their mission statement
is like, oh no, no, that's a you know, antiquated idea.
No no, no, it should be the aspirational ideal. It's
not perfect for everybody, doesn't end up working out perfectly,
but every person out there who wants to have children
(34:14):
should want to do it as part of a two
parent household. I'm not married, I haven't been married, don't
have kids, but but just versity, you make better decisions
when you're married because that nagging spouse, whether male or
female whatever, I'm not gonna say nagging wife, just that
(34:35):
nagging spouse in the back of your head causes you
to make better decisions. It when you have when you're
connected to someone else and your life isn't just about you,
you tend to make more mature decisions. And when you're
a committed parent and the welfare of your kid, you
(34:58):
recognize that the welfare of your kids resides with you,
you make better decisions, and so when the police draw
their guns and say stop what you're doing. When you
have a wife and kids, or a husband and kids,
you tend to make better decisions because you're like, oh man,
I gotta My wife would be very mad at me
(35:19):
if I allow this policeman to shoot me. Uh and so.
And I'm sorry that it sounds like I'm belittling, but
I'm just keeping it real. All these people that think
that the real improvement if we could just get white
people to love us more, that'll fix things. No, if
(35:40):
you love yourself more and make better decisions, that's an
easier path than waiting on someone else to correct themselves.
Control what you can control. That's what they teach you
in sports, as what coaches preach all the time. All
of this kneeling and begging of other people to control
(36:00):
their behavior is upside down. Control yours. That is the
key to success. Question for you. Building on this, uh,
we're talking about the police and the and the alleged uh.
You know, the people that they are attempting to arrest
or the relationship between the two, and that obviously has
(36:23):
been a focal point in the world of sports. We
had a video that I'm sure you saw of two
l A cops being shot than the subsequent reactions to it.
Appears the cops are gonna be okay. But they were ambushed.
They were sitting in a police cruiser. They weren't doing
anything at all. Guy walks up and shoots them. The
(36:43):
world of sports buy in large. I won't say everybody,
but the most people in sports in sports media have
had absolutely nothing to say about the shooting of those
two police officers. Lebron James, the minute any video goes
viral of a Jacob Blake like situation, even the fifteen
or twenty seconds that he sees, he immediately goes out.
(37:04):
I think he said, I don't think I know he said, Hey,
black people are being hunted. That was amard Arebury, that
was the mod Arebury situation. But he said black people
are being hunted when go outside of our house, houses
and everything else. I don't believe he said anything about
these l A police officers being shot or the reaction
to it. Should athletes have something to say here, given
(37:26):
the precedent that they've set for other viral videos or not.
In your mind, they have certainly set a standard that
they're experts on the criminal justice system and any police
involved shootings that they have. Certainly they're the leaders. They
they're they're wearing on the NBA, they're wearing jerseys that
say listen to us that which means which tends to
(37:49):
think they have something to say about all these issues.
And so yes, they have said a standard look. Lebron
James is based in Los Angeles. Now, having said all
of that, I just want to be specific here as
a because I've looked into what's going on in Los
Angeles and with that Sheriff's Department, and I think seven
or eight citizens have been shot or killed by the
(38:14):
l A County Sheriff's Department since the George Floyd shooting.
And so what's going on with that l A County
Sheriff's Department and the gang community in l A is
very complicated that there seems to be an unstated war
(38:34):
going on between the Sheriff's department and gang members in
in l A. I saw a video where some of
the people that were protesting at the hospital and trying
to block entry into the emergency service where they were
shouting the name of de Jon Kizzie, who is the
last black apparently looked gay. I don't know so, but
(39:01):
he looked like he was gang connected, and I heard
gang members shouting his name, like what they did was
payback for de Shaun Kizzie who was gunned down by
police by the l A County Sheriff's after they said
he had dropped his weapon. That was one of the
weirdest stories I like, with damn sounding like they just
executed this dude. And here we come back a week
(39:22):
or two later, and and someone apparently I'm speculating, but
someone from Compton and the gang community fires it to
l A County Sheriff's deputies or whatever. And surely, to me,
these athletes should have something to say. It's a tragedy.
I'm not in any of this gun violence, and particularly
(39:45):
directed at law enforcement is repulsive. And the stats on
the likelihood of a black man killing a cop versus
a cop killing a black man, Uh, you're a cops
more likely to be killed by a black man, and
the cops are to kill a a black man, and
so there would be justification. And so if people want
(40:06):
to and this is what's driven me crazy about Black
Lives Matter and the demonization of all policemen. If people
want to take that video and other videos or other
examples of violence against police and paint with a broad brush.
Oh my god, I live in fear every day that
a black man is gonna kill me because Lebron James
(40:28):
and every all the athletes have said, oh I live
in fear the police are gonna kill my son or whatever.
That's exaggerated garbage. It's an anecdote being used to uh
define a pandemic that just doesn't exist. And that's why.
You know, Russell Wilson is graz as he played, and
I like Russell Wilson, but he said something stupid this weekend.
(40:50):
It pissed me off. You know, he wore Brianna Taylor's
name on his helmet and said that he was doing
it because he's got a three year old daughter and
he doesn't want her to die like Brianna Terror. I'm like,
hold on, man, is your daughter gonna grow up in
data drug dealer a longtime drug dealer? Is she gonna
rent a drug dealer or a car where someone gets
murdered in that car? Is her boyfriend gonna hop out
(41:12):
of bed and fire a gun first and hit a
police officer first? That's just crazy. And if Russell Wilson
generally has concerned about the health of his three year
old daughter dying to gun violence, he's looking at the
wrong potential killers. It's not the police. Again. I did
(41:34):
a video last week pointing I think there have been
fifty four black and brown kids in fifty four between
the ages of one and twelve who have been murdered,
shot down, gunned down in their communities by gang violence.
Fifty four. No Russell Wilson talking about a twenty six
(41:57):
year old Brianna Taylor and all my three year old daughter,
and I just worry. Fifty four black and brown kids
between the ages of one and twelve killed in by
random gun vibes. But he's afraid of the police. Stop at, Russell.
Stop it. It is interesting the degree to which some
(42:21):
stories become viral and others did not. I would encourage
you to go watch and read that read that piece
from Jason Wentlock. Watched that video of all of those
young kids, almost none of whom become household names, clearly
all of whom had nothing to do, right like Brianna
Taylor case when you actually look at it, as you
(42:42):
just mentioned, is actually very complicated. In terms of how
do you respond to it, because, as you said, one
of the police officers was shot, they returned fire serving
the warrant, and so this idea that she was, you know,
a hundred percent without blame in the same way that
those young kids are who have absolutely no choice about
(43:04):
the decisions that were made that led to them being victims,
and by the way, oftentimes being victims with no one
caught or prosecuted for their their crimes, and yet their
deaths effectively are occurring in vain with almost no attention. Uh.
It is really really disappointing sometimes to see what goes
viral and what does not. This is outkicked the coverage
(43:28):
with Clay Travis, the man them at the Legend Petro's
papadecas at the old p on Twitter, you can find
him on a M five seventy l A Sports. By
the way, I gotta say this, we talked about this
last time. The Dodgers are back in the homestand I
think right or at least they were. I was watching
(43:50):
them on the last couple of nights and they have
refused to even let us know where all of the
cardboard cutouts that I paid a thousand dollars for for
our in their stadium. They initially said, oh, we're going
to put them in a prominent location where you'll be
able to see him. We had a lot of people
who listen to the show and watch Dodger games. Nobody
(44:11):
has sold has seen me, Danny G or Roberto. Have
people seen your I know they've seen yours, right, Yes,
I have been located. I knew exactly where it was.
The Dodgers are the ones that requested us and put
us up. So I'm not trying to one up you
or Danny G. I don't have a I don't think
(44:35):
you're upping us. I think you're dunking on us because
the Dodgers requested for you to be involved in this.
I paid my own money for the three of us
to be involved, and they just won't even respond to
Danny G when he asked where our pictures are. We're
not even sure that they exist. I think they might
have just put us in the bathroom. Yeah. I am
in the front row, about one person down from my
(44:57):
radio partner, Bob euchersty in the front room, and I
had to send three or four different pictures because the
ones I was sending they didn't like they had logos
of things on them and and different stuff like that.
I had to turn my hat around backwards and all
kinds of different stuff. But yeah, your obsession with your
(45:18):
cutout at Dodger Stadium and locating it where there are
a great deal of cutouts, I mean a lot of cutting.
I just think if we if we gave them a
thousand dollars and and by we, I mean I wrote
a check from my personal funds for a thousand dollars
to the to the Dodgers after they told Danny G
that they were going to put the three of us
(45:39):
in a place where we would be visible. It's at
least reasonable for someone at the Dodgers to actually respond
to Danny G's emails and let us know where we
actually are, given the fact that they've already broken the
promise that we're going to be visible, because we've got
a big listening audience and a lot of people who
watch Dodger games, and they've been in no way capable
(45:59):
of actually seeing us well. I as a matter of fact,
no people at the Dodgers. They own of M five
seventy l A sports which you've got correct earlier, and
I want to give you a tip of the cap.
Much obliged on that clay, but I will I will
effort some kind of explanation. Will Broker you were broker
(46:23):
a detent? Yes, without distrospecting Danny G who's a proud Angelino,
I might have to intervene here and do some kind
of arbitration and locate your cutouts. I have a man
at Dodger Stadium who can go get photos of those things,
so these things can be can be handled. But with respect,
(46:49):
I fink that would be that would be much appreciated, respectfully. Indeed,
speaking of respectfully, Later tonight the Clippers play Game seven
against the Denver Nuggets. Now, I think the fact that
this series is even going on has escaped a lot
of people's recognition because football came back, and Monday Night
(47:09):
Football happened, and there was such a glut of excess
that people were obsessed with being able to enjoy that
they didn't even maybe know that Game seven is going
to happen the Clippers. If they lose this game, what
is the impact in l A for Clippers who just
seemed always you would know this better than me, But
(47:30):
they seem to always get close and then fail. Well,
first of all, the Clippers have one of the best
owners in sports, yes, in Steve Balmer, and he's an
owner of millions and billions of dollars towards the Clippers
being great. He's going to build a new stadium in Inglewood.
(47:50):
But the only thing I can think is that somebody
went to Egypt, probably Donald Sterling, and desecrated some kind
of money, because it is incredible. Uh, way back when
I first started in sports radio, they had Mike Dunlevy
and Elton Brand's team and Daniel Ewing remember him from
(48:11):
Duke a big mistake on an inbound play and they
didn't make it to the conference finals. And then there
was the Doc Rivers epic meltdown with the Houston Rockets
at Staples Center maybe six or seven years ago, where
they didn't make it. They just can't make it to
the conference finals. And people were writing articles a week
(48:33):
ago saying, you know, when they were up three one
that the Clippers are going to break the curse. They
don't even care they got Kauai. It's over. And then literally,
like watching a movie, it's like the Mummy shows up
and he points his crooked finger and yelled and it's amazing. Uh.
I want to see the Clippers versus Lakers, so we
(48:54):
have something else to talk about. Like you said, there's
no USC or U c l A football have other
flip breaking out of a fire hose right now. I
think that the glut was a great way to describe
it that you just said. But they they I can't
deny they feel cursed. I feel like Lawn Cheney is
going to show up and slap somebody's head off. It's amazing.
(49:19):
So if the Clippers lose, is there you mentioned they
got Steve Bomber, They've got a new arena in Inglewood
that they want to build. Does Doc Rivers come in
for any criticism here? Based on the talent that they have,
which I think everybody out there listening would acknowledge is
more substantial than the Nuggets. It's one thing. If you
lose to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals and
(49:41):
then the Lakers go on and win the NBA title,
you can at least think our core is younger than
their core. Lebron's obviously going to be thirty six. I
think it is next year, and you can think with
this new Arena. There's lots of reasons for optimism. But
would Doc Rivers come in for any criticism if after
going up three one against an inferior team, they didn't
(50:03):
find a way to close it out. Well, I mean,
how do you criticize somebody who's cursed? Yeah, it's the
Mummy's curse. What can you do about the curse? I mean,
I look as far as different moves in an NBA
game and what he could have done or didn't do.
You know, you can ask your boy Mannix about that.
(50:24):
Who loves Doc Rivers. But I like Doc Rivers too.
He's a really magnetic personality and you only have to
be in the room with him for about two minutes
and he wins you over in a second and you
just feel like everything's going to be okay. I mean,
he's really one of those guys. He's very magnetic and
that's why he's had the success he's had. But there's
(50:44):
some people that point out that he hasn't won an
NBA championship without Tom Thibodeau coordinating his NBA defense like
he did with the Celtics and they beat the Lakers
back in OH nine. I think maybe, no, no, oh six.
Whatever the point is, it's been a while, and uh,
(51:05):
I mean, bell all come under criticism, Kawhi, Leonard, Paul George,
Doc Rivers, Montrez Harrold, who had a terrible game six,
who was the NBA's reigning six man, Lou Williams. I mean,
there's moments where they look like one of the greatest
teams in NBA history according to Jeff Van Gundy, in
the defense they're playing, and then there's other moments where
(51:26):
it just so easily slips away. It feels like the
Mummy's curse. So when you, I mean, it is kind
of fascinating to think about when you you just okay.
So let's pivot off of the expectation was it was
Lakers Clippers. Lakers have done their part. We'll see where
the Clippers do it on Tuesday. What does it feel
like as a big time college football fan in l
(51:50):
A to be looking around at all the college football
games that are being played. The SEC comes back next week.
It seems like the Big Ten with all their drama,
gonna be back I think on October, and the Pact
twelve is now going to be left. It appears on
an island among the power five conferences not playing. What
(52:11):
does that feel like? You know, in the city of
Los Angeles, Now you have the Chargers and you have
the Rams, and we'll get to their game here in
a little bit. But as a big college football fan,
and I know there are a lot of big college
football fans in l A, does it feel strange to
watch everybody else like as if they're living a different
lifestyle than you are in the l A. Area. God,
(52:33):
I'm a real masochist, aren't I for turning on here? Yes?
First of all, like I don't think of myself as
a college football fan, although I guess this year I am.
In a lot of ways. I think of myself as
a college football analyst. I mean, yeah, I've called I've
called games nationally since two thousand four. So to answer
your question, honestly, it was excruciating for me watching the
(52:57):
whole thing happen without me, and I try not to have,
you know, I try to check my ego and realized that,
you know, when I fall off a cliff or whatever,
the world's going to keep on turning. Uh, no problem.
But it was a bit of an identity crisis weekend
for me. Uh, you know, last weekend. I'd never been. Uh,
(53:20):
I've never been in town on Labor Day, uh this weekend,
you know, watching a lot of my colleagues, you know,
including my cousin who's in a truck in Kansas with
Tim Brando and Spencer Tillman. Watching all that and just
kind of seeing it unfold was was hard. It was
interesting though, I mean because I used to do uh
(53:43):
some Conference USA games when Fox Sports one started, you remember,
and to my my suit for one of them. Yeah,
that was a couple of Yeah, that was a couple
of years into it down in PoCA. But uh, rough day.
But I gotta say the teams that are used to
playing when nobody in the stands, you know, they came
(54:04):
out and punched people in the neck, you know, because
I mean you saw the pros. I mean, the pros
are pros and they need to go out there and
protect their neck or somebody's going to die. And when
they're told to play, they just go play. But with
the college kids, uh, it was really a scrimmagey feel,
you could tell with those big twelve teams, and they struggled,
(54:27):
you know, Kansas and I would stay in Kansas State. Now,
of course, one of them will turn around and beat
Oklahoma and November season somehow. Yeah, that's how it always
works out. But I found that really interesting. You know,
it does show a big difference between college and pro
football for where it is really really hard to create
(54:49):
your own energy as a college football team. It takes
a great deal of discipline, and we saw a few
teams that really should have dominated struggle and it was
really interesting. And I'm proud of those Sun Belt teams,
I think. I think it's awesome their will for football
and the passioned plant even though they come from small
places and generally very small schools with different resources. I
(55:12):
was endlessly impressed with with the Sun Belt and the
way they showed up. It was awesome. We're talking to
Petro's Papadegas at the Old p on Twitter A M
five seventy l A Sports Petros and Money Show, Okay,
NFL and the way it all shook out. I mean,
it was amazing to see Sophi Stadium in all of
(55:32):
its resplendent glory without any fans present there at all.
Have you walked through the stadium at all to see it?
I mean, it looked amazing on television even without fans there. Uh,
it certainly looks like a palace. Yeah. I was supposed
to be there last night to do our TV show,
but we ended up just doing it in studio anyway,
(55:52):
because of access would have been so limited. I have
not been over there. I've I've declined most invitations. As
you know, I don't like going anywhere unless I'm paid
to go. H And uh, you know, I think it's beautiful.
I mean, look, I like old things. So my favorite
stadiums are the memorial stadiums from World War One in Nebraska,
(56:13):
cal the Coliseum here Illinois. You know, the World War
One Memorial stadiums with the Greek theme are my favorite
stadiums on Earth. Now. Of course they're antiquated and really
like sewers, but I like them. Uh. That being said,
I did a Cotton Bowl for the first time, and
then a Big twelve Championship in the Jerry Jones Dome,
(56:36):
and it is jaw dropping, right like, even for a
guy that hates modern stuff. I mean, I was staring
up at that monitor and somebody ran a kick returned
right up my ass on the sideline. You know, it
was it was. It's it's an unbelievable experience, and this
is supposed to be better, which is hard to imagine
because the place in Dallas is so impressive by all accounts,
(57:01):
it's very special, but of course no one is allowed
to go, so it's a really awkward cell, you know. Yeah, yeah,
I mean I I think there's no doubt at all
as you as you start to look through, what did
you think about the past interference calls that one effectively
the offensive past interference calls that interestingly won both the
(57:21):
Chargers and the Rams there they're openers. Do you think
both should have been called? The shove on A J.
Green that negated the Bengals touchdown and the ledge shove
from Michael Gallup that potentially created a situation that allowed
the Rams to escape with a win over the Cowboys. Yeah,
(57:42):
saw both live. I'm always a guy. I mean it's
a lot like the modern NBA. Now. I mean, these
guys hands on the perimeter are so fast and they're
so good at selling this or that with their bodies
that I am always a fan of leaving it in
the pocket. The A. J. Green versus Hayward, I mean
(58:04):
those are two great players. I mean, Hayward is one
of the best cover corners in the NFL, and I
would have just liked to have seen Joe Burrow be
able to make that play. And I mean it was
good physical play by both guys, I thought, and they
both you know, he was grabbing and a j pushed off.
The same thing with the other one. Uh. One guy
(58:25):
has had ahold of him and the other guy pushed
off and then Ramsey kind of jerked his body back
after the fact. But of course we saw it all
in slow motion. I thought both flags should have been
left in the pocket. But I'm not going to sit
here and go on the air and have a connection
said about it. Right, Well, that makes you a rarity,
and certainly a rarity. Pereira on, you know, put Pereira
(58:48):
on or Blandino and let him explain it and move
on with your lives. I mean, I I remember I
was a game that I scored two different touchdowns that
were called back. Uh, and the PAC twelve sent us
a letter on in sday saying, hey, sorry about that.
Those were the wrong calls. It's like, oh, okay, well
we lost. You know, you know, you have to just
(59:08):
pick up and move on in those situations and that's
what football. I think that's why the country in many
ways is so attracted to the sport because it's not perfect,
it's pretty ugly. It's about overcoming adversity, and uh, that's
what you have to do, there's no doubt. And also,
the Rams got absolutely an awful call against them when
you couldn't have a more ridiculous hands to the helmet
(59:31):
hit than Jared Goff got on his interception and that
got missed. So some people would say, including me, that
those kind of canceled out Petro's papadegis. We will talk
to you next week, uh, and we will see whether
or not. By then, we are officially underway with the
Battle of Los Angeles between the Lakers and the Clippers.
Thanks my man. I'm just hoping for clear skies. I mean,
it's like a blade runner here. Yeah, I know, I've
(59:53):
heard it's crazy out there. Uh, good loss. Fox Sports
Radio has the best sports talk and up in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
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s R to listen live.
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
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best of OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis on Fox
(00:22):
Sports Radio. A bleary eyed out kick Studios, which many
of you also are now experiencing, at least if you
stayed up for the double header last night of Monday
Night football, which did not end until around one thirty
am Eastern, So there are probably a lot of bleary
(00:46):
eyes across the country. We are here and we want
you to know. Geico is offering an extra fiftcent credit
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(01:07):
Monday Night games. We're gonna get into what did Ben
Roethlisberger look like? Because I think that's the biggest story
by far coming out of the Steelers and the Giants game.
But that game didn't have a lot of drama. The
ugly battle between the Denver Broncos and the Tennessee Titans
had a lot of drama, even though it was a
(01:29):
little bit like a mud wrestling event. And I'm still
kind of fixated on the end of the game situation,
and in particular, the way that Vic Fangio basically managed
that late game situation makes no sense at all to me.
You're playing at altitude right, you have a great kicker
(01:51):
in McManus who has made a fifty seven yard field
goal in your stadium before, and you don't use your
time outs as the Titans attempt to bleed out the clock,
and you finished the game with two timeouts remaining. It
doesn't make any sense at all, and this is just
(02:11):
a failure of game management strategy of an epic magnitude. Now, look,
the fact that the Broncos even had a chance to
win this game is a testament to Stephen Gotskowski having
one of the worst kicking games in NFL history, and
that is not an exaggeration. I got a couple of
stats for you that we're coming across. Last night, this
(02:34):
was the first time in Stephen Gotzkowski's career that he
had missed three field goals in the same game. The
Titans have made only now I guess it's nine of
their last twenty two field goals, which is unheard of.
Last year, the Titans only made forty four point four
percent of their field goal attempts. That was by far
(02:56):
the worst in the NFL. That's also the worst in
the NFL by a substantial margin in the twenty first century.
In fact, it's the only time in the twenty one
century that a team has made less than six of
its field goal attempts. So it's not just that Gaskowski
was awful last night, it is he was the choice
(03:19):
to cure all that ailed the Titans field goal kicking issues.
Stephen Gatskowski had six seasons where he missed three or
fewer field goals, and he also, of course missed an
extra point last night. I mean, this was just failure
of an epic magnitude. I don't know. Maybe he decides
(03:40):
after this game, I don't have it anymore, and he
decides to retire, and he goes back to UH to
to to just living his life. He's been as a
very successful career as an NFL place kicker. Maybe he
decides to continue. Maybe he's not a hundred percent healthy.
I don't know for sure, but what I do know
for sure is down the stress of this game, there
(04:02):
was absolutely no logic being utilized at all by the
Denver Broncos, and I feel like again, even though Guskowski
missed three field goals and an extra point, leaving ten
points on the field, the Broncos still, if they had
just used their time outs, had an opportunity there to
(04:22):
put the Titans in a tough spot because they would
have forced the Titans to maybe be more aggressive in
their play calling. Also, they would have had over a
minute left there at the end of the game, which
is plenty of time to get into field goal range.
It's one of and by the way the announced team
and their inability to actually point out what was going
(04:43):
on there, and the fact that it was not in
any way a rational decision that was being made by
Vic Fangio. Even if you go back and you watch,
it was as if Mike Vrabel was sitting there confused
as to what actually was going on in disbelief that
Fanagi was letting him continue to run Derrick Henry and
not actually calling any of his time out. It didn't
(05:05):
make any sense at all on a logical basis, unless
you just decide that Fangio had reached the decision that
he didn't care about the time on the clock because
he thought Gotzkowski was so rattled mentally that there was
no way he would make the field goal. I I
don't know exactly what he was thinking. It's not a
(05:27):
smart decision making by him. And if I'm a Broncos
fan waking up bleary eyed early this morning in the
Mountain time zone or anywhere across the country for that matter,
I'm thinking to myself, why how did we lose this
game without giving our offense a chance to come back
down the field and put the kicker in a position
to make a make a kick. I mean, the situation
(05:50):
was they got to run two plays. I believe it
was two plays with basically seventeen seconds left, and they
got nothing out of it. Maybe it was three a's
with seventeen seconds left, I guess, but they got nowhere
near actually being in position to attempt a field goal,
and so it was just a fundamental failure of coaching
and the Titans one. I guess you can always say
(06:12):
a win as a win as a win, but there
wasn't a lot of reason for optimism. I don't think
if you're a Titans fan either, because there was a
lot of incompetence there, a lot of early penalties, a
lot of missed field goals, um and you got the
one goal line stand where Jeffrey Simmons kind of blew
up what was an awful play call. I thought, uh,
(06:32):
you're running your quarterback to the right from the one
yard line and you tried to do a shovel pass
back in the opposite direction from the goal line. I
just it was a really questionable I thought play call
from Denver there. But that completed all of the NFL
games of the opening weekend. Now I want to circle
back around a little bit and talk about what we
(06:55):
saw in the earlier game as well with the Denver Broncos,
sorry not the Denver Broncos, with the Pittsburgh Steelers returning
Ben Roethlisberger, and what we thought about his performance, because
I think that's probably the most significant aspect of that
game overall, and I thought Roethlisberger was just okay. I
know we had three touchdown passes, but he didn't look
(07:18):
like he had the same explosiveness in his arm. And
maybe it's not gonna matter because maybe the Steeler defense
is just so good and Juju Smith Schuster is gonna
be back to being a big time playmaker and you're
finally gonna get James Washington as a distance guy down
the field. Maybe it's not gonna matter that Ben Roethlisberger
doesn't seem like he's got an explosive arm anymore. But
(07:41):
I just I didn't see the same pop in his
in his throwing ability. Now, Daniel Jones made a couple
of really awful throws. Otherwise, I think you would have
left that game as a Giants fan feeling like, hey,
he's shown some decent growth. You had set Kwan Barkley
not be able to do anything in the rushing game,
(08:02):
and that's just because of this great Pittsburgh Steeler defense.
So it may be that after having a few years
where Ben Roethlisberger had to come out and win games
by himself effectively, it may now be that Roethlisberger really
just has to be more of a game manager. Doesn't
need to force the ball, uh, and Mike Tomlin can
tell him, hey, if you get us twenty four points,
(08:22):
we're gonna have a really good chance to win almost
all the games, especially if we don't have any bad turnovers.
And look, that's kind of what Ben Roethlisberger did. He
got your three touchdown passes, he put twenty whatever it
was twenty six on the board, and that defense really
tightened up after getting down ten three early in the game.
So those were the two Monday night football games. UH.
(08:44):
In totality there breaking down everything that we saw to
complete the thirty two game NFL season in general. UH,
thirty two NFL teams in Week one, and I I
just I mean, it was great to see the NFL back.
It was fabulous to see all sixteen games, all thirty
two teams being able, uh to be out on the field.
(09:06):
It seems like there have not been any major issues
with the coronavirus, at least occurring from the games. Will
find out over the next couple of days. But what
based on the fact that there were five thousand negative
tests last week, it would seem highly unlikely that anything
is going to occur that would be a super negative
(09:26):
in that respect. But man, I don't know, you know,
the Week one in the NFL has an outsize sort
of standing in the way that you think about your
team because there's so much that gets put into Week one.
After this, you got seven days in between games, six
days to get ready, and so a lot of different
(09:48):
things happen over the course of the NFL season. But
I feel like we learn a lot about the teams
in Week one, about their ceilings, about their floors, and
everything else associated with that, and that Week one momentum
seems to carry a lot of juice with it. So
what do we learn and what do we think we
know after Week one in the NFL. I'm gonna start
(10:10):
to kind of put some put make some sense of this.
Also going to continue to unpack what we just saw happen,
uh in this game between the Titans and the Broncos,
and certainly what we saw with the Steelers finding a
way to get a win against the Giants. I'm gonna
run through sort of the larger universe of the NFL
and try to tell you a bunch of different thoughts
(10:32):
that I have as we move forward. Also want to
give you a roadmap of where we're headed on the show.
Lots of good stuff coming your way. We're gonna talk
with Jason Whitlock. He's gonna be up early with us
as well, joining us for the final UH segment of
the show UH in our one that he's gonna be
with us for much of our too. Petros Papadekas, as
he always does, will join us in our three AM
(10:54):
five seventy l A Sports. So we have a lot
coming in your direction. This is outkicked the coverage with
Clay Travis. We are rolling through the program, finishing off
the first hour. Jason Whitlock. All of the NFL officially
in the books now and we talked a lot about
(11:16):
this yesterday. I think we're gonna be talking about it
all week. But where I want to lead with you
here is what happened with Tom Brady And how nervous
do you think Tampa Bay buccaneer fans should be based
on the performance that we saw from Brady and the
Bucks on the road against the Saints in Week one. Look,
as I said yesterday in the return of my NFL
(11:39):
True's column, UH, Tom Brady is currently in hospice in
Tampa and I've said that old quarterbacks, like most old people,
they best die at home surrounded by friends, loved ones,
family members, and longtime fans. And so moving Tom Brady
(12:01):
from his home in Upper New England, uh, Boston, down
to hospice in Florida is going to be a disaster. Yeah,
a football hospice. It's going to be a disaster because
those Tampa Bay fans won't be satisfied that they have
(12:21):
their I said on a Super Bowl and they think, oh,
we're getting Tom Brady. No, you're getting forty three year
old Tom Brady who retired in New England and has
moved down to Florida for a retirement. And and I
just don't think Bruce arians Byron Leftwich are going to
(12:42):
be able to care for Tom Brady the way that
Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels cared for him. And Tom
Brady was was awful on Sunday. And that's not people
think I hate Tom Brady. I have immense respect for
Tom Brady, one of my favorite football players. Uh, but
the guys old and washed up, and that's how he
(13:03):
looked on Sunday. He's blaming Mike Evans or the Troy
Aikman blamed Mike Evans for one of the early interceptions. No,
that was a bad read by Tom Brady. And then
the pick six was right out of the Jamis Winston playbook.
Tom Brady cost the Buccaneers that game. He looked just
like Jamis Winston on Sunday. Were you surprised that Bruce
Arians didn't tiptoe up to the criticism of Tom Brady,
(13:27):
because I actually thought this was interesting. I don't even
know if you saw these quotes. I'm reading from out Kick,
which is obviously the website that all of you should
be reading from every single day, and we pulled the
quotes out Bruce Arians, uh said, and I quote, um,
both interceptions were on, Brady said, there was nobody else
(13:47):
to explain it. Away said the Brady pick six in particular,
he threw the outlet pass instead of a screen. It
was a bad decision. Uh. He looked like here's Bucks
coach Tom Brady, continuing, he looked like Tom Brady in
practice all the time. So it's kind of unusual to
see that in the ball game because they didn't do
things that we didn't get ready for. Everything they did
(14:09):
we thought they were ready for. That's pretty strong. I mean, uh,
you know, for Bruce Arians to come out and go
after Brady, Now, maybe Brady is gonna respond well to
the tough love approach. But he said he looked like
Tom Brady in practice and obviously didn't think he looked
like Tom Brady in the game. Uh. That I thought
was pretty intriguing. Uh, As I stated, when you go
(14:32):
to hospice, they don't take care of you the way
your family would take care of you. Bruce Arians hasn't
won anything with Tom Brady, and I think he obviously
he wants us to work. He's enthusiastic about it, but uh,
he may be shocked and like, oh my god, he's
deteriorated more than I thought. And and at the end
(14:54):
of the day, who's gonna take the blame. Who's gonna
get criticized because the media as again the Mike Evans
interceptions early in the game or that that Brady looked
like and Troy Aikman certainly defined it as Mike Evans
made the wrong read, he quit on the route. People
through Mike Evans under the bus. Mike Evans actually made
(15:14):
the right read. He was bracketed over the top by
a safety He wasn't running in there. He didn't want
to force Tom Brady to throw him the ball into trouble,
so he quit on the route. Uh. So that's fascinating
that Bruce Arians is handling it that way. But it's
not really surprising because if this doesn't work a lot
(15:37):
of people are gonna take blame Byron Leftwidge, Bruce Arians,
you know. And and as I got over by, somebody
tweeted at me, I mean, you can't expect Tom Brady
to carry a team with three excellent wide receivers too
great tight ends at a running back. He needs real support. Uh,
speaking of Brady, I mean that was obviously one of
(15:58):
the big stories. What did you think of out Cam
in New England? Because I came on and I said,
straight up, I mean, look, I don't know if Cam
can carry the ball fifteen times a game like he
did in the win over the Dolphins on Sunday. But
it feels like Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels have a
heck of a a new weapon, you know, sort of
(16:18):
to work with here, and I'm not sure where it's
gonna go. I'm not sure that the Patriots with all
the guys that they had elect not to to play
are very good, but I'm not sure how many good
teams there are in the a f C East in general?
What letter grade would you give Cam's debut at the Patriots?
A minus to a B plus, somewhere in that range.
(16:40):
And the only the only knock I would have is
I'm concerned whether it's sustainable and whether or not the
same reason I am because of the running the ball
fishing times. Yeah, and it's like, are they just putting
a saddle on Cam and just gonna ride him until
the wheels fall off? And look, we didn't draft him,
we got him for cheap. Uh, He's probably not done
be here long term. Let's just milk this cow for
(17:03):
as much milk as we can while we got him.
And will he survive it? Now? Trust me? Cam Newton,
I think is is happy. He's playing the way that
the only way he's really been super successful. But it
got off to a nice start. And you know Bill
Belichick is is if Cam can survive sixteen games of
(17:25):
playing football that way, Bill Belichick is gonna win a
lot of games. He's gonna win the an FC East
and he's gonna get the last laugh on you know,
he sent Tom Brady down to Florida for retirement while
he gets one year of Milk and Cam Newton and
they'll draft a quarterback or figure out their quarterback long
term later. I'm reading your column right now from Monday,
(17:48):
uh and UH making sure I got tabs on all
your big takeaways. And first before we go into the
next hour here, I would like for you to apologize
to everyone because you had the worst clock management of
anyone that I know out there. You managed to somehow
decided to go for Errand's Sunday morning in Nashville, and
(18:10):
you missed the kickoff of all the NFL games and
what might be this single most uh you know, necessary
time to see the pre game of any of your
life as a journalist. UH, please explain why you were
so hamstrung with an inability to look at your clock
and make make good decisions. I went on a ten
minute Errand and it turned into ninety. I was just
(18:34):
out trying to get a power chord for one of
my laptops and I ended up having to go to
three different stores before I got to a Best Buy
that had a power chord. I get back and the
damn power chord doesn't work, and so yeah, I missed
kickoff and all that, but you know, I got caught up.
I missed all the kneeling or whatever it is people did. Uh,
(18:56):
So when we come back, I want to dive into
dive into well, by the way, before we get to that,
you also texted me, oh man, I blew it. I
didn't get my bets in. So, first of all, for
people who don't know, you won your over in the
Kansas City game by a half point, so that was
a good, good gambling start on the opening Thursday night
football game of the year. The Chiefs covered as well
(19:18):
all that, but didn't you text me, Yeah, my big
bet was gonna be on the Eagles and they were
up seventeen nothing, and you're like, oh man, I blew it.
I didn't get my bets in in time because I
was running around looking for things. And then how lucky
did you get that you didn't get your big bet
in on the Eagles. Well, I had two picks that
(19:39):
I was gassed up for on Sunday. The Eagles. I
just Dwayne Haskins first year and and Ron Rivere's had
health issues. The Redskins are gonna the Washington football team
is gonna be a mess. Eagles are gonna jump out
early and just crush them, and you know, look great
in the first half and then fell apart apart. And
then my second bet was uh. And people that followed
(20:03):
my Twitter feeds sophisticatedly know who I bet on them
by what I complained about. And I did a lot
of complaining about Tom Brady because because that was my
other bet. I thought the Buccaneers were gonna shock New Orleans, uh,
and Tom Brady was gonna play well with you know,
I figured, oh, he worked so hard during the off season,
(20:25):
and so those were my two big bets, and I
was I was dead wrong, and I did get that, uh,
Buccaneers be yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately that was an afternoon game,
so he didn't have any excuse there. Be sure to
catch live editions if I would kick the coverage with
Clay Travis week days at six am Eastern three am Pacific.
We're having a good run through all of the games
(20:47):
that have been going on. We're talking with Jason Whitlock
and uh. Much to discuss, of course, But what's really fascinating,
I think if you look at the Monday night football games.
Titans find a way to win even though they missed
three field goals in an extra point. Ben Roethlisberger looks
back to Ben Roethlisberger like status a lot to be
(21:08):
excited about. I think if you're the Steelers and you
still have that defense and now you're mixing in everything
from Ben Roethlisberger, I think you're fired up about Vic
Fangio's decision making down the stretch. Drew Lock showed flashes there,
but the Titans found a way to win even with
all those mishaps in the kicking game, all of that
going on. But we bring in now Jason Whitlock, just
(21:29):
resetting the table there for everybody on Monday Night football.
And I just teased as we went to break that
I was going to ask you about the Dallas Cowboys,
which is a big topic of discussion, and it felt
to me as a guy who've watched the Dallas Cowboys
a lot over the last twenty five years or thirty years,
or whatever the heck it is the last several years.
(21:49):
Every time the Cowboys lose, people come out and they say,
Jason Garrett is the reason why the Cowboys lost. He
was a convenient scapegoat. He was the perpet chewel blame
factory for why the Dallas Cowboys lost. But I gotta
tell you, I watched them play against the Rams, and
I think the Rams deserve a lot of credit. They
were physical, Sean mcveigh's team was well prepared. I thought
(22:12):
they were the better coached and the better prepared and
the better team on the field for much of Sunday night.
But the Cowboys were one in six last year in
one score games. They got the ball back with two
and a half minutes to play, they were perfectly poised
to be able to make a play come down the field.
(22:33):
And we can argue about the past interference call or not,
But the bigger issue to me, Whitlock, was the defensive
line of the Rams was dominating the offensive line on
that final series. If you went back and charted almost
every play, you'd give a w to the Rams, with
the exception of the one play, which we can argue
(22:53):
about whether or not the past interference should have been
called the offensive pass interference call. Did you think to yourself,
this is the same old Cowboys. Maybe, just possibly, Jason
Garrett wasn't the biggest issue that they had no, Jason
Garrett was a major issue, and in Week one, Mike
McCarthy was a major issue. Mick McCarthy should have early
(23:15):
in the fourth quarter kicked the field goal and tied
the game up. Period. It's fourth and three, not fourth
and three inches, fourth in three yards, Kick the damn
field goal. Now you got eleven minutes to figure out
who the better team is. The idiot went for it.
And and by the way, Jason Garrett would have kicked
(23:37):
the field goal there probably yeah, And you know, rookie
wide receiver ran a rookie route short of the sticks.
Uh dat probably made the wrong throw. But and and Clay,
I'm just sorry that was not offensive past interference. Dak
Prescott and Michael Gallup made a huge play. The one
thing everybody was talking about how good the quality of
(23:59):
play was in the NFL yesterday, and there is some
truth to that, but the only truth to it is
the referees had clearly been given directive stay out of this,
don't don't turn this into a penalty flag fest, and
that made the quality of play look really good. And
that because that's what fans want to see. The players
(24:21):
decided not the referees and So here we get to
Sunday night football and time to put an exclamation point
on week one or the first Sunday of Week one,
and the damn ref injects himself to the end of
the game calling that offensive past interference. It's a joke.
It cost Dak a great moment. It cost the Cowboys
the game. But I blame Mike McCarthy. I I was
(24:45):
halfway impressed. I thought Zekiel Elliott looked good. I thought
Dad played relatively well. I I thought their defense played
pretty well. I was kind of impressed with the Cowboys.
Mike McCarthy did something really stupid. It cost him a game. Uh,
the Cowboys themselves may have the benefit of being again
(25:06):
in a not very good division. Um you know, I mean,
I think that's probably true with the NFC East. But
as h as you started the pregame you saw, let
me go back to the past interference called Jalen Ramsey
just signed a seventy one million dollar deal I think
guaranteed money as the highest paid corner in the league.
If that's not Jalen Ramsey and it's your average corner
(25:28):
in the league, did he get the does he get
the benefit of that call. I I think Jalen Ramsey
the reason they paid him seventy one million, not just
because of his coverage skills, but the little way he
kicked his head back and kind of exaggerated that push
he drew. He drew a foul basically, that's how that's
(25:48):
why you pay a guy that kind of money. So
hats off to Jalen Ramsey. Great play by him. Reff
shouldn't have gone forward in terms of injecting yourself at
that point. That foul needed to be really bad and
and so, but hats off to Jalen rams I thought
he baited the refs in the calling something that they
did all right. We usually don't want to give a
(26:08):
ton of attention to the one guy who's doing something different.
I actually was impressed with the number of players, specially
top players, who decided to stand for the national anthem
after all the pressure we've seen MLS players, neild, NBA players, obviously,
even a lot of Major League Baseball players. Neil one
player kneeled for the Dallas Cowboys. I think that's the
(26:29):
first time that anybody from the Dallas Cowboys has not
stood for the national anthem. Don Terry Poe. If I'm
not mistaken, what did you think about his decision? What
did you think about the logic that he used to
justify his decision. It's why I just think we can't
take these athletes this seriously on any of these issues,
(26:50):
because I think he said, this is this is how
I'm fighting racism. Basically, this is how I'm doing. I've
got his quote. If you want me to read it,
go ahead and read it. I wrote about it. Yeah,
it's up in Jason Whitlock's Monday Morning column, which I
would encourage you just to be following Jason Whitlock at
Whitlock Jason on Twitter, uh and he said he was
(27:13):
asked why he decided to kneel, and he said, and
I'm reading his quote, it's just bringing more awareness to
what's going on in this world, to the racial injustices
that's going on. It's not something that's going to be
solved in a day. People keep asking me what is
he doing. It's bringing more awareness, this is letting people know,
and this is my way of fighting it. It's the
(27:33):
beginning of it. We might not see change in my lifetime.
I do want to start doing the simple things such
as kneeling to let people know that I feel this way.
Your thoughts that this is when you're counting on athletes
for leadership and in their spare time, their spare job
(27:55):
playing professional football's don Terry Pole's real job. So he's
come up with a very simple way to improve the
life of black people national anthem. I'm gonna take these
three minutes and Neil boom and again, that's nothing that
won't impact anything. He's not bringing awareness to anything. He's
(28:15):
just doing something simple, a gesture that accomplishes nothing but
makes him feel and creates the appearance that, oh, he's
really concerned if athletes need to simplify their message, and
they won't because you know it calls on them to
actually do something. But there's a real simple solution to
(28:38):
a lot of this. If you want to lessen the
impact of racism, it's it's too easy steps and athletes
need to be promoting it. Commit to a family that's one,
where a condom that's two. You do those two things,
create a family and commit to do it, and wear
(29:01):
a condom. You would be shocked at how hard it
is for racism to limit your opportunities. I want to
build on that because I actually uh tell my kids
a version of this, uh, and I think it's the
most important thing that we should be telling kids. And
I would love to see athletes pick this up because
(29:23):
this is statistically proven. And I don't know if we've
had this conversation before, Jason Whitlock, but it kind of
builds on what you just said it. I can't prove.
I can't guarantee to anybody out there listening to me
right now, that you're gonna grow up and be rich, right,
can't do it. Lots of variables in play there. Everybody
starts at a different place. You might get the right job,
you might not. But I can virtually guarantee you that
(29:47):
there is a zero percent chance you will be poor,
which is a pretty big deal, right, if you can
just avoid being poor. Can't guarantee you're gonna be rich,
but I can guarantee that you're that you're not gonna
be poor. All right, here's what you have to do.
This is statistically proven. Race doesn't matter, where you start,
doesn't matter, none of that. Every single kid out there,
(30:09):
number one graduate from high school. Not telling you to
go to college, not telling you to get into advanced
graduate degree. Those are good things. I'd encourage everybody to
be able to do them. But I'm saying right now, baseline,
graduate from high school, get married, get married at some
point in time. Do not have a child before you
(30:31):
are twenty five years old. If you do those three things,
there is a virtual zero percent chance that you will
be poor in your life, no matter where you are starting.
And I feel a lot of times like, imagine how
much more impactful it would be if every athlete started
drilling this idea into the entire nation's core. Right, all
(30:56):
these young kids who look up to athletes three steps,
graduate high school, get married, wait until you're twenty five
years old to have a kid. Your poverty rate is
virtually zero. Now, whenever I say that, somebody's like, well,
I didn't graduate from high school and I ended up
being a millionaire. Or I got married when I was
eighteen and I had four kids by the time I
was twenty and I'm doing fine. Okay, All that's fine.
(31:18):
You are the exception to an overall rule those three things.
Graduate from high school, get married, don't have a kid
so you're twenty five, you won't be poor. That is
something that I feel like everybody can grasp and understand,
and I feel like it should be shared way more widely.
Those things also will probably prevent you from ever going
(31:43):
to prisoner jail to a large extent. I think that's
likely true. And so and again, when you look at people,
I guarantee if they did a statistic or analysis of
people killed by the police, and you just said, uh,
did do they have kids out of wedlock? Did they
come from a two parent structure? I get those two things.
(32:07):
If you just looked at I guarantee it's a virtually
none of them killed by the police. I they didn't
come from two parent families or they had kids out
of wedlock. It just creates all kinds of complications, all kinds. Again,
if you go look at Jacob Blake, I think he's
arguing with a woman he had a kid with. In
that part. I know he had three chields. She called
(32:29):
nine one one on him. I'm not sure about whether
one of the kids was were or multiple kids were
his or not. She called nine one one on him
and accused him of sexual assault. But it's clear he
wasn't married to her right and it's clear that that
that they didn't have an ongoing relationship in some way.
He had a trespass uh restriction out against him and
(32:50):
a sexual assault felony charge out against him, according to
her as the alleged as the alleged victim. So yeah, look,
I mean there there was no sort of larger family
structure there and and honestly, we talked about this before.
I think Marcellus Wiley did a really good job and
has been arguing this pretty vociferously that the reason he
(33:11):
doesn't support Black Lives Matter is because they're opposed, at
least theoretically in their mission statement to the idea of
a two parent household. And one of the best advantages
you can give your kids is to be raised by
two parents. Now again, just because if you happen to
be a single parent, and you're listening to me right now,
it doesn't mean that your kids are not going to
(33:31):
grow up and be successful. But I've got three kids.
I got a twelve year old, and nine year old
and five year old. There's zero doubt that those kids
are healthier and happier with my wife and I both
raising them than they would be if my wife had
him by herself, or if I had them by her
by myself, and there's nobody out there that's ever been
a parent that can argue in any way that being
(33:54):
a single parent is easier than having a two parent household.
So uh, the data is pretty clear. Are on that
yet Black Lives Matter as part of their mission statement
is like, oh no, no, that's a you know, antiquated idea.
No no, no, it should be the aspirational ideal. It's
not perfect for everybody, doesn't end up working out perfectly,
but every person out there who wants to have children
(34:14):
should want to do it as part of a two
parent household. I'm not married, I haven't been married, don't
have kids, but but just versity, you make better decisions
when you're married because that nagging spouse, whether male or
female whatever, I'm not gonna say nagging wife, just that
(34:35):
nagging spouse in the back of your head causes you
to make better decisions. It when you have when you're
connected to someone else and your life isn't just about you,
you tend to make more mature decisions. And when you're
a committed parent and the welfare of your kid, you
(34:58):
recognize that the welfare of your kids resides with you,
you make better decisions, and so when the police draw
their guns and say stop what you're doing. When you
have a wife and kids, or a husband and kids,
you tend to make better decisions because you're like, oh man,
I gotta My wife would be very mad at me
(35:19):
if I allow this policeman to shoot me. Uh and so.
And I'm sorry that it sounds like I'm belittling, but
I'm just keeping it real. All these people that think
that the real improvement if we could just get white
people to love us more, that'll fix things. No, if
(35:40):
you love yourself more and make better decisions, that's an
easier path than waiting on someone else to correct themselves.
Control what you can control. That's what they teach you
in sports, as what coaches preach all the time. All
of this kneeling and begging of other people to control
(36:00):
their behavior is upside down. Control yours. That is the
key to success. Question for you. Building on this, uh,
we're talking about the police and the and the alleged uh.
You know, the people that they are attempting to arrest
or the relationship between the two, and that obviously has
(36:23):
been a focal point in the world of sports. We
had a video that I'm sure you saw of two
l A cops being shot than the subsequent reactions to it.
Appears the cops are gonna be okay. But they were ambushed.
They were sitting in a police cruiser. They weren't doing
anything at all. Guy walks up and shoots them. The
(36:43):
world of sports buy in large. I won't say everybody,
but the most people in sports in sports media have
had absolutely nothing to say about the shooting of those
two police officers. Lebron James, the minute any video goes
viral of a Jacob Blake like situation, even the fifteen
or twenty seconds that he sees, he immediately goes out.
(37:04):
I think he said, I don't think I know he said, Hey,
black people are being hunted. That was amard Arebury, that
was the mod Arebury situation. But he said black people
are being hunted when go outside of our house, houses
and everything else. I don't believe he said anything about
these l A police officers being shot or the reaction
to it. Should athletes have something to say here, given
(37:26):
the precedent that they've set for other viral videos or not.
In your mind, they have certainly set a standard that
they're experts on the criminal justice system and any police
involved shootings that they have. Certainly they're the leaders. They
they're they're wearing on the NBA, they're wearing jerseys that
say listen to us that which means which tends to
(37:49):
think they have something to say about all these issues.
And so yes, they have said a standard look. Lebron
James is based in Los Angeles. Now, having said all
of that, I just want to be specific here as
a because I've looked into what's going on in Los
Angeles and with that Sheriff's Department, and I think seven
or eight citizens have been shot or killed by the
(38:14):
l A County Sheriff's Department since the George Floyd shooting.
And so what's going on with that l A County
Sheriff's Department and the gang community in l A is
very complicated that there seems to be an unstated war
(38:34):
going on between the Sheriff's department and gang members in
in l A. I saw a video where some of
the people that were protesting at the hospital and trying
to block entry into the emergency service where they were
shouting the name of de Jon Kizzie, who is the
last black apparently looked gay. I don't know so, but
(39:01):
he looked like he was gang connected, and I heard
gang members shouting his name, like what they did was
payback for de Shaun Kizzie who was gunned down by
police by the l A County Sheriff's after they said
he had dropped his weapon. That was one of the
weirdest stories I like, with damn sounding like they just
executed this dude. And here we come back a week
(39:22):
or two later, and and someone apparently I'm speculating, but
someone from Compton and the gang community fires it to
l A County Sheriff's deputies or whatever. And surely, to me,
these athletes should have something to say. It's a tragedy.
I'm not in any of this gun violence, and particularly
(39:45):
directed at law enforcement is repulsive. And the stats on
the likelihood of a black man killing a cop versus
a cop killing a black man, Uh, you're a cops
more likely to be killed by a black man, and
the cops are to kill a a black man, and
so there would be justification. And so if people want
(40:06):
to and this is what's driven me crazy about Black
Lives Matter and the demonization of all policemen. If people
want to take that video and other videos or other
examples of violence against police and paint with a broad brush.
Oh my god, I live in fear every day that
a black man is gonna kill me because Lebron James
(40:28):
and every all the athletes have said, oh I live
in fear the police are gonna kill my son or whatever.
That's exaggerated garbage. It's an anecdote being used to uh
define a pandemic that just doesn't exist. And that's why.
You know, Russell Wilson is graz as he played, and
I like Russell Wilson, but he said something stupid this weekend.
(40:50):
It pissed me off. You know, he wore Brianna Taylor's
name on his helmet and said that he was doing
it because he's got a three year old daughter and
he doesn't want her to die like Brianna Terror. I'm like,
hold on, man, is your daughter gonna grow up in
data drug dealer a longtime drug dealer? Is she gonna
rent a drug dealer or a car where someone gets
murdered in that car? Is her boyfriend gonna hop out
(41:12):
of bed and fire a gun first and hit a
police officer first? That's just crazy. And if Russell Wilson
generally has concerned about the health of his three year
old daughter dying to gun violence, he's looking at the
wrong potential killers. It's not the police. Again. I did
(41:34):
a video last week pointing I think there have been
fifty four black and brown kids in fifty four between
the ages of one and twelve who have been murdered,
shot down, gunned down in their communities by gang violence.
Fifty four. No Russell Wilson talking about a twenty six
(41:57):
year old Brianna Taylor and all my three year old daughter,
and I just worry. Fifty four black and brown kids
between the ages of one and twelve killed in by
random gun vibes. But he's afraid of the police. Stop at, Russell.
Stop it. It is interesting the degree to which some
(42:21):
stories become viral and others did not. I would encourage
you to go watch and read that read that piece
from Jason Wentlock. Watched that video of all of those
young kids, almost none of whom become household names, clearly
all of whom had nothing to do, right like Brianna
Taylor case when you actually look at it, as you
(42:42):
just mentioned, is actually very complicated. In terms of how
do you respond to it, because, as you said, one
of the police officers was shot, they returned fire serving
the warrant, and so this idea that she was, you know,
a hundred percent without blame in the same way that
those young kids are who have absolutely no choice about
(43:04):
the decisions that were made that led to them being victims,
and by the way, oftentimes being victims with no one
caught or prosecuted for their their crimes, and yet their
deaths effectively are occurring in vain with almost no attention. Uh.
It is really really disappointing sometimes to see what goes
viral and what does not. This is outkicked the coverage
(43:28):
with Clay Travis, the man them at the Legend Petro's
papadecas at the old p on Twitter, you can find
him on a M five seventy l A Sports. By
the way, I gotta say this, we talked about this
last time. The Dodgers are back in the homestand I
think right or at least they were. I was watching
(43:50):
them on the last couple of nights and they have
refused to even let us know where all of the
cardboard cutouts that I paid a thousand dollars for for
our in their stadium. They initially said, oh, we're going
to put them in a prominent location where you'll be
able to see him. We had a lot of people
who listen to the show and watch Dodger games. Nobody
(44:11):
has sold has seen me, Danny G or Roberto. Have
people seen your I know they've seen yours, right, Yes,
I have been located. I knew exactly where it was.
The Dodgers are the ones that requested us and put
us up. So I'm not trying to one up you
or Danny G. I don't have a I don't think
(44:35):
you're upping us. I think you're dunking on us because
the Dodgers requested for you to be involved in this.
I paid my own money for the three of us
to be involved, and they just won't even respond to
Danny G when he asked where our pictures are. We're
not even sure that they exist. I think they might
have just put us in the bathroom. Yeah. I am
in the front row, about one person down from my
(44:57):
radio partner, Bob euchersty in the front room, and I
had to send three or four different pictures because the
ones I was sending they didn't like they had logos
of things on them and and different stuff like that.
I had to turn my hat around backwards and all
kinds of different stuff. But yeah, your obsession with your
(45:18):
cutout at Dodger Stadium and locating it where there are
a great deal of cutouts, I mean a lot of cutting.
I just think if we if we gave them a
thousand dollars and and by we, I mean I wrote
a check from my personal funds for a thousand dollars
to the to the Dodgers after they told Danny G
that they were going to put the three of us
(45:39):
in a place where we would be visible. It's at
least reasonable for someone at the Dodgers to actually respond
to Danny G's emails and let us know where we
actually are, given the fact that they've already broken the
promise that we're going to be visible, because we've got
a big listening audience and a lot of people who
watch Dodger games, and they've been in no way capable
(45:59):
of actually seeing us well. I as a matter of fact,
no people at the Dodgers. They own of M five
seventy l A sports which you've got correct earlier, and
I want to give you a tip of the cap.
Much obliged on that clay, but I will I will
effort some kind of explanation. Will Broker you were broker
(46:23):
a detent? Yes, without distrospecting Danny G who's a proud Angelino,
I might have to intervene here and do some kind
of arbitration and locate your cutouts. I have a man
at Dodger Stadium who can go get photos of those things,
so these things can be can be handled. But with respect,
(46:49):
I fink that would be that would be much appreciated, respectfully. Indeed,
speaking of respectfully, Later tonight the Clippers play Game seven
against the Denver Nuggets. Now, I think the fact that
this series is even going on has escaped a lot
of people's recognition because football came back, and Monday Night
(47:09):
Football happened, and there was such a glut of excess
that people were obsessed with being able to enjoy that
they didn't even maybe know that Game seven is going
to happen the Clippers. If they lose this game, what
is the impact in l A for Clippers who just
seemed always you would know this better than me, But
(47:30):
they seem to always get close and then fail. Well,
first of all, the Clippers have one of the best
owners in sports, yes, in Steve Balmer, and he's an
owner of millions and billions of dollars towards the Clippers
being great. He's going to build a new stadium in Inglewood.
(47:50):
But the only thing I can think is that somebody
went to Egypt, probably Donald Sterling, and desecrated some kind
of money, because it is incredible. Uh, way back when
I first started in sports radio, they had Mike Dunlevy
and Elton Brand's team and Daniel Ewing remember him from
(48:11):
Duke a big mistake on an inbound play and they
didn't make it to the conference finals. And then there
was the Doc Rivers epic meltdown with the Houston Rockets
at Staples Center maybe six or seven years ago, where
they didn't make it. They just can't make it to
the conference finals. And people were writing articles a week
(48:33):
ago saying, you know, when they were up three one
that the Clippers are going to break the curse. They
don't even care they got Kauai. It's over. And then literally,
like watching a movie, it's like the Mummy shows up
and he points his crooked finger and yelled and it's amazing. Uh.
I want to see the Clippers versus Lakers, so we
(48:54):
have something else to talk about. Like you said, there's
no USC or U c l A football have other
flip breaking out of a fire hose right now. I
think that the glut was a great way to describe
it that you just said. But they they I can't
deny they feel cursed. I feel like Lawn Cheney is
going to show up and slap somebody's head off. It's amazing.
(49:19):
So if the Clippers lose, is there you mentioned they
got Steve Bomber, They've got a new arena in Inglewood
that they want to build. Does Doc Rivers come in
for any criticism here? Based on the talent that they have,
which I think everybody out there listening would acknowledge is
more substantial than the Nuggets. It's one thing. If you
lose to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals and
(49:41):
then the Lakers go on and win the NBA title,
you can at least think our core is younger than
their core. Lebron's obviously going to be thirty six. I
think it is next year, and you can think with
this new Arena. There's lots of reasons for optimism. But
would Doc Rivers come in for any criticism if after
going up three one against an inferior team, they didn't
(50:03):
find a way to close it out. Well, I mean,
how do you criticize somebody who's cursed? Yeah, it's the
Mummy's curse. What can you do about the curse? I mean,
I look as far as different moves in an NBA
game and what he could have done or didn't do.
You know, you can ask your boy Mannix about that.
(50:24):
Who loves Doc Rivers. But I like Doc Rivers too.
He's a really magnetic personality and you only have to
be in the room with him for about two minutes
and he wins you over in a second and you
just feel like everything's going to be okay. I mean,
he's really one of those guys. He's very magnetic and
that's why he's had the success he's had. But there's
(50:44):
some people that point out that he hasn't won an
NBA championship without Tom Thibodeau coordinating his NBA defense like
he did with the Celtics and they beat the Lakers
back in OH nine. I think maybe, no, no, oh six.
Whatever the point is, it's been a while, and uh,
(51:05):
I mean, bell all come under criticism, Kawhi, Leonard, Paul George,
Doc Rivers, Montrez Harrold, who had a terrible game six,
who was the NBA's reigning six man, Lou Williams. I mean,
there's moments where they look like one of the greatest
teams in NBA history according to Jeff Van Gundy, in
the defense they're playing, and then there's other moments where
(51:26):
it just so easily slips away. It feels like the
Mummy's curse. So when you, I mean, it is kind
of fascinating to think about when you you just okay.
So let's pivot off of the expectation was it was
Lakers Clippers. Lakers have done their part. We'll see where
the Clippers do it on Tuesday. What does it feel
like as a big time college football fan in l
(51:50):
A to be looking around at all the college football
games that are being played. The SEC comes back next week.
It seems like the Big Ten with all their drama,
gonna be back I think on October, and the Pact
twelve is now going to be left. It appears on
an island among the power five conferences not playing. What
(52:11):
does that feel like? You know, in the city of
Los Angeles, Now you have the Chargers and you have
the Rams, and we'll get to their game here in
a little bit. But as a big college football fan,
and I know there are a lot of big college
football fans in l A, does it feel strange to
watch everybody else like as if they're living a different
lifestyle than you are in the l A. Area. God,
(52:33):
I'm a real masochist, aren't I for turning on here? Yes?
First of all, like I don't think of myself as
a college football fan, although I guess this year I am.
In a lot of ways. I think of myself as
a college football analyst. I mean, yeah, I've called I've
called games nationally since two thousand four. So to answer
your question, honestly, it was excruciating for me watching the
(52:57):
whole thing happen without me, and I try not to have,
you know, I try to check my ego and realized that,
you know, when I fall off a cliff or whatever,
the world's going to keep on turning. Uh, no problem.
But it was a bit of an identity crisis weekend
for me. Uh, you know, last weekend. I'd never been. Uh,
(53:20):
I've never been in town on Labor Day, uh this weekend,
you know, watching a lot of my colleagues, you know,
including my cousin who's in a truck in Kansas with
Tim Brando and Spencer Tillman. Watching all that and just
kind of seeing it unfold was was hard. It was
interesting though, I mean because I used to do uh
(53:43):
some Conference USA games when Fox Sports one started, you remember,
and to my my suit for one of them. Yeah,
that was a couple of Yeah, that was a couple
of years into it down in PoCA. But uh, rough day.
But I gotta say the teams that are used to
playing when nobody in the stands, you know, they came
(54:04):
out and punched people in the neck, you know, because
I mean you saw the pros. I mean, the pros
are pros and they need to go out there and
protect their neck or somebody's going to die. And when
they're told to play, they just go play. But with
the college kids, uh, it was really a scrimmagey feel,
you could tell with those big twelve teams, and they struggled,
(54:27):
you know, Kansas and I would stay in Kansas State. Now,
of course, one of them will turn around and beat
Oklahoma and November season somehow. Yeah, that's how it always
works out. But I found that really interesting. You know,
it does show a big difference between college and pro
football for where it is really really hard to create
(54:49):
your own energy as a college football team. It takes
a great deal of discipline, and we saw a few
teams that really should have dominated struggle and it was
really interesting. And I'm proud of those Sun Belt teams,
I think. I think it's awesome their will for football
and the passioned plant even though they come from small
places and generally very small schools with different resources. I
(55:12):
was endlessly impressed with with the Sun Belt and the
way they showed up. It was awesome. We're talking to
Petro's Papadegas at the Old p on Twitter A M
five seventy l A Sports Petros and Money Show, Okay,
NFL and the way it all shook out. I mean,
it was amazing to see Sophi Stadium in all of
(55:32):
its resplendent glory without any fans present there at all.
Have you walked through the stadium at all to see it?
I mean, it looked amazing on television even without fans there. Uh,
it certainly looks like a palace. Yeah. I was supposed
to be there last night to do our TV show,
but we ended up just doing it in studio anyway,
(55:52):
because of access would have been so limited. I have
not been over there. I've I've declined most invitations. As
you know, I don't like going anywhere unless I'm paid
to go. H And uh, you know, I think it's beautiful.
I mean, look, I like old things. So my favorite
stadiums are the memorial stadiums from World War One in Nebraska,
(56:13):
cal the Coliseum here Illinois. You know, the World War
One Memorial stadiums with the Greek theme are my favorite
stadiums on Earth. Now. Of course they're antiquated and really
like sewers, but I like them. Uh. That being said,
I did a Cotton Bowl for the first time, and
then a Big twelve Championship in the Jerry Jones Dome,
(56:36):
and it is jaw dropping, right like, even for a
guy that hates modern stuff. I mean, I was staring
up at that monitor and somebody ran a kick returned
right up my ass on the sideline. You know, it
was it was. It's it's an unbelievable experience, and this
is supposed to be better, which is hard to imagine
because the place in Dallas is so impressive by all accounts,
(57:01):
it's very special, but of course no one is allowed
to go, so it's a really awkward cell, you know. Yeah, yeah,
I mean I I think there's no doubt at all
as you as you start to look through, what did
you think about the past interference calls that one effectively
the offensive past interference calls that interestingly won both the
(57:21):
Chargers and the Rams there they're openers. Do you think
both should have been called? The shove on A J.
Green that negated the Bengals touchdown and the ledge shove
from Michael Gallup that potentially created a situation that allowed
the Rams to escape with a win over the Cowboys. Yeah,
(57:42):
saw both live. I'm always a guy. I mean it's
a lot like the modern NBA. Now. I mean, these
guys hands on the perimeter are so fast and they're
so good at selling this or that with their bodies
that I am always a fan of leaving it in
the pocket. The A. J. Green versus Hayward, I mean
(58:04):
those are two great players. I mean, Hayward is one
of the best cover corners in the NFL, and I
would have just liked to have seen Joe Burrow be
able to make that play. And I mean it was
good physical play by both guys, I thought, and they
both you know, he was grabbing and a j pushed off.
The same thing with the other one. Uh. One guy
(58:25):
has had ahold of him and the other guy pushed
off and then Ramsey kind of jerked his body back
after the fact. But of course we saw it all
in slow motion. I thought both flags should have been
left in the pocket. But I'm not going to sit
here and go on the air and have a connection
said about it. Right, Well, that makes you a rarity,
and certainly a rarity. Pereira on, you know, put Pereira
(58:48):
on or Blandino and let him explain it and move
on with your lives. I mean, I I remember I
was a game that I scored two different touchdowns that
were called back. Uh, and the PAC twelve sent us
a letter on in sday saying, hey, sorry about that.
Those were the wrong calls. It's like, oh, okay, well
we lost. You know, you know, you have to just
(59:08):
pick up and move on in those situations and that's
what football. I think that's why the country in many
ways is so attracted to the sport because it's not perfect,
it's pretty ugly. It's about overcoming adversity, and uh, that's
what you have to do, there's no doubt. And also,
the Rams got absolutely an awful call against them when
you couldn't have a more ridiculous hands to the helmet
(59:31):
hit than Jared Goff got on his interception and that
got missed. So some people would say, including me, that
those kind of canceled out Petro's papadegis. We will talk
to you next week, uh, and we will see whether
or not. By then, we are officially underway with the
Battle of Los Angeles between the Lakers and the Clippers.
Thanks my man. I'm just hoping for clear skies. I mean,
it's like a blade runner here. Yeah, I know, I've
(59:53):
heard it's crazy out there. Uh, good loss. Fox Sports
Radio has the best sports talk and up in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
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