September 16, 2020 • 38 mins
Clay Travis and the crew debate the disastrous 3-1 collapse of the Clippers to the Nuggets! Suddenly there won't be a LA vs LA Western Conference Final and Clay blames choking. Plus, Clay dives into an interesting NFL ratings discussion.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome in podcast listeners. We gotta loaded show for you.
Appreciate all of you listening to us. Go give us
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how about go sign up right now fan duel dot
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two of college football and we two of the NFL.
FanDuel dot Com slash Clay Loaded Show. As I said,
(00:23):
Chris Mannix was scheduled to join us, he didn't, but
we're joined by John Morosy. We have a lot of
fun breaking down everything, talking why NFL ratings have tanked
your calls. Also, what should the national anthems be of white, Black,
Hispanic and Asian people. I'm trying to bring everybody together
and play a perfect medley to begin the NFL game
(00:44):
so that no one has offended. What should we play?
That'll be out kick six to nine am Eastern Live.
But you get the podcast now and it begins. Thanks
for listening. I'll kick the coverage with Clay Travis live
every weekday morning from six to nine a m. E
Stone three to six am Pacific, Fox Sports Radio. Find
your local station for OutKick the coverage at Fox Sports
(01:04):
Radio dot com, or stream us live every morning on
the I Heart Radio app by searching fs are you're
listening to Fox Sports Radio. Well, yesterday, Petro's Papadegez told
us that the l A Clippers had an Egyptian curse
(01:25):
on them and that's the only way to explain how
they blew leads of fifteen, nineteen, and twelve in giving
up a three one series lead, and the Clippers are
now oh and eight all time with a chance to
clinch a Conference finals birth. According to UH data, that
is hate straight losses, longest streak in NBA postseason history,
(01:50):
and Doc Rivers has now coached three different teams that
have blown a three one series lead. If you were
looking for some and to decide to hang this on,
I would say the biggest losers when it comes to
the Clippers loss number one the NBA. They are in trouble.
(02:11):
Nobody is watching this league at all. Their ratings have collapsed.
The whole bubble in general has not captured the American interest,
with all of the social justice warrior dumb. By far,
the biggest loser is the NBA uh, second biggest loser
I think is Paul George, who it's gonna be hard
(02:34):
to overcome how bad he was in Game seven and
just the disappearing act in the playoffs in general. And
then I would say the third biggest losers Doc Rivers.
In terms of the biggest winner, I think it's the Nuggets,
but I think close behind is Lebron James because the
Lakers are going to be in the NBA Finals and
(02:56):
they're going to be able to win a championship without
really potentially having to beat very many good teams. Because look,
the Nuggets deserve credit for coming back from through to
three one series deficits and just basically refusing to quit.
Murray and no Coach have been a heck of a combo,
but between the two of them, but in general, I think,
(03:21):
and I'm not I'm I'm just saying this to be
honest with you, on this show, we're gonna cover the
NBA playoffs on this show one one hundred as much
as we covered them when it goes on in April,
May and June, and there's no competition for the NBA
and now you're going to have and we're gonna get
(03:42):
to this in a minute. College football, You've got so
much going on in the world of the NFL. You're
going to have a bubbled up, expanded Major League Baseball postseason,
which I think is going to do really well, and
all of those things ings are going to create a
lot more interest. Plus, Remember, I think a lot of
(04:04):
you are like, wait a minute, Oh, yeah, that's going on.
The US Opening golf starts tomorrow, So in addition to
all of the other things that are going on, I
think a lot of you are like, wait, what what's
going on? Yeah? Yeah, the US Open that was moved
back from June is going to be taking place starting tomorrow.
So I think this was the only way that the
(04:26):
NBA was gonna be able to cut through the noise
was if they were able to have the Lakers and
the Clippers playing against each other. Congratulations to the Nuggets
and the long suffering Nuggets fans. It's been a long
time since you guys have been in the Western Conference Finals.
But I think a pen prick as many people are
gonna care about the Lakers playing against the Nuggets, and
(04:49):
I don't really think that many people care about the
Heat versus the Celtics either, on the Eastern Conference side.
If Lebron James somehow lost to the Denver Nuggets, I
think that at Silver would just wrap himself in chicken
cutlets and walk into one of the lakes in Orlando
and let himself be devoured by alligators, because then there
(05:11):
would be an unbelievable all time low. If the Nuggets
ended up playing against the Heat in the NBA Finals
at the same time as the NBA, College Football and
the Major League Baseball Playoffs are all going, it would
be an unmitigated disaster for the NBA, and frankly, I
think the NBA is already in a series of unmitigated disasters.
(05:33):
That is what it's going on there. I'll bring in
the l A crew to get their reaction here in
a minute. The other news the Big Ten is just
I don't even know what they are doing at this
point in time. I told you on Saturday what the
plan was for the Big Ten, that they wanted to
(05:54):
come back on October and play eight or nine games,
but four they got to their conference title game on
December nineteen, that they could hopefully then get a team
into the College Football Playoff because the College Football Playoffs
Selection Committee makes decisions on December. We are now entering
(06:15):
into a third full day since the Big Ten met
on Sunday. I don't know what they are waiting on
to make that announcement. The Big Ten continues to spend
the drama there as the Nebraska president came out, didn't
realize his mike was hot and said the Big Ten
(06:37):
was announcing the return of football on the yesterday evening,
and then they didn't actually do it. So again, I
don't know exactly what is going on there. They need to,
based on everybody that I'm talking to, they need to
announce the return of the Big Ten by today. They
(06:59):
need to on Wednesday at least come out and officially
announced that the Big Ten is coming back and that
they want to start play on October seventeen, that weekend.
So that is what it's going on in the Big
Tent now. A lot of you out there have been saying, hey, Clay,
you fought hard for the Big Ten to be able
to play, and I never would have anticipated and probably
(07:20):
a lot of you think this is crazy, Oh my goodness,
Clay Travis would end up being the biggest advocate in
all of the country for the Big Ten. To play,
but definitely creates some strange, strange bedfellows. Indeed, that is
what is going to end up happening, is the Big
Ten is gonna play. And I want you guys to remember,
(07:43):
if you listen to this program, how many people out
there ridiculed the idea of the Big Ten playing football
this fall when the White House got involved and tried
to help, how many people who are in the sports media,
the Corona Bros. In the sports media said there's absolutely
no way that the Big Ten is going to be
(08:04):
able to play this fall. Go back and pay attention
to this. I've tried to be straightforward, just sharing with
you what I was hearing, and the truth of the
matter is I have an out kick has been the
most reliable media source in all of the sports media.
I believe this for what's going to happen in the
Big Ten, and certainly we have been the most zealous
(08:26):
and fighting for the Big Ten to actually end up
playing well. The Pack twelve finally has picked up the
the flag and started to wave it around with a
lot of players saying, wait a minute, why in the
world are we not going to be able to play?
There are college football games taking place everywhere. And that's
(08:48):
before the SEC starts play next week with all of
their games as well, which is really for many people
going to feel like the official start of the college
football see and and the SEC is not just playing.
They are playing with fans present in thirteen of their
fourteen stadiums. Only Vanderbilt is not gonna have fans president.
(09:09):
And there's certainly a joke there. And I can say
this is a double graduate school alum from Vanderbilt University.
There certainly are all already and always issues with social
distancing at Vanderbilt football games. Vanderbilt was social distancing for
football games long before it was cool to social distance
at football games. So the Pact twelve now starting to
(09:32):
argue that they should be allowed to come back, and
they actually have called out the governor of California the
governor of Oregon. They're starting to realize that the reason
they aren't playing is not health related, it's all political.
And after seeing the Big Ten fight their way thanks
to the players, the fans, the coaches, all of the
(09:56):
people who have fought so hard for the Big Ten
season to end up happening, the Pact twelve players are
now looking around and saying, wait a minute, why are
we not able to play as well? And I think
what you're gonna end up with in the PAC twelve,
unfortunately for PACT twelve fans, is they're gonna come back
and play, but they're gonna come back and play so
(10:16):
late that there's really no point in them playing a season.
The PAC twelve will play a season against itself, but
it will happen in November and December, in January, and
people will be saying, well, what's the entire point of this?
Because the College Football Playoff is really the only reason
to play. If the PAC twelve had any leadership at all,
(10:37):
they would do what they did when they canceled the
season back in August and just copy whatever the Big
Ten decides to do. And so if the Big Ten
is coming back on October seventeen, to be honest, the
PAC twelve should find a way to come back on
October sevent as well. I don't think they have the
political capital or the wherewithal to make that happen, but
(11:00):
that's what they should do if they were actually making
solid decisions, all right. So that is where we are
in the universe of sports news. I think we have
a couple of calls last night from the NBA. Uh.
Here is the final call from both the Nuggets obviously rejoicing,
(11:20):
and from the Clippers. Uh as they recognize here is
another year. Hello darkness, my old friend, oh and eight
in chances to opportunities to advance to play in the
Western Conference Finals. Nuggets First, the Denver Nuggets enfranchise history
(11:40):
in the Western Conference Finals. One O four to eighty
nine is the final, Nuggets Nation, Let's go the shot
clock turned off. P J Dozer has it in and
he will bring it across the timeline and dribble out
the clock. The Clippers go up three one on the
Denver Nuggets and drop the final three games of this
(12:02):
best of seven series. So uh, that is the that
is the call. The Clippers lose. The Nuggets advanced to
play against the Lakers. By the way, you barely mentioned it,
but in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Miami Heat found
a way to beat the Boston Celtics, and the Celtics
basically every time they're in a close game. I mean,
they lost on that dagger three by the Raptors with
(12:24):
point five seconds left. They lost Game six, and what
was it like double overtime and uh now they lost
this game against the heat and overtime. That is three
pretty devastating losses. Where you would expect for there to
be some balancing out of of tough losses, we have
not seen it for the Celtics. There, all right, let's
(12:45):
go out to l A. I know that there is
exultation in the streets for Laker fans, but don't you,
Danny g acknowledge that in terms of the overall NBA,
the Clippers losing is bad because I mean, if you're
a huge Laker fan, yes, you're more likely you're six
and a half point favorites over the Nuggets to actually
(13:08):
be able to advance. But I just don't think anybody's
gonna care outside of Denver and a few Laker fans.
I don't think people are going to be like, oh,
I've got to schedule my my my day around making
sure that I can watch the Nuggets in the Lakers play.
I think this is bad for the NBA. Yeah, there's
no question about that. Admit as a Lakers fan that
(13:28):
I would have loved to see that matchup, but hey,
you hate to see it. That's one of the reasons
why I wondered why the Clippers carried themselves on the
court the way they did all year. They seemed as
if they were already champs the way, or that they
had championships under their belt already, especially Harold and Beverly
(13:48):
talking all the smack they did all throughout the season.
Their team was just not very likable, and I think
what it boiled down to was chemistry. Uh KU's talked
about it on the s VP Show last week, how
the Lakers actually get along. Just a few years ago,
for the Lakers, their squad didn't have cohesiveness. They weren't
getting along off the court. This season, you could tell
(14:11):
that the Laker team they actually get along and like
each other. The Clippers only when they were winning. It
seemed like they could kind of stand each other or
gel whenever they had a big loss or we're losing.
They had bad chemistry, you could tell in their body language.
And then the fact that Doc Rivers could not get
the best out of them and pulled another disappearing act
when he was up three one in a series. It
(14:34):
was all bad for the Clippers. Laker fans rejoicing on Twitter,
and just NBA fans overall taking over Twitter. It was
like a shock wave through the sports world. First everybody
piled on Doc. Then everybody got on Kauai and PG
thirteen for disappearing because Jamal Murray had forty points, Kauai
and PG thirteen combined had twenty four. If you would
(14:57):
have told me that was what was gonna happen in
game seven, I would not have taken that bet. Although
I was watching you and your co host on FS
one yesterday, you all seemed uncomfortable picking the Clippers. You
did though, you picked the Clippers, but you were uncomfortable
picking them. Yeah. I didn't like him to cover the
seven and a half points for it because they've given
up all those double digit leads over the past past
(15:19):
one week or whatever it is. And I think a
lot of people didn't even really pay attention to that series.
And what I mean by that is the Clippers went
up three one and then I'll give you an example.
I had I bet the Clippers to close it out
in game five and UH and they were up fifteen
or sixteen points or whatever the heck they were, And
I went into dinner with my wife and UH and
(15:41):
another couple and while we're at dinner. You know, I
didn't even pay attention to my phone, and then when
dinner was over, I was like, Oh, let me go
ahead and check and see what happened. Clippers, I assume
went ahead and eliminated the Nuggets, and then they played again.
If I'm not mistaken, they played Friday, and they played Sunday. Well,
nobody paid attention to Game six because it was taking
place during all the NFL kickoff festivities, and so I
(16:04):
think a lot of people were like, oh, wow, there's
a Game seven on Tuesday, and then they suddenly realized
the Clippers were up against it. And the Clippers found
a way to blow another double digit lead and and
they're done. And I think most of the time. We
talked about this with Jason Whitlock on what Tuesday's edition
of the show, and Whitlock said, look, if Doc Rivers
(16:25):
loses Game seven, most of the time, given all the
money that the Clippers spent and given all that they
did to put that team together, most of the time,
the coach would get fired. I don't think Doc Rivers
is going to get fired, but most of the time,
when you saw a situation like that developed, somebody would
have to fall on the sword, and certainly Steve Ballmer
(16:47):
is maybe a you know, they got the new arena
that they're building, and there are a lot of reasons
for overall optimism with the Clippers. But losing to the
Lakers would have been acceptable. If you it wouldn't have
been happy about it. But if you get to the
NBA Finals, the Western Conference Finals and you lose to
the Lakers, I think people could have handled it. But
(17:08):
losing after being up three one two the Nuggets, there's
gonna be a lot of questions about what has to
happen in order for things to change going forward. Uh,
to be fair, you didn't think that was gonna happen.
You had a futures ticket on the Clippers right on
the on the show, on the show, I did not
have a futures ticket on the Dinner Show. I think
sal did. But but at the beginning of the season,
(17:31):
well last summer, if we back it up, you thought
the Clippers after they pulled off the Paul George deal
and got Kauai, I remember you saying that they were
playing chess while they kept the Lakers to checkers, because
the Lakers pretty much got the leftovers that were out
there on the free agent market, and so we had
to hear as a Lakers fan all year, had to
(17:51):
suffer through Marcellus Wiley, Cowherd, Bayliss Mallard sucking on the
Clippers toes talking about how much their team, how much
more depth in and how the shooting and the defense
just overall, the Clippers had a much better team than
the Lakers, and so the Lakers were in trouble if
they got to the Western Conference Finals. I mean, that
(18:13):
was the Clippers are. They're not better? They are? They lost,
not better they are they have a more talented team
than the Lakers do, but they lost. I mean, sometimes
that happens. And that's why I'm saying, if you are
sitting back and you are Steve Ballmer, it's one thing
if you lose when you are the inferior team, that's
(18:34):
something that you can deal with, I think, much easier
than when you lose and you have a superior team.
And that's why when I'm sitting back and I'm saying, Okay,
what are the consequences of losing? Most of the time,
in this scenario, you would fire the head coach. I
don't think that they're gonna fire Doc Rivers. But if
(18:55):
I'm Steve Balmer, I have to look back and say,
maybe it's that the team didn't like each other. Maybe
being inside of the bubble was bad for the Clippers.
We talked about this when the NBA bubble started back
in July, that ultimately team chemistry was going to be
a huge part of it. And then answering the question
who wanted to be there? Remember, the Clippers reportedly voted
(19:16):
to leave the bubble along with the Lakers voted to
leave to Yeah. Again, I questioned that because I think
that was an example of Lebron James being King of
the Wokes, and so because he didn't make the decision
to cancel, refused to play, that he had to look
like he was more angry about being there than anybody else.
(19:38):
So I don't the Clippers were just overrated. No, I
think the Clippers had the best team in the NBA,
and I think they choked. And that's why I'm saying,
if I'm Steve Baumber and I owned the team, they
had the best team in the n b A and
it didn't materialize on the court. Yeah, they had the
best team on paper. I remember you were at the opener. Yeah,
(19:59):
that's right backon Octo over which fills like fifty years
ago and you and I remember you tweeting out that
l A was now a Clippers town. Yeah, I mean,
they want they were the better team, and they found
a way too. They found a way to lose. And
that's why, again, if you are making an assessment on
(20:20):
what the outcome is, if you're the owner of the Clippers,
like Steve Balmer is, I don't know what the solution
is because they've got the know, they've got a lot
of guys under contract, and usually again the head coach
would have to fall on his sword, but I don't
think he's gonna fire Doc Rivers, and so I don't
know what the solution is. I mean again, I'm I'm
(20:42):
you know, not trying to be dramatic. I don't really
think there's anything that Clippers can do. They come back
next season, and next season I think the Lakers, with
Lebron being thirty six, will be rotating down again. But
the problem for the Clippers is there are a lot
of teams that are gonna be a lot better, right,
I mean, this was an opportunity for them to get
(21:03):
a title. I think it's the last chance for the
Lakers to get a title too. Um and uh, and
I just think ultimately, not only for the Clippers, but
the n B A is is gonna be in a
rough spot with the Lakers going up against the Nuggets,
competing with all the better sports activities that are out there.
(21:24):
I don't even think Lebron can save the NBA. Now,
what about you dub your big takeaways at all? From
I mean and by the way, I think the Big
Ten in the back twelve is arguably a bigger story
right now than the Clippers. The ridiculousness that's going on
in the Big Ten, the fact that Pack twelve players
have suddenly woken up and realized that if they want
(21:45):
to play in any way, they have to fight the
battle to play, And how bad the Pack twelve is
gonna look eventually when the Big Ten announces that they
are coming back and they're trying to compete for the
college football playoff. Uh, the whole packed of conference just
gonna look ridiculous. Well, I'll start with the NBA. The
Clippers game seven, heading into the fourth quarter down eight points,
(22:07):
Kauai and Paul George in the fourth quarter combined for
zero points, and it was not because of lack of shooting.
Paul George put that shot off of the side of
the backboard, which is that's the one that wide open. Basically,
that's the one that's going to linger for Paul George,
which I think of all the players, Paul George is
going to have the most to answer for because you
like to call himself playoff p or whatever else. And
(22:29):
James Harden comes in for a lot of criticism because
he hasn't won much. Russell Westbrook comes in for a
lot of criticism. I think you're gonna have to put
Paul George into that combo right now. And by the way,
aren't all three of those guys from l A the
three most failed UH in the postseason? Guys? Isn't hardened
from l A UH, Paul George from l A and
(22:52):
Russell Westbrook all from l A basketball circles, Well, Paul
George from past from Palm Yeah, right, But I mean
that's for most people, well from I guess you could
say southern California from the Inland Empire or whatever you
want to call it, but for most people that's l A. H.
All three of them are the choke artist when it
comes to the postseason and they're all from the same place.
Uh and uh, that's a high level of of of irony.
(23:16):
But I just want to mention that shot off the
side of the backboard, which to me kind of personifies
the Clippers performance in Game seven. Yeah, almost every time
Paul George shot the ball late in the game, I
mean even he didn't look like it was going in
no confidence whatsoever. But for the Pact twelve, I mean,
I'm surprised that it's they're making the late push. Great,
but I mean, this is way too too little, too late,
in my opinion. I mean, this came out of nowhere.
(23:38):
Yesterday I saw the letter from USC and I saw
Matt Leinert retweeting it, trying to get some movement going there.
But I mean, to me, my expectations for the Pact
twelve is they're not going to play a single game
this year. This is way too late for them to
make this push. I think they're gonna come back, I
may not be able to compete for the Pact being
for the college Football Playoff, which is gonna look ridiculous
(24:00):
because the Pack twelve is basically going to be playing
by itself. Um and and and I just I mean,
I don't think there are that many Pack twelve fans
that care. That's the other thing. And some people said,
why in the world did the Big ten provoke all
of the interest? Why to the White House get involved?
Because they fought for themselves, right, Some people Pack twelver like, well,
the President didn't call to try to make us happen. Well,
(24:21):
that's because you didn't fight for yourself. If you want
people to line up behind you, you have to allow
your voice to be heard. The PAC twelve players didn't
speak out, the PAC twelve parents didn't speak out, the
PAC twelve coaches didn't speak out. All of them just
meekly accepted the shutdown of their conference without saying a word.
(24:44):
And that's an indictment to me at the conference because
the data and the medical didn't in any way support
the decision that they made. What about you, Eddie Garcia,
what stands out to you about breaking all this universe down? Well,
I think the Big Ten is finally come into their
senses and they never should have done this to begin with.
They should have waited, just like all the other major
(25:05):
conferences did. So, I mean, I guess better late than never,
but it was really a big waste of time and
unnecessary for them to go through all this. And in
my opinion as far as the Clippers go, I mean,
what a complete gutless performance a Game seven. You're the
better team, you have the better roster, and you just
completely wilt and your two key players don't show up.
I mean, I don't know what you do. I Steve
(25:26):
Ballmer certainly strikes me as a guy who's not going
to just sit on his hands and not do something
when he sees uh, you know, that performance so very disappointing. Uh.
You know, I was looking forward to a Lakers Clippers matchup,
but I'm not a big NBA fan. Now that it's Nuggets.
Are you with me that there's I mean, that's a
disaster for the NBA, Like nobody's gonna care about Nuggets
versus the Lakers. Uh probably yeah, true, I would say,
(25:48):
yeah that we everyone was already had had already, you know,
predestined it was gonna be l A versus l A
And now that it's not, with all due respect to
the Nuggets, it's a pretty big letdown. Be sure to
catch live editions about kicked the coverage with Clay Travis
week days at six am Eastern three am Pacific. By
the way, we talked about the Clippers collapse, but how
about the block at the end of the game between
(26:09):
the Heat and the Celtics. That's one of the best
blocks I've ever seen, going hard to the basket, it
looked like Jayson Tatum was going to dunk the ball
for the win. Instead, Bam comes out of nowhere, meets
him at the rim, gets a completely clean block literally
at the rim, and uh and as a result, the
(26:32):
Heat find a way to win. I mean, that was
an unbelievable play to be able to pull that off
full speed, going at the at the pace in which
they were and uh and and and that one probably
got overshadowed by the Clippers collapse because because it was
an absolutely spectacular play at the rim. And I was
(26:52):
looking because I was kind of curious looking ahead now
for how do you schedule, like if you're trying to
compete in this market place right now where there are
so many different sporting events going The Heat Celtics game
two is going head to head with I mean, they're
playing it a little bit early, so they don't go
(27:12):
head to head with Thursday Night Football. I might be
the only person in America who's curious to see this game,
but I'm kind of fascinated to see what's gonna happen
with the with the game, between the Battle of Ohio
going on between the Browns and the Bengals, the way
that that Bengals game ended with the borderline offensive past
(27:33):
interference call against a J. Green, the way that Joe
Burrow drove his team down the field. I'm sure we're
gonna talk about this tomorrow on the show, and I'll
probably put up a probably put up a poll question
for you, But I think there's a legitimately interesting debate
about who would you buy stock in right now. I
think Baker Mayfield stock is really really low with the Browns,
(27:57):
and I think there's a lot of excitement about what
Joe Burrow was capable of even in a loss in
the first week. But this is basically a must win
for the Cleveland Browns. Early on, nobody expected a lot
of stuff out of the Bengals, so they're gonna be fine.
But I'm fascinating to watch that Battle of Ohio. The
(28:17):
NBA basically is waiving the flag because they are starting
their game at six o'clock Eastern. They're not even trying
to go head to head with the NFL, even though
that NFL game, I believe I'm correcting, this is only
on the NFL network. And so if you look at
that in the grand scheme of things, the Heat and
(28:40):
the Celtics are basically waving the white flag. Now they're
starting the NBA playoffs with in the Western Conference with
a Friday game, So Friday evening, there's not a lot
of people theoretically able to consume college football or NFL football,
but you'll have the US Open going on, it'll be
(29:01):
already over, but you'll have a lot of high school
sports going head to head with the NBA. And then
you get into Saturday that the the NBA is competing
against college football. And then they're gonna play Nuggets Lakers
on Sunday Night head to head with Sunday Night football,
and I'm not even sure what Sunday Night football is,
(29:23):
but that's gonna be a massacre for the NBA. Like
nobody is gonna watch the Lakers going up against the
Nuggets in Game two, head to head, going up against
going up against that, Uh, that came right, And so
I think this is really kind of intriguing to think about,
how do you maximize people paying attention to you? Because
(29:45):
you got the Packers and the wh who is it on?
You got the Cowboys. I'm trying to look here, Sunday night,
Packers Saints, the Packers and the Saints is gonna dunk
all over Lebron and the Lakers against the Nuggets, all
balls in the face style, like nobody is gonna watch that.
And then the next day you've got another Eastern Conference
(30:07):
game going up against the Chiefs and the Ravens. I
think unless they're gonna re recalibrate the way that they
play all these games. The point is the NBA is
the beneficiary of a lot of attention when there's nothing
else going on, and suddenly they're gonna have to compete.
And I'll be honest with you, as a guy who
hosts a show in April, May and June, there's not
(30:30):
much going on in the world of sports. So basketball
gets a lot of attention, and suddenly the basketball is
going up against the football. It ain't gonna be close.
What do you do? I mean, I almost feel like
they should play their games in the afternoon. I mean,
they're in the bubble and it doesn't really matter when
they play those games. But I mean, I'm not even kidding.
(30:51):
I almost feel like they should try to play their
games as early as they possibly can and only play
like I would if I were in charge of the
NBA schedule right now, I would say, We're not playing
any Saturday Sunday games. I'm not playing Saturday, Sunday, Monday,
and I might take away Thursday too and just say
(31:12):
all of our games have to be played on Tuesday, Wednesday,
and Friday, basically every week. We're gonna figure out how
to rotate this through and otherwise, maybe you do a
Monday game if you kick off before Monday Night football.
I'll bring in the crew when we come back and
we will discuss how exactly you handle that, because I
(31:33):
don't think it's an easy solution by any stretch of
the imagination, to try to get the attention of the
American sports fan, especially when and I'm gonna talk a
little bit about this, the NFL, even the NFL the
like the NBA ratings have tanked, nobody's watching. The NFL
was a disaster in week one in terms of viewership.
(31:55):
The Monday Night Football dropped over Comebye in that double header,
and all of the primetime games in the NFL tanked
as well. And I think the answer is pretty easy
why that happened. I think it's because the NFL got woke.
And I think there's a huge percentage of people out
there listening to me right now that said screw them,
(32:17):
I'll watch something else. And certainly the NBA has gotten woke,
and that's why their ratings dropped in Round one compared
to two years ago. I mean, it's unbelievable, almost half.
It's gonna get even worse now. I believe now that
the NBA has got to compete with other sports, but
the NFL has their own issues too. When we come back,
(32:38):
we'll close out our one by the way, giving you
a roadmap, but where we're headed. We got John Morosey,
our Major League Baseball Insider. The Major League Baseball playoff
plan is in place. They are gonna play in their bubble.
We'll talk about that with him an hour too, and
then an hour three Chris MANNIX, R NBA Insider. We'll
maybe try and answer some of these questions about where
the Clippers go from here. Fox Sports Radio has best
(33:00):
sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our
shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the
I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live.
So I was mentioning as we finish off the first
hour here, the fact that NFL ratings have tanked, right,
It's it's really kind of a fascinating window into why
(33:22):
and they've tanked despite the fact that there are two
big advantages that the NFL has. Around one point two
million people roughly did not attend NFL games the opening weekend,
and that is the sixteen different stadiums that would have
otherwise had fans present. Rounding that off, around seventy thousand
(33:44):
people per stadium, roughly one point two million people not
showing up for NFL games. Why do I mention that, Well,
those one point two million people were theoretically all watching
at home. And then on top of that one point
two million, they now have changed the way they calculate
(34:05):
the number of viewers of games. They're counting all the
people who are watching games out at bars, in the
hotel rooms in gems like. They have this new method
to count what they call out of home viewing. So
in theory, the NFL ratings are tanking even though there
(34:25):
are two different attributes here that should be leading to
a higher rated show. And so I'm curious for everybody
out there listening to us, I'm gonna open up the
phone lines. Are you watching less of the NFL than
you may have watched in the past, And if so,
(34:46):
is it over politics? Because I do think this is
a fascinating question. Why have the numbers tanked? And I've
got them we h We wrote about it at out
kick the Absolute lay Ist and it's it's it's it's
really intriguing. I'll read you the absolute latest data. So
(35:08):
there were a lot of people who watched Tom Brady
and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play against the New Orleans
Saints and Drew Brees. That was a game that seemed
to produce a lot of interest, and so the overall
numbers were not awful during the day, but Sunday Night
Football was downcent The first Monday Night football game was
(35:33):
down eighteen percent, the second Monday Night Football game was down.
The overall audience was down nearly ten percent for the
opening Thursday night game, and CBS is early window games
were down nearly twelve pc. Now, Fox again ended up
(35:55):
up because there was a lot of interest in that
what I think was the best game of the opening weekend,
the Bucks Saints, but overall a pretty precipitous decline. And
the big national games, the doubleheader on Monday Night football,
the Sunday Night Football game, the Thursday night kickoff game,
those were down monstrous lee large over last season. Why
(36:20):
is that? To me? The answer is pretty simple. My
hypothesis is when you get woke, you go broke. All
these leagues try to make Twitter happy. The blue check
marks running around on Twitter, the blue Checkmark Brigade as
I call them, all of them are demanding, oh we
need more politics. But the interesting study from Fox Sports
(36:42):
that Mike Mulvehill, who's one of the top guys at
Fox Sports, tweeted out. He said nine of people were
looking forward to the NFL season returning because they wanted
an escape from the serious things in their life. So
when those numbers tank, why are are you watching less?
I'm gonna open up the phone lines and we don't
(37:02):
we know that people are watching lesson again, those numbers
are down pretty massively despite the fact that there aren't
fans for the most part present in stadiums. So there's
over a million people who are the die hard NFL fans,
myself included, I would say, who have season tickets that
otherwise are watching at home. And on top of that,
(37:25):
also we now have a situation where you're getting a
big boost on out of home viewing, yet the numbers
are still tanking. If anything, the NFL should have been
up because they have a major benefit over last season.
Not to mention there's probably never been more people sitting
(37:46):
at home who could theoretically watch your games on television
and they're choosing not to do it. Eight seven seven
six three six nine. Why did you watch less NFL?
If you did, open phone lines, I'm curious where are
the viewers going eight seven seven nine six six three
(38:08):
six nine. And if you didn't watch, what did you
watch instead? This is outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis
Welcome in podcast listeners. We gotta loaded show for you.
Appreciate all of you listening to us. Go give us
five stars by the way, and oh by the way,
how about go sign up right now fan duel dot
com slash Clay. That's FanDuel dot Com slash Clay thousand
dollars free to gamble with. As we roll into week
two of college football and we two of the NFL.
FanDuel dot Com slash Clay Loaded Show. As I said,
(00:23):
Chris Mannix was scheduled to join us, he didn't, but
we're joined by John Morosy. We have a lot of
fun breaking down everything, talking why NFL ratings have tanked
your calls. Also, what should the national anthems be of white, Black,
Hispanic and Asian people. I'm trying to bring everybody together
and play a perfect medley to begin the NFL game
(00:44):
so that no one has offended. What should we play?
That'll be out kick six to nine am Eastern Live.
But you get the podcast now and it begins. Thanks
for listening. I'll kick the coverage with Clay Travis live
every weekday morning from six to nine a m. E
Stone three to six am Pacific, Fox Sports Radio. Find
your local station for OutKick the coverage at Fox Sports
(01:04):
Radio dot com, or stream us live every morning on
the I Heart Radio app by searching fs are you're
listening to Fox Sports Radio. Well, yesterday, Petro's Papadegez told
us that the l A Clippers had an Egyptian curse
(01:25):
on them and that's the only way to explain how
they blew leads of fifteen, nineteen, and twelve in giving
up a three one series lead, and the Clippers are
now oh and eight all time with a chance to
clinch a Conference finals birth. According to UH data, that
is hate straight losses, longest streak in NBA postseason history,
(01:50):
and Doc Rivers has now coached three different teams that
have blown a three one series lead. If you were
looking for some and to decide to hang this on,
I would say the biggest losers when it comes to
the Clippers loss number one the NBA. They are in trouble.
(02:11):
Nobody is watching this league at all. Their ratings have collapsed.
The whole bubble in general has not captured the American interest,
with all of the social justice warrior dumb. By far,
the biggest loser is the NBA uh, second biggest loser
I think is Paul George, who it's gonna be hard
(02:34):
to overcome how bad he was in Game seven and
just the disappearing act in the playoffs in general. And
then I would say the third biggest losers Doc Rivers.
In terms of the biggest winner, I think it's the Nuggets,
but I think close behind is Lebron James because the
Lakers are going to be in the NBA Finals and
(02:56):
they're going to be able to win a championship without
really potentially having to beat very many good teams. Because look,
the Nuggets deserve credit for coming back from through to
three one series deficits and just basically refusing to quit.
Murray and no Coach have been a heck of a combo,
but between the two of them, but in general, I think,
(03:21):
and I'm not I'm I'm just saying this to be
honest with you, on this show, we're gonna cover the
NBA playoffs on this show one one hundred as much
as we covered them when it goes on in April,
May and June, and there's no competition for the NBA
and now you're going to have and we're gonna get
(03:42):
to this in a minute. College football, You've got so
much going on in the world of the NFL. You're
going to have a bubbled up, expanded Major League Baseball postseason,
which I think is going to do really well, and
all of those things ings are going to create a
lot more interest. Plus, Remember, I think a lot of
(04:04):
you are like, wait a minute, Oh, yeah, that's going on.
The US Opening golf starts tomorrow, So in addition to
all of the other things that are going on, I
think a lot of you are like, wait, what what's
going on? Yeah? Yeah, the US Open that was moved
back from June is going to be taking place starting tomorrow.
So I think this was the only way that the
(04:26):
NBA was gonna be able to cut through the noise
was if they were able to have the Lakers and
the Clippers playing against each other. Congratulations to the Nuggets
and the long suffering Nuggets fans. It's been a long
time since you guys have been in the Western Conference Finals.
But I think a pen prick as many people are
gonna care about the Lakers playing against the Nuggets, and
(04:49):
I don't really think that many people care about the
Heat versus the Celtics either, on the Eastern Conference side.
If Lebron James somehow lost to the Denver Nuggets, I
think that at Silver would just wrap himself in chicken
cutlets and walk into one of the lakes in Orlando
and let himself be devoured by alligators, because then there
(05:11):
would be an unbelievable all time low. If the Nuggets
ended up playing against the Heat in the NBA Finals
at the same time as the NBA, College Football and
the Major League Baseball Playoffs are all going, it would
be an unmitigated disaster for the NBA, and frankly, I
think the NBA is already in a series of unmitigated disasters.
(05:33):
That is what it's going on there. I'll bring in
the l A crew to get their reaction here in
a minute. The other news the Big Ten is just
I don't even know what they are doing at this
point in time. I told you on Saturday what the
plan was for the Big Ten, that they wanted to
(05:54):
come back on October and play eight or nine games,
but four they got to their conference title game on
December nineteen, that they could hopefully then get a team
into the College Football Playoff because the College Football Playoffs
Selection Committee makes decisions on December. We are now entering
(06:15):
into a third full day since the Big Ten met
on Sunday. I don't know what they are waiting on
to make that announcement. The Big Ten continues to spend
the drama there as the Nebraska president came out, didn't
realize his mike was hot and said the Big Ten
(06:37):
was announcing the return of football on the yesterday evening,
and then they didn't actually do it. So again, I
don't know exactly what is going on there. They need to,
based on everybody that I'm talking to, they need to
announce the return of the Big Ten by today. They
(06:59):
need to on Wednesday at least come out and officially
announced that the Big Ten is coming back and that
they want to start play on October seventeen, that weekend.
So that is what it's going on in the Big
Tent now. A lot of you out there have been saying, hey, Clay,
you fought hard for the Big Ten to be able
to play, and I never would have anticipated and probably
(07:20):
a lot of you think this is crazy, Oh my goodness,
Clay Travis would end up being the biggest advocate in
all of the country for the Big Ten. To play,
but definitely creates some strange, strange bedfellows. Indeed, that is
what is going to end up happening, is the Big
Ten is gonna play. And I want you guys to remember,
(07:43):
if you listen to this program, how many people out
there ridiculed the idea of the Big Ten playing football
this fall when the White House got involved and tried
to help, how many people who are in the sports media,
the Corona Bros. In the sports media said there's absolutely
no way that the Big Ten is going to be
(08:04):
able to play this fall. Go back and pay attention
to this. I've tried to be straightforward, just sharing with
you what I was hearing, and the truth of the
matter is I have an out kick has been the
most reliable media source in all of the sports media.
I believe this for what's going to happen in the
Big Ten, and certainly we have been the most zealous
(08:26):
and fighting for the Big Ten to actually end up
playing well. The Pack twelve finally has picked up the
the flag and started to wave it around with a
lot of players saying, wait a minute, why in the
world are we not going to be able to play?
There are college football games taking place everywhere. And that's
(08:48):
before the SEC starts play next week with all of
their games as well, which is really for many people
going to feel like the official start of the college
football see and and the SEC is not just playing.
They are playing with fans present in thirteen of their
fourteen stadiums. Only Vanderbilt is not gonna have fans president.
(09:09):
And there's certainly a joke there. And I can say
this is a double graduate school alum from Vanderbilt University.
There certainly are all already and always issues with social
distancing at Vanderbilt football games. Vanderbilt was social distancing for
football games long before it was cool to social distance
at football games. So the Pact twelve now starting to
(09:32):
argue that they should be allowed to come back, and
they actually have called out the governor of California the
governor of Oregon. They're starting to realize that the reason
they aren't playing is not health related, it's all political.
And after seeing the Big Ten fight their way thanks
to the players, the fans, the coaches, all of the
(09:56):
people who have fought so hard for the Big Ten
season to end up happening, the Pact twelve players are
now looking around and saying, wait a minute, why are
we not able to play as well? And I think
what you're gonna end up with in the PAC twelve,
unfortunately for PACT twelve fans, is they're gonna come back
and play, but they're gonna come back and play so
(10:16):
late that there's really no point in them playing a season.
The PAC twelve will play a season against itself, but
it will happen in November and December, in January, and
people will be saying, well, what's the entire point of this?
Because the College Football Playoff is really the only reason
to play. If the PAC twelve had any leadership at all,
(10:37):
they would do what they did when they canceled the
season back in August and just copy whatever the Big
Ten decides to do. And so if the Big Ten
is coming back on October seventeen, to be honest, the
PAC twelve should find a way to come back on
October sevent as well. I don't think they have the
political capital or the wherewithal to make that happen, but
(11:00):
that's what they should do if they were actually making
solid decisions, all right. So that is where we are
in the universe of sports news. I think we have
a couple of calls last night from the NBA. Uh.
Here is the final call from both the Nuggets obviously rejoicing,
(11:20):
and from the Clippers. Uh as they recognize here is
another year. Hello darkness, my old friend, oh and eight
in chances to opportunities to advance to play in the
Western Conference Finals. Nuggets First, the Denver Nuggets enfranchise history
(11:40):
in the Western Conference Finals. One O four to eighty
nine is the final, Nuggets Nation, Let's go the shot
clock turned off. P J Dozer has it in and
he will bring it across the timeline and dribble out
the clock. The Clippers go up three one on the
Denver Nuggets and drop the final three games of this
(12:02):
best of seven series. So uh, that is the that
is the call. The Clippers lose. The Nuggets advanced to
play against the Lakers. By the way, you barely mentioned it,
but in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Miami Heat found
a way to beat the Boston Celtics, and the Celtics
basically every time they're in a close game. I mean,
they lost on that dagger three by the Raptors with
(12:24):
point five seconds left. They lost Game six, and what
was it like double overtime and uh now they lost
this game against the heat and overtime. That is three
pretty devastating losses. Where you would expect for there to
be some balancing out of of tough losses, we have
not seen it for the Celtics. There, all right, let's
(12:45):
go out to l A. I know that there is
exultation in the streets for Laker fans, but don't you,
Danny g acknowledge that in terms of the overall NBA,
the Clippers losing is bad because I mean, if you're
a huge Laker fan, yes, you're more likely you're six
and a half point favorites over the Nuggets to actually
(13:08):
be able to advance. But I just don't think anybody's
gonna care outside of Denver and a few Laker fans.
I don't think people are going to be like, oh,
I've got to schedule my my my day around making
sure that I can watch the Nuggets in the Lakers play.
I think this is bad for the NBA. Yeah, there's
no question about that. Admit as a Lakers fan that
(13:28):
I would have loved to see that matchup, but hey,
you hate to see it. That's one of the reasons
why I wondered why the Clippers carried themselves on the
court the way they did all year. They seemed as
if they were already champs the way, or that they
had championships under their belt already, especially Harold and Beverly
(13:48):
talking all the smack they did all throughout the season.
Their team was just not very likable, and I think
what it boiled down to was chemistry. Uh KU's talked
about it on the s VP Show last week, how
the Lakers actually get along. Just a few years ago,
for the Lakers, their squad didn't have cohesiveness. They weren't
getting along off the court. This season, you could tell
(14:11):
that the Laker team they actually get along and like
each other. The Clippers only when they were winning. It
seemed like they could kind of stand each other or
gel whenever they had a big loss or we're losing.
They had bad chemistry, you could tell in their body language.
And then the fact that Doc Rivers could not get
the best out of them and pulled another disappearing act
when he was up three one in a series. It
(14:34):
was all bad for the Clippers. Laker fans rejoicing on Twitter,
and just NBA fans overall taking over Twitter. It was
like a shock wave through the sports world. First everybody
piled on Doc. Then everybody got on Kauai and PG
thirteen for disappearing because Jamal Murray had forty points, Kauai
and PG thirteen combined had twenty four. If you would
(14:57):
have told me that was what was gonna happen in
game seven, I would not have taken that bet. Although
I was watching you and your co host on FS
one yesterday, you all seemed uncomfortable picking the Clippers. You
did though, you picked the Clippers, but you were uncomfortable
picking them. Yeah. I didn't like him to cover the
seven and a half points for it because they've given
up all those double digit leads over the past past
(15:19):
one week or whatever it is. And I think a
lot of people didn't even really pay attention to that series.
And what I mean by that is the Clippers went
up three one and then I'll give you an example.
I had I bet the Clippers to close it out
in game five and UH and they were up fifteen
or sixteen points or whatever the heck they were, And
I went into dinner with my wife and UH and
(15:41):
another couple and while we're at dinner. You know, I
didn't even pay attention to my phone, and then when
dinner was over, I was like, Oh, let me go
ahead and check and see what happened. Clippers, I assume
went ahead and eliminated the Nuggets, and then they played again.
If I'm not mistaken, they played Friday, and they played Sunday. Well,
nobody paid attention to Game six because it was taking
place during all the NFL kickoff festivities, and so I
(16:04):
think a lot of people were like, oh, wow, there's
a Game seven on Tuesday, and then they suddenly realized
the Clippers were up against it. And the Clippers found
a way to blow another double digit lead and and
they're done. And I think most of the time. We
talked about this with Jason Whitlock on what Tuesday's edition
of the show, and Whitlock said, look, if Doc Rivers
(16:25):
loses Game seven, most of the time, given all the
money that the Clippers spent and given all that they
did to put that team together, most of the time,
the coach would get fired. I don't think Doc Rivers
is going to get fired, but most of the time,
when you saw a situation like that developed, somebody would
have to fall on the sword, and certainly Steve Ballmer
(16:47):
is maybe a you know, they got the new arena
that they're building, and there are a lot of reasons
for overall optimism with the Clippers. But losing to the
Lakers would have been acceptable. If you it wouldn't have
been happy about it. But if you get to the
NBA Finals, the Western Conference Finals and you lose to
the Lakers, I think people could have handled it. But
(17:08):
losing after being up three one two the Nuggets, there's
gonna be a lot of questions about what has to
happen in order for things to change going forward. Uh,
to be fair, you didn't think that was gonna happen.
You had a futures ticket on the Clippers right on
the on the show, on the show, I did not
have a futures ticket on the Dinner Show. I think
sal did. But but at the beginning of the season,
(17:31):
well last summer, if we back it up, you thought
the Clippers after they pulled off the Paul George deal
and got Kauai, I remember you saying that they were
playing chess while they kept the Lakers to checkers, because
the Lakers pretty much got the leftovers that were out
there on the free agent market, and so we had
to hear as a Lakers fan all year, had to
(17:51):
suffer through Marcellus Wiley, Cowherd, Bayliss Mallard sucking on the
Clippers toes talking about how much their team, how much
more depth in and how the shooting and the defense
just overall, the Clippers had a much better team than
the Lakers, and so the Lakers were in trouble if
they got to the Western Conference Finals. I mean, that
(18:13):
was the Clippers are. They're not better? They are? They lost,
not better they are they have a more talented team
than the Lakers do, but they lost. I mean, sometimes
that happens. And that's why I'm saying, if you are
sitting back and you are Steve Ballmer, it's one thing
if you lose when you are the inferior team, that's
(18:34):
something that you can deal with, I think, much easier
than when you lose and you have a superior team.
And that's why when I'm sitting back and I'm saying, Okay,
what are the consequences of losing? Most of the time,
in this scenario, you would fire the head coach. I
don't think that they're gonna fire Doc Rivers. But if
(18:55):
I'm Steve Balmer, I have to look back and say,
maybe it's that the team didn't like each other. Maybe
being inside of the bubble was bad for the Clippers.
We talked about this when the NBA bubble started back
in July, that ultimately team chemistry was going to be
a huge part of it. And then answering the question
who wanted to be there? Remember, the Clippers reportedly voted
(19:16):
to leave the bubble along with the Lakers voted to
leave to Yeah. Again, I questioned that because I think
that was an example of Lebron James being King of
the Wokes, and so because he didn't make the decision
to cancel, refused to play, that he had to look
like he was more angry about being there than anybody else.
(19:38):
So I don't the Clippers were just overrated. No, I
think the Clippers had the best team in the NBA,
and I think they choked. And that's why I'm saying,
if I'm Steve Baumber and I owned the team, they
had the best team in the n b A and
it didn't materialize on the court. Yeah, they had the
best team on paper. I remember you were at the opener. Yeah,
(19:59):
that's right backon Octo over which fills like fifty years
ago and you and I remember you tweeting out that
l A was now a Clippers town. Yeah, I mean,
they want they were the better team, and they found
a way too. They found a way to lose. And
that's why, again, if you are making an assessment on
(20:20):
what the outcome is, if you're the owner of the Clippers,
like Steve Balmer is, I don't know what the solution
is because they've got the know, they've got a lot
of guys under contract, and usually again the head coach
would have to fall on his sword, but I don't
think he's gonna fire Doc Rivers, and so I don't
know what the solution is. I mean again, I'm I'm
(20:42):
you know, not trying to be dramatic. I don't really
think there's anything that Clippers can do. They come back
next season, and next season I think the Lakers, with
Lebron being thirty six, will be rotating down again. But
the problem for the Clippers is there are a lot
of teams that are gonna be a lot better, right,
I mean, this was an opportunity for them to get
(21:03):
a title. I think it's the last chance for the
Lakers to get a title too. Um and uh, and
I just think ultimately, not only for the Clippers, but
the n B A is is gonna be in a
rough spot with the Lakers going up against the Nuggets,
competing with all the better sports activities that are out there.
(21:24):
I don't even think Lebron can save the NBA. Now,
what about you dub your big takeaways at all? From
I mean and by the way, I think the Big
Ten in the back twelve is arguably a bigger story
right now than the Clippers. The ridiculousness that's going on
in the Big Ten, the fact that Pack twelve players
have suddenly woken up and realized that if they want
(21:45):
to play in any way, they have to fight the
battle to play, And how bad the Pack twelve is
gonna look eventually when the Big Ten announces that they
are coming back and they're trying to compete for the
college football playoff. Uh, the whole packed of conference just
gonna look ridiculous. Well, I'll start with the NBA. The
Clippers game seven, heading into the fourth quarter down eight points,
(22:07):
Kauai and Paul George in the fourth quarter combined for
zero points, and it was not because of lack of shooting.
Paul George put that shot off of the side of
the backboard, which is that's the one that wide open. Basically,
that's the one that's going to linger for Paul George,
which I think of all the players, Paul George is
going to have the most to answer for because you
like to call himself playoff p or whatever else. And
(22:29):
James Harden comes in for a lot of criticism because
he hasn't won much. Russell Westbrook comes in for a
lot of criticism. I think you're gonna have to put
Paul George into that combo right now. And by the way,
aren't all three of those guys from l A the
three most failed UH in the postseason? Guys? Isn't hardened
from l A UH, Paul George from l A and
(22:52):
Russell Westbrook all from l A basketball circles, Well, Paul
George from past from Palm Yeah, right, But I mean
that's for most people, well from I guess you could
say southern California from the Inland Empire or whatever you
want to call it, but for most people that's l A. H.
All three of them are the choke artist when it
comes to the postseason and they're all from the same place.
Uh and uh, that's a high level of of of irony.
(23:16):
But I just want to mention that shot off the
side of the backboard, which to me kind of personifies
the Clippers performance in Game seven. Yeah, almost every time
Paul George shot the ball late in the game, I
mean even he didn't look like it was going in
no confidence whatsoever. But for the Pact twelve, I mean,
I'm surprised that it's they're making the late push. Great,
but I mean, this is way too too little, too late,
in my opinion. I mean, this came out of nowhere.
(23:38):
Yesterday I saw the letter from USC and I saw
Matt Leinert retweeting it, trying to get some movement going there.
But I mean, to me, my expectations for the Pact
twelve is they're not going to play a single game
this year. This is way too late for them to
make this push. I think they're gonna come back, I
may not be able to compete for the Pact being
for the college Football Playoff, which is gonna look ridiculous
(24:00):
because the Pack twelve is basically going to be playing
by itself. Um and and and I just I mean,
I don't think there are that many Pack twelve fans
that care. That's the other thing. And some people said,
why in the world did the Big ten provoke all
of the interest? Why to the White House get involved?
Because they fought for themselves, right, Some people Pack twelver like, well,
the President didn't call to try to make us happen. Well,
(24:21):
that's because you didn't fight for yourself. If you want
people to line up behind you, you have to allow
your voice to be heard. The PAC twelve players didn't
speak out, the PAC twelve parents didn't speak out, the
PAC twelve coaches didn't speak out. All of them just
meekly accepted the shutdown of their conference without saying a word.
(24:44):
And that's an indictment to me at the conference because
the data and the medical didn't in any way support
the decision that they made. What about you, Eddie Garcia,
what stands out to you about breaking all this universe down? Well,
I think the Big Ten is finally come into their
senses and they never should have done this to begin with.
They should have waited, just like all the other major
(25:05):
conferences did. So, I mean, I guess better late than never,
but it was really a big waste of time and
unnecessary for them to go through all this. And in
my opinion as far as the Clippers go, I mean,
what a complete gutless performance a Game seven. You're the
better team, you have the better roster, and you just
completely wilt and your two key players don't show up.
I mean, I don't know what you do. I Steve
(25:26):
Ballmer certainly strikes me as a guy who's not going
to just sit on his hands and not do something
when he sees uh, you know, that performance so very disappointing. Uh.
You know, I was looking forward to a Lakers Clippers matchup,
but I'm not a big NBA fan. Now that it's Nuggets.
Are you with me that there's I mean, that's a
disaster for the NBA, Like nobody's gonna care about Nuggets
versus the Lakers. Uh probably yeah, true, I would say,
(25:48):
yeah that we everyone was already had had already, you know,
predestined it was gonna be l A versus l A
And now that it's not, with all due respect to
the Nuggets, it's a pretty big letdown. Be sure to
catch live editions about kicked the coverage with Clay Travis
week days at six am Eastern three am Pacific. By
the way, we talked about the Clippers collapse, but how
about the block at the end of the game between
(26:09):
the Heat and the Celtics. That's one of the best
blocks I've ever seen, going hard to the basket, it
looked like Jayson Tatum was going to dunk the ball
for the win. Instead, Bam comes out of nowhere, meets
him at the rim, gets a completely clean block literally
at the rim, and uh and as a result, the
(26:32):
Heat find a way to win. I mean, that was
an unbelievable play to be able to pull that off
full speed, going at the at the pace in which
they were and uh and and and that one probably
got overshadowed by the Clippers collapse because because it was
an absolutely spectacular play at the rim. And I was
(26:52):
looking because I was kind of curious looking ahead now
for how do you schedule, like if you're trying to
compete in this market place right now where there are
so many different sporting events going The Heat Celtics game
two is going head to head with I mean, they're
playing it a little bit early, so they don't go
(27:12):
head to head with Thursday Night Football. I might be
the only person in America who's curious to see this game,
but I'm kind of fascinated to see what's gonna happen
with the with the game, between the Battle of Ohio
going on between the Browns and the Bengals, the way
that that Bengals game ended with the borderline offensive past
(27:33):
interference call against a J. Green, the way that Joe
Burrow drove his team down the field. I'm sure we're
gonna talk about this tomorrow on the show, and I'll
probably put up a probably put up a poll question
for you, But I think there's a legitimately interesting debate
about who would you buy stock in right now. I
think Baker Mayfield stock is really really low with the Browns,
(27:57):
and I think there's a lot of excitement about what
Joe Burrow was capable of even in a loss in
the first week. But this is basically a must win
for the Cleveland Browns. Early on, nobody expected a lot
of stuff out of the Bengals, so they're gonna be fine.
But I'm fascinating to watch that Battle of Ohio. The
(28:17):
NBA basically is waiving the flag because they are starting
their game at six o'clock Eastern. They're not even trying
to go head to head with the NFL, even though
that NFL game, I believe I'm correcting, this is only
on the NFL network. And so if you look at
that in the grand scheme of things, the Heat and
(28:40):
the Celtics are basically waving the white flag. Now they're
starting the NBA playoffs with in the Western Conference with
a Friday game, So Friday evening, there's not a lot
of people theoretically able to consume college football or NFL football,
but you'll have the US Open going on, it'll be
(29:01):
already over, but you'll have a lot of high school
sports going head to head with the NBA. And then
you get into Saturday that the the NBA is competing
against college football. And then they're gonna play Nuggets Lakers
on Sunday Night head to head with Sunday Night football,
and I'm not even sure what Sunday Night football is,
(29:23):
but that's gonna be a massacre for the NBA. Like
nobody is gonna watch the Lakers going up against the
Nuggets in Game two, head to head, going up against
going up against that, Uh, that came right, And so
I think this is really kind of intriguing to think about,
how do you maximize people paying attention to you? Because
(29:45):
you got the Packers and the wh who is it on?
You got the Cowboys. I'm trying to look here, Sunday night,
Packers Saints, the Packers and the Saints is gonna dunk
all over Lebron and the Lakers against the Nuggets, all
balls in the face style, like nobody is gonna watch that.
And then the next day you've got another Eastern Conference
(30:07):
game going up against the Chiefs and the Ravens. I
think unless they're gonna re recalibrate the way that they
play all these games. The point is the NBA is
the beneficiary of a lot of attention when there's nothing
else going on, and suddenly they're gonna have to compete.
And I'll be honest with you, as a guy who
hosts a show in April, May and June, there's not
(30:30):
much going on in the world of sports. So basketball
gets a lot of attention, and suddenly the basketball is
going up against the football. It ain't gonna be close.
What do you do? I mean, I almost feel like
they should play their games in the afternoon. I mean,
they're in the bubble and it doesn't really matter when
they play those games. But I mean, I'm not even kidding.
(30:51):
I almost feel like they should try to play their
games as early as they possibly can and only play
like I would if I were in charge of the
NBA schedule right now, I would say, We're not playing
any Saturday Sunday games. I'm not playing Saturday, Sunday, Monday,
and I might take away Thursday too and just say
(31:12):
all of our games have to be played on Tuesday, Wednesday,
and Friday, basically every week. We're gonna figure out how
to rotate this through and otherwise, maybe you do a
Monday game if you kick off before Monday Night football.
I'll bring in the crew when we come back and
we will discuss how exactly you handle that, because I
(31:33):
don't think it's an easy solution by any stretch of
the imagination, to try to get the attention of the
American sports fan, especially when and I'm gonna talk a
little bit about this, the NFL, even the NFL the
like the NBA ratings have tanked, nobody's watching. The NFL
was a disaster in week one in terms of viewership.
(31:55):
The Monday Night Football dropped over Comebye in that double header,
and all of the primetime games in the NFL tanked
as well. And I think the answer is pretty easy
why that happened. I think it's because the NFL got woke.
And I think there's a huge percentage of people out
there listening to me right now that said screw them,
(32:17):
I'll watch something else. And certainly the NBA has gotten woke,
and that's why their ratings dropped in Round one compared
to two years ago. I mean, it's unbelievable, almost half.
It's gonna get even worse now. I believe now that
the NBA has got to compete with other sports, but
the NFL has their own issues too. When we come back,
(32:38):
we'll close out our one by the way, giving you
a roadmap, but where we're headed. We got John Morosey,
our Major League Baseball Insider. The Major League Baseball playoff
plan is in place. They are gonna play in their bubble.
We'll talk about that with him an hour too, and
then an hour three Chris MANNIX, R NBA Insider. We'll
maybe try and answer some of these questions about where
the Clippers go from here. Fox Sports Radio has best
(33:00):
sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our
shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the
I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live.
So I was mentioning as we finish off the first
hour here, the fact that NFL ratings have tanked, right,
It's it's really kind of a fascinating window into why
(33:22):
and they've tanked despite the fact that there are two
big advantages that the NFL has. Around one point two
million people roughly did not attend NFL games the opening weekend,
and that is the sixteen different stadiums that would have
otherwise had fans present. Rounding that off, around seventy thousand
(33:44):
people per stadium, roughly one point two million people not
showing up for NFL games. Why do I mention that, Well,
those one point two million people were theoretically all watching
at home. And then on top of that one point
two million, they now have changed the way they calculate
(34:05):
the number of viewers of games. They're counting all the
people who are watching games out at bars, in the
hotel rooms in gems like. They have this new method
to count what they call out of home viewing. So
in theory, the NFL ratings are tanking even though there
(34:25):
are two different attributes here that should be leading to
a higher rated show. And so I'm curious for everybody
out there listening to us, I'm gonna open up the
phone lines. Are you watching less of the NFL than
you may have watched in the past, And if so,
(34:46):
is it over politics? Because I do think this is
a fascinating question. Why have the numbers tanked? And I've
got them we h We wrote about it at out
kick the Absolute lay Ist and it's it's it's it's
really intriguing. I'll read you the absolute latest data. So
(35:08):
there were a lot of people who watched Tom Brady
and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play against the New Orleans
Saints and Drew Brees. That was a game that seemed
to produce a lot of interest, and so the overall
numbers were not awful during the day, but Sunday Night
Football was downcent The first Monday Night football game was
(35:33):
down eighteen percent, the second Monday Night Football game was down.
The overall audience was down nearly ten percent for the
opening Thursday night game, and CBS is early window games
were down nearly twelve pc. Now, Fox again ended up
(35:55):
up because there was a lot of interest in that
what I think was the best game of the opening weekend,
the Bucks Saints, but overall a pretty precipitous decline. And
the big national games, the doubleheader on Monday Night football,
the Sunday Night Football game, the Thursday night kickoff game,
those were down monstrous lee large over last season. Why
(36:20):
is that? To me? The answer is pretty simple. My
hypothesis is when you get woke, you go broke. All
these leagues try to make Twitter happy. The blue check
marks running around on Twitter, the blue Checkmark Brigade as
I call them, all of them are demanding, oh we
need more politics. But the interesting study from Fox Sports
(36:42):
that Mike Mulvehill, who's one of the top guys at
Fox Sports, tweeted out. He said nine of people were
looking forward to the NFL season returning because they wanted
an escape from the serious things in their life. So
when those numbers tank, why are are you watching less?
I'm gonna open up the phone lines and we don't
(37:02):
we know that people are watching lesson again, those numbers
are down pretty massively despite the fact that there aren't
fans for the most part present in stadiums. So there's
over a million people who are the die hard NFL fans,
myself included, I would say, who have season tickets that
otherwise are watching at home. And on top of that,
(37:25):
also we now have a situation where you're getting a
big boost on out of home viewing, yet the numbers
are still tanking. If anything, the NFL should have been
up because they have a major benefit over last season.
Not to mention there's probably never been more people sitting
(37:46):
at home who could theoretically watch your games on television
and they're choosing not to do it. Eight seven seven
six three six nine. Why did you watch less NFL?
If you did, open phone lines, I'm curious where are
the viewers going eight seven seven nine six six three
(38:08):
six nine. And if you didn't watch, what did you
watch instead? This is outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis
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