Wild Card Ready

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'll kicked the coverage with Clay Travis live every weekday
morning from six to nine a m. E Stern three
to six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your
local station for OutKick the coverage at Fox sports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every morning on the
I Heart Radio app by searching fs are you're listening

(00:22):
to Fox Sports Radio. Welcome in podcast listeners. I am
bleary eyed to and still ecstatic over Tennessee finding a
way to come back from an incredible and improbable deficit
five minutes to go oh and four hundred and seventy one.
This year, when a team has been down by thirteen
or more with five minutes to go in the balls

(00:44):
found a way to do it. We'll talk about it. Also,
NFL Wildcard Week, the Cowboys are moving on from Jason
Garrett will be joined by Chris Mannox and the Tennessee
fan who went viral wearing a tight jersey and uh
yelling at his team just before the comeback began. All
that still to come. I hope you guys are having

(01:04):
a fantastic Friday. Thanks for hanging with us early in
the podcast begins. Now, Welcome in. It's the wild card
edition of Out kicked the coverage tomorrow and Sunday for
different NFL games as we officially began the playoffs. But
first incredible start there with an incredible sneeze a thirty

(01:25):
seconds into the show, I am on fire here UH.
Late night big win UH for Tennessee against Indiana. We
will get to that in a little while, as it
was the best sporting event of the day. But first,
the biggest news is that it appears the Dallas Cowboys
are finally moving on from Jason Garrett. Reports out of

(01:47):
a variety of different sources, primarily honestly Edward Er and
Adam Schefter. About fifteen minutes ago, Adam Schefter posted an
article on ESPN saying that let me read you some
of the details from UH that meeting in terms of
what's going on, But essentially, the Cowboys didn't have their

(02:08):
third meeting with Jason Garrett, and as a result, UH,
it appears that the Cowboys have made the decision to
move on without Without Jason Garrett, they will begin their
their pursuit of a new head coach. Basically now again
the headline that went up, let's see just a few

(02:30):
minutes ago, UH Cowboys to move on without Jason Garrett
and as a result, who were they going to hire?
This is the first hire UH first coaching search since
two thousand and seven UH, and this will be incredibly
interesting to see what the Dallas Cowboys do and who

(02:50):
Jerry Jones ends up selecting some names that have already
been attached. In some for more fashion to the Dallas
Cowboy coaching search, you can go with Urban Meyer, Lincoln Riley,
Matt Rule all College. I would put Dan Mullen on
a dark horse candidate list for the Dallas Cowboys. I

(03:11):
would also add Greg Roman Um. I just I think
there are a lot of different directions that the Dallas
Cowboys can go. And we will bring in the crew
here in a little while and play who would you
hire UM to try to figure out who the best
possible UH selection for the Dallas Cowboys could be UH

(03:33):
in UH in this decision going forward with I mean, frankly,
a lot at stake. MARII Cooper's contract is up, Dak
Prescott's contract is up. The trajectory of the Dallas Cowboys
likely to change. There are a lot of high end
talent UH that are on the Dallas Cowboys that have
been able to basically get their deals done because Dak

(03:54):
Prescott hasn't cost anything. Well, now that Prescott's gonna cost
twenty five or thirty million dollars, what do you do
going forward? It is a very intriguing question for the
Cowboys to try to figure out what makes the most
sense for them. This is also kind of search that
could make a tremendous difference in terms of somebody gets

(04:16):
hired at a high level job. Let's just say it's
a Lincoln Riley type candidate or Dan Mullen, then that
job is going to open up as well, which leaves
to a lot of different possibilities going forward in both
college and the NFL. I'm gonna die here evidently because
I'm falling victim to a sneezing fit, and man, this

(04:37):
is what happens when you stay up and sleep like
three hours and you're celebrating your team's win. So we're
gonna talk about the Dallas Cowboys, assuming that I can
survive and actually managed to breathe here to to start
the show. And as if that were not enough, big
game last night with the with the Tennessee Volunteers going
up against the Indiana Hoosiers, and a lot of you

(04:57):
may have gone to sleep before this thing was over
because looked like we were gonna get a total beat down.
But instead Tennessee found a way to win this football game.
And it's an improbable victory. I even feel a little
bit bad for Indiana football fans because it was such
an improbable victory. In fact, let me hit you with

(05:18):
this stat which is kind of a mind blowing stat
to be honest, so far this year in UH in
games in college football, if someone had a if someone
had a lead of thirteen points or more with five
minutes to go, there was a zero and four hundred

(05:41):
and sixty seven winning percentage and then boom, out of nowhere.
I think we've got a couple of plays. There's a
hand off the crouch and he's in ind of the
checker boards here in Jacksonville, and Tennessee gets its first
touchdown on the night. I'm v on on tiers have
cut it to seven. I'm gonna hand off the Gray's
got a big hole on the outside. Down of large

(06:01):
touchdowns title, says Eric Crayer, right down the middle of
the field. Courtesy of Blair Field. I M. G right
there on the call. There were all kinds of Twitter
trolls with their fingers on the keyboard waiting to get
at Clay, because, in fact, I saw a couple of
tweets that said, has anyone checked on Clay Travis? Is

(06:22):
he okay? Is he in his basement in his valls
jammies crying? And then Clay got the last laugh there.
I think I'm gonna die with all these sneezes. I
think in my entire history of doing the show, I've
never sneezed more than like once, and I just sneezed
like nine times to open the show. This is Uh,
I don't I don't know what happened. I hope, I

(06:42):
hope that I've managed to defeat the sneezing. But so
this was a crazy This is a crazy win. Uh.
There was absolutely no way that Tennessee should have been
able to find a way to win this football game.
I feel bad for Indiana people in many respects because
this is what Indiana football does. They snatch defeat from

(07:03):
the jaws of victory, and they have done it over
and over and over again. But even for Indiana, this
was improbable and a utter collapse for people who were
watching this game last night, there was just no way
that this should have happened. Uh, they were in phenomenal shape.
They let Tennessee come down the field and score with

(07:24):
about four minutes to go. But then the play that
really won the game for Tennessee was Indiana wasn't in
their on side's kicksafe defense and Tennessee, with three time
outs left in about four minutes and twenty seconds to go,
took an incredible risk and kicked the ball on site kick.
But it wasn't really a huge risk because it's a

(07:46):
perfect kick, but Indiana was not prepared to to stop
that from happening. And Tennessee gets the ball, scores and
two touchdowns in thirty seconds and then survives some some
late why oldn And it's a pretty incredible story for
Jeremy Pruitt's Tennessee team. I don't know what the future

(08:07):
will hold, but this team started one and four and
then found a way to win seven out of eight
down the stretch to get to eight and five. And Uh,
Indiana I believe has not won a college football games
uh in the bowls since so this was a pretty
crushing defeat. They've never This is an unbelievable stat. I

(08:29):
couldn't believe this when I saw it. They never even
played in a Friday uh sorry, in a Florida Bowl game,
which is crazy to think about as a program. All
of the years that they have played football in Indiana,
they had never played in a Friday Bowl game before
they finally did, and they just didn't quite have enough

(08:52):
to get the win. I mean, you guys were watching
let me bring in the crew and you were just
talking about it, Danny G. But I mean, this was
an improbable win. Bowl season often times has some crazy results,
but for Tennessee to come back from thirteen down again,
the stat I believe is teams that were down by
thirteen or more with five minutes to play or less

(09:12):
were oh and four hundred and sixty seven on the
year prior to Tennessee finding a way to win this
football game. So they made it one and four hundred
and seventy one. Sorry, the data oh and four hundred
and seventy one. That is just I mean, it's it's
it's an improbable stat and unbelievable stat. Would you stay

(09:35):
and keep watching because I've met a lot of people
turn this off. And just said, screw it, I'll go
to bed and get ready for wild Card weekend. Now,
I was watching and Uh on that sixteen yard breakaway
run by Gray, I was imagining you jumping up and
down like a little kid, if that's accurate. I did
a periscope right after. I mean I was I was
kind of just utterly in shock. I mean that the

(09:56):
the onside kick was such a huge play that that
that in and of itself was was the difference maker
I think, but there there was really I mean, it's
it's crazy that Tennessee found a way to win. But yeah,
that's exactly what I was doing. Dub. Are you still
uh in shock over the way this game ended? Well,
I am a little bit in shock, and I'm just
trying to picture what you were like on Indiana's final

(10:18):
drive when Tennessee's defense was playing that soft coverage and
almost let Indiana get back into field goal range, but
they ended up making a big stop on fourth down. Yeah.
I was fired up because the clock management on the
final possession for Tennessee before they punted it back was
so bad. I mean, they ended up leaving about thirty

(10:39):
five or forty seconds probably on the clock that they
could have run off if they had been more judicious
in the way that they that they chose to to
to use the time. I mean, uh, Tennessee put two
different guys in the wildcat. Now. I think part of
that was because Jared Garantino has had issues with his
hand and it's hard for him to hand off. But
they snapped the ball with like ten seconds left both times,

(11:02):
and then they had a penalty that stopped the clock
from running as well, so I was convinced they were
gonna blow it. In credit to Jeremy Pruitt on defense,
after allowing a couple of big pass plays for Indiana
to get way down the field and be in really
good shape, they brought some heat on the next four
plays and got to got the got the stop on

(11:23):
fourth down and ten. But yeah, I I mean, I
think Pruitt they they hit the big tight end over
the middle to start and then got an easy out
of bounds pass, and uh, it looked like Indiana was
gonna get another field goal opportunity and in the Tennessee
defense stiffened. I don't know what the long range impact
of all these different Bowl games are. I do know

(11:43):
that we've kind of established that the SEC is substantially
better than the Big twelve. But outside of that, I'm
not sure how much you learn from you know, nine
exhibitions where some of the games matter a great deal
and and others don't. But this is uh, I think

(12:04):
something worth paying attention to, uh coming down, coming down
the line to see exactly what ends up happening. But
that in and of itself was was pretty pretty wild
to watch, and you were watching, I mean that the
clock management was also pretty infuriating. There for a minute,
it looked like Tennessee was gonna give Indiana another chance

(12:24):
for a field goal. Yeah, the clock management didn't make
a whole lot of sense to me. And then you
mentioned it earlier, the penalty on fourth down when it
was fourth and about I don't know, maybe half or
a quarter of a yard. Did you think they were
gonna go for that right there? Do you think they
should have gone for that if it was fourth and
a half yard? Because they did give a great spot
for Tennessee, and then they ended up reviewing it and
he was a little bit short of that first down

(12:45):
towards the end of the game. Yeah, you know what,
I thought that there was a good chance that that
they would just line up and try to draw them
off sides, which is what they were trying to do,
and then take a time out with one second left
before they punted. Um, it is a good question whether
or not you go fourth there. I probably would have punted,
because if you don't get it, then you're they're already

(13:06):
in field goal range. It's it's an excellent question, and
I was sitting there trying to make the decision about
what was the appropriate choice there. But I think you
probably punt because if they had run the clock down,
there would have been around forty five or forty seconds
left with no time left, uh, no time outs left,
and so it would have taken a pretty big collapse.

(13:27):
Although it would have been a really tough decision, and
I would have been intrigued to see what the what
Tennessee would have decided to do. What about you, Eddie?
Were you watching areg bail? I was? I was out
to dinner. Oh yeah, thanks, thanks for staying committed to
the world of sports, making sure you don't miss anything.
How was your dinner? Was excellent? Thank you? Yeah, well
I'm glad. Uh what about your Berto? Were you watching? No?

(13:49):
I was watching that crazy documentary on Netflix, Don't f
with Cats. I don't even know what that is. It's
good to see that everybody's committed to make sure that
they don't miss any big sports story. So it's an
exhibition game. I appreciate the two of you, by the way,
the numbers, if you were out there and you're paying
attention to how teams are doing in UH in the postseason.
So far in the bowl games, UH, it appears the

(14:12):
SEC has won the Conference Challenge UH Tennessee. UH. With
the win got the SEC to seven and two, Mountain
West Conference four into Pack twelve four and three, the
American Athletic Conference three and three, Big ten four and five,
uh A c C four and six, and the woefull

(14:33):
Big twelve one in five. That's effectively it for the
bowl games. I know there are some small teams that
still have games to be played, but that in and
of itself is UH is pretty much it until we
come to January and wait and see how l s
U does against Clemson. All right, when we come back,
we're gonna dive back into this Jason Garrett story. Who

(14:56):
would you hire if you were the Dallas Cowboys? We
will discuss that and more. This is outkicked the coverage
with Clay Travis. I am sure there will be quite
a bit of twists and turns in this Dallas Cowboy
coaching search, because the Dallas Cowboys no drama better than

(15:16):
almost anybody. Whether you love or hate Jerry Jones, He's
pretty damn entertaining, and so I would imagine there will
be leaks, there will be uncertainty, there will be a
lot of different moving parts to this coaching search. But
to me, ultimately the decision you have to make is

(15:36):
who is the absolute best coach that you could hire
for Dak Prescott. I mean, I think that is the
decision that the Cowboys have to make more than anything else. Yes,
it matters what kind of defense you're gonna run, Yes,
it matters what kind of overall team, uh sort of
trajectory you are going to set, and all of those

(15:59):
factors are substantial, But by far, to me, the most
important question is who is the best coach you can
hire to impact Dak Prescott the most positively going forward,
because that's the biggest question the Cowboys have. Quarterbacks make
coaches more than coaches make quarterbacks. That is my general belief.

(16:22):
And so with Dak Prescott's contract officially done, you have
to make a decision. Are we going to franchise him?
Are we gonna try to sign him to a to
to to what kind of deal are the Cowboys gonna commit?
They also have to make a decision, by the way,
about a Marii Cooper. And to me, the guy you
could get that would be the most guaranteed to to

(16:46):
to be successful with Dak Prescott, to me is Greg Roman.
Now that is the offensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens.
I don't know whether he wants to get the bright spotlight.
I don't know whether he shrinks in relation to Jerry Jones,
who obviously occupies a big, a big part of the

(17:07):
overall attention UH in the Dallas Cowboy universe. I'm not
sure whether he fits very well from a culture standpoint,
with all of the all the bright lights that come
to bear on a Dallas Cowboy coach. But I think
if you look at what he did with Tyrod Taylor,
if you look at what he did with Colin Kaepernick,

(17:28):
and if you look at what he did for Lamar Jackson,
I don't believe there's anybody who could design a better
offense for Dak Prescott, van what could happen with Greg Roman. Now,
if you're not convinced that you want to go the
coordinator route and you think, hey, maybe we could go college.
I am probably the most intrigued by Lincoln Riley because

(17:52):
I think you could go pay Lincoln Riley ten million
dollars a year. If you look at the last three
years in college football he did with Baker Mayfield, what
he did with Kyler Murray, and what he did with
Jalen Hurts, I think there is an awful lot of
reason for optimism with what Lincoln Riley could do with
uh with Dak Prescott. Now, a little bit of nervousness

(18:15):
I would have about hiring a college guy and bringing
him to the pros. I know Cliff Kingsbury did pretty good,
and I know there's more of a meld going on
right now between offensive and defensive systems. For a long time,
NFL head coaches would say, oh, that stuff they're doing
in college doesn't work. And now they have gone out
and proven that, oh, by the way, it does work.

(18:37):
And everybody wants their own version of Sean McVeigh and
I believe that Lincoln Riley would be that version for
the Dallas Cowboys. Additional wild card that I would put
out there that I think could make a that I
think could make a lot of sense is Dan Mullen.
I'm also intrigued to see whether the Cowboys make any

(18:58):
kind of run at Urban Meyer. There were some reports
that maybe the Cleveland Browns were interested in Urban Meyer.
Jimmy Haslim kind of shot those down in his press conference,
but I gave you a bunch of names there, at
least four or five that I think could make a
lot of sense. If you want to stay in the NFL,
I think Greg Roman is probably the best choice you

(19:19):
could make. Although look, Mike McCarthy had a tremendous amount
of success in the NFL. He's not a very risky higher,
but a guy who's just found a way to make
everybody work at the quarterback position. And I think that's
the most important choice in the NFL is Greg Roman.
Uh in college, I would say Lincoln Riley, just based
on what he's done the last three years, is about

(19:40):
as well as you could do. Be sure to catch
live editions about kick the Coverage with Clay Travis week
days at six am Eastern, three am Pacific. All Right,
who do you hire? Who do you hire? Danny g
I said in the NFL. I like Greg Roman, the
offensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens. My trepidation there is
I don't really know much about Greg Roman. I love

(20:01):
what he's been able to accomplish, the offense that he
designed for Lamar Jackson. He had a lot of success
with Tyrod Taylor and certainly with Colin Kaepernick back in
the day. Your concern, I would say, more than anything else,
is just how will he handle in the bright lights
all of the attention that comes with being the Dallas

(20:22):
Cowboy head coach. Nobody really knows in a situation like that.
I do believe that many of the college names that
have been mentioned, whether it's Lincoln Riley, whether it's Urban Meyer,
Dan Mullen as a dark horse candidate, all of those
guys are more used to the attention. Uh. The Dallas
Cowboy attention is a different level, and I do believe
that Jason Garrett and his ability to handle that is

(20:44):
relatively rare. There's so much noise, there's so much talk
that comes out of your owner. Jerry Jones, There isn't
really an easy comparison to what it's like to suddenly
step into the Dallas Cowboy coaching job, even if you've
had a big game, a big job before. So that
makes me a little bit nervous. It's not just about
the xs and os, it's about the fit. It's about

(21:06):
your ability to handle the media onslaught that comes with
being the cowboy coach. Having said that again, Greg Roman
would be my choice coming out of the NFL. My
choice in college football probably Lincoln Riley based on the
next three years, uh the past three years of what
he's done with Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts.

(21:28):
I would also point out for everybody out there's an
Oklahoma fan saying why would he leave? If Lincoln Riley leaves,
or frankly, if Dan mullen leaves, or any of the
young ish college football coaches were to make the decision
to go down to Dallas, they don't hurt themselves at
all because even if they don't succeed in the NFL,
and I think there's a good chance those guys would
succeed on some level, you can still go back to

(21:51):
college and make eight or nine or ten million dollars
a year because you would be the most sought after candidate. Imaginable.
Look at what happened with Chip Kelly and after he
didn't do particularly well in the NFL, even after his
ten years with the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco
forty Niners, there was still a ton of it of
college teams that were begging for him to come back

(22:12):
to college. So even if you leave in your Lincoln
Riley or you are Dan Mullen, for instance, and it
doesn't work out for you uh in the NFL, there
will still be a ton of college teams that would
be lined up and ecstatic to bring you back. So
you really can't lose if you leave and go to
the NFL. So, Danny g who would you take? Who

(22:33):
would you hire if you were Jerry Jones? Well, I
like the list of names you have. Their Urban Meyer,
Lincoln Riley, Dan Mullen, Deck's college coach make a lot
of sense. Let me give you a couple of long shots.
The name that came to my mind when you're talking
about college coaches. You're Jerry Jones. You don't have much
time left on this planet. Why not shoot for the moon.
How about Dabbo Swinning because I mean he's obviously going

(22:54):
for his third championship next week. Yeah, I think the
question would be, and I mean it is a wild,
wild idea. The question is is he is he an
XS and those guy? Right? I mean, I think Davo
has done a phenomenal job of being a great head coach,
but he's never been a coordinator. So and remember when

(23:16):
he was hired. I believe he was the wide receiver
coach at Clemson and uh and a lot of people
weren't unhappy with that higher because he wasn't a sexy
name before he got things rolling at Clemson. So I
would say that's my that would be my one last
long shot for me. Because I saw this on a
Cowboys blog and you gotta love bloggers. How about Bill Belichick? Yeah,

(23:37):
I mean you're talking to ultimate XS and those guys?
What is he sixty seven? Um? It could be a
new challenge to energize him. Is his deal up? I
have to check his h A lot of people don't.
That's the only thing A lot of people don't understand
because they think about it from a college perspective. In
college there are no contract restrictions. So tomorrow morning, if

(23:58):
he wanted to, Nick Saban could leave and take over.
If Auburn fired Gus miles On, he could be the
next head coach of Auburn. You can't do that in
the NFL when you're a head coach because your contract
is unless somebody UH makes a trade to get out
of a contract, like we've seen a few times, but
most significantly probably back in the day when John Gruden

(24:21):
got traded from the Oakland Raiders to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
It's relatively rare that head coaches get traded, so the
contracts actually have to stand for something in the NFL.
And I know that Bill Belichick's contract there were rumors
that it was coming up in the near future, but
I can't remember if he signed an extension. And also
they keep that stuff pretty buttoned up with the New

(24:43):
England Patriots in terms of what going forward is UH
is the you know, contract status. There's been a lot
of talk about the fact that Bell Belichick initially said
he wanted to retire and now it seems like he's
much more interested in coaching potentially into his seventies, and
the Brady Belichick era. We're gonna talk a lot about

(25:04):
the wild card weekend coming up, uh as we go
ahead in the show, But there certainly has been a
lot of talk about the Brady Belichick era and when
that might end. I just it's hard to go hire
another head coach in the NFL unless you're the Washington
Redskins and you're hiring somebody like Ron Rivera who just
got fired and uh and doesn't have a contract going forward.

(25:27):
But it's hard to hire somebody who is under existing
contract in the NFL, which is why typically you have
to go coordinator or you have to go with a
guy who's already been fired in order to hire a
head coach in the NFL. What about you, dub where
would you go? I mean, to me, it's Lincoln Riley
for the Cowboys, because, like you said, they need a
coach with an offensive mind to make Dak Prescott as

(25:50):
good as he can possibly be. And these NFL coaching jobs,
I mean, they're not part of the salary cap. And
Jerry Jones, as we all know, has more money than
he knows what to do with. I don't know why
he doesn't identify who he wants and just pay him
twelve to fifteen million dollars a year because he definitely
can afford that. And if he finds somebody that he's
in love with and he wants to run this team,

(26:12):
I think that's the way he should go about it,
so as to make it to where it's just impossible
for that person to say no to that deal. This
is a Clay Travis dump truck of cash theory that
I've been making for an argument for a long time.
If you have enough money, and Jerry Jones has more
money than he knows what to do with, identify your
candidate and don't allow him to say no. Everybody has

(26:34):
a price at some dollar figure, even if you have
to play pay a wildly out of whack price. Jerry Jones,
I believe is seventy eight years old, if I'm not mistaken,
And yes, he still seems like he's in pretty decent shape.
But let's say that he believes he's got seven or
eight years of being pretty on the ball as a

(26:56):
as a Dallas cowboy owner. What's gonna take that money
with him? I mean, he's worth billions of dollars. How
much is it worth Jerry Jones to be able to
win another Super Bowl before he's no longer in charge
of the Dallas Cowboys or frankly before he dies. At
this point in time, I think Jerry Jones has to
want that more than anything, and so why not spend

(27:18):
whatever it takes to get the best possible candidate on
what could be the final head coaching higher of your life.
If you're Jerry Jones, I think you're right. I don't
think you can let dollars be an issue here at all. Uh,
Eddie Garcia, who would you pick? I would go with
Matt Rule. Um, okay, I didn't even mention Matt Rule.
But yeah, he's evidently by the way down in Mexico

(27:39):
and tried to get away from the Baylor job right
after the loss in the Sugar Bowl. Yeah, he's obviously
a guy that Cowboys fans would be familiar with. He
does have some NFL experience, just one year with the
New York Giants, but you know, it's it's something it's
not gonna be completely foreigned him to go into the
pro level. Obviously has turned around programs at pulland Baylor,

(28:00):
and especially at Baylor in some tough situations, and while uh,
you know, Danny g brought up Dabbo, who seems to
me like a college coach. Yeah. I've heard that Matt
Rule is a pro coach, coaching in college, for what
that's worth. So, and he's apparently the top choice of
the New York Giants, So if you could get him,
you'd also be taking him away from a division opponents. Yeah.
Reports are that he's gonna interview with the Giants and

(28:23):
with the Carolina Panthers, both of whom Knew need new
uh a new head coach in the wake of firing
their existing coaches and UH, and now with the Browns
and the Dallas Cowboys. I believe I'm correct, there's four
head coaching openings. Uh. We've got Carolina, We've got New York,
We've got Cleveland, and we've got the Dallas Cowboys. I
think I'm correcting that that's the only four head coaching

(28:44):
openings right now in the NFL. So, so it will
be a little bit of a race between those four
teams because many of them will be interviewing the same
caliber or even individuals to see who they can persuade
to come take their job. And at least reportedly, Matt
Rule has, for instance, already turned down the opportunity to
interview with Cleveland Browns because he dislikes the situation there

(29:07):
and doesn't believe that there's very much to to gain.
Let's see what my buddy Lance Taylor says a lot
of times he joins us on Friday. He's gonna join
us next. This is OutKick on Fox Sports Radio. This
is Outkicked. The coverage with Clay Travits my guy Lance
Taylor at five at jocks Down in Birmingham at the Lands.

(29:31):
Taylor on Twitter, uh LT. We've been talking a lot
about Tennessee's miraculous comeback and also the Dallas Cowboy coaching
sirch Let's start with the Cowboys. Who would you hire?
I mean, if I could get him, I go Lincoln Riley.
He's thirty six years old. I know it's not the
best look coming up the complete skull dragging the l
s U in the semifinals, but the guy knows offense.

(29:53):
You get the right defensive coordinator to pair him with.
I think it would be a slam doc. He loves
obviously that order mzation. He grew up a Cowboys fan.
I don't think it's highly likely he would take that job.
But if I could get him, might go get him?
Don't you have to just pay whatever it takes if
you're Jerry Jones? Sorry, why not? I mean Jerry Jones
is I mean he sees the light at the end

(30:14):
of the tunnel. I mean there's not much time left,
not much meat on the bone. As we're talking about
the Dallas Cowboy coaching search, reports are if you're just
waking up that officially the Dallas Cowboys are moving on
from Jason Garrett and as a result, what direction are
they going to go? How long will the search take?
It's been since two thousand seven since that search has

(30:35):
been going on, uh, since the Cowboys have had a
full and open search to go get a new coach.
Jason Garrett has been there a long time, so there's
a lot of uncertainty about which direction exactly the Dallas
Cowboys are gonna go. So Lincoln Riley and pay whatever
you basically have to if he's at least somewhat interested.
LT Yeah, I would go fifteen million dollars. Why not

(30:55):
set a record and an all time Hey, we're showing
the commitment. Um, you know, we've got enough talent on
this team. I mean, when you start to break down
the Dallas roster, You've got the highest paid running back
and Zeke Elliott's Um, you've got still one of the
best offensive lines out there. Dak Prescott's about to get paid. Um.
You've got fifteen players on the roster who have been
selected to the Pro Bowl. That's the most in the NFL.

(31:17):
You've got a lot of talent there. Yeah, I don't
think there's any doubt at all, all right, So that's
your pick, Dallas Cowboy. You think Dan Mullen gets a
look at all, I don't know. I mean, look, Dan
Mullins obviously a really good coach, and he's got a
really good relationship with Dak Prescott. So I mean there
there are worse choices out there, all right. So wild
Card weekend, four games to tomorrow to on Sunday. Which

(31:38):
do you like the most? From a gambling perspective. I
like to Tennessee Titans tomorrow. I mean there are two
games that I really like, and in both of the
later games on Saturday and Sunday, but I like Titans
in the momentum and you watch New England and coming
up that loss in a game that they had to
win to avoid this weekend against the Miami to offense,
and they couldn't get it done. And Tom Brady just
doesn't look like Tom Brady. And this is amazing to say.

(32:00):
And I think you would agree, and I think most
people that watch the NFL right now, I would agree
Ryan Tannehill is a better quarterback than Tom Brady. Right now,
I think the Titans are better top to bottom. I mean,
if you're if you're betting Patriots, you're betting based on history,
not based on current team. Look, and you and I
have been in this position before when we saw it
last year, and look, and I was fortunate enough to
back the Patriots in that Chargers game, but you know,

(32:22):
they were almost in the same situation where the Chargers
coming in where everybody believed, you know, it was kind
of the end of the Patriots. And the Patriots go
out and they make a statement, they run the Charges
out the field, ultimately on the way to winning Super
Bowl fifty three. It just seems a lot different this year.
New England doesn't have the weapons, and I think Derrick
Henry is a guy that can take this game over.
I also think that not having the week off for

(32:43):
an aging team. I think Julian Edelman's got major issues
with his injury. I don't think Brady is. I think
that matters a lot. I mean, they played on Sunday,
lost at home, and then they have to turn around
and play again on Saturday. Titans are the younger, hungry
your team. I do think that the aura and miss
seek of the Patriots could overwhelm the Titans, as it's
happened for many other teams as well, but purely if

(33:06):
you look at talent, Titans have the best passer and
the best rusher in the NFL. This Patriot defense is fading.
I like the Titans to go and win. What's your
other game? Philadelphia Eagles? I like the Eagles, Um, I
think they played well over the last couple of weeks. UM.
Russell Wilson in his postseason career only one in five
on the road, another seven and one on the road
this year. But I like Philadelphia plus the two here?

(33:29):
All right? So did you stay up and watch the
entirety of the Tennessee game against against the Indiana Hoosiers?
Ad you turn it off? Well? When Guarantino threw the
pick six and Indiana took that what twenty two to
seven lead to six lead, um lead. I thought it
was over, so I kind of shut it down. And uh,

(33:50):
I mean, congratulations to your two year of all six
consecutive wins and scoring. I don't know if you saw
this number pretty amazing, but teams FPS teams were oh
and four hundred and seventy one this season. When telling
me about thirteen or more points in the final five
minutes of the fourth quarter, yeah, only look at Tennessee
laying down the statement only Indiana. You're right, only Indiana

(34:10):
could pull that off. So as we go into a
wild card to weekend, do you feel any do you
have any other strong lean on the Bills against the
Texans or the or the other game that's going on
the Vikings and the Saints. Well, I just don't know
what we're gonna get with Josh Allen on the road
in the postseason. And you know how healthy is Will
Fuller for the Houston Texans book. I believe, I believe

(34:33):
the Saints are going to win the game. Are they
going to cover? It depends on Kirk Cousins. You know,
do we get bad Kirk Cousins, which is awful, or
do we get kirk Cousins that we saw the middle
of two thousand and nineteen, who was pretty good. So
if kirk Cousins doesn't make mistakes in Dublin, Cook is
a hundred percent healthy. I think Minnesota could make this
game interesting. Um, I think New Orleans wins, but if
I'm catching seven and a half or eight, I'll probably
take the vikings. All right, last question for you, appreciate

(34:55):
you coming on with us to what's he doing? He's
gonna announce on Monday. You're down in Birmingham, story all
over the state of Alabama. What is two we're gonna do?
What would you set the odds are? What do you expect? Yeah,
two weeks ago to say there's no chance he's coming back,
and what I'm hearing now is they're working out this
insurance policy today and I think he's coming back. I mean,
it's pretty amazing. You know. If i'm advising too, I'm
telling him to come out because I think he slips

(35:17):
no further than Miami at number five, and I don't
think he's gonna be much higher next year because Trevor
Lawrence is gonna be your number one overall guy. So
if I'm telling to uh if I'm advising, I'm telling
him come out, go to the NFL, take your money.
But I think he's coming back to Alabama. I agree
with everything you just said. LT. Good stuff is always Mane.
That's at the Atlanta Taylor Jocks down in Birmingham. We

(35:38):
come back diving back into the Dallas Cowboy coaching search,
the wild card weekend in the NFL and Tennessee's improbable
victory over Indiana. Uh oh and four hundred and seventy
one for teams that were down thirteen or more with
five minutes or less to play, and Tennessee comes surging back.

(35:58):
We'll discuss all of that and more. Plus we're scheduled
to be joined by Chris Mannox talk about the impact
of David Stern as we roll into the weekend in
the wake of him dying at seventy seven years old
a couple of days ago. All that still to come.
Appreciate you spending your Friday with us. Happy New Year
in on out Kick on Fox Sports Radio. Be sure
to catch live editions about Kick the Coverage with Clay

(36:20):
Travis week days at six am Eastern three am Pacific.
Last night, biggest sporting event of the evening Tennessee going
up against Indiana in the Gator Bowl. If you fell
asleep before this one was over and you're just waking
up now, maybe a bit of a surprise. Teams that
had been down by thirteen or more points with five

(36:41):
minutes to play or less. We're oh and four hundred
and seventy one so far this year. We'll make it
one and four hundred and seventy one. This is what
it sounded like in the last four and a half minutes.
There's a hand off the crouch and he's in in
the checker bars here in Jacksonville, and Tennessee gets its
first touchdown on the night. Come on, volunteers have cut

(37:04):
it to seven. They're gonna hand off the grains. Got
a big hoole other outside down to the Fox Tell
tegn large touchdown tenle, says Eric Prayer, right down the
middle of the field. That's the Tennessee Radio network. Last
big game I would say of bowl season. I know
there are a couple more bowl games, but last big
major conference bowl game of the year with l s

(37:27):
U and Clemson still to come in the National Title Game,
but the last bowl game of the year, the Gator Bowl. UH.
The results are in for all of the different teams
in terms of conferences and performances and how everybody did
in the bowl games, and UH, the SEC did pretty well.
As we get ready for the UH for the title game,

(37:48):
SEC seven in two overall among the major conference teams,
Pack twelve, four and three, UH, the Big Ten four
and five, a C C four and six, Big twelve
one in five. Now, I don't use the bowl games
as a definite referendum on anything other than one year

(38:08):
in the bowl season, but the trajectory over time is
the SEC has been dominant in bowls compared to other conferences,
and that is certainly the case again this year. The
Big Twelve has been awful and UH, and that is
UH maybe not gonna change. I don't know. We'll see
tying in with the Big twelve. Something that could hurt

(38:30):
the Big Twelve in a big way is the decision
that Lincoln Riley has to make. The Dallas Cowboys effectively
moving on from Jason Garrett and now have to make
a decision about who they're gonna hire. We've been talking
about it a great deal, UH, and Lincoln Riley seems
to be the guy that is that is getting the
most attention and has been for a while. Will the
Cowboys be able to get a deal done with him

(38:52):
or not? Can Jerry Jones pay whatever it takes? We
will be following that minute by minute over the ensuing
several days to see who the Cowboys end up hiring
to replace Jason Garrett for their first coaching search since
two thousand and seven. But it is wild card weekend
in the NFL, and uh. As improbable as that Tennessee

(39:12):
win might have been, and as wild as the coaching
search might end up being for the Dallas Cowboys, we
got four big football games going on this weekend to
on Saturday and two on Sunday. What do we anticipate happening?
And more importantly, as we typically do on Fridays, who
are we gonna draft for the best games going into

(39:33):
the weekend? I will start this off, I think pretty
much if you're drafting anything other than the wild card weekend,
so we're only gonna have four picks. Uh we uh.
This is kind of a sad time of the year
because we used to have all this different embarrassment of riches,
all the college football games, all the NFL games, and
we could go around the entirety of the crew to

(39:54):
find out what the best sporting events are that are
going on. Now, we're down to four NFL games this weekend,
four NFL games next weekend, and then two and then one.
So if my math is correct, we've got eleven NFL
games left for the remainder of the season. Two on Saturday,
two on Sunday. Uh coming up, and I think the

(40:15):
best game UH. And yes, maybe this is a little
bit of a Homer pick because I am a Tennessee
Titan fan, but I want to see how the Patriots
are gonna look. Patriots lose at home against the Miami
Dolphins and Ryan Fitzpatrick in a game they needed to
win to be able to walk up a home playoff game.
I'm intrigued to watch all four. So it's not as
if I'm going to ignore any of these games. I

(40:38):
will be watching the Vikings in the Saints, I'll be watching, uh,
the Texans and the Bills, and UH. I will also
be watching certainly the Titans and the Patriots. I will
be watching every single game that is going to be
taking place, regardless of what what you know otherwise is
going on. There four really good NFL games. I will

(41:00):
be locked in and loaded to see every single one
of them and not miss anything, including by the way,
I don't think I mentioned it, but the Eagles on
the road are hosting the Seattle Seahawks, who are on
the road. I'll be watching all four of them. But
I think the best game and the most interesting game
is the Titans against the Patriots for a couple of reasons. One,
I want to see what's gonna happen with the Patriots.

(41:22):
Are the Patriots going to be able to flip the
switch like they did last year and suddenly handle everybody
in the playoffs? In particular, the first game that the
Patriots played last year. Now it's a divisional round playoff game,
but there was a lot of optimism that the Chargers
were gonna be able to go on the road and
beat the Patriots, who were sitting at eleven and five
and didn't finish the season very well last year either,

(41:45):
and then the Patriots went out and whipped them in
that first game in Foxborough. Now you have to play
on wild Card weekend. In theory, the Patriots would have
to beat the Titans, then they would have to go
on the road and beat the Kansas City Chiefs, and
then maybe also go on the road and beat the
Baltimore Ravens. We don't know how all the playoffs are
gonna shake out, but I feel like the a f

(42:05):
C playoffs are pretty wide open. Uh, anything can happen
with these six teams. I love what Tannehill has done.
He's the highest rated passer in the NFL this year.
Derrick Henry is the is the NFL leading rusher. I
like with this Titan offense has been able to do
a j Brown coming into his own as a rookie.
John who Smith at tight end, I think as a

(42:25):
matchup problem. I like the Titans to go on the
road and not just cover this line is around four
and a half or five points. I like the Titans
to win out right, and I think if they can
overlook or get past the mystique and the aura and
the history of this Patriot dynasty. I just don't think
the Patriots are very good. You look at their schedule,

(42:47):
you look at their winds down the stretch. Best win
for the Patriots this year probably the Buffalo Bills, who
they beat twice. I think that's fair. You know, you
look at the Patriots. They started off eight. No, they're
just more and four. That defense, which looks so incredible,
has not looked very impressive. I think the Titans are
gonna be able to lean on him with Derrick Henry

(43:07):
set up play action passing. If Tannehill, who is already,
by the way, beaten the Patriots four times, I think
that matters. He is, I believe four and six in
his career. He's got more wins against the Patriots than
any quarterback in the NFL. Right now, I believe is
is accurate. He hasn't one in Foxborough, but he knows
what Belichick and the Patriots due. I think it's Ryan

(43:30):
Tannehill's time. I think comes Saturday night, the Titans find
a way to get it done. It's my overall number
one draft picks. So what would you pick after that one?
Danny g Well, before I get to mind, I gotta
ask you because your old analogy on the Patriots has
been that they're the villain in the movie Yeah, where
you gotta shoot him, make sure they're dead, but they
get up again, they get killed a second time, then

(43:52):
they come back alive again. On a scale of one
to ten, how nervous. Are you that the Patriots still
have another life left? I mean, I think the Patriots,
it's all about their aura and their history right now,
and which is why if you just if you just
stripped away the Patriots and you said, okay, instead of
the Patriots, this team is uh. And I'm trying to

(44:13):
think of uh, you know, kind of a if you
look at their talent, if you look at their talent,
and you look at the way they've played down the
stretch run of the season, and let's just say they're
the Bills, because the Bills have played the Patriots pretty
much even would anybody be nervous about going on the
road to play against the Buffalo Bills? Uh? In in
Orchard Park. I'm not taking anything away from the Bills,

(44:34):
but you'd say, Okay, you just gotta play your game.
I think it's rare that you can go to Foxborough
and say, hey, we don't have to do anything special
to win this game. We just have to play a
solid game. I think that's where the Titans are. I
think if the Titans and Ryan Tannehill go out and
play a solid game, they have a very very good
chance of winning. Because I think they're better top to bottom.

(44:56):
Now the Patriots are gonna have a home field advantage.
Their fan base will be fired up. Looks like there
may be some weather related concerns, a little bit a
little bit of rain, maybe some late snow, depending on
how exactly everything materializes. But it's rare that you can
say you don't need to do anything spectacular to beat
the Patriots on the road in Foxboro, and I think
you can say it this year. All Right, Well, I'll

(45:18):
get to my pick here. Uh. I gotta go with
the early game on Sunday, and it's on Fox the
Vikings at the Saints. You could call him playoff rivals,
the miracle in Minneapolis just a few seasons ago. Of course,
that game would have finished a lot different had you
been on the field plane defense, I would have stopped
that play. There's no way I would have loved that
pass to happen. Dalvin Cook is expected to play. That's

(45:39):
a big deal for the Vikings, and his talented backup
Alexander Madison was back at practice. That's also good news
for Minnesota. The question mark is about Kirk Cousins. Which
version of him are we going to see on Sunday?
Everybody wants to find out the answer to that. It's
been a really special year for Drew Brees and Michael Thomas,

(45:59):
breaking records left and right. Got to tune in. Michael
Thomas is must watch TV. That game on Sunday, I
think is going to have a lot of fireworks. I
I do think that this is where Drew Brees is
getting a benefit from his injury that he had to
his thumb earlier in the season, because he looks so
much healthier to me, Yeah, instead of fatigued like he

(46:20):
did at the end of last season. Yeah. And we
need to pull up, maybe an hour three on the show,
all of our Super Bowl predictions. I know you have
those written down somewhere in the studio, right, Uh, So
let's pull those up because I want to see what
our predictions were, and maybe we can make predictions for
now that the NFL playoffs are starting. What kind of
adjustments would they would we make? But I like the

(46:41):
Saints to be the Super Bowl representative, uh, coming out
of the NFC, even though they have to win three games,
even though they have to beat the Vikings. Probably would
be going on the road. Would be your expectation against
the Green Bay Packers, and then would theoretically have to
go on the road against the forty nine ers if
the brackets held. That's a tough trio of games to win.

(47:03):
There's no doubt all coming out of the wild card
is very difficult. But I like the Saints is playing
the best. What about you, du what game would you
select given the two choices? Yeah, I'm going with Seattle
traveling to Philadelphia. Now, we all know the Eagles are
really banged up, but so is Seattle. I cannot believe
the Seahawks are actually favored in this game, to be
honest with you, Philadelphia, they love the underdog role in

(47:24):
the playoffs. They're five and oh against the spread the
last two seasons in the playoffs, and the dog mass
will be out in Philadelphia. That place will be rocking.
It will basically be a night game with UH now
that we're back on standard time here in Philadelphia. I
think the Eagles win this game. I agree with what
Lance Taylor said earlier, and I think it's gonna be
a great game against two teams that are really known

(47:45):
for their playoff UH success in recent years, and both teams,
like I said earlier, are totally banged up, so I
think this is gonna be a total battle, and I
like the Eagles in this one, all right, Eddie. That
leaves you with the game that it is really kind
of amazing how little the NFL respects ESPN, because you
can kind of look at it and be like, Okay,

(48:06):
what's the worst wild card game? That's the only playoff
game that ESPN gets every year. And I understand there's
a lot of people listening who are Bills and Texans fans,
but even Bills and Texans fans are like, yeah, I
think that's probably the worst game of wild Card weekend.
Sell it to me. Well, you've got you know, Deshaun
Watson uh and DeAndre Hopkins going up against that Buffalo's

(48:28):
Bills defense. The Texans you know, at home, uh, looking
to finally have some success in the postseason. You would
think this is at least one of their better shots
to at least advance into the next round. H That's
all I got, all right, So let me just now,
we usually we have more games to be able to draft,
so it's a little bit harder to do the draft

(48:49):
when you only have four games. But I want to
circle back around. Now, you get to pick any game,
but you can only watch one. You can only watch
one wild card game this weekend. Most of you out
there listening, or a lot of you out there listening,
are going to be like me. And if you don't
watch every snap of all four games, you will at
least watch a lot of them. Right, I'll watch I

(49:10):
don't know if they'll see every snap, but I'll watch
all four games. Uh. And you know, if somebody ends
up in a blowout situation, I'll move away from the television,
probably end up doing something else, but I'll watch all
four games. I clearly am a Titans fan, so I
am going to draft the Titans Patriots game. But I
also think it may be the most intriguing overall by itself,

(49:33):
even if you weren't a Titans fan, or even if
you're not a Patriots fan, even if you don't have
a rooting interest on either side of the equation here.
So I would pick that game as the one that
I would choose to watch out of all four. What
game would you pick, Danny g Uh, if you could
only watch one of these, That's a tough choice here,
between the Titans Patriots and the Vikings Saints. I guess

(49:57):
I would have to go Viking Saints because before the
season started, I picked the Vikings to represent the NFC
in the Super Bowl in Miami's that's the one where
you know, I'm most intrigued because I picked the Vikings.
What about you, Dub, which game do you take? I'm
with Danny g I'm going Vikings Saints. I think there's
a decent chance the Lackings actually win this game and
pull the upset off in New Orleans. So that's the

(50:19):
game that interests me the most. That would be an
improbable win and it would send the Vikings out to
San Francisco, which would would be interesting because right now,
I think if you're a forty Niner fan, while you're
enjoying your your week off, you're a little bit apprehensive.
I think about playing against the Seahawks for a third
time in a relatively short period, particularly because those teams

(50:40):
have been almost dead, even when you look at the
Seahawks and the and the forty Niners in the way
that division was decided just on Sunday night. So so
that would be that would be a big upset because
the Vikings right now seven and a half point underdogs,
the biggest underdog in wild Card weekend? Eddie, where do
you go? I'm going with you, Clay. I'm going with
the Titans and the Patriots. I want to see if

(51:03):
this is the end of the dynasty for New England.
Is this gonna be Tom Brady's final game, not only
in Foxboro but as a Patriot, or the Patriots gonna
prove us all to be idiots and do what they
do at home in the postseason, and uh figure out
a way to get it done. So I'm picking Patriots Titans. Yeah,
I agree with you. I think it's the best game.
What about your Berto? I also had the Saints, uh

(51:24):
going to the Super Bowl this year? So I'm gonna
go with the Vikings in the Saints, even though it's
kind of early in the morning for me here at
ten o'clock in the morning, but I'm gonna go Vikings
in the scenes the early kickoff on Sunday, all right,
when we come back, we are scheduled to be joined
by Chris Mannox. This is outkicked the coverage with Clay
Travis joined now by Chris Mannox. He's at Sports Illustrated.

(51:48):
He has been covering all of this David stern fall
out as the commissioner of the NBA at the age
of seventy seven, has has passed on. He is at
s I Chris Mannox on Twitter yesterday, Chris I was saying,
I think that David Stern is probably going to be
the greatest sports commissioner of all time, and it's hard

(52:09):
to believe that anybody could ever surpass what he accomplished
with the NBA over thirty years. Fair or foul analysis
from your perspective, So I think that's fair, and I've
heard that from a lot of different people. I mean,
pat Riley was among the people that came out and,
you know, flat out said it, best commissioner in the
history of pro sports. I mean, his legacy is multifaceted.

(52:34):
But I've always most impressed Clay with how David Stern
in the nineteen eighties, with those television ratings just floundering.
Um really understood that in basketball it wasn't about the laundry.
You know, in football you kind of root for your teams,
right they're Cowboys fan, Eagles fan, you know, Patriots fan.
David Stern realized in basketball, the best way to sell

(52:56):
the property was selling matchups. And it wasn't just you know,
Nick's versus Bulls, it was Hewing versus Jordan's, and and
and and the Magic versus Burn and all those those matchups,
and and that took some some vision at that time,
and I think that really propelled the NBA into the
sort of watchable property that became. Do you think, uh,

(53:18):
that David Stern agrees with the direction that Adam Silver
has taken the league? I think so. And I based
that on two things. One, I mean, David Stern was
Adam Silver's or Adam Silver's David stern handpicked successor. I
mean he walked into those meetings with ownership towards the
end of his tenure and pointed at Adam Silver and said,

(53:38):
you know that's the guy. And look, David Stern was
all about the money, you know, with his his commissionership,
with the deals he made in foreign countries and everything
he did with NBA Entertainment, the Addam Silver. As much
as people look at him as a progressive commissioner and
all that stuff, He's all about the money, you know,
with with that group. So yeah, I do think that

(53:59):
while they're probably not lockstep on everything, I would think
in the broad strokes, they're very much in line. Will
there ever be a commissioner with as much authority as
David Stern developed over thirty years? And how much of
that was just being there for thirty years, which seems like,
I mean, an improbable length of time now. It used
to be in the world of sports, guys kept their jobs,

(54:20):
whether it's coaches, whether it's owners, whether it's g ms.
Guys kept their jobs a lot longer. It seems like
we burn out on ownership and everything else and jobs
a lot faster now than we did back in the day.
Will anybody else even accomplish this? You know, that's a
good question. I don't know. Um. You know, David Stern
obviously had a lot of of of credibility banks you know,

(54:43):
later in his ten tenure ship because of what he
did at the beginning. But I will say this, I
mean players respected David Stern. I mean not everyone you
know agreed with them his policies. And you go back
to the early two thousands and and the dress code stuff,
and that was a real source of conflict between Stern
and the players. But in talking to you know, players

(55:04):
and player agents over the last couple of days. You know,
one thing that that David they respected about David Stern
was that he was willing to listen two players. Even
though he came down on guys pretty hard for stuff,
he was always willing to hear guys out. A great
example that I wrote about was Alan Iverson, and you know,
Iverson wrote that rap song and and I think it
was two thousands that had a lot of women's groups

(55:26):
up in arms, the gate community up in arms, and
a lot of people are calling for David Stern to
to punish Iverson severely for it. You know, Stern called
Iverson to his office in New York. They had a meeting,
they talked it out. Irish explained where he was coming from,
and while he was you know, uh, he had that
there was a strong award statement about what Iverson did.
There was no punishment for it. And a lot of
that was because he heard from Iverson, and you know,

(55:48):
he was willing to accept what Iverson said. I think
players really respected that he was, you know, willing to
hear them out on significant issues. There were a lot
of rumors about David Stern and it was almost like
he was the godfather making moves so whether it was uh,
you know, the famous frozen envelope with Patrick Ewing, which
he continued to shoot down throughout his entire career, Whether

(56:11):
it was and this is I don't know if you
would buy into this at all, but I kind of do,
of all the sports conspiracies that are out there, think
there was something to Jordan's deciding to leave and go
play baseball and then miraculously come back. Maybe I'm wrong,
but I feel like something happened there, and I feel
like there are a lot of sports fans who agree
with me. Do you think that was just a sign

(56:31):
of David Stearn's overall power and influence in the league,
or do you think he was legitimately capable of, for instance,
keeping something like a Jordan's secret suspension that close to
a vest I mean you could, you could keep a
lot of things a secret back then that you certainly
couldn't today. Like, do you buy do you buy into
that at all? Like that? There are certain conspiracy theories

(56:54):
that that I'm like, that's crazy. I could buy into
the idea that Jordan got suspended for betting on basketball game.
I can buy into it. Of course, because the stories
of Jordan gambling a legendary. It's just I just don't know.
I mean, the frozen envelope thing. I think it's kind
of stupid. Yeah, I know that, you know, I know
that sterns the Knicks fan growing up in New York
and everything, but come on, like, that's that's a little

(57:14):
bit too far outside the box. But yeah, the the
Jordan gambling stuff, the way it all kind of played out,
and how he came back a couple of years later,
I certainly can get buy to that. And I do
believe that in Stern's regime and how he kind of
oversaw the NBA, I do believe that he was about
as capable as any commissioner keeping that a secret. You
hit on something when you're talking about the dress code.

(57:36):
Stern understood the business side of the NBA, and this
is something that I've kind of hit on on my show.
I think Stern sold the players, but he also sold
the relationship between fans and players. And you remember, because
you're around my age, the calling card for the NBA
as the league was in its heyday was what NBA
action is fantastic, And it was, you know, they put

(57:59):
a variety of from celebrities on as part of the advertisements,
and the fans were exulting and celebrating the player moves,
and it felt like everybody was pulling in the same direction.
Now it doesn't seem like that as much. You've got players,
and it seems like almost every week, or certainly every month,
there's a player upset about something that a fan says

(58:21):
uh their social media, where people are kind of diving
into their different niches. It seemed to me like Stern
was a big tent guy. I want to appeal to everybody.
I'll do whatever I need to to make Middle America happy,
and that's that that There has been a difference now
with Adam Silver. Do you buy into that that Stern
was a guy who was trying to create as big

(58:43):
of a tent as possible and that now things are
a lot more niche You know, I don't know that
I buy that he was trying to create this big tent,
because anyone that knew David Stern knows that he probably
would have been happy with the dynamic that exists in
the eighties, you know, translating all throughout the decade, that
being the Lakers being great and the Knicks being great,

(59:05):
and the Celtics being great, and the Bulls being great,
everybody kind of in the middle, you know whatever I mean.
And Stern, remember also didn't have to deal on the
same level that Silver is dealing with with social media.
I mean, it's just there's some things that you just
can't kind of get out of the way from, and
the evolution of social media how players handle it is
one of them. And I think what's one thing Silver

(59:26):
has embraced, which Stern embraced to a degree is kind
of transactional nature of the NBA and how player movement
has become a big reef in the NBA is so popular.
Does any league clay have a better trade deadline in
the NBA? Does any league have a better off season
than the NBA. These are all things that that Adam

(59:46):
Silver embraced that that I think I've really helped the
NBA's popularity. We're talking to Chris Mannox at s Chris
Mannix alright, as David Stern is is. Uh, it's an
incredible legacy that he left. But in the last week
I read in the Wall Street Journal and I don't
think it's gotten as much attention as certainly the NFL
rating struggles did and I think we've hinted it this

(01:00:06):
a couple of times with you, but I was blown
away by the actual numbers. The NBA in the past
two years is down twenty six percent and its ratings
on ESPN and on T and T, according to the
Wall Street Journal article that I read on Saturday. Um,
and that comes while the NFL is up over the
past two years, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, NHL, college football,

(01:00:29):
all of those sports are up. So the Mark Cubans
of the world can say, well, you know, it's just
a cord cutting phenomenon, but it really isn't. Translating sports
is maybe the only thing that's holding up at all.
What would you do to fix that? Well, you know,
I've seen all the theories and and I understand some
of them. But you know what happened in the last

(01:00:51):
two years, when as the rains have gone down the
last two years, what's the big change that happened. It's
Lebron going West. I mean, I don't want to boil
it down to some things so simple, but the Eastern
Conference does not have kind of must see TV at
this point, and Lebron throw his entire professional career up
until last two years, was the Eastern Conference player Cleveland

(01:01:13):
Miami back to Cleveland, and he was a massive writings
driver every time he played, whether it was on national
TV or even the local TV affiliates. He's gone, and
in the Eastern Conference you have you know, Janice is there,
but Janie hasn't quite connected with the audience in the
same way that other superstars have. Philadelphia is unwatchable. You know,

(01:01:33):
Boston doesn't have that alpha right now. Kevin Durant not
playing for Brooklyn. There just isn't a star there. And
as much as the die hards will stay up late
to watch Lebron James, a lot of the casual fans
won't stay up to watch Lebron James. So I don't
mean that's oversimplify it, but I do think there's a
lot to the argument that Lebron's gone and people aren't
watching Eastern Conference games. Are the seven o'clock eight o'clock

(01:01:56):
window games as much as they were in years past?
How much more popular would you honest be if he
was American? Everything else is the exact same, but he
is an American born player. I do think a lot
more popular and and It's funny because he's an incredibly
likable player. Um, he his his game translates to television
and he's got that same killer instinct that we love

(01:02:17):
in players like Jordan and Kobe and Lebron. I mean,
watch him out there on the floor. He's you know,
there's a seriousness to him every single possession. And I
agree with you. I think if his name was like
George King or something like that, he came out of Duke,
we'd probably be talking about a much more popular player.
All that being said, he is. I mean, he's leading
the All Star voting right now for the Eastern Conference,
so he is incredibly popular. But maybe television wise, uh,

(01:02:40):
he might have a different connection. Another guy who's leading
in the NBA voting. I think if I saw it
was a Luca, how incredible has he been in year two?
Another foreign born player. It is interesting that the two
leading vote getters in the NBA All Star Game right
now both foreign born players. How how important is Luca
looking ahead for the NBA's future. Yeah, meanwhile, Taco Falls

(01:03:01):
played like eleven minutes and the sixth of the Eastern Conference.
But take this voting away from the fans and I
give them as much of a saying all this. Luca
came along at just the right time because I think
there was, you know, not a vacuum yet because Lebron
James is still at the top of this game. But
we're all kind of looking around for the next guy,
the next player that is gonna be dazzling out there

(01:03:23):
on the floor and dominate in depth bunch of different ways,
and Lucy does it differently. He's not Lebron in the
in the way that Lebron dominates, but man, he is
special when you watch him out there on the floor
and he's become you know, for me anyway, I got
he looked for the dial. If I'm watching Lead Paths,
I'm looking for a Dallas Mavericks game. When you know
you see more and more nationally televised Dallas Mavericks games.

(01:03:43):
He's just he again, He's an international players that might
connect in a different way, but because of the way
he plays, in the position he plays, I think he's
gonna connect with fans for a long time. What are
you hearing? We're talking to Chris Mannox at SI Chris Mannox,
What are you hearing about Zion? When are we going
to see his debut. How important is that? You know?
The I believe I saw that he's practicing now um
with with the Pelicans, and everything I've heard from people

(01:04:05):
down there involved with the team was that end of
January was a realistic possibility. What I'm curious about is,
you know, what does Zia look like when he comes back?
I mean, you heard a lot in the last really,
you know, as I started really to cover Zion even
before the draft, about just how top heavy he was,
and how is that going to affect, uh the long
term health of his lower body? How much weight did

(01:04:27):
he lose? How much weight is he going to lose
um as his career moves forward because he plays with
such explosiveness and when you bring that big frame down
those knees every single time, it naturally is going to
have somewhere on them. So I'm curious to see as
he comes back, how does his game evolve? And he said,
the same player that we saw do how much nervousness

(01:04:48):
do you think there is among the Pelicans. I mean,
that's kind of a big deal that he might not
come back till the end of January, Uh, missing at
least half of the NBA season. Uh, and how much
do you think they are concerned about him going for word?
As you just hinted at that this could be a
major issue that maybe doesn't go away and he's not
you know, this isn't the equivalent of let's say you've
got a shoulder injury, you have surgery, it goes away

(01:05:08):
and you never have to worry about it again. This
could be something more structural for his career. Well, I
think there's there's natural nervousness, and there should be in
New Orleans, especially when this guy was hailed as kind
of the savior of this team in the post Anthony
Davis age, I would say that, you know, even if
this guy has injuries in the first couple of years
of his career, the reason his history has suggested that

(01:05:31):
patients is okay in situations like this that you know,
guys tend to figure out their bodies and figure out
how to play uh consistent. Look at Joel Embid. I mean,
does Minnesota sitting back wish they had drafted Joel empat
number one and not Andrew Wiggins and waited a couple
of years as the Sixers and Sam Hanky was willing
to do. I'm watching last night Clay Michael Porter Jr.

(01:05:51):
Dominate in a game, you know for the Denver Nuggets,
who sat back and took him at fourteen and said,
we'll let him red shirt his first year because we
can get a top two type of talent as long
as he's healthy. So you know, it could be a
rough go of it for the first year, maybe the
first two years with Zion Williamson, but I just have
enough confidence in NBA medical staffs that eventually these guys

(01:06:13):
figure it out, all right. Last question for you Lakers
or the Clippers, who are you more optimistic and in
the next couple of months. I'm more optimistic in the
Clippers because defensively one through three, they can be just
dominant on the perimeter. And when you get Beverly Paul,
George Kawhi, Leonard uh, that's something to see. I would
say the reports out there that Darren Collison, the former

(01:06:35):
point guard Indiana, is gonna come back and wants to
play for one of the l A teams, that should
make people that are wary of the Lakers nervous. If
you look at the Lakers issues point guards, one of them, right,
I mean, Rajon Rondo is there that play Avery Bradley.
At times you know Caldwell Pope is at the position,
but they don't. But Lebron is oftentimes the point guard
on the floor. Darren Collison is legit point guard. He

(01:06:56):
played seventy six games for a playoff team last year.
He has a low turn of a point guard that
just two years ago let the NBA in three point shooting. Now.
I don't know what kind of shape he's in at
this point, if he's ready to come back and step
right into a rotation, but if he's close to the
player he was last year, if the Lakers get their
hands on him, that is a difference making pick up

(01:07:16):
for a playoffs. UH set up that probably only needs
one player is kilt. The balance appreciated, My man, have
a good long weekend, Happy New Year. That's Chris Mannix
at SI Chris Mannox. This is outkicked. The coverage with
Clay Travis sounds like the Dallas Cowboys are officially into

(01:07:40):
their coaching search. Tennessee Volunteers get a big win over
the Indiana Hoosiers late, and we're breaking down the wild
card games as we roll into the weekend in the NFL.
But I wanted to hit this and make sure that
I didn't forget it. David Stern a couple of days
ago officially dies at seventy seven. You just heard us
talking with Chris Mannox about it. I do believe that

(01:08:00):
David Stern said an important precedent that has been abandoned
in the last couple of years, UH, certainly the last
four or five years. And remember when Kobe Bryant was
charged with rape, UH, the NBA allowed Kobe Bryant to
continue to play. He was flying back and forth between

(01:08:23):
Eagle Colorado and UH and l A and playing for
the Lakers. And I believe that Roger Goodell, and I've
been on this for a while, I believe that Roger Goodell,
the NFL commissioner, set an awful precedent that has been
unfortunately followed by many leagues, which is, if you get

(01:08:43):
accused of a crime, we're going to pull you out
of our sport and wait and see whether or not
you are guilty or innocent until we allow you to
play again. And I think that's fundamentally wrong. And my
position has been pretty straightforward here, and sometimes it gets
people upset because they're like, oh, you don't care about

(01:09:05):
players who are accused of domestic violence, or you don't
care about violent acts and all those things, and it's
not true. I wish that nobody who was involved in
athletics ever committed any kind of inappropriate behavior. I wish
nobody ever committed any kind of crime. But I think
we have rushed as a sports public, and I think
it's been embraced by the larger society and media and

(01:09:27):
social media as well, and become worse towards a automatic
You are guilty, universe, and if there is any accusation
out there at all, you are not able to continue
to make a living. And I understand some people disagree
with me on this and go figure. You know, we
have a lot of uh sometimes provocative opinions on this program.

(01:09:50):
But I believe that if you aren't in jail or
in prison, you should be eligible to make a living
as a pro athlete. Individual Teams can choose whether or
not they want to sign you, but you should be
able to be an athlete, able to be UH to
be paid. And I think that's a big part of

(01:10:12):
David Stern's legacy that he fought for a guy like
Kobe Bryant, who was charged with a serious crime, not
to miss any game at all. I think it's fair
to say that if you had the Kobe Bryant situation
occurred today, there's zeroed out that Kobe Bryant would be
suspended and not able to play for an entire year,
and that is worth thinking about. Did we get that

(01:10:34):
right in the way that our society has evolved. I
don't necessarily believe that we have. The other thing I
would say about David Stern is we talked about this
a little bit yesterday. The guy understood the importance of
appealing to Middle America. You need to have everybody in
a big tent who likes your sport. And I haven't

(01:10:56):
seen it written about very much because people, I think
in this Wwards media tend to lean very left wing
and they don't want to acknowledge it. But when David
Stern had his own national anthem controversy compared to Roger Goodell,
he knitted that story in the bud Immediately. When Mike

(01:11:16):
Moodop Dual Roof didn't stand for the national anthem because
he was upset with American foreign policy, David Stern immediately
suspended him and said you're not gonna be able to play,
and Mike moodob dual roofs protest stopped immediately. I still wonder,
and I said it immediately back in the day, what

(01:11:37):
would have happened to the NFL if the minute that
Colin Kaepernick had started taking a knee, If Roger Goodell
had had the stones and the intestinal fortitude to actually
say you're suspended until you decided to stand for the
national anthem. You're required to stand for the national anthem
under your contract, I think the story would have would

(01:12:00):
have immediately disappeared. I think it would have gone away
like Mike mood abdul rove. Instead, the NFL mishandled it
and they had to deal with ratings going down for
two years. I think also, we talked to Chris Mannix
about this and he didn't necessarily buy in. But I
think there's no way that David Stern would have ever

(01:12:22):
banned the word owner from the NBA or pulled an
All Star game out of North Carolina over a transgender
bathroom bill. I don't think he would have allowed those
stories to happen in the same way that Adam Silver has.
And that's why I think the NBA ratings are down
is because David Stern, who understood the importance of appealing

(01:12:45):
to Middle America. He understood, Hey, there's a lot of
guys and girls out there who voted for Donald Trump
that like the NBA, we like to create the silo
where we don't allow people to be unique, interesting individuals.
There are a lot of people out there with sometimes
conflicting beliefs or uh. And again, if you're trying to

(01:13:10):
appeal to everybody, I think the NBA has said too
much of Middle America. Basically, they extended their middle finger
and said, we don't care about you anymore. And I
think there are a lot of people out there who
like the NBA, who like basketball, who maybe Trump guys
that are tired of Popovich and Greg and And and
Greg Popovich and Steve Kerr and Lebron James lecturing them

(01:13:32):
all the time. And I don't think that David Sterns
league would have allowed that to happen. And I think
it's a hit to sports overall that the David Sterns
of the world are not triumphing and instead we've got
guys like Adam Silver who seem more intent on running
woke sports leagues than they do, actually trying to appeal

(01:13:53):
to everyone regardless of their background. When we come back,
our three NFL wild Cards underway, big win for Tennessee
over Indiana, improbable victory, we will discuss all that, plus
the Cowboys coaching search. The latest. This is OutKick on
Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I

(01:14:16):
Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live.
We've got several different stories that we are tracking. Uh.
First of all, Dallas Cowboys are, according to multiple reports,
are moving on from Jason Garrett. They officially have begun
the coaching search and we will see who exactly is
going to end up their next head coach, whether it's

(01:14:36):
Thinken Riley, Dan Mullen, Urban Meyer, Matt Rule, Greg Roman,
lots of different directions that the Dallas Cowboys can go. UH.
Now that Jerry Jones is officially moving on again reportedly
from Jason Garrett, first home coaching search for the Dallas
Cowboys since two thousand seven, a lot to be determined.

(01:14:57):
What's the future at DAK Prescott. We're the Cowboys to
do with a Mari Cooper and who is going to
be the head coach to lead them into this new decade.
All of that could be decided in the near future.
There are, by the way, four NFL head coaching jobs
that are open right now, Carolina Panthers, Giants, the Cleveland Browns,
and the Dallas Cowboys. So much to follow there. We

(01:15:21):
will continue to keep you updated on Fox Sports Radio
for all the latest in the Dallas Cowboy coaching search,
and we've been talking about it quite a bit in
the first two hours. NFL wild Card Weekend is officially
underway starting tomorrow. We've got the Houston Texans hosting the
Buffalo Bills as the first game. Then we've got the
New England Patriots hope hosting the Titans. We will dive

(01:15:43):
into those games, plus the Sunday ones of course, with
the Eagles going up against the Seahawks and the Minnesota
Vikings on the road against the New England Patriots for
really entertaining wild Card Weekend games. Only eleven games overall
left in the NFL season, we come down the stretch
run of the playoffs. Wild Card Weekend this week, Divisional

(01:16:04):
Weekend next week then the a f C NFC Championship Games,
and we get ready to go down to Miami where
this show will be uh in Miami for a week
of of Fox Sports Radio as well as I'm told
I haven't seen it. I haven't really seen it in
the mock up, but I'm told if you are going
to be in South Florida or you listen to this
show in South Florida, that we will also have an

(01:16:25):
outdoor stage uh in UH in Miami. The Fox Fox
Sports Stage will be on the beach in South Beach.
You'll be able to watch our locket In show and
all the other programs that are going on on FS
one live. From what I'm told, is going to be
a pretty awesome stage and set on the literally on
the sound sand in South Beach as we get ready

(01:16:48):
for the Super Bowl. But last night, the biggest sporting
event of the evening was a monumental, crazy wild comeback
by the University of Tennessee against the Indianna Hoosiers. I'm sorry,
Indiana fans, you guys going for your first Bowl win
since never had played in a Florida Bowl game. At all,

(01:17:09):
things that looked great. Indiana was in phenomenal shape. They
were up thirteen uh and then Tennessee gets possession and
they have an improbable on side kick that works. In
the space of thirty seconds, they scored two touchdowns. I'll
play the audio for you uh here momentarily, but first,
this is a wild stats so far this year when

(01:17:31):
a team has been up by thirteen or more points
with under five minutes to play, they were four hundred
and seventy one and zero. Again. To repeat, when you
are up thirteen or more points with five minutes or
less to play in college football this year, you're four

(01:17:52):
hundred and seventy one and zero. Well, Tennessee managed to
make it four hundred and evand one and one. Here
is what the final two touchdowns sounded like. There's a
hand off the crouch and he's in ind of the
checker boards here in Jacksonville, and Tennessee gets its first
touchdown of the night. Come up on and Tiers have

(01:18:13):
cut it to seven. They're gonna hand off the grains.
Got a big hoole other offside down to the fox
Tell seven ards touchdown Tennis, says Eric Prayer, right down
the middle of the field. So that is the win
for Tennessee. And it's a pretty crazy final game scenario
there Tennessee now when six straight games under Jeremy Pruett

(01:18:37):
The verdict is still out on how exactly Jeremy Pruittt
is going to do as the head coach at Tennessee.
But if you compare the one in four start that
featured losses to Georgia State and b y U with
the close of this season where Tennessee went seven and
one and the only loss was on the road against Alabama,

(01:18:58):
it's pretty amazing to think of about the trajectory since
September for this program to go from one in four
to eight and five and winning a New Year's Day
Bowl game. Uh, we'll see what happens in year three.
Lots of reason for optimism based on the based on
the recruiting class and also just the overall depth that's

(01:19:19):
being built. But year two with Jeremy Pruittt, Tennessee finds
a way down the stretch to win a lot of
close football games. And if you're Indiana, you managed yet again,
this is what Indiana football does, uh to snatch defeat
from the jaws of victory. So that was the big
event that was going on last night. Basically, that ends

(01:19:39):
all of the major college football bowl games. Now, every
time I say this, somebody hops on and and blows
me up on Twitter because they're like, that's not the
end of the bowl games. There's still some left, all right,
here's what's left. Ohio, Nevada is today. Then we got
Southern miss in two Lane and Louisiana Lafayette Miami of Ohio.
Those are are three bowl games that are remaining on Friday, Saturday,

(01:20:03):
and Monday. Uh. So the final Big Five conference bowl
game was last night. UH. And then we've obviously got
Clemson in l s U from down in New Orleans,
where I believe I will be down in New Orleans
for that game, which which I am looking forward to
very much. Uh. Final results from the major conferences in

(01:20:25):
bowl season are out as well, and the SEC is
going to win uh the Bowl Challenge season they get
a trophy I think as a result of this. SEC
finishes seven and two in bowl games. The Pack twelve
is second best among the major conferences. Big bounce back
for the Pack twelve, going four and three. Uh. The

(01:20:47):
Big Ten finishes four and five, and the Big Twelve
finishes one and five. Now, obviously there is one game
left between l s U and Clemson, the a c
C sitting at four and six, the SEC sitting at
seven and two. Nothing is going to change substantially based

(01:21:07):
on the outcome of of that game. So that is
where we are with all of the news that is
currently percolating there in the world of sports. Again, appreciate
all of you guys hanging out with us. And I thought,
as we headed into wild card weekend before the season starts,
we all make our super Bowl predictions. And I don't

(01:21:29):
even remember exactly what my super Bowl prediction because it
was all the way back in August and so much
has happened since then. But I thought, maybe we could
go back over what our super Bowl predictions are and
sees who's still alive, see who still feels good about
their picks, and uh and everything associated with the preseason projections. So, Danny,

(01:21:51):
G I believe you have all the lists of the predictions.
Let's run through and see who's in good shape. All right,
we'll start with you, Clay. You picked the Saints in
the Chiefs with the Chiefs winning the big Game. You
know what, I actually still like that pick. I I
think the Saints. Yes, they can do it. I would
not be stunned if they won three straight games, even

(01:22:13):
coming out of the wild Card. And I love the
way the Chiefs are playing right now in the two seed.
They've already beaten the Ravens. I think they're pretty confident.
In theory, they would only have to get past what
like the Bills or the Texans, depending on how exactly
uh this playoff race shakes out. So I like my picks.

(01:22:35):
I like the Chiefs, and I like the Saints. I
wouldn't be stunned at all if that ended up being
the Super Bowl. All right, let me move on over
to Roberto. This doesn't surprise me. He wears the same
CrOx as you. He also picked the same Super Bowl
as you, Saints Chiefs, but he picked the Saints to win. Yeah.
I still think that's a solid pick. I don't think
there's any reason to be you would say that. Yeah, right,
I mean, good choice for him for the Super Bowl.

(01:22:57):
And so, Roberto, you still like the Saints yep? Okay?
And Eddie Garcia, you picked the Seahawks and the Chiefs.
With the Chiefs winning, still both alive, not bad at all?
Would you like to adjust. Are you very confident in
your picks right now? I'll stick with Kansas City. Um,
I'm I'm I might rethink see out a little bit,

(01:23:18):
but I'm you know, I'm good on the road. Yeah,
there's seven and one on the road. I mean, they'll
obviously have to win three straight road games, probably unless uh,
who's the sixth seed? Unless the Vikings won two straight
games than they could host. But that seems very unlikely.
So okay, that's not bad, I mean, but then, so far,
these have not been disastrous picks. Uh in general? Alright,
what else we got? All right, I'll go with mine

(01:23:39):
really quick here, I picked the Vikings and the Chiefs,
with the Chiefs to win. I'm a little nervous about
Kirk Cousins, but I'm still rolling with my picks. Now,
this is where our show, Yeah, Dub, and this doesn't
surprise me because back when we were doing the Top
five Bottom five Tour, it's the starting the middle of

(01:24:01):
the season. Remember how Dub was the only one with
the Cowboys in his top five. Dub also picked the
Cowboys to represent the NFC of the Super Bowl. Dub,
you had the Cowboys Patriots with the Patriots winning. I
still alive with the Patriots. But what say you dub
about your Cowboys pick? I thought I had forty Niners Ravens.

(01:24:22):
Yeah right, I will say I will say this, like,
the picks are not usually if you have an entire show.
I mean, that's what ten picks usually, it's not. It's
not very common that nine of the teams would be
in the postseason. So, I mean that's some pretty solid
selections overall that we ended up with. Because in the NFL,

(01:24:44):
so much changes injuries, it's pretty difficult to pick who
is even going to make the playoffs a lot of years,
and so to go nine out of ten on playoff
teams to still be alive, look at the big brain
on out kick other than the Cowboys more in the
mix and really, frankly should have been in the playoffs
at least if Jason Garrett and the Wheels don't come

(01:25:05):
off that franchise, uh then, uh then then I think
that's a that's a pretty solid it's a pretty solid
job in general. Alright, So those are the Super Bowl picks.
Does anybody want to make a major like, I'm actually
pretty confident with I. I I am very comfortable with
my Chiefs and Saints, Like I don't even know. I
guess maybe maybe it would just be smart strategically to

(01:25:27):
go forty Niners. But I'm pretty confident with those two
teams that I picked. And obviously the Ravens came out
of nowhere. I don't think very many people out there
had the Ravens sitting at fourteen and two or having
the number one overall seat in the playoffs. So anybody
want to make substantial adjustments to their picks, well, Dub
needs to switch out his Cowboys, So pick in the
NFC now in the NFC, now that my my Dallas

(01:25:50):
Cowboys are no longer a part of the mix, I
am gonna go with the forty Niners. I think the
home field advantage is huge, especially in the loaded NFC brackets,
so I will go for Niners. And to be honest
with you, I don't really like my Patriots pick, but
I feel like I have to roll with it since
that was my preseason selection. All right, when we come back, uh,
we're gonna dive back into the wild cards. Also, there

(01:26:11):
was a guy who was shown during the game wearing
a very tight fitting Tennessee shirt and losing his mind.
He went viral. I think we're gonna call him and
check in and see if he's still alive. This is
outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis. There were a lot
of different Tennessee football fan images that went viral as

(01:26:34):
Tennessee uh looked like they were going to collapse down
the stretch down twenty two to nine. Things did not
look very positive. Casey Patrick was one of the Tennessee
fans who was not happy, and we tracked him down
last night. He was wearing a number one Tennessee jersey,
large bearded man uh, and he is with us now, Casey.

(01:26:56):
I reached out to him on Twitter to track him down. Casey,
what did you yell? Uh? That was caught viral e
on on television broadcast last night on a ESPN and
the Tennessee Indiana game. Am I allowed to say it?
Don't here if there's cursing, probably not, but you can
give us a rough approximation I got here. It was

(01:27:17):
something along the lines of I'm sick of this crap
and it's the same old stuff with this guy. Um.
I was not a lot of a lot of people
thought I was yelling at the graphs, but I was
actually yelling at coach Fruit because I wasn't very happy
with the current quarterback situation. All right, so you weren't happy,
we're uh so the Tennessee is down twenty two to nine.

(01:27:40):
Things are looking like a disaster. Did you stay for
the entire game? Yes? I did, absolutely, Actually I stayed
for the trophiate presentation afterwards and everything, and um uh
grant I did too because uh they were come back
there at the it was pretty while all right. So
what's your verdict on Jeremy PRUITTT Now, Well, you know,

(01:28:01):
he he make makes decisions that I don't always agree with,
and uh now I stn't think I still think decision wise,
I mean he's he's probably like they learned as they
go along. But as far as a coach, I think,
you know, just just getting his guys ready and and
uh preparing for other teams. I think, um, at least

(01:28:24):
you know, from game film and stuff like that. I've
always thought Jimmy Proud is one of the best in
the country and recruiting wis is what I and I
still think he is. But as far as being a
coach and just you know, just making football players better
and developing them. I think he's he's the best in
the country and and uh just second to nine and
and I'm glad we got it so oh and four
hundred and seventy one. When teams are down so far

(01:28:47):
this year by thirteen or more with five minutes or
less remaining, Tennessee comes back, uh to to get the win.
The onside kick, I think was the difference maker. How
stunned were you by the onside kick? You know? I
actually I hold I looked straight to my right and uh,
I was there with a bunch of my friends, and

(01:29:08):
I looked at one of my buddies, and I was like,
what in the world did we just do? And I
had no idea. I didn't. I didn't really. It was
hard to see exactly what had happened. And um, but
when we got that ball back, and of course you
know that was there great and that's all he did
all night long and just make plays. And since we
got the ball back, I just, um, you know, you

(01:29:28):
could really feel the type, al right. So when you
go viral like this, like your picture, and it's not
just that you were on television, it's that the cameras
catch you yelling at at the at you know, at
the field and at the coach and at the team
and everything else. What happens to your phone? Does it
immediately blow up? Does like everybody that you know who's

(01:29:49):
back home watching you and seeing you. Let you know, like,
what was your phone situation like in the wake of that? Yeah,
you know, it was like, Uh, I had people that
I had, you you know, like being in high school.
They were, you know, sending me text messages and stuff.
They're like, man, dude, you were just on math from
TV and blah blah blah and and all the southern

(01:30:10):
and all this other nonsense. Uh. I thought all that was,
Uh that was pretty cool. But I just, um, because
my phone. I mean, I don't know if you're here
right now, but it's I mean, it continues the thing.
Right now. I've got some guys that are you know,
big Tennessee football fans and and ball. Twitter is well known.
Uh so, uh you know, once a couple of those

(01:30:31):
guys started to retweet it out and and tag me
in some stuff, I started getting followers, and uh, when
I went to the football game and stay, I had
like four hundred and fifty dollars on Twitter, and I
had two sounds and when I woke up in the morning,
so uh, you know, and oh yeah, but I mean
on Twitter, dude, that's a family, you know, and and uh,
I you know, I love all those guys. Uh. You know,

(01:30:52):
the the day John Curry tried to do all that
crazy stuff and then and Handling thought the o Tennessee
and all that. Uh, when all that happened and we
all really came together and you know, people, they got
each other's back and and yesterday it was just something else.
You know, a lot of people try to give me
credit for us winning that game and that that's not
true at all. But um, you know, basically from the

(01:31:16):
time you were screaming at the field, everything changed. By
the way, how long have you had the jersey? Uh?
You know, I actually I just bought that jersey, but
I found it. I found it in a local store
here for like ten bucks, and I was like, you know,
I'm fat, but I'm gonna buy this jersey because it's
like the biggest shirt they got up there. So I

(01:31:36):
wouldn't a head and I wouldn't hadn't got it. I
wasn't even worried about it. I mean, I'm big, I
got a mirror. I know it. I ain't stupid. I'll
be stopball e. That's funny because all the folks on Twitter,
they're like, you know, one guy called me littered not
so little and and I thought that was great. That
was my favorite comment I saw all my long So, yeah,
the jersey is pretty tight fit? Is that an extra
large jersey? Like? What's your height and weight situation here?

(01:31:59):
I'm I'm about six six one, uh to seventy five
to eighty I said to seventy five, that's a lie
two eighty five. But uh yeah, I'm I mean I'm
pretty efty. Uh. The shirt itself is a two eggs,
but I mean Nike makes them little bitty jersey that

(01:32:20):
that is not is not really a two. It's just
like a one egg for everybody else. Uh So how
did you celebrate after the game? Do you go out drinking?
What you do? Yeah? No, I mean Someboddy's we Um.
I mean we stopped at a gas station down the road. Uh.
I think I grabbed like a coach or something that
we just came back and Um, I drank I drank
a dr pepper and ate my chicken sandwich, and I

(01:32:42):
actually watched the replay of the game. I always love
to watch. Uh, every every time I go to a game.
I've been to a couple of hours. Um, every time
I go to a game, I'd like to go watch
and replace them. I can and actually, you know, excuse me,
see what was going on and and really understand why
things happen in the game. I'm not too big of
a party or not crazy anyway. So all right, So,

(01:33:03):
so what what happens next year for Tennessee? Now, so
we're talking to Casey Patrick. He went viral during the
game last night between Tennessee and Indiana wearing his number
one Tennessee jersey. That's like at Jason Witton Jersey. By
the way, back in the day, the number one Tennessee
Jersey winnered little obviously was also number one. Uh, it's
it's a number of reserve for big time playmakers like yourself.

(01:33:24):
So what happens next year? You know, I I think
I think Tim wins is on the table, and I
don't I don't want to, you know, sitre and and
say anything that thinks impossible. It's it's not gonna be fifteen.
And I still think there's there's too much there's there's
not exactly enough older talent on this team. But um,

(01:33:46):
they're going to continue to get better and uh, they're
gonna and and like I said, Prue It's gonna continue
to learn what what he's doing. And um, I think
they can win a lot of what's gonna depend on
the QB next year. And I mean I I just
like every other ut FA and that cares about recruiting.
I've been watching these Hairs and Bailey videos and I
love the kid, but um, I know Prue it's gonna

(01:34:06):
love his senior quarterback, Guarantanno if if Guarantanno comes back,
So um, we gotta see what happens. And you know,
whether it's j G or it's Bailey, or it's Shout
or Myr or whoever, we gotta figure out what we're
gonna do with the ball in the air. And I
think that Steve Fix is gonna be strong though, and
and I love good to fit the football, and I
think that gives us a chance to win every game.
All right, my man, I appreciate you getting up early

(01:34:27):
with us. Congrats on going viral and quadrupling or tripling
your your Twitter account and good luck next season, my man.
All right, thank you, and I just want to say
thank you for the Tupaca all eyes on me at
the beginning of the show and that was pretty good.
Thanks man. Uh, that is Casey Patrick giving a shout
out to the music there as well. That was fantastic.
And he's got a good sense of humor because as

(01:34:49):
soon as I saw you tweet that gift out last night,
I thought of the Chris Farley, what is it? Fat guy?
And uh, I mean I do. I do agree with
him that that jersey doesn't seem that bit um. But
if you haven't seen it, you can go to my
Twitter feed. He went viral last night. It's pretty awesome
to go from five hundred and two thousand Twitter followers

(01:35:10):
in the space of an evening. I'm sure that will
continue to grow as people hear him on the show today.
But that was that was pretty awesome. Um and uh,
I felt like him when he was angrily yelling at
the field. That's kind of what I was doing in
my house watching that game last night. Be sure to
catch live editions about Kicked the Coverage with Clay Travis

(01:35:30):
week days at six am eastern three am Pacific. Alright,
the odds are out for the next Cowboys head coach. Um.
You know, these different betting markets put out their odds
on who they think is going to be the next
head coach whenever there are coaching vacancies, and Jason Garrett
hasn't been officially officially fired, at least not yet. But

(01:35:51):
the expectation, based on reports from Edward Er and uh
from Adam Schefter, is that essentially it is done. So
I always love to look at these lists of who
the next head coach might be from a gambling perspective,
and maybe a little bit of a surprise here, Josh
McDaniels is favored to be the next Cowboys head coach. Uh.

(01:36:14):
Josh McDaniels was with the Denver Broncos. He obviously is
the offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots, accepted and
then turned down the Indianapolis Colts job a couple of
years ago. There's also been the idea that he might
be the successor to Bill Belichick if Belichick decided to
step down, But that is uh, that's interesting. I think

(01:36:35):
that then that the favorite would be Josh McDaniels. Then
we have Robert Sala who is what is he? The
defensive coordinator of the San Francisco forty niners um who
is already starting to get some interviews as well. That
would be a little bit of a surprise, I think
for the Cowboys if they went with the defensive head coach,
just because so much of the focus has been on

(01:36:57):
Dak Prescott and making sure that he fits and makes
sense going forward. So I would say I don't like
the odds of that, just based on where the Scout
Dallas Cowboy franchise is right now. Lincoln Riley is up
next at five to one, so Josh McDaniels, Robert Salah, uh,
Lincoln Riley. Then you've got Greg Roman, the offensive coordinator

(01:37:20):
of the Baltimore Ravens, and Urban Meyer both at six
to one, and then Eric by Enemy the Enemy who
is with the Kansas City Chiefs right now, former Colorado
running back back in the day Matt Rule are both
at seven to one, and then three guys here all
at ten to one, Dan Mullin, Gary Kubiak, and Mike

(01:37:41):
Zimmer with Jim Harbaugh at twelve to one. Now I
just hit you with all of these different odds are
you guys as surprised as I am that that they
would have Josh McDaniels as the favorite to be the
next Dallas Cowboy head coach, and not really. I heard
his name thrown around a lot yesterday when I was
watching sports shows on TV, and the one comment that

(01:38:03):
I heard a couple of times was it could be
Josh McDaniels second and last job as a head coach
in the NFL. I think you've got to hit a
home run on this though. If you're Jerry Jones, there's
no doubt he yes day at home run. But my
thing is, does Josh McDaniels seem like the kind of
guy who can handle the spotlight of the Dallas Cowboy job?
I almost feel like at this point in time, you

(01:38:25):
need somebody who is comfortable with massive attention and urban meyer.
I think, beyond the shadow of a doubt has been
in the fire. I would say Dan Mullen has two
these major ka and Lincoln Riley. Major college football coaches
are more used to dealing with media than a coordinator

(01:38:47):
is in the NFL. Now, I understand that Josh McDaniels
when he was with the Broncos dealt with the media
on a somewhat relatively regular basis. But I think it
takes a particular type of person to be able to
handle the Dallas Cowboy job. And I don't know him
at all. I don't have any kind of personal relationship
with Josh McDaniels, but he doesn't really feel to me

(01:39:08):
like the kind of guy who would fit well in Dallas.
What about you, Dub when you hear these names, Uh,
Josh McDaniels, Robert Sala, who I know absolutely nothing about.
Lincoln Riley. I feel pretty comfortable about knowing what he's like.
Urban Meyer, Matt Rule, Dan Mullen, all those guys. Jim
Harbaugh certainly I feel like I know somewhat well. Yeah,

(01:39:28):
the name that really surprised me is Robert Sala because
maybe it's just us assuming, but to me, the only
route to go would would be to hire an offensive
guy for this Dallas Cowboys team. And I know he's
done a great job with the San Francisco forty Niners defense,
but that roster and that defensive line in particular is
just the best unit in the NFL probably, so they're

(01:39:49):
not He's not going to have that in Dallas if
he decides to go that route. But as far as
Josh McDaniels go, I'm not. I'm not really surprised that
he is the betting favorite at this time. I just
kind of am surprised a little bit because it seems
that Josh McDaniels higher would be a totally normal and
expected higher. And I don't mean that in a negative way.

(01:40:11):
I just mean that there's been so much build up
to this idea that Jason Garrett is going to get fired.
It feels very NFL to go hire a guy who's
already been a failure as an NFL coach and plug
him in as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
That's why I was saying that you need a home run,
because that feels like a double, right. I don't even

(01:40:32):
feel like it. You don't feel like a double to
meld single butt. I mean it feels like hit by pitch.
If you got yeah, hit by pitch. If you go
hire a guy who's already been fired because he's not
good enough in the NFL and you go hire another
one of these Belichick proteges, it just seems like the

(01:40:52):
most conventional possible higher for a guy like Jerry Jones,
who typically has made unconventional all moves. I mean again,
if you go higher, Josh McDaniels. We can run through
the list of former Bill Belichick assistance, but most of
them haven't done very well, right, Romeo Crenell, Matt Patricia.

(01:41:14):
Bill O'Brien is probably the most successful Belichick NFL associate
who has become a head coach in the NFL. And
there's a lot of Houston Texan fans right now rolling
their eyes because they're not that happy about Bill O'Brien.
We'll wait and see what happens tomorrow with their game
against the Bills. If you win a playoff game, everybody
who loves you, but they're just And I know Brian

(01:41:36):
Flores had a decent amount of success. He went five
and four down the stretches. Too soon to judge him
in year one. Yeah, Vrabel is not really Yeah, I
guess Varibel doesn't feel as much like a Patriot guy.
Maybe that's a little bit wacky because he played there,
but he doesn't feel like, you know, the offensive or
defensive coordinator who comes completely out of the Belichick tree.

(01:42:00):
I guess you could argue that Belichick helps Vrabel in
some way get his job, But I don't really see
Belichick as coming out of the uh out of the
I mean, sorry, I don't see vrabel is coming out
of the Belichick tree. But we'll see how he does tomorrow.
I mean, if he goes on the road an he
wins against the Patriots, everybody's gonna be ecstatic. But this,
just if Josh McDaniels is the higher, it feels like

(01:42:23):
a very conventional higher in a space where the expectation was, oh,
the Cowboys are gonna fundamentally reinvent their team and change everything.
Going and hiring a guy who's already been an NFL
head coach and already been fired and is currently at
Bill Belichick assistant is literally the most conventional possible higher

(01:42:46):
you could make. And I just felt like Jerry Jones
wanted to create a stir and going out and making
what might be the final coaching higher of his ownership
career with the Dallas Cowboys. It seems very, very risk
averse to go with Josh McDaniels. Doesn't mean that Josh
McDaniels is not going to be successful, but just can

(01:43:08):
compared to the amount of attention you would get from
a Lincoln Riley or Dan Mullen or Matt Rule or
a Urban Meyer if you went to college route. That
seems a little bit surprising to me. When we come back,
we will dive into I'll give you all my picks
for the weekend to come. This is outkicked the coverage
with Clay Traffics. I'm betting every one of the wild

(01:43:36):
Card weekend games. So here is my attempt to hopefully
make you some money. I'm looking at the latest Fox
Bet odds, so they are open right in front of
me right now. You can check out Fox Bet if
you are in New Jersey or Pennsylvania more states soon
to come. The cue the music? All right, we can
play the music. I don't know the music is that important,

(01:43:57):
but Danny g is always up tessed with the music
like a big deal that the music has to be
playing in the background. It keeps things uniformed. Yeah, all right,
this is how we know. It's every every time. I
think people will probably be able to hear the gambling
picks without the music in the background and be okay.
Earliest game Houston Texans against Buffalo Bills. I like the

(01:44:19):
Bills plus three and I also like the under in
this game. I think it's gonna be really low scoring. Buffalo.
Twelve times this year the under has hit in Buffalo
Bill games. I think that they will slow down the
Houston Texans. Big issue here is how healthy is Will
Fuller going to be. Will Fuller makes this Texans defense

(01:44:40):
offense infinitely more dynamic. Kenny Stills has trouble getting open
if he's not the third option as opposed to the
second option. Fuller takes the top off the defense, opens
up things for DeAndre Hopkins and for Carlos Hide. I
like the Bills to find a way to win um
and so I like the Bills plus three and I

(01:45:02):
like the under in this game. I've been saying it
all week. My favorite bet tap the Veins Boys and
Girls Blood Bank Guarantee. This week is the Titans against
the New England Patriots. I love the Titans in this game.
I think the Titans are the better team, and if
you just take away the mystique of the Patriots, it's

(01:45:23):
rare that you can go to Foxborough over the past
twenty years almost and be able to win without needing
to play an extraordinary game. I think the Titans can
win if they just play a pretty good game. I
don't think the Patriots have a lot of offensive explosiveness.
Julian Edelman is injured, Mohammed Sanu has not been the

(01:45:45):
impact that they anticipated. Harry has not been able to
get open, can't create space. Brady doesn't seem to like
his off his his playmakers at receiver very much. And
while the Patriots have had some success running the football,
Brady has been a shell of himself. If I like
the Titans plus five, I also like the over. The
Titans have been able to score some points here, the

(01:46:06):
over under only at forty four and a half here
on Fox Bet. I like the over in this Titans game,
So I like the Titans and the over. So on Saturday,
I like both road underdogs and both unders. On Sunday
Vikings and Saints. I don't feel good about the seven
and a half that the Vikings are underdogs here the

(01:46:27):
Saints are favored, so I'm gonna avoid the seven and
a half line. I like the over. I feel like
all of the Vikings players being rested. I feel like
the oland who's been dealing with this hamstring all year.
Stefon Diggs uh this is an opportunity for the Vikings
to go out. Wouldn't surprise me if Rudolph and Irv

(01:46:48):
Smith have big games as well. Kirk Cousins is healthy.
More importantly, Dalvin Cook is healthy. Uh. Meanwhile, the Saints
have been on fire offensively. Nobody can cover Michael Thomas.
I don't see that changing. I like the over in
this game on Sunday over forty nine and a half.
And then Seahawks and Eagles. I like the Seahawks. Seahawks

(01:47:09):
went on the road in Week twelve one seventeen to nine.
I don't believe zach Ertz will play based on everything
that that our guy Dr David Chow Pro Football Talk
told us. I also like the under in this game.
So I've got seven picks for you going into the weekend.
I like the under in the Seattle and the Eagles game.
I like the Seahawks to get to win. I like

(01:47:30):
the over in the Minnesota New Orleans game. Uh, Titans
in New England. I like Titans plus five and the over,
and I like the Bills plus three and the under.
So those are my seven picks. Quickly, you guys get
to make one gambling pick each, which one would you take,
Danny G. I'm gonna take the Vikings in an upset.

(01:47:51):
You like the Vikings plus seven and a half the
Vikings to win out right? Yeah, all right, it's bold.
What about you, dub I'm taking the Eagles plus one
and a half. I think they win this game at home,
my underdogs. Which one you got? I'm I'm agree with
love there and going with the Eagles. All right, So
I can't wait to watch all these again. Seven picks
for you. You heard the music in the background, Otherwise
it would have been a disaster without the music. I

(01:48:12):
have got the Bills, I have got the under, I
have got the Titans, I've got the over. I've got
the over and the Vikings and the Saints game. I
don't like that seven and a half number. By the way,
if Danny G is right, that's plus two eighty nearly
triple your money if you bet on the Vikings to
win out right. Uh, And then I like the Seahawks
and I like the the under in that game. All right.

(01:48:36):
Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. Encourage you
to download the podcast, make sure you don't miss anything.
We'll be back on Monday, Breaking down everything that happened
in wild Card weekend, getting you ready for divisional weekend.
We only have eleven more NFL football games remaining in
this season, so enjoy all these games. Double header on
Saturday and a double header on Sunday. I hope you

(01:48:58):
guys enjoyed it, and I'm still trying to cover from
that improbable and incredible comeback from the University of Tennessee
last night. I'll either be an abject despair or walking
on air come Monday, depending on what the Titans can
do against the Patriots. Will they be able to finally
and end potentially the Brady Belichick dynasty, or will I

(01:49:18):
be a beaten man when we come into the show
on Monday fingers crossed. We will wait and see, but
I can't wait to hang out with you guys. Encourage
you to download the podcast, make sure you don't miss
anything at all. Search out my name, Clay Travis or OutKick.
We continue to roll with a number of you who
are downloading those shows. And again, Happy New Year. Thanks
for all the support you showed us in and we
look forward to an exciting, engaging, in fun. Enjoy the

(01:49:42):
games this weekend, boys and girls. I am Clay Travis,
go Big Orange, big win for Tennessee. Condolences Indiana. This
has been outkicked the coverage. Fox Sports Radio has the
best 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

(01:50:03):
listen live.

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