September 14, 2020 • 37 mins
Clay Travis celebrates our first NFL Sunday and talks Cowboys/Rams (same old Cowboys), Joe Burrow learning what it's like to 'Bungle', Cam Newton running wild in NE, Brees taking out Brady's new team and more! Plus, Clay has a Big 10 update, and goes-in the Ravens for their pre-game.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome in podcast listeners. We have got a whale of
a show for you, lots of NFL action, lots of
college football action. Will break it all down for you.
What's the latest on the Big ten? Joel Klatt swings
by to join us, and lots of big takeaways from
the NFL, including what in the world is going on
with the hypocrisy of the Baltimore Ravens. They stand for
(00:21):
the Black national anthem and they kneel for the U
S national anthem. Wait a minute, I thought the anthem
kneeling was all about respect, So why wouldn't you do
it for both? We will discuss that and much more,
including the Dallas Cowboys potentially getting jobbed with a tough
call down the stretch against the Rams. That is all
being broken down now, appreciate all of you. Go give
us five stars, tell your friends to subscribe. Make September
(00:44):
the best month we've ever had. This is out Kicking
The podcast begins Now 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 on Fox
Sports Radio. Find your local station for out at the
coverage at Fox Sports radio dot Com or stream us
live every morning on the I Heart Radio app by
(01:06):
searching fs are you're listening to Fox Sports Radio. I
gotta tell you, it's nice to be able to come
back and start off the show talking about and officiating controversy.
(01:26):
After all of the dilemma, after all of the debacles,
after all of the arguments, after everybody being in everybody's throats.
I love that sports fans can all have watched the
NFL and have finished off Sunday Night Football and thinks
of themselves, even though you may not love the Cowboys.
(01:47):
Even though you might hate the Cowboys, Jerry Jones's team
got screwed on Sunday Night Football. You cannot call pass
interference in that situation. You won billion per scent. Cannot
call especially offensive past interference in that situation. Jalen Ramsey
(02:08):
just got paid seventy one million dollars plus, and I
felt like I was watching an NBA superstar in the
paint flop and draw a call. That's what sounded like
to me. Now, I don't know what was going on
all game. It's possible that there had been some borderline
plays before that, and I believe it was Michael gallup
(02:28):
Right was the receiver that made what would have been
an incredible play to put the Cowboys into a position
to take a shot or two potentially at trying to
score the winning touchdown there, but instead the offensive past
interference is called and as a result, the game officially ends. Now,
there are lots of things you can point to if
(02:50):
you are the Dallas Cowboys about that performance and say,
you know what, we had a lot of opportunities to
win that football game. There are a lot of things
that you can circle back around on. But to me,
what I'm thinking, outside of that call, which I think
was the wrong call, what I am thinking, if I
(03:13):
am a Cowboy fan waking up this Monday, is you
know what, we looked like the exact same team all
that time that people spent detigrading Jerry Jason Garrett and saying, oh,
all the Cowboys need is a new head coach. They
went and got Mike McCarthy, and can you honestly say
(03:33):
anything other than that looked like the exact same Dallas cowboy,
Dallas Cowboy team. And what I mean by that is
if the Dallas Cowboys had lost that game, they went
one in six in one possession games last year, and
after every one of those close losses, people circle back
around and they said, this is Jason Garrett's fault. If
(03:55):
we just had a new coach that's been for like
the last seven years, however many years it's been with
the Dallas Cowboys. All you Cowboy fans listening to me
right now, know that reflexively, at the end of that game,
you wanted to be like, this was Jason Garrett's fault.
What if you just are what you are and that's
(04:16):
that's a tough thing to like sit around and have
to stare in the mirror and think about if you're
the Dallas Cowboys, what if it's not about your head coach.
What if this is just what the Cowboy organization is.
They're good enough most of the time to beat bad teams,
but when push comes to shove and they have to
(04:39):
find a way to beat good teams, most of the
time they come up short. When push comes to shove
and they have to find a way to win close games,
most of the time they come up short. They are
now one in seven in their last eight close games.
They haven't been able to find a way to get
(04:59):
it done. And you can blame Jason Garrett, but Jason
Garrett ain't there anymore. And I bet somewhere in his
hotel as he got ready to coach with the Giants,
Jason Garrett took a little bit of joy in this outcome.
You never want to get fired and have the people
(05:20):
that you get fired and replaced by have tremendous early success.
You want for those people to struggle. I guarantee you
right now, Monday morning, Jason Garrett woke up with a
little bit of a smile on his face. Not because
he hates the Cowboys, not because he's rooting against Dak Prescott,
(05:41):
not because he dislikes Jerry Jones, but just because when
you've been the guy who was blamed for everything going wrong,
it's nice for somebody else to have something go wrong
and you have nothing to do with it. I guarantee
you that when you're the president of the United States,
when your term is over and you have been getting
(06:03):
blamed for everything for four or eight years, you don't
want your successor to fail. I think most people want
their successor to do well. But I bet when that
first crisis comes up and the new president starts having
to wear it and you don't have to be responsible
(06:23):
for it. There's a little bit of an enjoyment factor
and just saying, man, it's nice to see somebody else
having to wear it. And this morning, Mike McCarthy is
having to wear a loss for the Dallas Cowboys. And
the truth of the matter is he didn't bring magic
star dust with him. The Dallas Cowboy offense didn't look
(06:45):
much different than it looked like with Jason Garrett. That
was an offense that looked explosive at times, mediocre at times.
And you left saying, I don't really know about the
choices they made from a play calling perspective, the exact
same criticisms that there would be out there. Dak Prescott
(07:05):
through the ball thirty nine times, didn't get to three
hundred yards. Average is six point eight yards one touchdown.
He got sacked, he got hit way too often. He
was just okay. Ezekiel Elliott got the ball more, but
he didn't look explosive. He wrote, feed me, he got
a ridiculous tattoo. Can you imagine Ezekiel Elliott as a
(07:29):
grown ass man with that tattoo on his belly? Feed
me with a spoon. It doesn't look good at It
ain't gonna look good at thirty five or forty five
or fifty five. You don't want to be the dad
with the ridiculous tattoo at the pool, especially when you're
Ezekiel Elliott, and you probably are gonna end up fat.
Everybody's gonna be looking at you at the pool saying, yeah,
(07:51):
we know you got fed. You know getting fed many
playoff wins, though, Dallas Cowboy fans thinking that we ain't
gotten fed too many playoff wins over the last me
five years. You fed Ezekiel Elliott and he ran for
four yards to carry. He didn't exactly take the game
over two carries ninety six yards, all right, not a
(08:11):
real game breaker. I don't know why they didn't throw
to him more out of the backfield. He made the
one big play in the passing game. Amari Cooper was okay,
Ceedee Lamb is supposed to be incredible, just okay, made
one play down the field. I just looked at this
and said, this didn't feel like a fundamentally different team
than what I saw before. You got out gained by
(08:35):
the Rams. You had the ball late with an opportunity
to win after starting off last year one in six
and one possession games, Jerry Jones is sitting there on
the sideline pumping his fist. It's go time, and you
didn't go anywhere. Now, partly that's because a bad call
was made, but if you go look at all those play,
at all those plays on that final drive, the Dallas
(08:57):
Cowboy offensive line got whipped up front time after time
after time. Dak wasn't comfortable in the pocket. They knew
he had to throw. Obviously he made one place scrambling
with the football, but never really put them in a
position all night long. You don't ever lose a game
because of one play. And the Dallas Cowboys over the
course of that game lost on the line of scrimmage
(09:18):
more than they want. They weren't able to control the game.
I thought that the Rams looked like the more physical team.
Even though the Rams weren't incredible running the football, they
were the more physical team. I thought they took the
battle to the Cowboys. And by the way, for Cowboy
fans out there saying we didn't get the call. You
(09:39):
almost knocked Jared Goff's helmet off and he threw an
interception on the play, you went on and scored on
that drive, and that call wasn't made either. So arguably
that was a big call that went in your favor
that you didn't have any business getting. It. Also rarely
comes down to any one. All all right, that's the
(10:01):
Dallas Cowboys. Props to the Rams. How amazing did Sophi
Stadium look? By the way, I think there should be
fans in there. I think there should be fans at
every game. But it looked absolutely phenomenal. Other big storylines,
we got a lot to unpack. Thank god, the NFL
is back. How about Cam Newton and the Patriots. You
want to talk about a guy who looked different. I
(10:22):
just said that I didn't think the Dallas Cowboy offense
looked any different at all. How about Cam Newton? How
healthy did he look? Fifteen carries, seventy five yards, two
rushing touchdowns, fifteen and nineteen passing. You thought it? I
thought it. Everybody out there in America thought it. Bill
Belichick got himself a steal a million dollars for an
(10:46):
NFL MVP that suddenly looks like he has a lot
to prove. Cam was phenomenal in Week one. He looked
totally different than he did last year. Maybe that's coaching,
not a lot of ference between Jason Garrett and Mike McCarthy.
I think there's probably quite a bit of difference between
what Cam had, even though Ron Rivera got a nice
(11:07):
win for the Washington Redskins, and what goes on in
New England with Bill Belichick. They found a way to win,
even though I don't think the Patriots are that good
this year. Cam is a lot of fun to watch.
And how about Brady versus Brees. Drew Brees found a
way to get the win and Tom Brady looked pedestrian.
(11:31):
I think it's early with the Tampa Bay offense. I
love what he's eventually gonna be capable of. Brady with
Godwin and Evans and certainly with O. J. Howard and
Cameron Brad and Rob Gronkowski. They're not there yet. Remember
this offense just added Leonard four Net. They're just starting
to come together. That new or in the New Orleans
(11:55):
team on offense has been working together for a long time. Hey,
some Hill, Michael Thomas, Alvin Kamara. They're a well oiled machine.
I think me and you and probably others expected a
little bit more from Brady and all of his offensive teammates.
But remember they didn't get the opportunity to play any
preseason games. They didn't get the opportunity to test out
(12:18):
their ability to get going and kind of get their
pacing and their timing and their rhythm together. So my
expectation would be while at times you saw flashes of
what could be an explosive Tampa Bay buccaneer offense, we
aren't there yet, but I saw some signs that we're
gonna be there before the season is over. And my goodness,
(12:43):
there were a ton of other monster stories that we're
going to dive into as well. How about the Ravens.
How about Joe Burrow making his debut. You talk about
a questionable offensive past interference call. I thought the A J.
Green call a little bit questionable. Philip Rivers makes his debut,
gets whipped by Gardner Minshew. Nobody saw that coming. A
(13:04):
lot of your survivor pools went up in smoke. In fact,
the Cardinals and Kyler Murray, they go on the road
against the NFC champ and find a way to win
as a seven point underdog. And then you have teams
like the Browns who find a way to stink every
year team like the Lions who should be able to
win but couldn't do it. And how about the unbelievable
(13:26):
collapse of the Philadelphia Eagles in their seventeen nothing lead
that they gave up to the Redskins. All of that
much to be discussed. This is the time we live
for NFL and college football. I got you some updates
coming on the Big Ten. The latest there. Joel Clatt
will join us an hour to This, my friends, is
(13:48):
a loaded program. We have got so many different discussions
to get into as we roll into the break. Are
tough in general here for the Cowboys as well. I
didn't even mention this. I feel like it's kind of
piling on, but Layton vander esh with a broken collar bone,
as if things did not go poorly enough. I didn't
want to really kind of pile on with the injuries,
(14:10):
but I probably should mention that as well. He just
can't stay healthy. He'll be out for a substantial time.
What is it in the collar bones with the Dallas
Cowboy players? Obviously Tony Romo had a lot of issues
with his collar bone as well. This is outkicked the
coverage with Clay Travis. What I am hearing is that
(14:32):
the Big Ten is going to play a season and
try to get into the College Football Playoff, and they
are gonna play starting October seventeen. If that ends up
being true, it would allow them to play an eight
or nine game conference schedule, then to play the conference
title game on December nineteen. The next day on December
(14:54):
would be the College Football Playoffs Selection Committee as is
scheduled right now, THEA red really able to consider whoever
the Big Ten champion is, presumably Ohio State or Penn
State based on the early rankings, to potentially be in
the College Football Playoff. That is the absolute latest I
am hearing. I believe it's going to happen. This show
(15:16):
has fought harder for the Big Ten, ironically enough, than
any show or any media member has anywhere in the country.
In fact, we've fought so hard that some of the
people out there in the media ridiculed me for even
having the audacity to suggest that the Big Ten could
potentially play in October. That it was even remotely possible
(15:39):
was considered the height of absurdity. Now I'm here to
tell you the votes I believe, based on what I
have talked to based on the people that I have
talked to are there, and the hope is to be
able to start the season on October seventeen, and if
that ends up happening, then they would have eight or
nine games to play in the Big Ten and then
(16:01):
potentially a Big Ten title game to get a champion
into the playoffs. So that is worth paying attention to.
That's pretty exciting if you are a college football fan.
That would, unfortunately, if you are a Pack twelve fan,
leave the Pack twelve as the only league out there
that was not able to actually get back and play.
(16:23):
And there are a lot of people out there thinking
to themselves, of course, that's exactly what I would anticipate
the Pack twelve doing, is being unable to actually get
themselves able to play this game. And so anyway, that
is the absolute latest from that perspective. Now, there are
a bunch of different angles to talk about in the NFL,
(16:45):
and we have talked about a ton of them. We
talked about Brady versus Breeze to start the show. We
talked about how good Cam looked and how potentially dangerous
if he's healthy he could be for the Patriots. I
think a lot of new England Patriot fans had to
love what they saw from CAM. In Week one, we
talked about the Cowboys and the Rams game and just
how unbelievably amazing Sofi Stadium looked. I mean, it's ridiculous
(17:10):
to me that they can't let any fans in there.
You know, if you listen to this program regularly, I've
been paying and talking a lot of attention and paying
a lot of attention and talking a lot about the
coronavirus in general, cases are plummeting. We saw a lot
of different places with games, uh playing games in college
football that had crowds, and I think more and more
(17:30):
stadiums are gonna be opening up to crowds. And to me,
it's crazy that you couldn't put any guys in Sofi
Stadium at all. But that stadium looks absolutely incredible, I
mean just phenomenal. It looks everything around it looks amazing.
I mean, it is a work of art. And there
aren't very many stadiums that you can say that about.
(17:52):
But other storylines that jumped out at me, Okay, other
games in the NFL and things that that kind of
that kind of struck me as being particularly worthy of discussion.
How about Joe Burrow. Okay, Cincinnati Bengals lost that game
in epic Bengals fashion. You had a would be touchdown
(18:13):
pass a J Green gets called for extending his arms.
I thought there was a little bit of a flop
from the defender there. I think a lot of times
that call isn't made clear touchdown that would have presumably
won the Bengals the game. It's called past interference. They don't, then,
because of the penalty, even get to attempt another throw
(18:33):
into the end zone. They come out with seven seconds left,
line up for the field goal. Not only is the
thirty one yard field goals shanked, but also I don't
even know how badly the kicker was hurt, but the
kicker evidently pulled a muscle in his leg and immediately
was like kind of writhing around on the field, Uh,
(18:56):
in pain, hopping around I should probably stay instead of
writhing around. And so it felt like a typical Bengals game.
And you had a shot if you were watching this,
and I tried to watch every game, I was watching
a lot of red zone, they had a shot of
Joe Burrow, like, wait a minute, this didn't happen at
l s U. You know, guy just won fifteen games,
(19:16):
had one of the greatest seasons in college football history,
and his first start with the Bengals ends, and what
I would say is vintage Bengals fashion. So that was
I thought. Notwithstanding the result. I know the Chargers won
and they found a way to get the dub, but
to me, you had to be pretty encouraged with Joe Burrow.
If you're a Bengals fan, there is reason for optimism.
(19:40):
I thought he played very well for his first game.
I thought he showed significant awareness on that final two
minute drive. There weren't a lot of guys really that open,
but he seemed to see the field well. He was
incredibly accurate, He was seeing his throws, he was getting
rid of the ball rapidly. Uh. To me, it felt
like he showed a lot of reasons for for optimism
(20:01):
if you're a Bengals fan. But it ended in typical
Bengals fashion. And so did the Lions. I mean, my
wife is from Detroit. I had heard a lot about
Lions futility. But you had a Georgia connection that was
ready to be made. There. You had Matthew Stafford. First
of all, the Lions should have never been in the
(20:22):
position where they had to have a final drive to
win that game against the Bears. Mitch Drobiskie looked awful.
The Lions were in control. This is a stat that's
pretty wild. The Lions were just the fourth team since
two thousand and six to blow a seventeen plus point
lead entering the fourth quarter. Teams that were winning by
(20:44):
seventeen or more entering the fourth quarter were seven hundred
and seventy nine and three during that time span over
the last fourteen years, so ninety nine point six percent
of teams in the NF fell when with a seventeen
plus point lead. So there's no reason at all that
(21:06):
we needed The Lions should have been a position where
they needed to complete that pass. But DeAndre Swift has
to catch that pass. It was like he was catching
it thinking that he had another forty yards to run,
like he was trying to put the ball away and
all he needed to do was just be still, catch
(21:28):
the ball, go down, boom, you win the game. So
that drop. Yes, there were other errors that were made
by the Lions that put them in a position, but
the Bengals were the Bengals, and the Lions wore the Lions,
and yet both rookies I thought showed some reason for optimism.
But DeAndre Swift that was super tough to drop a
(21:50):
touchdown pass like he did. Right there other games that
stood out to me. Lamar Jackson still looked like Lamar Jackson,
and the Browns still looked like the Browns. They were
not good. I mean from the moment that they started.
I saw the stat dub you can, I think, look
this up in their last twenty openers, I think the
(22:13):
Browns are one eighteen and one against the spread, which
is one of the craziest stats I have ever seen.
Dub confirmed that that's true. But from a gambler perspective,
it's almost impossible for a team to be that bad.
I'm not talking about just losing. I'm talking about you
already know that the team is likely to be bad,
(22:36):
and they still are not able to have any success
at all. You know, I watched Baker Mayfield. I watched
the decent amount of this game, and you know, he
had a decent running support because he's got a great
duo behind him and Kareem Hunt and Nick Chubb. But
it seems like to me that Baker Mayfield thinks that
(22:57):
he is way more athletic than he is. If Baker
Mayfield is going to have success in the NFL, he's
gonna have to play like Drew Brees and he's not
gonna be able to play like a Russell Wilson type player.
And Russell Wilson, by the way, was still electric and
extraordinary and splendid. Does that make sense to some of
you guys out there who have watched Baker Mayfield play.
(23:19):
He needs to be a quick read guy getting rid
of the football, not trying to make plays moving around
in the pocket at all. He was awful, and Lamar
Jackson obviously was splendid. He was just continued what he'd
already done. It's even worse, Dub, What do you have
the data for me? There? One twenty and one in
(23:40):
Week one games against the spread? Just straight up I
couldn't spread. I think, okay, maybe I was getting the
spread confused, But one twenty and one in Week one
games in the last twenty two years for the Browns.
That's unbelievable. Here's the other things unbelievable. Remember all the
attention that went to Odell Beckham when he went to
(24:01):
the Browns. People are like, oh my god, O'Dell is
gonna be amazing. He's gonna be incredible. O'Dell said he
was in great shape and he was ready to dominate
three catches for twenty two yards. This dude is not
produced at all ever since he left the Giants. And
I don't know what the scenario is going to be
(24:24):
going forward, but that is a messy spot for him
to find himself in the Browns, Browns, the Bengals, Bengals,
and the Lions. Lions, three bad teams found ways to lose.
How about Kyler Murray. Let's talk about guys that we
were impressed by Kyler Murray ninety one yards rushing in
(24:44):
addition to his plays from the pocket. I still have
not sold on Jimmy g and the forty nine. If
you listen to the show last week, I said the Cardinals,
who were a seven point underdog in this game. I
think the NFC West is the best division in football.
I believe in the Seahawks. I believe even the forty
niner is a good team. And I also believe in
the Rams is a good team. Well, we got a
(25:05):
cardinal performance beating down the forty Niners, where you take
a step back and you think, hey, maybe the Cardinal
prediction that Clay Dravis made that the Cardinals were gonna
contend and potentially win that division at nine and seven
or ten and six with a lot of good teams. Now,
Russell Wilson was splendid, but that I think makes you
a little bit nervous if you're a forty Niner fan.
(25:27):
Jimmy Garoppolo couldn't make the plays necessary to find a
way to win. Kyler Murray did big time performance by
the Cardinals. Another big time performance Gardner Minshew and the Jags.
They outduel, They were the biggest underdog. A lot of
you involved in survivor pools. If you're not familiar with
what a survivor pool is, it's where you try to
pick the team that is most likely to win. A
(25:49):
lot of you out there we're saying, oh, you know what,
I believe in Gardner Menshew, uh and the Jags, and
they're gonna lose because they're taking for Trevor Lawrence. Well,
nobody told the whole team. Even though they traded a
a lot of talent, Philip Rivers, there was a lot
of reason for optimism, A lot of reason out there
for optimism with Philip Rivers, and this Colts team got
(26:10):
major injury. Now Marlon Mack, Philip Rivers didn't look that good.
Continued to look like Philip Rivers did at the Chargers,
and that's a bad loss. It's a bad division loss
to start the season. And you know, I know there
are a lot of people in Indianapolis not happy about
the performance. They're also not happy about their coach, Frank
Wright taking a knee, especially all over Indiana. If you're
(26:33):
gonna be the first coach to take a knee for
an NFL game, your team better go out and play
really well. We didn't see that at all. And then
I feel like we probably don't hype these guys enough.
But what also stood out to me was how good
was Russell Wilson and how incredibly good was Aaron Rodgers.
(26:54):
We know these guys are good, yet somehow I think
we continue to underrate them. It felt like the Seahawks
are starting to take the shackles off of Russell Wilson
and actually let him make plays. And I felt like
Aaron Rodgers was performing like he has a young quarterback
sitting behind him. Some of the throws that he made,
(27:15):
you were just like, man, those guys make throws that
no one else in the NFL can, right, I would
argue with you right now, even as they are not
youthful anymore in the league, that Russell Wilson and Aaron
Rodgers make throws that other NFL quarterbacks see and say,
my god, that was an unbelievable play, And that, standing alone,
(27:40):
is pretty incredible at their age and at the number
of years that they have been in the league. And
I'm not saying Russell Wilson's an old guy, but he's
been in the league for a while now and he
still has a couple of throws I feel like every
game where you take a step back and just say,
my god, how good is this dude? And by the way,
they're still an awful lot of fun to watch. All Right,
(28:01):
when we come back, all we talked all on the
field related stories, I want to tee off a little
bit with something off the field that I didn't think
it made any sense at all, And in particular, it
was the Baltimore Ravens. They stood for the Black National anthem.
Lift every voice in seeing the so called black national
(28:23):
anthem they kneeled for the United States national anthem. Wait
a minute, I thought that kneeling wasn't a sign of disrespect.
I'm gonna put these guys on blast when we return.
This is outkicked the coverage with Clay Traffics. Alright, there
(28:44):
are a couple of things. We talked a lot about
what we saw taking place in the NFL in terms
of on the field running through all of it, but
I told you I wanted to discuss the off the
field related incidents. Now. I hope that this is going
to disappear because I told you, if you listened on
Friday after the Thursday Night show, I told you that CBS, NBC, Fox,
(29:09):
and ESPN, because they lost hundreds of millions of dollars
during the Colin Kaepernick protest, that they basically had all
gotten together and said, hey, we are not going to
allow anything to distract from our ability to put on
football games, even during the coronavirus mess. Everything else, particular,
(29:32):
maybe particularly maybe even during the coronavirus mess, because all
of these companies are even more desperate to make money
on the NFL now than they have been in past years.
Because everybody, especially in the advertising business, that's relying upon
the advertising business has just been hemorrhage in cash. But
there was one particular decision to me that blew up
(29:54):
a lot of the rationale for all of the arguments
in favor of pro testing, and that was the Baltimore Ravens.
So they made the decision in the offseason that they
were going to play the so called black national anthem,
lift every voice and seen before the actual national anthem
(30:14):
at NFL games, and several different teams made the decision, Hey,
we're going to just stay in the locker room. We're
not gonna come out for either anthem, and that was,
for instance, the Miami Dolphins, and I thought the Miami Dolphins,
whether you agree or disagree with that decision, the Miami
Dolphins who got whipped by the way by the New
England Patriots who were all standing for the national anthem,
(30:36):
and CBS, if you're watching that broadcast yesterday, they were
cutting back and forth between the two guys, two teams,
one the Miami Dolphins standing in the locker room, the
other the New England Patriots standing on the sideline, most
of them with their hands on their hearts, getting ready
for the kickoff of the season. But the Miami Dolphins,
(30:57):
we played this for you on Friday A, I believe
it was, we played you their statement where they said, hey,
we don't want to be a distraction and we don't
want people looking at what we're doing during the back
black national anthem and comparing it to what we're doing
during the national anthem, so called black national anthem compared
to the national anthem. Uh. And so that to me
(31:20):
immediately set off, Well, this is gonna be interesting, right,
I was sitting around thinking about it before. What are
you gonna do if you have a team that stands
for the black national anthem and then they all kneel,
or a lot of them kneel for the national anthem,
That's not gonna make very much sense. Well, we did
have a team do it, and it was the Baltimore Ravens,
(31:42):
And in particular, to me, that blows up the argument
that you're not acknowledging that there is a form of
respect involved for the anthem, because if you are standing
for the black national anthem, which many almost all of
the Ravens did, I think two players knelt for it,
(32:05):
and then you are kneeling for the national anthem, itself,
which the majority of the Baltimore Ravens did. Then what
you are saying is we have respect for the Black
National Anthem, but we don't have respect for the national anthem.
And there is no way you can logically argue for
(32:27):
the difference of treatment between the two without going directly
to respect for the song itself. If you're gonna kneel
for the national anthem, then you should be kneeling for
the Black national anthem. There's no logic here for the
Baltimore Ravens other than to argue they're intentionally choosing to
(32:51):
disrespect the United States national anthem, and that is, I believe,
a really bad look for the Baltimore Ravens. Now, hopefully
for the Baltimore Ravens case, the media stops covering it,
all of the protests surrounding the national Anthem and everything else,
because it's become a carnival side show of ridiculousness and
(33:15):
it's actually not having any impact at all. In fact,
if you saw the video of a man in Compton, California,
walking right up and shooting to l A police officers,
you can argue that all these athletes protesting are actually
having the exact opposite impact. They are making it more
(33:36):
dangerous for police, and they are more making it more
dangerous for suspects. Neither side treats each other with very
much trust, because if you're a police officer, you anticipate
that you might be a victim at any point in time,
and if you you're a suspect, you anticipate that you
might be a victim at any point in time as well.
(33:58):
And so that's why I could argue, I think legitimately
that all of these protests have led to many more
police officers being shot and killed, and many more people
in general in the cities being shot and killed as well,
because shootings have skyrocketed since the George Floyd protests began,
and so have murders and all the major cities in
(34:20):
America because police are afraid to do their job. And
when police are afraid to do your job, people in
inner city neighborhoods become even more likely to be victims
of violent crime. And so honestly, if people were looking
at the data and making legitimate arguments based on the data,
(34:41):
they would be saying what athletes are doing with sports
is putting everybody more danger And I don't know why.
More I know, I know why people in my industry
won't say it because they're afraid of the media mob
coming after them. Oh my god, how dare you criticize
athletes who are using their platform to make statements that
are so important? Actually, it's a strong argument that the
(35:04):
statements that athletes are making are actually creating more divisiveness
in this country and leading to more death and more
murder and more violence. And certainly you can argue it
if you saw the reaction to the police officer shootings
in l A. I hope those officers are gonna be okay.
It sounds like they are the most recent updates that
(35:26):
I have seen. But both of them are still hospitalized
and they did absolutely nothing. They were ambushed while sitting
in their police cruiser by someone that I hope they
catch in the Compton section of l A. But to me,
this should be a big story and athletes should have
(35:47):
to answer the question. For the Baltimore Ravens, why did
you decide to stand for lift Every Voice in seeing
the Black national anthem and then nil for the United
States National Anthem? Because by acting and behaving in a
manner that's different for those two songs, you are choosing,
in my opinion, to respect one and disrespect the other. Otherwise,
(36:12):
your behavior during both of those songs should be the
exact same. And I think that's why the Miami Dolphins,
I don't think it. It's what they said. That's why
they chose not to come out for both songs, because
they didn't want to create that difference of behavior. And
people say, well, they're not disrespecting the anthem by choosing
to kneel, Well, then why did they choose to stand
(36:33):
for the other anthem? There's no logic to the argument there.
It is, I think a really bad look for the NFL,
a really bad look for the Baltimore Ravens, and a
really bad look for anyone who is trying to justify
the decision being different for both of them. If you
decide to kneel for all the songs, all right, I
(36:55):
understand that that's your perspective, that your prerogative, but making
a decision to stand for one and neil for the
other doesn't make any sense at all. All right, when
we come back, Joel clad is going to join us.
An hour two, we had a lot of college football
games played and I'm gonna give you the absolute latest
on what I am hearing about the Big Ten, and
(37:15):
I'll give you a tease. It involves the Big Ten
being able to come back and play college football this
season and potentially, if things go well, contend for a
spot in the college football playoff. I've been fighting hard
for you for it. I'll tell you what that the
latest is when we come back. Be sure to catch
live editions about Kicked the coverage with Clay Travis week
(37:35):
days at six am Eastern three am Pacific
Welcome in podcast listeners. We have got a whale of
a show for you, lots of NFL action, lots of
college football action. Will break it all down for you.
What's the latest on the Big ten? Joel Klatt swings
by to join us, and lots of big takeaways from
the NFL, including what in the world is going on
with the hypocrisy of the Baltimore Ravens. They stand for
(00:21):
the Black national anthem and they kneel for the U
S national anthem. Wait a minute, I thought the anthem
kneeling was all about respect, So why wouldn't you do
it for both? We will discuss that and much more,
including the Dallas Cowboys potentially getting jobbed with a tough
call down the stretch against the Rams. That is all
being broken down now, appreciate all of you. Go give
us five stars, tell your friends to subscribe. Make September
(00:44):
the best month we've ever had. This is out Kicking
The podcast begins Now 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 on Fox
Sports Radio. Find your local station for out at the
coverage at Fox Sports radio dot Com or stream us
live every morning on the I Heart Radio app by
(01:06):
searching fs are you're listening to Fox Sports Radio. I
gotta tell you, it's nice to be able to come
back and start off the show talking about and officiating controversy.
(01:26):
After all of the dilemma, after all of the debacles,
after all of the arguments, after everybody being in everybody's throats.
I love that sports fans can all have watched the
NFL and have finished off Sunday Night Football and thinks
of themselves, even though you may not love the Cowboys.
(01:47):
Even though you might hate the Cowboys, Jerry Jones's team
got screwed on Sunday Night Football. You cannot call pass
interference in that situation. You won billion per scent. Cannot
call especially offensive past interference in that situation. Jalen Ramsey
(02:08):
just got paid seventy one million dollars plus, and I
felt like I was watching an NBA superstar in the
paint flop and draw a call. That's what sounded like
to me. Now, I don't know what was going on
all game. It's possible that there had been some borderline
plays before that, and I believe it was Michael gallup
(02:28):
Right was the receiver that made what would have been
an incredible play to put the Cowboys into a position
to take a shot or two potentially at trying to
score the winning touchdown there, but instead the offensive past
interference is called and as a result, the game officially ends. Now,
there are lots of things you can point to if
(02:50):
you are the Dallas Cowboys about that performance and say,
you know what, we had a lot of opportunities to
win that football game. There are a lot of things
that you can circle back around on. But to me,
what I'm thinking, outside of that call, which I think
was the wrong call, what I am thinking, if I
(03:13):
am a Cowboy fan waking up this Monday, is you
know what, we looked like the exact same team all
that time that people spent detigrading Jerry Jason Garrett and saying, oh,
all the Cowboys need is a new head coach. They
went and got Mike McCarthy, and can you honestly say
(03:33):
anything other than that looked like the exact same Dallas cowboy,
Dallas Cowboy team. And what I mean by that is
if the Dallas Cowboys had lost that game, they went
one in six in one possession games last year, and
after every one of those close losses, people circle back
around and they said, this is Jason Garrett's fault. If
(03:55):
we just had a new coach that's been for like
the last seven years, however many years it's been with
the Dallas Cowboys. All you Cowboy fans listening to me
right now, know that reflexively, at the end of that game,
you wanted to be like, this was Jason Garrett's fault.
What if you just are what you are and that's
(04:16):
that's a tough thing to like sit around and have
to stare in the mirror and think about if you're
the Dallas Cowboys, what if it's not about your head coach.
What if this is just what the Cowboy organization is.
They're good enough most of the time to beat bad teams,
but when push comes to shove and they have to
(04:39):
find a way to beat good teams, most of the
time they come up short. When push comes to shove
and they have to find a way to win close games,
most of the time they come up short. They are
now one in seven in their last eight close games.
They haven't been able to find a way to get
(04:59):
it done. And you can blame Jason Garrett, but Jason
Garrett ain't there anymore. And I bet somewhere in his
hotel as he got ready to coach with the Giants,
Jason Garrett took a little bit of joy in this outcome.
You never want to get fired and have the people
(05:20):
that you get fired and replaced by have tremendous early success.
You want for those people to struggle. I guarantee you
right now, Monday morning, Jason Garrett woke up with a
little bit of a smile on his face. Not because
he hates the Cowboys, not because he's rooting against Dak Prescott,
(05:41):
not because he dislikes Jerry Jones, but just because when
you've been the guy who was blamed for everything going wrong,
it's nice for somebody else to have something go wrong
and you have nothing to do with it. I guarantee
you that when you're the president of the United States,
when your term is over and you have been getting
(06:03):
blamed for everything for four or eight years, you don't
want your successor to fail. I think most people want
their successor to do well. But I bet when that
first crisis comes up and the new president starts having
to wear it and you don't have to be responsible
(06:23):
for it. There's a little bit of an enjoyment factor
and just saying, man, it's nice to see somebody else
having to wear it. And this morning, Mike McCarthy is
having to wear a loss for the Dallas Cowboys. And
the truth of the matter is he didn't bring magic
star dust with him. The Dallas Cowboy offense didn't look
(06:45):
much different than it looked like with Jason Garrett. That
was an offense that looked explosive at times, mediocre at times.
And you left saying, I don't really know about the
choices they made from a play calling perspective, the exact
same criticisms that there would be out there. Dak Prescott
(07:05):
through the ball thirty nine times, didn't get to three
hundred yards. Average is six point eight yards one touchdown.
He got sacked, he got hit way too often. He
was just okay. Ezekiel Elliott got the ball more, but
he didn't look explosive. He wrote, feed me, he got
a ridiculous tattoo. Can you imagine Ezekiel Elliott as a
(07:29):
grown ass man with that tattoo on his belly? Feed
me with a spoon. It doesn't look good at It
ain't gonna look good at thirty five or forty five
or fifty five. You don't want to be the dad
with the ridiculous tattoo at the pool, especially when you're
Ezekiel Elliott, and you probably are gonna end up fat.
Everybody's gonna be looking at you at the pool saying, yeah,
(07:51):
we know you got fed. You know getting fed many
playoff wins, though, Dallas Cowboy fans thinking that we ain't
gotten fed too many playoff wins over the last me
five years. You fed Ezekiel Elliott and he ran for
four yards to carry. He didn't exactly take the game
over two carries ninety six yards, all right, not a
(08:11):
real game breaker. I don't know why they didn't throw
to him more out of the backfield. He made the
one big play in the passing game. Amari Cooper was okay,
Ceedee Lamb is supposed to be incredible, just okay, made
one play down the field. I just looked at this
and said, this didn't feel like a fundamentally different team
than what I saw before. You got out gained by
(08:35):
the Rams. You had the ball late with an opportunity
to win after starting off last year one in six
and one possession games, Jerry Jones is sitting there on
the sideline pumping his fist. It's go time, and you
didn't go anywhere. Now, partly that's because a bad call
was made, but if you go look at all those play,
at all those plays on that final drive, the Dallas
(08:57):
Cowboy offensive line got whipped up front time after time
after time. Dak wasn't comfortable in the pocket. They knew
he had to throw. Obviously he made one place scrambling
with the football, but never really put them in a
position all night long. You don't ever lose a game
because of one play. And the Dallas Cowboys over the
course of that game lost on the line of scrimmage
(09:18):
more than they want. They weren't able to control the game.
I thought that the Rams looked like the more physical team.
Even though the Rams weren't incredible running the football, they
were the more physical team. I thought they took the
battle to the Cowboys. And by the way, for Cowboy
fans out there saying we didn't get the call. You
(09:39):
almost knocked Jared Goff's helmet off and he threw an
interception on the play, you went on and scored on
that drive, and that call wasn't made either. So arguably
that was a big call that went in your favor
that you didn't have any business getting. It. Also rarely
comes down to any one. All all right, that's the
(10:01):
Dallas Cowboys. Props to the Rams. How amazing did Sophi
Stadium look? By the way, I think there should be
fans in there. I think there should be fans at
every game. But it looked absolutely phenomenal. Other big storylines,
we got a lot to unpack. Thank god, the NFL
is back. How about Cam Newton and the Patriots. You
want to talk about a guy who looked different. I
(10:22):
just said that I didn't think the Dallas Cowboy offense
looked any different at all. How about Cam Newton? How
healthy did he look? Fifteen carries, seventy five yards, two
rushing touchdowns, fifteen and nineteen passing. You thought it? I
thought it. Everybody out there in America thought it. Bill
Belichick got himself a steal a million dollars for an
(10:46):
NFL MVP that suddenly looks like he has a lot
to prove. Cam was phenomenal in Week one. He looked
totally different than he did last year. Maybe that's coaching,
not a lot of ference between Jason Garrett and Mike McCarthy.
I think there's probably quite a bit of difference between
what Cam had, even though Ron Rivera got a nice
(11:07):
win for the Washington Redskins, and what goes on in
New England with Bill Belichick. They found a way to win,
even though I don't think the Patriots are that good
this year. Cam is a lot of fun to watch.
And how about Brady versus Brees. Drew Brees found a
way to get the win and Tom Brady looked pedestrian.
(11:31):
I think it's early with the Tampa Bay offense. I
love what he's eventually gonna be capable of. Brady with
Godwin and Evans and certainly with O. J. Howard and
Cameron Brad and Rob Gronkowski. They're not there yet. Remember
this offense just added Leonard four Net. They're just starting
to come together. That new or in the New Orleans
(11:55):
team on offense has been working together for a long time. Hey,
some Hill, Michael Thomas, Alvin Kamara. They're a well oiled machine.
I think me and you and probably others expected a
little bit more from Brady and all of his offensive teammates.
But remember they didn't get the opportunity to play any
preseason games. They didn't get the opportunity to test out
(12:18):
their ability to get going and kind of get their
pacing and their timing and their rhythm together. So my
expectation would be while at times you saw flashes of
what could be an explosive Tampa Bay buccaneer offense, we
aren't there yet, but I saw some signs that we're
gonna be there before the season is over. And my goodness,
(12:43):
there were a ton of other monster stories that we're
going to dive into as well. How about the Ravens.
How about Joe Burrow making his debut. You talk about
a questionable offensive past interference call. I thought the A J.
Green call a little bit questionable. Philip Rivers makes his debut,
gets whipped by Gardner Minshew. Nobody saw that coming. A
(13:04):
lot of your survivor pools went up in smoke. In fact,
the Cardinals and Kyler Murray, they go on the road
against the NFC champ and find a way to win
as a seven point underdog. And then you have teams
like the Browns who find a way to stink every
year team like the Lions who should be able to
win but couldn't do it. And how about the unbelievable
(13:26):
collapse of the Philadelphia Eagles in their seventeen nothing lead
that they gave up to the Redskins. All of that
much to be discussed. This is the time we live
for NFL and college football. I got you some updates
coming on the Big Ten. The latest there. Joel Clatt
will join us an hour to This, my friends, is
(13:48):
a loaded program. We have got so many different discussions
to get into as we roll into the break. Are
tough in general here for the Cowboys as well. I
didn't even mention this. I feel like it's kind of
piling on, but Layton vander esh with a broken collar bone,
as if things did not go poorly enough. I didn't
want to really kind of pile on with the injuries,
(14:10):
but I probably should mention that as well. He just
can't stay healthy. He'll be out for a substantial time.
What is it in the collar bones with the Dallas
Cowboy players? Obviously Tony Romo had a lot of issues
with his collar bone as well. This is outkicked the
coverage with Clay Travis. What I am hearing is that
(14:32):
the Big Ten is going to play a season and
try to get into the College Football Playoff, and they
are gonna play starting October seventeen. If that ends up
being true, it would allow them to play an eight
or nine game conference schedule, then to play the conference
title game on December nineteen. The next day on December
(14:54):
would be the College Football Playoffs Selection Committee as is
scheduled right now, THEA red really able to consider whoever
the Big Ten champion is, presumably Ohio State or Penn
State based on the early rankings, to potentially be in
the College Football Playoff. That is the absolute latest I
am hearing. I believe it's going to happen. This show
(15:16):
has fought harder for the Big Ten, ironically enough, than
any show or any media member has anywhere in the country.
In fact, we've fought so hard that some of the
people out there in the media ridiculed me for even
having the audacity to suggest that the Big Ten could
potentially play in October. That it was even remotely possible
(15:39):
was considered the height of absurdity. Now I'm here to
tell you the votes I believe, based on what I
have talked to based on the people that I have
talked to are there, and the hope is to be
able to start the season on October seventeen, and if
that ends up happening, then they would have eight or
nine games to play in the Big Ten and then
(16:01):
potentially a Big Ten title game to get a champion
into the playoffs. So that is worth paying attention to.
That's pretty exciting if you are a college football fan.
That would, unfortunately, if you are a Pack twelve fan,
leave the Pack twelve as the only league out there
that was not able to actually get back and play.
(16:23):
And there are a lot of people out there thinking
to themselves, of course, that's exactly what I would anticipate
the Pack twelve doing, is being unable to actually get
themselves able to play this game. And so anyway, that
is the absolute latest from that perspective. Now, there are
a bunch of different angles to talk about in the NFL,
(16:45):
and we have talked about a ton of them. We
talked about Brady versus Breeze to start the show. We
talked about how good Cam looked and how potentially dangerous
if he's healthy he could be for the Patriots. I
think a lot of new England Patriot fans had to
love what they saw from CAM. In Week one, we
talked about the Cowboys and the Rams game and just
how unbelievably amazing Sofi Stadium looked. I mean, it's ridiculous
(17:10):
to me that they can't let any fans in there.
You know, if you listen to this program regularly, I've
been paying and talking a lot of attention and paying
a lot of attention and talking a lot about the
coronavirus in general, cases are plummeting. We saw a lot
of different places with games, uh playing games in college
football that had crowds, and I think more and more
(17:30):
stadiums are gonna be opening up to crowds. And to me,
it's crazy that you couldn't put any guys in Sofi
Stadium at all. But that stadium looks absolutely incredible, I
mean just phenomenal. It looks everything around it looks amazing.
I mean, it is a work of art. And there
aren't very many stadiums that you can say that about.
(17:52):
But other storylines that jumped out at me, Okay, other
games in the NFL and things that that kind of
that kind of struck me as being particularly worthy of discussion.
How about Joe Burrow. Okay, Cincinnati Bengals lost that game
in epic Bengals fashion. You had a would be touchdown
(18:13):
pass a J Green gets called for extending his arms.
I thought there was a little bit of a flop
from the defender there. I think a lot of times
that call isn't made clear touchdown that would have presumably
won the Bengals the game. It's called past interference. They don't, then,
because of the penalty, even get to attempt another throw
(18:33):
into the end zone. They come out with seven seconds left,
line up for the field goal. Not only is the
thirty one yard field goals shanked, but also I don't
even know how badly the kicker was hurt, but the
kicker evidently pulled a muscle in his leg and immediately
was like kind of writhing around on the field, Uh,
(18:56):
in pain, hopping around I should probably stay instead of
writhing around. And so it felt like a typical Bengals game.
And you had a shot if you were watching this,
and I tried to watch every game, I was watching
a lot of red zone, they had a shot of
Joe Burrow, like, wait a minute, this didn't happen at
l s U. You know, guy just won fifteen games,
(19:16):
had one of the greatest seasons in college football history,
and his first start with the Bengals ends, and what
I would say is vintage Bengals fashion. So that was
I thought. Notwithstanding the result. I know the Chargers won
and they found a way to get the dub, but
to me, you had to be pretty encouraged with Joe Burrow.
If you're a Bengals fan, there is reason for optimism.
(19:40):
I thought he played very well for his first game.
I thought he showed significant awareness on that final two
minute drive. There weren't a lot of guys really that open,
but he seemed to see the field well. He was
incredibly accurate, He was seeing his throws, he was getting
rid of the ball rapidly. Uh. To me, it felt
like he showed a lot of reasons for for optimism
(20:01):
if you're a Bengals fan. But it ended in typical
Bengals fashion. And so did the Lions. I mean, my
wife is from Detroit. I had heard a lot about
Lions futility. But you had a Georgia connection that was
ready to be made. There. You had Matthew Stafford. First
of all, the Lions should have never been in the
(20:22):
position where they had to have a final drive to
win that game against the Bears. Mitch Drobiskie looked awful.
The Lions were in control. This is a stat that's
pretty wild. The Lions were just the fourth team since
two thousand and six to blow a seventeen plus point
lead entering the fourth quarter. Teams that were winning by
(20:44):
seventeen or more entering the fourth quarter were seven hundred
and seventy nine and three during that time span over
the last fourteen years, so ninety nine point six percent
of teams in the NF fell when with a seventeen
plus point lead. So there's no reason at all that
(21:06):
we needed The Lions should have been a position where
they needed to complete that pass. But DeAndre Swift has
to catch that pass. It was like he was catching
it thinking that he had another forty yards to run,
like he was trying to put the ball away and
all he needed to do was just be still, catch
(21:28):
the ball, go down, boom, you win the game. So
that drop. Yes, there were other errors that were made
by the Lions that put them in a position, but
the Bengals were the Bengals, and the Lions wore the Lions,
and yet both rookies I thought showed some reason for optimism.
But DeAndre Swift that was super tough to drop a
(21:50):
touchdown pass like he did. Right there other games that
stood out to me. Lamar Jackson still looked like Lamar Jackson,
and the Browns still looked like the Browns. They were
not good. I mean from the moment that they started.
I saw the stat dub you can, I think, look
this up in their last twenty openers, I think the
(22:13):
Browns are one eighteen and one against the spread, which
is one of the craziest stats I have ever seen.
Dub confirmed that that's true. But from a gambler perspective,
it's almost impossible for a team to be that bad.
I'm not talking about just losing. I'm talking about you
already know that the team is likely to be bad,
(22:36):
and they still are not able to have any success
at all. You know, I watched Baker Mayfield. I watched
the decent amount of this game, and you know, he
had a decent running support because he's got a great
duo behind him and Kareem Hunt and Nick Chubb. But
it seems like to me that Baker Mayfield thinks that
(22:57):
he is way more athletic than he is. If Baker
Mayfield is going to have success in the NFL, he's
gonna have to play like Drew Brees and he's not
gonna be able to play like a Russell Wilson type player.
And Russell Wilson, by the way, was still electric and
extraordinary and splendid. Does that make sense to some of
you guys out there who have watched Baker Mayfield play.
(23:19):
He needs to be a quick read guy getting rid
of the football, not trying to make plays moving around
in the pocket at all. He was awful, and Lamar
Jackson obviously was splendid. He was just continued what he'd
already done. It's even worse, Dub, What do you have
the data for me? There? One twenty and one in
(23:40):
Week one games against the spread? Just straight up I
couldn't spread. I think, okay, maybe I was getting the
spread confused, But one twenty and one in Week one
games in the last twenty two years for the Browns.
That's unbelievable. Here's the other things unbelievable. Remember all the
attention that went to Odell Beckham when he went to
(24:01):
the Browns. People are like, oh my god, O'Dell is
gonna be amazing. He's gonna be incredible. O'Dell said he
was in great shape and he was ready to dominate
three catches for twenty two yards. This dude is not
produced at all ever since he left the Giants. And
I don't know what the scenario is going to be
(24:24):
going forward, but that is a messy spot for him
to find himself in the Browns, Browns, the Bengals, Bengals,
and the Lions. Lions, three bad teams found ways to lose.
How about Kyler Murray. Let's talk about guys that we
were impressed by Kyler Murray ninety one yards rushing in
(24:44):
addition to his plays from the pocket. I still have
not sold on Jimmy g and the forty nine. If
you listen to the show last week, I said the Cardinals,
who were a seven point underdog in this game. I
think the NFC West is the best division in football.
I believe in the Seahawks. I believe even the forty
niner is a good team. And I also believe in
the Rams is a good team. Well, we got a
(25:05):
cardinal performance beating down the forty Niners, where you take
a step back and you think, hey, maybe the Cardinal
prediction that Clay Dravis made that the Cardinals were gonna
contend and potentially win that division at nine and seven
or ten and six with a lot of good teams. Now,
Russell Wilson was splendid, but that I think makes you
a little bit nervous if you're a forty Niner fan.
(25:27):
Jimmy Garoppolo couldn't make the plays necessary to find a
way to win. Kyler Murray did big time performance by
the Cardinals. Another big time performance Gardner Minshew and the Jags.
They outduel, They were the biggest underdog. A lot of
you involved in survivor pools. If you're not familiar with
what a survivor pool is, it's where you try to
pick the team that is most likely to win. A
(25:49):
lot of you out there we're saying, oh, you know what,
I believe in Gardner Menshew, uh and the Jags, and
they're gonna lose because they're taking for Trevor Lawrence. Well,
nobody told the whole team. Even though they traded a
a lot of talent, Philip Rivers, there was a lot
of reason for optimism, A lot of reason out there
for optimism with Philip Rivers, and this Colts team got
(26:10):
major injury. Now Marlon Mack, Philip Rivers didn't look that good.
Continued to look like Philip Rivers did at the Chargers,
and that's a bad loss. It's a bad division loss
to start the season. And you know, I know there
are a lot of people in Indianapolis not happy about
the performance. They're also not happy about their coach, Frank
Wright taking a knee, especially all over Indiana. If you're
(26:33):
gonna be the first coach to take a knee for
an NFL game, your team better go out and play
really well. We didn't see that at all. And then
I feel like we probably don't hype these guys enough.
But what also stood out to me was how good
was Russell Wilson and how incredibly good was Aaron Rodgers.
(26:54):
We know these guys are good, yet somehow I think
we continue to underrate them. It felt like the Seahawks
are starting to take the shackles off of Russell Wilson
and actually let him make plays. And I felt like
Aaron Rodgers was performing like he has a young quarterback
sitting behind him. Some of the throws that he made,
(27:15):
you were just like, man, those guys make throws that
no one else in the NFL can, right, I would
argue with you right now, even as they are not
youthful anymore in the league, that Russell Wilson and Aaron
Rodgers make throws that other NFL quarterbacks see and say,
my god, that was an unbelievable play, And that, standing alone,
(27:40):
is pretty incredible at their age and at the number
of years that they have been in the league. And
I'm not saying Russell Wilson's an old guy, but he's
been in the league for a while now and he
still has a couple of throws I feel like every
game where you take a step back and just say,
my god, how good is this dude? And by the way,
they're still an awful lot of fun to watch. All Right,
(28:01):
when we come back, all we talked all on the
field related stories, I want to tee off a little
bit with something off the field that I didn't think
it made any sense at all, And in particular, it
was the Baltimore Ravens. They stood for the Black National anthem.
Lift every voice in seeing the so called black national
(28:23):
anthem they kneeled for the United States national anthem. Wait
a minute, I thought that kneeling wasn't a sign of disrespect.
I'm gonna put these guys on blast when we return.
This is outkicked the coverage with Clay Traffics. Alright, there
(28:44):
are a couple of things. We talked a lot about
what we saw taking place in the NFL in terms
of on the field running through all of it, but
I told you I wanted to discuss the off the
field related incidents. Now. I hope that this is going
to disappear because I told you, if you listened on
Friday after the Thursday Night show, I told you that CBS, NBC, Fox,
(29:09):
and ESPN, because they lost hundreds of millions of dollars
during the Colin Kaepernick protest, that they basically had all
gotten together and said, hey, we are not going to
allow anything to distract from our ability to put on
football games, even during the coronavirus mess. Everything else, particular,
(29:32):
maybe particularly maybe even during the coronavirus mess, because all
of these companies are even more desperate to make money
on the NFL now than they have been in past years.
Because everybody, especially in the advertising business, that's relying upon
the advertising business has just been hemorrhage in cash. But
there was one particular decision to me that blew up
(29:54):
a lot of the rationale for all of the arguments
in favor of pro testing, and that was the Baltimore Ravens.
So they made the decision in the offseason that they
were going to play the so called black national anthem,
lift every voice and seen before the actual national anthem
(30:14):
at NFL games, and several different teams made the decision, Hey,
we're going to just stay in the locker room. We're
not gonna come out for either anthem, and that was,
for instance, the Miami Dolphins, and I thought the Miami Dolphins,
whether you agree or disagree with that decision, the Miami
Dolphins who got whipped by the way by the New
England Patriots who were all standing for the national anthem,
(30:36):
and CBS, if you're watching that broadcast yesterday, they were
cutting back and forth between the two guys, two teams,
one the Miami Dolphins standing in the locker room, the
other the New England Patriots standing on the sideline, most
of them with their hands on their hearts, getting ready
for the kickoff of the season. But the Miami Dolphins,
(30:57):
we played this for you on Friday A, I believe
it was, we played you their statement where they said, hey,
we don't want to be a distraction and we don't
want people looking at what we're doing during the back
black national anthem and comparing it to what we're doing
during the national anthem, so called black national anthem compared
to the national anthem. Uh. And so that to me
(31:20):
immediately set off, Well, this is gonna be interesting, right,
I was sitting around thinking about it before. What are
you gonna do if you have a team that stands
for the black national anthem and then they all kneel,
or a lot of them kneel for the national anthem,
That's not gonna make very much sense. Well, we did
have a team do it, and it was the Baltimore Ravens,
(31:42):
And in particular, to me, that blows up the argument
that you're not acknowledging that there is a form of
respect involved for the anthem, because if you are standing
for the black national anthem, which many almost all of
the Ravens did, I think two players knelt for it,
(32:05):
and then you are kneeling for the national anthem, itself,
which the majority of the Baltimore Ravens did. Then what
you are saying is we have respect for the Black
National Anthem, but we don't have respect for the national anthem.
And there is no way you can logically argue for
(32:27):
the difference of treatment between the two without going directly
to respect for the song itself. If you're gonna kneel
for the national anthem, then you should be kneeling for
the Black national anthem. There's no logic here for the
Baltimore Ravens other than to argue they're intentionally choosing to
(32:51):
disrespect the United States national anthem, and that is, I believe,
a really bad look for the Baltimore Ravens. Now, hopefully
for the Baltimore Ravens case, the media stops covering it,
all of the protests surrounding the national Anthem and everything else,
because it's become a carnival side show of ridiculousness and
(33:15):
it's actually not having any impact at all. In fact,
if you saw the video of a man in Compton, California,
walking right up and shooting to l A police officers,
you can argue that all these athletes protesting are actually
having the exact opposite impact. They are making it more
(33:36):
dangerous for police, and they are more making it more
dangerous for suspects. Neither side treats each other with very
much trust, because if you're a police officer, you anticipate
that you might be a victim at any point in time,
and if you you're a suspect, you anticipate that you
might be a victim at any point in time as well.
(33:58):
And so that's why I could argue, I think legitimately
that all of these protests have led to many more
police officers being shot and killed, and many more people
in general in the cities being shot and killed as well,
because shootings have skyrocketed since the George Floyd protests began,
and so have murders and all the major cities in
(34:20):
America because police are afraid to do their job. And
when police are afraid to do your job, people in
inner city neighborhoods become even more likely to be victims
of violent crime. And so honestly, if people were looking
at the data and making legitimate arguments based on the data,
(34:41):
they would be saying what athletes are doing with sports
is putting everybody more danger And I don't know why.
More I know, I know why people in my industry
won't say it because they're afraid of the media mob
coming after them. Oh my god, how dare you criticize
athletes who are using their platform to make statements that
are so important? Actually, it's a strong argument that the
(35:04):
statements that athletes are making are actually creating more divisiveness
in this country and leading to more death and more
murder and more violence. And certainly you can argue it
if you saw the reaction to the police officer shootings
in l A. I hope those officers are gonna be okay.
It sounds like they are the most recent updates that
(35:26):
I have seen. But both of them are still hospitalized
and they did absolutely nothing. They were ambushed while sitting
in their police cruiser by someone that I hope they
catch in the Compton section of l A. But to me,
this should be a big story and athletes should have
(35:47):
to answer the question. For the Baltimore Ravens, why did
you decide to stand for lift Every Voice in seeing
the Black national anthem and then nil for the United
States National Anthem? Because by acting and behaving in a
manner that's different for those two songs, you are choosing,
in my opinion, to respect one and disrespect the other. Otherwise,
(36:12):
your behavior during both of those songs should be the
exact same. And I think that's why the Miami Dolphins,
I don't think it. It's what they said. That's why
they chose not to come out for both songs, because
they didn't want to create that difference of behavior. And
people say, well, they're not disrespecting the anthem by choosing
to kneel, Well, then why did they choose to stand
(36:33):
for the other anthem? There's no logic to the argument there.
It is, I think a really bad look for the NFL,
a really bad look for the Baltimore Ravens, and a
really bad look for anyone who is trying to justify
the decision being different for both of them. If you
decide to kneel for all the songs, all right, I
(36:55):
understand that that's your perspective, that your prerogative, but making
a decision to stand for one and neil for the
other doesn't make any sense at all. All right, when
we come back, Joel clad is going to join us.
An hour two, we had a lot of college football
games played and I'm gonna give you the absolute latest
on what I am hearing about the Big Ten, and
(37:15):
I'll give you a tease. It involves the Big Ten
being able to come back and play college football this
season and potentially, if things go well, contend for a
spot in the college football playoff. I've been fighting hard
for you for it. I'll tell you what that the
latest is when we come back. Be sure to catch
live editions about Kicked the coverage with Clay Travis week
(37:35):
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