Double Senators

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome in out Kick listeners. I appreciate all of you.
Thank you so much for all the support of the
out Kick podcast. Right off the top here, I'd like
to ask you go give me five stars in the review.
If Danny G reads your review, you will get an
autograph copy of my book sent to you. Eventually. We
are sold out of the books right now, but I
promise they're eventually going to come. Go give me a

(00:21):
five star review today. Listen to the podcast, listen to
the radio show. If Danny G reads it, Boom, you
will get an autograph copy of my book. Thank you
for all of the support. We've got a loaded show
for you. Back to back. United States Senators, how much
has this show grown well? United States Senators recognize it's
the most listened to sports radio show in the entire country.

(00:43):
They want to come on to talk about big issues
as it relates to the intersection of sports and the
political universe. Senator Josh Holly from Missouri on the NBA
China and his bill that would require all different leagues
to be opposed to slave labor. Sounds crazy that would
have to happen, but it will make sense when we
discuss it. And Senator Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania. He had

(01:06):
a big roundtable discussion about the return of Major League Baseball.
What are some of the complexities, what are some of
the challenges, What are some of the goals of Major
League Baseball coming back in the coronavirus era? We will discuss. Plus,
I am fired up about the NFL decision to allow
helmet decals to support people who were killed by police
and why that's a hypocritical statement based on the league's

(01:27):
president in the past and some of the stupidity in
the world of sports. I'm calling out athletes and teams
all that more. It's OutKick Live six to nine am Eastern,
but you get the podcast and it begins right now.
I'll Kick the coverage with Clay Travis live every weekday
morning from six to nine a m Eastern three to
six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local

(01:50):
station for Outkicked 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 to Fox
Sports Radio. Tomorrow, Major League Baseball officially returns that, my friends,

(02:12):
is something to be excited about. Next week, The NBA
and also the NHL will come back, and we got
some good news. I think if you are in favor
of college football coming back, and let me explain what
I mean by that. A lot of you, and we
talked about this yesterday, are huge high school football fans,

(02:36):
especially if you live in certain communities where high school
football is wildly popular. Among those places where high school
football matters more than almost anything in the country is
Texas and yesterday, and I think this is significant. Texas
announced that one A to A, three A and four
A football is going to take place on time, and

(02:58):
that five and six A football will be a little
bit behind in terms of playing, but that they are
all going to play. That joins Georgia and Florida, which
both said that high school football practice can begin on July.
Why is that significant, Well, if you're a college football fan,

(03:19):
this now means with all of the players returning to
NFL teams to get COVID tests, all of the NFL,
I think, even though they've now canceled the preseason, I
think almost everybody out there would acknowledge that the NFL
isn't going to in some way former fashion play and
now much of high school football is going to take

(03:42):
place across the country, and so I'm just firmly convinced
that college football is going to happen as well. Meaning basically,
we're gonna have every sport under the sun this fall.
As we get ready in into the late summer, we
are going to have the most wildly busy sports calendar

(04:03):
in the history of your life in August and September
and in October, the likes of which we have never
seen before. So I wanted to start with a really
good moment of optimism. Uh, they're on top of that. Okay,
so high school football and much of the country I
know California, by the way, has pushed back to winter.

(04:25):
I think that's going to be the minority decision. In
other words, I think that most states are going to
play high school football in some form or fashion this fall.
And I know for a lot of you out there,
that is a very big deal. Whether you are at
high school age kid who is listening to me early
in the morning or on podcasts somewhere, or whether you

(04:47):
are a parent that believes that your kids need to
be involved in school sporting activities. I believe that that
is a really good move all right, and by the way,
the data all reflects that kids should be ba in
school this fall. I read a good article in the
UH in the Times of London, UH, the newspaper over there,

(05:09):
and this is a this is a good data point.
There has not been a single recorded case in the
entire world of a teacher catching the coronavirus from a student.
Not one recorded case anywhere in the world. And UH.
One of the leading epidemiologists and members of the government's

(05:32):
committee that has been advising politicians in England said it
was maybe a mistake now to close schools in March,
given the limited role children's play in spreading the virus.
The idea that schools are even gonna be closed anywhere
this fall based on the data is completely unsupported by

(05:54):
any factual analysis that makes sense there. UH. And so
as a father of a twelve and five year old,
I want my kids back in school, and I also
want them playing sports. UH, if they are enrolled in
school and they want to do that. Now, what's interesting
is I I don't know about you guys in summer camps,
but here in Nashville where I live, my kids this

(06:16):
week are at a summer y m c A camp
with hundreds of other kids. They ride a school bus
to the y m c A camp every single day
here in the Nashville area. If hundreds of kids can
go to a y m c A summer camp, why

(06:37):
in the world our school is not open in my
part of the country. It doesn't make any sense at all.
There is no scientific justification whatsoever for schools to be
shut down from kindergarten all the way through college. Everyone
choosing otherwise is panicking based on no data whatsoever. So

(07:00):
high schools props to the high school sports associations which
have generally been making the decision to play this fall.
It's the right decision. A couple of other things that
I want to get into. The NFL is reportedly going
to allow helmet decals for victims of police violence to

(07:20):
be honored during NFL games. This is a mess the NFL,
and I want to open up phones because I want
to get you guys opinions on what you think about this.
The NFL is making, I believe, a really bad decision
if they are only going to allow helmet decals for

(07:41):
people who have been killed by police, Okay, this is
a changing precedent for the NFL because a few years ago,
you may remember, the NFL would not allow Jason Witten
to where or his Dallas Cowboy teammates to where a

(08:01):
a helmet decal honoring the Dallas police after five Dallas
police officers were murdered by a crazy Black Lives Matter activist.
Do you remember that story? Certainly if you're in Dallas
and you're listening to me right now, or if you're
in the state of Texas, you probably do. That story
has faded in many ways in terms of the amount

(08:23):
of attention it has gotten. But if you remember, in Dallas,
a crazed Black Lives Matter activist killed, executed, assassinated five
Dallas police officers and UH and as a result, the
Dallas Cowboys, led by Jason Witten at the time, wanted

(08:43):
to put a helmet decal on to UH to back
police forces. The NFL said no. The NFL a few
years ago would not allow the Dallas Cowboys to wear
a helmet decal to honor the assassinated Alice police officers.
And now they are reportedly going to allow names of

(09:07):
police victims to be placed on helmets. What about all
of the police officers that are getting killed in the
line of duty. What about the police officers that were
killed by protesters and rioters. What about the fact that
this flies in the faiths of the president that the
NFL shot down when Jason Witten wanted to honor police

(09:29):
in Dallas. This is a big issue, Okay. On top
of that, the NFL also wouldn't allow Tim Tebow to
put Bible verses in his eye black. Do you remember
that the NFL said no to Tim Tebow when it
came to Bible verses in the eye black? And there
are other issues in terms of using uniforms to make

(09:51):
statements which are in no way, in my opinion, controversial.
I don't think it's controversial for for Tim Tebow to
write John three sixteen in his eye black. I don't
have any issue with that at all. I don't have
any issue with Jason Witten deciding he wants to honor
Dallas police. The NFL wouldn't allow that, But they're going

(10:12):
to allow Black Lives Matter activism on NFL uniforms. This
is a bad move. The NFL is trending towards where
the NBA is, which is turning hypocritical as an organization
if you're going to allow political statements to be made

(10:33):
on uniforms, then you better allow all players to put
whatever names to honor whatever individuals have been killed out
there at all. You better not be content discriminating and
only allowing police victims of of misconduct to be put

(10:53):
onto uniforms as a form of acknowledgement and honor. And
let me just take this a step further. This is also,
I believe, going to inflame things because it's a tiny
minority of police officers that engage in misconduct, tiny tiny minority.

(11:15):
And are we not going to allow players to make
statements about all of the people who are being shot
right now all over the country as a result of
police not being able to do their job. There are
tons of young kids, most of them young black kids,
that have been murdered across this country since quote unquote

(11:37):
Black Lives Matter started their protests in the wake of
George Floyd. I just saw a stat this morning from
New York. Are you ready? New York wants to defund
the police. They have taken away some of the money
and responsibility from the New York Police Department. Shootings compared
to last year are up two hundred fifty three percent. Okay,

(12:02):
let me repeat that. Shootings in New York are up
two hundred and fifty three We just had I believe
the number is fourteen people shot at a Chicago funeral
home last night. Shootings have skyrocketed in Atlanta, in Chicago,

(12:23):
in New York, in l A, basically across the country
in big cities. As police now are making decisions about
not allowing, uh not being allowed to do their jobs,
and as the defund the police movement gains power, more
black lives are going to die because the protection that

(12:47):
police provide has been ignored. This is a big issue, guys,
in terms of the way the media covers police. Nobody
in the media. And by the way, we got a
lot of police who listened to this program. And I
appreciate everything that you eyes do. I really do. I
appreciate you guys putting your lives on the line. The
media focuses almost exclusively on individual police officer misconduct, and

(13:11):
make no mistake, when a police officer behaves like Derek
Chauvin did up in Minute, Minnesota, they need to be
charged with crimes. Okay, that's a tiny minority of misconduct.
That's occurring from police. Police like every other profession in
the world, doctors, lawyers, architects, and janitors. Some people teachers

(13:32):
out there don't deserve to have a job and are
not worthy of being able to have that job, and
they're protected by their unions. That's a story as old
as time here in America when it comes to unions
protecting the weakest members of their profession. That's what unions do. Honestly,
spend most of the time defending people who don't really

(13:55):
deserve to be offended defended. But what we have missed
and what the media has missed in the way that
they are covering this situation, is the tens of thousands,
if not more, of lives that police save. And so
when the NFL is going to put decals on their
helmets further suggesting that police can't be trusted, it further

(14:18):
aids the defund the police movement, which is going to
end in more lives lost, the majority of which are
going to be black lives. And so if the NFL
is going to step in here, they better allow players
to also support police and not just try to condemn them.
And let me say, this is a mess for the

(14:38):
NFL they shouldn't be doing it. Same position I have
with the n b A. I don't think it's smart
to use your uniform to make political statements of a
propaganda nature, because you're not allowing full throated political statements period,
You're only allowing content, discriminated statements that have already been

(14:59):
pre appre moved by the league to be made. I
think this is a mess. I think the NFL is
walking into an absolute disaster here if they make the
decision to do what has been reported, which has put
decals on the helmet in honor of lives that have
been lost due to police misconduct, especially in the wake
of the precedent they set with Tim Tebow of hey,

(15:22):
you can't have Bible verses on your uniform in any
way and your eye black, and more specifically and more directly,
this is an exact repudiation of the precedent they set
with Jason Witten when they would not allow Jason Witten
to honor the five police officers who were assassinated by
a member of Black Lives Matter in Dallas. This is

(15:44):
a mess. This is a huge issue. Eight seven seven
nine six three six nine. You can open up phone
lines I'll see what you guys think about the helmet decal.
I also here as we are finishing off the first
segment of the first hour. One give credit to Sage Steele,
who is a friend of mine who I think it

(16:06):
does incredible work at ESPN. I don't know if you
guys saw this, but I really couldn't believe that she
went public and said what she did about ESPN. But
she said, I'm gonna read a couple of quotes. This
is from the Wall Street Journal. You can also go
read about it at out kick. UH. Sage Steele said

(16:27):
she was told that she didn't have the right opinions,
uh for a black person in order to be involved
in discussing race issues at ESPN. In fact, she was
pulled off of a special that aired on ESPN H
that was a reflection on race and sports after the

(16:47):
killing of George Floyd. She was pulled off the show
because some of the employees at ESPN did not feel
that she had the appropriate opinion as a black person. Seriously, uh,
and Sage Steele said in a statement, I found it
sad for all of us that any human being should

(17:08):
be allowed to define someone's blackness. Growing up bi racial
in America, with a black father and a white mother,
I have felt the iniquities that many, if not all,
black and biracial people have felt. Being called a monkey,
the in word having ape sounds made as I walked
by words and actions that all of us know, sting forever.

(17:33):
Most importantly, trying to define who is and isn't black
enough goes against everything we are fighting for in this
country and only creates more of a divide. I'm curious
out there, we have a large black listenership. I want
to hear from you, guys and girls. Do you feel

(17:55):
compelled to have a certain opinion based on your race? Uh?
I believe, and I can't speak to it, but I
believe the idea that you have to believe something based
on what you look like is the very essence of racism.
And I support Sage Steel for going public with the

(18:15):
fact that some people at ESPN believe she can only
have a certain opinion and guess what, it's a far
left wing opinion because she's black, and that they will
actually keep her from being able to speak out on
the network as a result of her of her race

(18:35):
not comporting with what the overall ESPN narrative should be
as how black people are responding to a variety of
issues in this country. Uh. And got to give Sage
Steel credit for this as well. She said on air
and on social media that most black athletes were unwilling
to criticize Philadelphia Eagle player DeShawn Jackson for making anti

(19:00):
Semitic comments quote. The silence is deafening. She also said
on Instagram over the lack of outrage over de Shaun
Jackson's remarks that it was especially frustrating given the backlash
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees faced for his stance
on players kneeling during the anthem, saying quote that Drew

(19:21):
Brees would never agree with it and having to apologize.
Sage Steele said, are we holding Are we all in
on holding people accountable for insensitive remarks or only when
it's convenient for us? Uh? These are really, I believe, smart,
important statements that Sage Steele is making. I think they

(19:43):
all connect with the NFL decision, with the larger defund
the police movement, and with the idea that sports as
they return, are going to become intensely political and frankly
not intensely political. Where everybody has the right to speak,
but in tensely political embracing far left wing politics. A

(20:04):
lot of different things that I just hit you with
in that open Uh. And by the way, we have
got an incredible show coming your way. We're gonna be
joined by Senator Josh Holly from Missouri an hour two
to talk about the NBA's relationship with China. Big news
coming out of Houston. UH. This morning early I saw
breaking the United States is closing down the Chinese consulate there.

(20:26):
What is the impact of that decision? Also, has the
NBA responded to Josh Holly's letter and as he heard
from ESPN about their fu response to his questions on China.
And then an hour three we have another United States senator,
Senator to Me from Pennsylvania is going to join us.
And by the way, this is a credit to you guys,

(20:48):
how much the audience has grown for this show that
United States senators want to come on and talk to
you about sports related issues. In our three you may remember,
Senator or to Me came on before to argue that
all kids should be able to play Little League based
on the data with Major League Baseball returning, he had
a roundtable discussion with many of the top decision makers

(21:11):
in Major League Baseball about the health protocols and standards
that will be in place there. We will talk with
Senator to me about the return of Major League Baseball
and why it's important, and also what the health protocols
are going to be put in place there. All of
that gonna be very good, very important coming in your direction.
But I'm gonna open up the phone lines and take
your calls next eight seven seven, six six three six nine.

(21:36):
This is outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis. Let's go
ahead and bring in the crew, um and UH and
talk about this in a larger context. Danny, G Are
you with me that if the NFL is going to
allow helmet decals, that they basically have to apologize to

(21:57):
Jason Witten for not allowing him to act police when
those five police officers were assassinated. Well, and it's interesting
because Witten got called out recently. Remember I think it
was Dez Bryant. It was Dez Bryant calling him and
Jerry Jones and a few others out saying that they
needed to support Black Lives matter. And so Jason Witten
went did Yeah, Jason Witten went into the community in

(22:21):
Las Vegas and did some work. He's been a stand
up guy. Yeah, everybody needs to be able to have
a voice and nowadays, and I think this is one
of the reasons why out Kick has exploded the way
it has is because it almost feels impossible to have
a view that's down the middle right now. Like, I
don't like the feeling of somebody telling me I have
to choose a side. Why does there have to be sides?

(22:44):
I don't like it. I've mentioned this before on the
show that I had a family member when I was
a little kid that I watched get harassed by police.
I understand those feelings completely. But I also have a
friend who is a sergeant for the l A p D.
And so I understand how much he sacrifices and how
hard his job has been, especially over the last several months.

(23:06):
So what if on my NFL helmet I wanted both
a George Floyd sticker and a Blue Lives flag sticker? Yeah,
I don't understand that. That's been my position from the
from going forward. Like, it's a good point about what
I think are false and arbitrary sides. Uh. I think
you can both believe that police officers who commit misconducts

(23:27):
should be prosecuted and also that the vast majority of
police officers are doing very good work and saving tens
of thousands of lives in this country. And I think
what you're seeing is what always happens when people decide, oh,
we don't need police, we're gonna defund them. They're just
causing problems. The reality is the murder rate skyrockets, And

(23:50):
what's frustrating to me is I think athletes are making
things worse instead of better. Like there are many more
black lives dying right now because of the defund the
police movement and the massive increase of murder and shootings
across this country in many big cities where there have
been mostly active protests. Okay, then would have happened if

(24:14):
there had never been a protest in the first place.
There are many black lives that have been lost as
a result of the defund the police movement already. And
for those of us who were old enough to remember
what things were like before police were given the ability
to protect people in cities, used to not want to

(24:35):
go walk through Central Park at night at all, used
to not want to go into Times Square at night
at all. There were many parts of New York that
were not safe for average people to be able to
go into. And then they led to a plummeting crime
rate because the police got control of the bad guys

(24:59):
and managed to say a hundreds of thousands of lives
probably over the last twenty years or so, if not
millions of lives. Really, when you start to think about
the crime rate and how many people who get murdered
never have kids and on down the line, how that
impacts things. But certainly in the hundreds of thousands of lives,
and now we know already what's going to happen. We're

(25:21):
already seeing it as soon as you tell police, hey,
we're taking the money that we're giving to you and
we're not going to allow you to do your jobs anymore.
The murder rate and the shooting rates kin of Skyrocket,
I mean, it's just factual, and it's like people don't
want to acknowledge it because of what you just said,
Danny g. It's like, oh, you have to be on
the side of the police are all evil or the

(25:44):
police are all great. How about the police are human.
That's the side that I'm on, most of them are
pretty good at their jobs. Some of them are not.
The ones who are not who violate public trust should
be prosecuted. But the ones that aren't violating public trust,
the ones that are saving tens of thousands of lives,
need to be able to continue to do so. And

(26:04):
this used to not be a crazy political statement. It
used to be that you were able if you were
a Democrat like Bill Clinton and go out and say, hey,
we need more police officers on the street. This used
to not be a political issue. If Joe Biden came
out and said, hey, we need instead of defunding the police,
we need more people, uh, more police on the streets,

(26:27):
then people would lose their mind in the Democratic Party.
But that's the truth. The more police you have, the
safer a community is. This is not rocket science. It's
really frustrating to me that athletes are on the wrong
side of this issue. That James Harden wore a back
the blue face mask and he had to say, oh no,
it wasn't my intention to support police officers. I just

(26:47):
like the mask. Because NBA Twitter lost its mind at
the idea that an NBA player might be in favor
of police lives. It's crazy to me. Uh, what about you, Dubbed?
Do you think this is as wild as I do? Yeah,
And I couldn't agree more with Danny g and what
he just said. The whole idea of pre approved messages

(27:08):
seems ridiculous to me. Like in the NBA, the names
in the back of the jersey, we all know they
came from a list of pre approved statements. And now
with the NFL, I mean, you can't put anything else
that you want to support other than what they're allowing.
That whole idea to me doesn't make any sense at all,
especially in this country where free speech is one of
the one of the best things we have. Uh, it's

(27:31):
a hallmark of our country. So if you're going to
pre approve what statements can be made politically, that's not
content neutral First Amendment, Uh, statements that are being allowed
by leagues, that is effectively lead propaganda. And so the
idea that the NFL is going to change their rule, Okay,

(27:51):
if they're going to change their rule, they need to
open it up for everybody, and they need to apologize
to Jason Witten and by the way, I think they
also need to apologize to Tim Tebow. Because if you're
allowed to put police shooting victims on your helmet, why
can't you put a Bible verse in your eye? Black?
Those are real questions that the NFL is opening up
that they're gonna have to answer. What do you think, Roberto?

(28:11):
Do you think this is a U gree with Danny
g and and me and Dubbed? This is ludicrous that
you have to pick one side or the other here. Yeah,
I've been arrived by police. I was arrest a couple
of times. Um, most recently when I was with my
daughter just going along hiking. My dad was last once
ever his sold security NUMBERY will know he's an American
citizen of this country. But I'm not with defunding the police.

(28:33):
And I feel like you should be able to wear
whatever you want on your helmet or where nothing at all. Yeah,
and then that that's the way I feel about that. Yeah,
I agree. Okay, we got a lot of people who
want to weigh in eight seven seven nine six three
six nine uh talking about the NFL potentially allowing statements
on the helmet, as well as the statements that were
made by Sage Steele about ESPN only seeming to empower

(28:56):
people who have the quote unquote right black opinion, and
whether that is a pressure pack situation for many people
who are black in this country who feel like they're
being pressured to have only one particular opinion based on
the color of their skin. Who is up first? We
got Jose and Fremont. Jose, what do you think? What's up?

(29:16):
What's up? Fellows? Hey, I'm I'm with uh, I'm with
you guys totally on what you guys said. I believe
they're opening Pandora's box. It's something that could have easily avoided.
But they're gonna create. Uh, They're going to create a
storm for themselves. And I think that if you're gonna
have allow these names to be back there, which I
don't have a problem with because I understand nobody should die,
I'm totally with you, but you should also allow the

(29:39):
officers that have been killed as well. And um, these
guys that they're gonna be representing, Let's keep it real, Clay,
A lot of these guys are gonna have their names
up there. Are not your stand up model citizens. I
don't understand why people don't understand that. And yeah, I'll
give you, I'll give you an example, Michael Brown. The
NFL players got involved with the Rams when they were
still in St. Louis with the idea of ends up,

(30:00):
don't shoot. That is a lie that didn't happen. Michael
Brown was shot. I think it's a tragedy when anybody
gets shot by a police officer. But Michael Brown was
not innocent. The Justice Department investigated, the Obama and Eric
Holder Justice Department. By the way, Ferguson was built on
a lie. There was no improper conduct by a police

(30:20):
officer in Ferguson based on multiple investigations. And so the
idea that the NFL is going to allow a Michael
Brown insignia on their helmet like that, that's lunacy. It's
not supported by any sort of factual basis. But the
larger issue here is what jose is just talking about
and what everybody's talking about. The NFL is deciding to

(30:41):
wade into a contentious issue. And right now, at least
based on the reports I've seen, it doesn't sound like
they're going to allow a variety of different viewpoints via
these helmet decals. They're only going to allow one thing.
And by the way, is this gonna end up being controversial.
If a white player decides he wants to support the police,

(31:02):
is his black teammate going to be upset by that
because he's making the statement I backed the police on
his helmet while somebody else is basically trying to tear
down the police. Why in the world is the NFL
stepping into this? And again, why is there aside here?
To me, there's only one intelligent side. It is police
save tens of thousands of lives. The vast majority of

(31:23):
police are very good at what they do for a living.
The police that violate public trust and commit crimes should
be prosecuted. I don't understand how that is not the
position of every reasonable, insane adult in this country. This
idea that you have to be pro or anti the
police is frankly leading to more deaths, the majority of

(31:44):
which are black. And if black lives truly matter, you
should be supporting the police because they protect more black
lives than anybody in the entire country. Sinsanity me. Who's
up next? We got Ben in Florida. Ben, what's shaken? Yes, So,
first of all, I'd like to set the record strate
that Jeff gold Bloom as Louie Shale Peckers the girl. Second,

(32:07):
for those of you out there who haven't heard, by
the way, because that could come out of nowhere. We've
been trying to explore Jeff Goldbloom stealing Petross Girl for
the past two visits with Petros Papadakis from a M
five seventies sports. He joins us in Tuesday in the
final hour of the program. It's a very significant investigation
that we have undertaken. So that's the background in the
event you're not familiar with that, sorry, but you're continue Ben.

(32:32):
Second of all, I would like to know what you
speculate knowing that there's a lot of narratives and a
lot of things that are going on with the NFL
and the NBA. What you know, knowing that they're going
to be a huge hit already from the gate, what
do you speculate as far as viewership is going to
be and if they're going to allow and if a

(32:52):
lot of players end up pushing forward with their political
statements on their helmets for the NFL and then with
the back the jersey for the NBA. Yeah, it's a
good question. Um, it's a complicated question because frankly, the
coronavirus has thrown everything into an uproar as it pertains
to television ratings. What we know is in the wake
of the Colin Kaepernick protests, the NFL ratings dropped. By

(33:16):
that cost the league television partners hundreds of millions of dollars.
So a lot of people turned off the NFL in
the wake of the Colin Kaepernick protests. You can argue
about exactly why that was, but once the Colin Kaepernick
protest ended, ratings came back. I think it was about
making the NFL political. There was a substantial part of
the of the population that was not interested in that.

(33:39):
As a general rule, I think embracing politics is gonna
be very bad for individual sports leagues and their ratings.
The challenge here is there's not gonna be crowds, right,
So let's think about the NFL in particular this fall.
This fall, if you ordinarily would have gone and watched
a game in person because you're an NFL season ticket holder,
most people are not going to do that. Myself, I'm

(34:01):
in that category. I have season tickets for the Tennessee
Titans in my hometown, so I'll be watching every game
on television. Also, I think the number of people that
go out to sports bars or go watch games with
their friends or their buddies is going to be down
as well. And that might work in the NFL's favor
because more people are gonna be home watching games then

(34:23):
would typically be watching games. But I think the general
rule on that trend line is going to be a decline.
We're gonna continue to take your calls. This is outkicked
the coverage with clay traffics. We're taking your calls on
the potential. I think disastrous decision by the NFL to
allow statements on helmet stickers, uh, particularly if there are

(34:46):
only one sided political statements. Who's up next, dub We
got Shane in New York Shane fire Away, Good morning play. Hey, First,
you need to pull for the worst radical left mayor
in the history of politics, Blasio or Lightfoot. You mentioned um,
you mentioned writing crime here in New York City, Chicago.
Chicago resembles the city in Afghanistan. Right now. They've they've

(35:07):
had a hundred people shot not this month, since Saturday,
hundred people shot in Chicago since Saturday. Where you are
you in New York City? I'm in New York City. Yeah,
the shootings are I was literally reading that that that
this morning New York Daily News headline gun violence and
murder spike across New York City as police arrest summons

(35:27):
is plunge. Shootings up two hundred and fifty three in
New York City over last year at this time, the
numbers are correct, and you've got Blasio and now AOC
blaming it on unemployment and some other bs and not
and nothing to do with the funding of the police. Yeah,
that's talking about the NFL and the NBA. They're walking

(35:51):
a very fine line on losing the serious fan base
over this political BS. But I just want to touch
base on the NBA whitlock. The Big Sexy was awesome
last night Ingraman well, he was. I didn't even know
he was on Loria Ingram last night. He was on
Lori ENGLM. I didn't even know. I went to bed early.
I I wasn't even aware he came on late. He
was like he was on like on the last fifteen

(36:12):
twenty minutes of her show. And but he was awesome.
Discussed in China and the NB A brilliant higher by
you bringing him to the out back family. By the way,
I just want to point it out, although everyone seems
to agree, but listen, besides Sean, I'm sorry Senator Holly
stepping up and calling out the NBA. Did you happen
to see Ted Cruz completely destroy Mark Cuban on Twitter yesterday?

(36:35):
And I'm and I'm and I'm a Mark Cuban fan,
but he left him speechless. And I'm just I just
want to ask you and the call, I mean, do
you really see the NBA? Do you really think the
NBA is going to pick the Chinese yen over over
the US fan base because according to Whitlock, they're looking
for revenue to increase, They're looking for a contribution revenue

(36:57):
of the NBA to increase up to thirty percent. By yeah,
thanks for the call, um. I think this is a
big challenge, and I think the NBA people say, why
do you care about the NBA's response to Hong Kong
and China. Well, the NBA in the world of sports
is a metaphor of a larger issue that's going on
in the United States versus China. We're in a new

(37:18):
Cold War. And for those of you who are old
enough to remember when Russia and the United States were
going toe to toe over what the future of the
world was gonna look like. Was it gonna look like
communist Russia or was it gonna look like capitalistic United
States of America. We won the Cold War with Russia,

(37:38):
and Russia collapsed and eventually ended up embracing at least
some forms of capitalism. What's going on with China right
now is China is trying to use the NBA as
propaganda to tear down the United States. And right now
NBA players are choosing and coaches and owners are choosing

(37:59):
to be on the side of the closest thing to
Nazi Germany that exists in the world today. It's wild
because the NBA wants to sell itself as this incredible
social justice warrior organization, and they are taking hundreds of
millions of dollars billions of dollars from the equivalent of
modern day Nazis in China, and they're trying to lecture

(38:23):
us on politics in America while they are taking money
from Nazis. And there's all this obsession in the NBA
with being on the right side of history. We already
know right now they're on the wrong side of history
with China, and what I see happening is athletes are
not only saying things that are not particularly intelligent, They're

(38:47):
saying things that are making things more dangerous and worse
for average American citizens. When you're going out and demeaning
police officers, as the NFL is considering doing, you are
directly leading to more murders in this country. Most of
those murder victims are going to be black. When you
are demonizing the police, you are leading to more murders

(39:08):
shootings than death. And this is so easily transparent when
you look at the data. What in the world is
going on here that athletes and leagues are making such
fundamentally stupid decisions. Be sure to catch live editions about
Kicked the coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am
Eastern three am Pacific. Positives out there. High school football

(39:29):
coming roaring back in Texas, also going on in Georgia
and Florida. I believe many other states are going to
follow their lead. The California's of the world waiting to
play until the winter are going to be the rarity.
We got NFL players going back to their teams getting
tested for the coronavirus. As the NFL hammers out what

(39:49):
it's off season preseason, I should say training program will
look like as everybody gets ready for that opening game
between the Texans and the Chiefs on September ten. Uh,
that is a positive. Although there will be no preseason,
I would imagine most fans would love to sign off
on there never being another preseason football game in the NFL.

(40:09):
And I know season ticket holders like me would love
to sign off on never having to pay full price
for a couple of NFL preseason games that nobody wants
to watch as well. So that could be a positive
that comes out of this. Tomorrow Major League Baseball will
officially return. All of that being very positive. We are
taking your calls on a controversial decision that has been reported,

(40:32):
although not yet officially announced, that the NFL would allow
decals on the helmets with the names of police shooting
victims um and I'm pointing out how hypocritical that would
be in the context of the decision by the NFL
to not allow Jason Witten several years ago to honor

(40:52):
the Dallas police officers who were murdered by a member
of Black Lives Matter. It's like people don't want to
remember that that ever occur, but certainly in the city
of Dallas, that wound is still fresh. When a member
of Black Lives Matter, in the midst of a protest
decided to take aim and try to kill as many
police officers as he could, the NFL would not allow

(41:13):
Jason Witten to put a decal on his helmet supporting police.
So now they're going to suddenly allow helmet decals to
support people who were killed by police. This seems like
a really, really bad decision by the NFL, and it
puts them in the same territory as the NBA, which
is allowing statements left wing political statements that is uh

(41:34):
to be made and embraced by their players, but not allowing,
for instance, China to be criticized, or for players to
advocate for Hong Kong to be free, or for basic
human rights and democracy around the world. The NBA wants
to lecture you about things that are going on in
the United States that they don't like, while ignoring the
fact that they are taking money effectively from modern day

(41:55):
Nazis in China and pretending that there aren't massive human
rights of uses concentration camps, book bannings going on in
China right now, just like we're happening in Nazi Germany
back in the nineteen thirties. Uh So, that is a
big story. I believe and have believed and have argued
this for years on this show, that it's smart for

(42:16):
the leagues to not embrace any particular type of politics
because people go to sports to get away from politics.
But that's where we are right now, where the leagues
are embracing far left wing politics and breaking, in the
case of the NFL and the NBA, longstanding precedents about
what statements are allowed to be made on the uniforms.

(42:37):
And I don't think that's very good for the NBA
in the NFL business. But I also think it's just
bad on policy decisions because ripping the police while we're
in the middle of a massive crime rise in cities
all over the country, when murders are skyrocketing and when
shootings are skyrocketing, because idiots out there are are doing, Hey,

(43:00):
we got to defend the defund the police. We're not
going to allow police to do their jobs? Well, what
did you think was gonna happen? It's just it's insanely
frustrating to someone like me who considers himself to be
eminently reasonable. And I don't understand how the entire national
perspective has chosen has led to people choosing sides on

(43:21):
issues that don't have sides. I mean, this is so
transparently straightforward to me. Support police officers. They keep crime lower,
they save tens of thousands of lives across this country.
The vast majority of them are doing a very difficult
job to their best of their ability. And also when
police officers commit crimes, charge them with crimes. When a

(43:43):
tiny minority of police officers misbehaves like we saw in Minnesota,
charging them with crimes, Like, how is that not eminently reasonable?
And yet we're not allowed to have those positions because
social media is allowing the nincompoops out there to our you, oh,
defund the police. We've gotta take all the money away
from police, and the end result is going to be

(44:05):
just exactly what we're seeing right now, which is more
shootings and more murder and more rapes and more violence period. Like,
it's so transparently clear what we're gonna see. And because
there are a bunch of idiots out there, we're gonna
see like what we saw happen in Chicago last night.
We're fourteen people got shot at a funeral. At a funeral,
I've never even heard of that. You ever heard of

(44:25):
fourteen people getting shot at a funeral. That's what happened
in Chicago last night. Just taking calls that woke up
this morning to a headline New York Daily News. Shootings
are up massive amount two d and fifty three percent
over last year in New York City. Do you know who?
Most of the people getting shot are? Black people? If
you're protesting the black Lives matter, what in the world

(44:46):
is going on that the biggest victims of crime right
now when you defund the police are going to be
black Because there's no greater adherent of the phrase black
lives matter than police. They saved tens of thousands of
black lives every single year. It's crazy to me. We're
taking your calls eight seven seven six nine about the

(45:08):
NFL's decision. Also sage Steele firing at firing back at
ESPN over her belief that ESPN will not allow her
to speak out because she is black and does not
have the same opinion as other black people who work
at ESPN. You have to have far left wing political
opinions at ESPN or else they silence you, is what

(45:30):
Sage Steele told the Wall Street Journal. Encourage you to
read that article. I tweeted it out. We're taking your calls.
Who's up next, ub? We got Chris in Texas, Chris
fire Away. Hey, Clay, you know most people in our country,
they're they're losing their mind and you're out here telling knowledge.
So they don't like that. Yeah, you know, it's cool

(45:51):
about the show Man, you could call in and talk
to you any day. But about all these masking stuff
that we're wearing and all is corona virus fear. It's like,
you're your underwear is a barrier for your ass, right,
So if you fart, don't you still smell your fart?

(46:13):
So why would have masks stop the virus? You know
what I mean? Brilliant analysis there from Chris. The the mask,
depending on the quality of the mask, it limits the
amount of the amount of the virus that can't escape.
I think that is that is inescapably true. What I

(46:34):
think is a little bit ridiculous about the whole mask
process is, for instance, if you go into a restaurant,
and I think we talked about this with Petro's, but
I've done it the last two days in UH in
Nashville with my kids. My kids are at camp. I
told you, they're at a summer camp day camp right now.
At the end of their day, wife and I go
pick them up and then we take your kids out
for dinner. And so we walked into a restaurant the

(46:58):
last two days. We're driving our car. I'm not one
of those crazy people who you see driving in their
cars with their masks on. So we've got masks in
the car. We pull up directly in front of the
of the restaurant. We're in the car. Right we get
out of the car. I'm walking literally like three ft

(47:18):
across the sidewalk, which is empty, into a restaurant. I'm
supposed to put my mask on to walk across three
ft of pavement into the restaurant, wear the mask until
I'm seated, and then immediately take off the mask, assuming
there's not a weight. Well, I'm not gonna wait for
a restaurant right now. Right, you literally are wearing a mask.

(47:41):
Let's say your meal takes an hour, which your forty
five minutes whatever, you want to say you're literally wearing
a mask for thirty seconds in the restaurant before you
take it off to start eating or drinking. What sense
does that make as a logical human being. What sent
does it make to wear a mask to walk three

(48:03):
ft across pavement and then to be seated and immediately
take your mask off and start eating and drinking. There
is no sane reason why any restaurant that is seating
people you should have a mask on when you walk in,
because for of the time in the restaurant that you're there,

(48:25):
you're not wearing a mask, because you can't wear a
mask while you eat or drink. Look, I'm not the person,
and I've said this before, who is going to throw
a fit when a place of business requires you to
wear a mask? I think that's a ludicrous, ludicrous to
throw the fit. So if I first of all, I
don't shop very much. I buy I've said this for
a long time. Virtually everything I buy is either from

(48:47):
Amazon or Costco. Almost I don't remember the last time
I bought something for myself from a place other than
Amazon or Costco. So I'm not out shopping a lot.
I'm I'm not in restaurants. I mean, I'm in restaurants.
I'm not in stores that much. But it's not like
the person who's working the front of the store is
making policy about what's being done. You know, the sixteen

(49:10):
year old who's seating you at a restaurant, or the
guy who's checking your Costco pass when you enter into
Costco or Walmart or Kroger or whatever it is. They're
not setting policy. So if that's the policy, whatever, I
would say, do it. But I'm just saying a lot
of Americans are like me when they go into a restaurant.
They're rolling their eyes at what I would call cosmetic

(49:30):
theater of requiring me to have a mask, to walk
three feet and then sit down and immediately take my
mask off. For of the time that I am in
a restaurant, I'm not wearing a mask because the purpose
of being a restaurant is to eat and drink. Let's
try to get your calls taken care of here. Who's
up next? Yeah, I got a couple left here. We
got Kevin in l A. Okay, who's up Kevin? What's up?

(49:55):
How you doing there? Excellent? So, um, you know, I
would just want to address the mask to real quick.
You know, it's just to you know, stop the contact
so the virus has nowhere to go. Um. So that's
where the rap mask. You know, I don't care who
anybody votes for, just where it so we could do
what we gotta do. As far as this, you know
thing with the decals, the names on the back of

(50:16):
the helmets. Look, if you have fallen officers, you want
to honor, wear them on the back of your your helmet.
If you have people who got killed by officers, wear
them on the back of your helmet. This isn't you know,
um us against them thing. It's right, right, it's right.
Like my girl, Kelly Loffler said, you know, the Black
Lives Matter thing is, you know, just say black lives matter.
You know that that Black lives matter. It's not about

(50:38):
the foundation or the people you see on the website
what they stand for. And I think that's what people
are trying to get out there. It's not that certain
people are against the cause. It's kind of what's on
their on their narrative, what's on their website. And I
hope you get her on the show, to get Kelly
on the show. Um, she really I thought she said

(50:58):
that perfectly what she said. Um, when she was interviewed
on ESPN, Um, you know these people asking her to
sell her team. Um, she wasn't really condemning Black Lives Matter.
She was just saying what they stand for on their
website is what people are talking about. And I people
get so misconstrued about the whole cause, like when we
say black lives matter, we're not necessarily saying we endorse

(51:21):
with on that website because a lot of that stuff.
I don't agree with any of it, but I agree
that black lives matter, So I just wish that we
have more of a clear narrative of what the message
actually is. And Um, I couldn't agree more with what
Kelly Luftler said about it. I think she's being handled
as like as a villain worhen she's not. She's trying
to be an ally in this situation, just saying, hey,

(51:43):
we honor, we believe black lives matter. But you know,
what they say on their website is taken away from
the message, and that's why I think the whole thing
has got hijacked. Marcel's Wiley did a good job, I thought,
speaking out about that on FS one on s F
y uh and Jason Wetlock linked at in one of
his stories. But by the way, so far, the NFL

(52:03):
isn't saying that they're going to do what you said. Right.
So far the NFL, the report is at least that
I've seen that the NFL is only going to allow
victims of police violence, not anybody else's names on helmet decals.
So that would be choosing a side in one way
or the other that I think is not smart, And frankly,
I don't think it's smart for the NF. Thanks for

(52:25):
a call. I don't think it's smart for the NFL
to get involved in this issue at all right now.
In my personal opinion, I just don't think it's smart,
and I think it flies in the face of the
precedent that they've previously said. Again when Jason Witten was
not allowed to advocate for the Dallas police who were
murdered a few years ago. How many more calls do

(52:45):
we have dubbed? We got one more? We got sir
scratch off in Arkansas? All right, fire away Arkansas, Mr Clay.
First of all, I want to tell you, man, I
can tell what du law to live in nash but
I'll start by tighten but anyway, man, I uh, I
see what down here where I live at we had
some people turned down just day. We had a mandatory
mask where And I'm sorry, sir, but I don't wear

(53:06):
a mask. I can't. I've been around my wife nursing
thirty years. I just can't wear. I wear a sea
pack machine. I can't breathe anyway. But you don't want
to tell you something that shows right there where God stands.
These days they just have something going on without God
being involved. And it's just anymore. I could go on
a ramp forever about all this stuff going on that
right now, I'll tell you what. It's a mess. And
uh I just uh I was what world can get

(53:29):
back like it was when we could just go out
to public, have something to eat, and walk in and
have a good time talking to each other, because I
don't when I get home. Matter of fact, I'm set
my driveway right now. If he's going up and driving
all night twenty two years, I have cops come by
waving at me and knowing I'm safe. That's what it's
all about. Right there. I buy him drinks and snacks
seem in a truck style and that that's my life.
I enjoy the cops because they look out for me,

(53:52):
and we have more we have uh we call him
click uh sky cop. Things here, our town now and
our our crime right here went down out this last
year because of these things. Yeah, and you hear more
blacks every day killing each other from the white killing
the blacks. It's just it's it's every day on our news.
That's all they talked about. Numbers, number, numbers of virus.
It's getting old here at all the time. Yeah, it

(54:13):
looks there's no doubt that negativity is selling. I don't
think there's any doubt that masks help. I'm just pointing
out that much of it can feel like cosmetic theater.
You need to be smart about making good decisions for
you and your family. But you know, getting out of
a car and putting a mask on for thirty seconds

(54:34):
in a restaurant and then taking it off when you
sit down to eat, it doesn't make any sense at all.
And I don't know how anybody could argue that that
makes any sense when we come back. Uh. Senator Josh
Holly from Missouri, he's been talking a lot about the NBA,
China and all of the technicalities and messes there. Plus
we'll find out as he got in a response from

(54:55):
Adrian Wodanarowski on whether or not uh Wojas said anything
about the FU email. Has the NBA responded at all
to his letter, and what does he think about the
idea of the NFL allowing helmet decals for victims of
police violence. This is outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis.

(55:16):
We are joined now by Missouri Senator Josh Holly. Uh,
and we got a lot to get into. Appreciate you
getting up early with a senator. Uh. First off, I'm
sure you saw this, and I'm kind of curious what
you think about the significance here. And I'm reading from
a couple of media reports. Uh, the Trump administration told
China to close it's diplomatic consulate in Houston, quote to

(55:39):
protect American intellectual property and Americans private information. That's according
to the State Department. UM. And that's uh, that's according
to Axios, where I'm reading this from right now. Uh.
And also almost immediately after that, there are reports that
there is massive burning going on of paper work inside

(56:01):
of the Chinese consulate. Now, I'm not an expert on things.
But when you're burning documents, it's typically a sign that
you don't want them to be found. Is this a
good move? And uh? And uh in terms of what
it means, what's the significance of it? And uh and
how would you analyze it? It's a big move click
for sure, to order another government to close their conflict

(56:23):
is is a very big deal. And I think it
is a good move by the administration to keep up
the pressure on China. And yes to your point about
burning documents. You know, any time people start burning documents
that did you mean that there's some problem. I mean
there's a lot of stuff there that they don't want
to seeing the light of day. I think it is
sort of significant. It's in Houston that's been the side
of just one or two little controversies, including those involving

(56:47):
China and the NBA. So uh, this is this is
a big deal. I mentioned we'll be hearing more about it.
But I applaud the administrations here for getting tough. This
is the kind of thing you have to do to
get China's attention. I mean we've seen this for decades.
You tell the Chinese got a minow don't do that
don't do this. They don't listen. You've got to show
some toughness, all right, I want to get into a
bunch of different things. I'm gonna run through a series

(57:07):
of questions. First of all, an update on what happened
surrounding the the NBA, the Adrian Wijnarowski letter response to
your letter, I should say, has the NBA responded to
you at all? I saw that they responded to Senator
Marsha Blackburn's letter about their relationship with China. Have you
heard anything from Adam Silver or anyone at the NBA
so far? Nope. Crickets crickets and uh, ditto on ESPN

(57:34):
on any substance claim. I mean, you know, they trotted
out to Loans and made him apologize. And in terms
of the substance of my question, how is the how
is the ESPN covering the NBA's relationship with China? Is
ESPN Connects step up and ask any questions? Nothing? Zero?
Are you surprised, uh, that there hasn't been a single

(57:54):
question at least that I've seen. They have all these
media that are literally in the bubble. It's like state
sponsored media for the NBA that are inside the bubble.
I haven't seen like James Harden wears a Blue Lives
Matter mask and thirty seconds after it trends on Twitter,
he's getting barraged with questions about it. I haven't seen
a single NBA reporter asked about the China situation from

(58:17):
a single player or league executive. Have you No, I
have not, And it is surprising to me. I mean,
it just it does really I think to me to
my mind, to raises questions about how really independent a
lot of the sports media is in terms of being
willing to push back on something that makes the league
a heck of a lot of money. Yeah, this is
the problem with the ESPN and ESPN also profits big time.

(58:39):
You know. Disney of course owns ESPN and ABC News.
They profit big time on the global platform of the NBA.
This is big money for them, and it just really
makes you wonder are people willing to stand up and
question something that makes them so darne much money, even
when it involved the kind of flagrant human rights abuses
that we see in China. Have you spoken with Adrian

(59:01):
Wozarowski at all? He was the reporter who responded f
you when you had the gall to ask about the
NBA and ESPN's complicit relationship with China. Yeah, I'm not
slowing with him personally. I've never met was personally. And
as I said at the time, and you and I've
talked about this, I didn't ask for an apology from him,
and I don't want one, and I certainly don't want
him to be canceled, to be suspended with I guess

(59:22):
ESPNS none. I mean, that's all a distraction. This is
why said ESPN, don't do less reporting, do more reporting.
Actually do your job, stand up and ask some tough questions. Okay,
another story, and I don't know if you've seen this yet. Uh,
the NFL is reportedly going to follow the NBA's decision
making here, which is even more ridiculous I think, and

(59:43):
potentially allow helmet decals on their on their uniforms for
victims of police violence. They previously have set the precedent,
and this is lawyers talking, so we know precedents matter.
But they wouldn't let Jason Witton in the wake of
the police officers who were killed in Dallas, where a

(01:00:05):
helmet decal that supported the police officers who were murdered
in Dallas at the Black Lives Matter protest. Um, what
do you think about the NFL deciding to wait in
not right now, at least according to reports, allowing players
to support police, but allowing police victims of police misconduct

(01:00:25):
to be supported by the league. Does that seem like
a smart move by the NFL. Uh? Well, I mean
it seems like it's going to land them right where
the NBA has in terms of the controversy. Isn't this
the same NFL that recalled? And maybe I'm misremembering, but
I seem to remember that Tim tebough maybe it was
wanted to wear a Bible Verse right on his on
his face like a decount, or maybe it was on

(01:00:46):
the uniform. It was in the Yeah, it's a great
point in the in his eye black. Tim Tebow would
pick a Bible verse and he would scratch it in
for people out there who remember you know that little
strips of eye black that you can put underneath your uh.
And he would always write a particular Bible verse that
he was a fan of before every game in the

(01:01:07):
NFL told Tim Tebow, hey, you can't have a Bible
Verse in your EyeBlack anymore. And they also again wouldn't
let Jason Witton support Dallas police officers, And now they're
evidently going to decide to jump in on the side
of hey, you can label all police to be basically
awful human beings. I think this is if that's the

(01:01:29):
fact what they're doing, this is so to be like
another example, the corporate, the big corporations, NBA corporate, now
NFL corporate. You know, they're willing to do all kinds
of stuff to distract from the real issues. And this
goes I put to Roger Goodell. I like I'll ask
him today, is the NFL slave free? You know, we've
launched this new hashtag slave free in the NFL profiting

(01:01:51):
in any way on slaver or force labor in China
or anywhere else any country in the world, with any
of the product lines, any of their material at any
of the any equipment players where. I'd like to know
the answer to that, And I think could be a
lot more relevant because social justice issues that the NFL
were pledged to go slave free then based on decals

(01:02:12):
our helmets. All right, I want to get into the
legislation that you've entered in. It's fascinating we're talking to
Missouri Senator Josh Holly, So, uh, one of the big deals.
So people say, well, why do you care about the
NBA's relationship with China. Both they could say that to
you and they could say that to me. My answer
is because Chinese United States relations. We are in a
new Cold War, whether most have recognized it or not.

(01:02:34):
And the question is who is going to dominate the
world in the twenty first century. Is it going to
be an authoritarian Chinese communist government which is using the
NBA for propaganda, or is it going to be an
American capitalistic democracy. And that's a big deal. And right
now the NBA seems to be carrying water for China
while ripping the United States. And so as a part

(01:02:55):
of this, uh, you are starting to ask questions about, uh,
what's going on in terms of leagues profiting. It sounds crazy,
but there's still slave labor that exists around the world,
and many multinational corporations are patting their profit margins by
taking advantage of it while claiming that they care a
great deal about social justice and human rights. Yeah. For instance,

(01:03:18):
there are widespread reports, very credible reports that Nike many
of their product lines and components of their products, to shoes,
the shurts, the jersey as all its stuff are made
in concentration camps in China. These concentration camps full of
religious minorities, one in particular called the Leaders, their religious
ethnic minority that the Chinese government has put on trains, shaven, beaten,

(01:03:42):
shifted in these camps. I mean, does this sound familiar?
That sounds like the worst of the twentieth century. China's
doing it again, and Nike is using these camps to
make these products and make profits. So I want to
just I want to know from Nike, from the NBA,
from the NFL, from all of that, and not just
support all of these big of the nationals. Are you
slave free or are you profiting on slave labor foreign

(01:04:05):
slave labor in your supply chains. I think that's a
reasonable question. If you want to talk about social justice,
let's talk about that right there, right now, and let's
pledge to go slave free. This is crazy. So I
want to dive back into this story because a lot
of people haven't been paying attention to it. There was
a video a drone that got out that that has

(01:04:25):
received a large amount of attention. If you haven't google it,
go look at it. Of these Chinese religious minorities, these
Muslims being having their head shaved, having hoods on, they
were being put on two trains. Reports are that effectively
China has concentration camps for a million or more ethnic
minority Muslim uh the wakers as you said, in that country,

(01:04:49):
and that these these people are being used in slave
labor to make gear for Nike that is then used
in the NBA, the NFL potentially other places. I mean,
this is a crazy, unbelievable story that most in the
media and frankly most politicians are ignoring. But it's an

(01:05:10):
incredible hypocrisy that the NBA, which lectures us all day
long every day in America about our failings, may well
be using products created with slave labor. It's amazing to
think that in this day and age, that there is
still a modern day slave trade out there. That it
is in China have big time, but in other countries too,

(01:05:31):
and that you still have major corporations who are consciously
profiting off of it, and that needs to stop them.
This is my challenge these corporations. They want to talk
about social distance and home as say, we're doneating hundreds
of millions of dollars to this charity or to that charity. Okay, fine,
but what are you going to do to change your
practices right now to actually quit profiting off of people

(01:05:51):
who are enslaved? And I've also challenged some of these
stars who endorsed and have their own product lines. Lebron,
for instance, makes a gobla money on his product line. Okay,
that's fine, but will you challenge Nike your Nike product line?
Will you say go slave free? Will you say I
want endorse you anymore unless you quit profiting off of
slave labor. I think it's not only a fair question,

(01:06:12):
I think it's a pressing question. And this is a
kind of example that we need these folks to set well.
Not only that Lebron makes a big deal about wearing
a quality sneakers right like literally they say equality on them,
and Lebron's equality sneakers may might well be being made
by slave labor in China. I mean, if that's not

(01:06:33):
one of the most glaring hypocrisies in the history of
American sports, I can't think of one that's even more substantial.
And by the way, how about this, I want to
circle back around. One way we could find out about
this is if media we're actually asking questions. How I
just want to circle back around to this. How unbelievable
is it that all of these media members can literally

(01:06:54):
be inside the NBA bubble and they aren't asking any
of these players or any of the Lee executives or
coaches about these glaring Hypocrisyes, I mean it really does
make you wonder how much of the NBA media is
just there is propaganda. Yeah, exactly right, It's just an
echo chamber, I mean, just a bigger entertainment right, I mean,

(01:07:15):
it's just it seems like what you have here is
you've got a big gravy train that makes billions of
dollars in the NBA, the billion, multi billion dollar industry,
course NFLI, the biggery more so, and you've got a
lot of the media who basically are this area's like covering,
covering the stars or something. You know, it's not really reporting,
it is entertaining. And my challenge would be, come on,

(01:07:36):
step up and report. I mean, you've got a lot
of the really good journalists I know who consider themselves
serious journalists, So let's do some serious journalism here. Ask
some of these tough questions. And let's just remember that
you know where your bottom line is, where the money is,
That's really where the priorities are. So the NBA can
talk all at once and all these other stars, but
are they willing to do something that affects their bottom line.

(01:07:59):
That's will really find out where the priority is. Yeah,
and by the way, you have not yet gotten a
response to your valid question asking for the NBA to
address these hypocrisys. But since you wrote your letter, the
NBA has expanded its ability for players to make political statements.
In addition to the uniforms which are going to have
league approved uh statements on them, they now have expanded

(01:08:22):
that to T shirts as well, so players are going
to be able to wear T shirts during pregame that
also makes statements in addition to all of the other
ones that are being made. Do you know what, so far,
the NBA has failed to allow on any of those
T shirts any reference to China. I don't know, but
I'd be shocked if there was a reference to China allowed.

(01:08:42):
And as you remember, with the jerseys, the customized jerseys
that fans could order online, as you reported at the time,
you could order all kinds of stuff online. You the
fan can make a jersey that said kill cops. You
can make a jersey that had all kinds of stuff
in it. But if you wanted to put anything critical
of China, like free Hong Kong, no wouldn't allow you.

(01:09:04):
And the finally the NBA just canceled it that we're
just we're just not going to do this anymore. That
tells us something about the relationship with China, about how
much money again at the stake here and when it
when push comes to shove, what would actually be a
justice cause that again affects their bottom line is about
modern day slavery, about modern day concentration camp. Nobody wants

(01:09:25):
to say anything. Uh, it's a great point. And for
those of you out there who didn't remember, didn't hear
that segment on the show where we talked about it.
You can personalize, customize your jersey on the NBA store
and you could say all sorts of awful things f
the police, kill cops, all sorts of things that are
awful as your jersey name instead of your actual name,

(01:09:46):
except for you couldn't say free Hong Kong. The NBA
had banned anyone from being able to go buy a
jersey that said free Hong Kong. They could say all
sorts of other crazy things on the back of Jersey's
final question for you, Senator, I appreciate you getting up
early for us. Some people will say I'm not one
of them because I agree with everything that you're doing here.
Oh why is a United States senator spending his time

(01:10:08):
on this issue? Your response to those people will be,
what I don't want to have my free speech in
our free speech in this country compromised by an authoritarian
government in China that it is trying to use the
outlets shut down speech and push bid. Last fall with
Darryl Morey of the Rockets had the temerity tweet a

(01:10:31):
critical tweet about China and their crackdown in Hong Kong
and what it's trying to do. They said, shut that
guy up, fire him, no more talk, and they're talking
about what we're saying in the United States. This is
the kind of thing that we've got to stand up
to and say, you're not going to tell us what
to do. You're not going to co opt our sports
teams and leagues and reporters should think the same. They
shouldn't be co opted either. We've better stayed up and

(01:10:53):
defend our values, our freedoms, and we've got It's not
too much to ask for American corporations like the NBA
if they actually side with America and stand up for
the things we believe. That. Amen, good stuff, Senator, keep
up the good fight. Let us know if you ever
hear back from the NBA. I'm fascinated hear what their
response is going to be. I'll do it. Thanks for
having me. This is outkicked. The coverage with Clay traffics alright,

(01:11:22):
a lot to unpack their from that Missouri Senator Josh
Holly interview. The NBA still hasn't responded to its blatant
hypocrisy on China. But how about the idea that Lebron
James is equality Sneakers from Nike could be made by
concentration camp slave labor. I mean, I just one of

(01:11:44):
the challenges with leagues deciding to make political statements is
politics is blood sport, right, and if you decide that
you are going to be politically active, all of this
complicit sports media that basically just coddles you, right, they
don't ask any difficult questions. They're like, Oh, it's so

(01:12:06):
brave for this athlete to be able to willing to
step out. When you actually step into the political arena,
you have to expect that your hypocrisy is going to
be analyzed and the hypocrisy look. People say, like, why
are you so focused on the NBA's relationship with China. Well,
first of all, I think China is the number one

(01:12:27):
story in the world right now. They created the coronavirus,
didn't manage to stop it from spreading, and as a result,
it came to the United States and did more damage
to us than anything the Nazis did during World War
Two in the United States. I want you to think
about that for a minute. And a lot of people

(01:12:48):
have not paid attention to this, but what China has
done with the coronavirus, in allowing it to escape Chinese
borders and spread around the world, has cost more to Americans,
you me, the average person out there listening to us
right now, than anything that Nazi Germany did to the

(01:13:10):
United States in the nineteen thirties and on up into
World War Two, directly in our country, to our economy.
China and I can't believe I have to say this,
but there's so few people in media, and certainly so
few people in sports media, who are willing to say it.
China is modern They are modern day Nazis. The Chinese

(01:13:32):
Communist government, which has taken over Hong Kong, which wants
to take over uh Taiwan, which is taking over the
South China Sea, which created and allowed to spread the
coronavirus that has cost us trillions of dollars and lead
to many of you listening right now directly being unemployed.

(01:13:55):
The NBA is doing their bidding. They are China's servant.
They are taking billions of dollars from China, lecturing all
of us in America about America's failings and taking effective
money from modern day Nazis, and the NBA players and
coaches and owners and the league itself wants to lecture

(01:14:19):
you and me about why we're not socially woke enough
while they are putting money in their pockets from Nazis,
and then they want to argue that they're going to
be on the right side of history. It's one of
the most unbelievable situations I have ever seen in the
history of sports and book. If the NBA we're not

(01:14:41):
trying to be transparently political. I probably wouldn't spend time
talking about it on this show because I would say,
you know what, the NBA is doing whatever they need
to do to make as much money as they possibly can.
I'm not gonna get involved in their individual hypocrisy because
there certainly are a lot of American corporations that are

(01:15:02):
hypocritical when it comes to China. But the NBA players
and coaches and owners are saying, oh, no, no, we're
not gonna shut up and dribble, we're more than athletes. Well,
if you're not gonna shut up and dribble and you're
more than athletes, then why when it comes to China
do you shut up and dribble and claim that you're

(01:15:22):
not anything other than athletes? Because it's convenient when you
can put money in your pocket from Nazis without having
to condemn them. But you rip American institutions to shreds
because that actually doesn't hurt your paycheck. If you're going

(01:15:42):
to be a woke political organization, if you're gonna be
Lebron James striding around inequality sneakers, isn't it incumbent up
on you to at least make sure that your equality
sneakers aren't being made by slaves. Well, Ron James right
now is the equivalent of a slave master back in

(01:16:06):
the day. He's making money off the labor of slaves
while lecturing all of us about what awful human beings
we are. I don't know about you, but we don't
get products made by Nazis and make money off of them.

(01:16:27):
At out Kick, I run an American business. We crush
hypocrisy in the world of sports and outside of it.
That's why this show is dominating. It's why it's the
most listened to sports talk show in the entire country
anywhere in the mornings six to nine AM. Nobody touches

(01:16:49):
us in terms of the number of people that are
listening right now. It's because all of you kind of
fill that rank hypocrisy. You're aware of it, and it's
crazy to me that so many people in the media
won't even touch it. We got all these NBA media
literally in a bubble. All they have to do is

(01:17:11):
cover the NBA every day, and not one of them
has asked about China. James Harden puts on a Blue
Lives Matter mask and thirty seconds after it hits the
Twitter streets. The NBA media is asking him whether or
not he's actually endorsing police or not. By the way,

(01:17:32):
that's where we are in the NBA. If you say, hey,
police officer lives matter, you have to apologize for it.
In the NBA. It's one of the craziest things I've
ever seen. When we come back, major League Baseball is returning.
We're gonna talk with a senator, double senators to where
the show is uh from Pennsylvania Senator to me who

(01:17:53):
had a roundtable discussion with many of the decision makers
in Major League Baseball about the healthy return in the
coronavirus era of Major League baseball. What did he learn
and how can we use those aspects that he has
learned to advance the return of sports overall? We will
talk next. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk

(01:18:14):
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at
Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart
Radio app. Search f s R to listen live final
hour of the program Wednesday edition. We got a lot
to get into, but one of the biggest stories is
it is the eve of the return of Major League Baseball,
and I know many of you are excited to be

(01:18:34):
able to kick back and watch your favorite teams and
favorite players play, and many of you are also wondering, Okay,
how healthy is this gonna be? I want to welcome
in now, Senator pat to me at Senator to me
on Twitter. I just tweeted out his link. He had
a roundtable discussion with a lot of executives and a
player for Major League Baseball about the return of baseball.

(01:18:56):
First of all, Senator, appreciate you getting up early and
joining us here. Are you as excited for the return
of Major League Baseball as much of my audiences? I
most certainly am. This has been an intolerable sports desert
for me and my family, so I'm really excited about
having baseball back on. I'm gonna get to baseball in
a minute. But the last time we talked to you,

(01:19:16):
and I appreciate you coming on again, you had had
a roundtable discussion about Little League baseball, and we've had
the discussion with you. I mean, I've got a twelve
and nine and a five year old. My kids right
now are at y m C a sports camp for
the summer, and they're able to go to that. But
our schools may or may not open in some leagues
may or may not open. Is the evidence still out

(01:19:37):
there so far as you can tell, and based on
all of your investigation, that kids should be playing sports
across America, no question about it, Clay. I think kids
should be going back to school across America. I mean,
we've just spent through this, right, I mean, kids are
just not vulnerable to this um kids are so resilient.
The data is overwhelming, So yeah, take take precautions, but

(01:20:01):
by all means kids ont to be playing sports. What
if I'll be going to school. What are you hearing
in your state of Pennsylvania, for instance, about the return
of high school sports, because we talked someone the show already.
Texas says they're going to play high school football, Georgia
says they're coming back. Florida has opened up even in
the midst of what they're going through practice, And as
you said, the data reflects that kids, particularly young kids,

(01:20:23):
but even a teenagers as well, are not under a
particular threat from this virus. What are you hearing about
the return of of school and also fall sports, particularly football,
which is what people watch and care about the most.
In your home state of Pennsylvania, Yeah, I think the
jury is still out. We've got school districts that are

(01:20:44):
still trying to figure out what they're doing. They haven't
in many cases decided how they're going to handle the
resumption of even classes. Yeah, and they're talking about doing
these things that I think are very I just don't
know if it's workable as well, you know, one day
a week or two days a week, or depends on
the first letter of your last aim. And I just
I think this is a mistake. I think we could

(01:21:04):
be opening up our school. I've got a ten year
old and he is ready for fourth grade, and I
just feel very strongly he's better off going to school.
That's that's what's best for him, and so I'm hoping
that that's the direction we move in. But to answer
your question directly, I think it's still highly uncertain in
most of Pennsylvania. Yeah. I've got a kindergartener, a fourth grader,
and a seventh grader, and I want them all back

(01:21:25):
in school. And that's not just because my wife is
otherwise going to be driven insane if she has to
try to teach him again this spring, which I know
there's a lot of parents out there. Uh, that are
dealing with it, not just the challenges of how do
you educate a kid, because sitting in front of a
computer is nowhere near the same as being in person
physical instruction. We know that from all of the studies,
but also you know, how do you work? How do

(01:21:46):
you get to work? Now, as this thing since March
has been going on, and I think a lot of
parents are like, Okay, finally by August or September we'll
have some form of normalcy. And now this is a
huge mess, all right, So let's get to some positive news.
We know that Major League Baseball is coming back tomorrow,
and I believe I'm not mistaken that in your state
of PENNSYL, Pennsylvania, you'll actually have an extra team, right

(01:22:08):
am I hearing this correctly? That Blue Jays are going
to be playing in Pennsylvania. So my understanding is that is,
unless something has changed since yesterday afternoon, that is not
certain yet but definitely under consideration. I asked Ben Charrington,
the general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. I asked in
that question directly. He confirmed that they are in discussions

(01:22:28):
with the Toronto Blue Jays, that that is a distinct
possibility but it was not finalized. You know, they do
have one one obvious complication. I'm sure there are others
that I'm not aware of, but one of them is
a scheduling conflict. There are seven home games I understand
it UM on the same day, so you know, presumably

(01:22:48):
you could work around that. I think there are some
other stadiums that are candidates for the Toronto Blue Jays,
and as Pat Houlahan from Major League Baseball pointed out,
you know you have to have every team, so they've
got to find a solution for Toronto UM and I
think it'd be great if it was Pittsburgh. We're talking
to Senator to me, all right, so let's figure out.
Let's dive into what you learned yesterday. I read and

(01:23:11):
watched some of these videos that you had. You had
put together a great collection of people to talk about
the return of Major League Baseball and the manner in
which they're doing it now. One of the fascinating things
about Major League Baseball's return is they are not going
full bubble like we're seeing to extend in the NBA.
The players are going to be in their hometowns. They're

(01:23:32):
playing inside of the home stadiumsh what sort of health
precautions have they undertaken so far as you understood, stand
and learned from yesterday? And do you think their method
will be effective in keeping infection rates low? So I'm
very optimistic. I'm a time will tell. But Pat Hulahan
from the UH from Major League Baseball held up I

(01:23:54):
think he said as a hundred and twenty page manual
that they have developed just in the last few weeks
for this very purpose. So it's a pretty extensive set
of protocols they're going to be testing, right, They've already
been testing regularly and interestingly, their players being tested every
other day. The rate of positive test results has thus

(01:24:16):
far been about one tenth of one percent, very tiny number. Um.
They also acknowledge what we all know is the population
we're talking about here are the players are overwhelmingly young, healthy,
actually extremely healthy people for the most part, and so
as we know, they are the least vulnerable people other

(01:24:37):
than children there there there's very little vulnerability here. Um.
The The other message that came through clearly to me
from both Xavier James, who's with the players Union, and
rhes Hoskins, the first baseman for the Phillies, both of
whom were on the panel, is that the players are
taking this very seriously. There's no common around. Players believe
it's really important that they protect each other. Uh, they

(01:25:00):
are serious about wearing masks, following the protocols. You know,
they're not having their meals in a in a common
dining area the way they did before. Like I said,
there's a hundred and twenty pages worth of policies and
procedures that they're following. And my senses everybody has taken
it very very seriously, and and to the extent that
they do, I think it's likely to be very successful.

(01:25:21):
You just referenced Dr Gary Green, who's the Major League
Baseball medical director, And I want to re emphasize this
point because I found it to be a really great
detail that right now the rate of positivity has dropped
under point one percent for Major League Baseball, which means
we're talking about a pen prick of players that are
presently testing positive. That's a very very good sign about

(01:25:45):
the way that the teams and the players are responding
to this d protocol. That's exactly right. There's one other
thing that I found very interesting that came out of
this discussion, and that is you know, Major League Baseball
is going to be periodically testing all the players for antibodies.
Right the the evidence that you had the virus, but
you've recovered and you have this residual defense against it. UM,

(01:26:07):
there's a lot we don't know about antibodies, like how
long they last, how long are they effective? Um? Does
it vary depending on on various demographic facts. Well, we're
going to have a tremendous body of information of data,
and Major League Baseball is going to be contributing to
our our knowledge of the science, our understanding of this

(01:26:30):
disease in important ways. So that's also a really constructive
I loved this quote from the Chief Operating Officer for
Major League Baseball Players Association, Xavier James. He told you
he always likes to quote and this is always a
fantastic sports quote the great Mike Tyson when he said
everyone has a plan until they get hit. This is
a quote from him again, the Major League Baseball Players

(01:26:52):
Association CEO. People should expect a there there's no way
to anticipate every hit or every scenario. People should expect
a very different presentation of the game on television, but
the essence of the game will remain the same. That's
a good way of describing the goals going forward. I thought,
I think that's I think that's exactly right. Uh. You know,

(01:27:13):
we've seen the rules changes that are designed to speed
the game up and reduce the amount of interaction. UM,
but there's you know, there probably will be some kind
of wild card that comes along that we can anticipate,
and you know they're going to just have to do
the best they can to deal with it. If I
want it emerges the question I get asked a lot,

(01:27:34):
and you also asked about this. And we're talking with
Senator Pat Toomey who had a roundtable discussion about the
return of Major League Baseball with many of the important
stakeholders from a variety of different angles about baseball fans.
What will happen with fans being present? Will they be allowed?
What's the protocol and policy going forward? What did you
learn there? So what I learned is they don't have

(01:27:55):
a plan on the shelf for fans at this point. Now,
I happen to think that we ought to be moving
forward on allowing fans back into the stadiums. One obvious
fact is that stadiums are large places, and you you
you can spread out, you can do the social distancing.
You don't have to sell out every every seat for instance.

(01:28:15):
Um the I I think the the sense was the
folks on the call believe that at some point before
this season is over, it is possible that we'll be
having the discussion about how we bring fans back in.
But the challenge is going to be if you think
about the level of agreement, You're gonna need a mayor

(01:28:35):
who's the you know, in the host city. You're gonna
need the governor from that state. You're gonna need the
players union to agree the ownership of the team naturally,
and the commissioner Baseball are all going to have to
agree on the on the idea of having fans and
the circumstances under which you would have them. So and
of course you'd have to UH, you know, develop a

(01:28:57):
whole set of protocols. I got the sense that is
not sort of sitting on the shelf waiting to be
pulled down, but that there is an interest in it.
So we'll just have to see whether we get to
the point where all of the above list of UH
stakeholders is on the same page. Do you find this
as fascinating as I did? As I could because you

(01:29:19):
just hit on some of the complexities with mayors, with governors.
You could have a situation, for instance, in Major League
Baseball in the months ahead, when they eventually decide to
have fans present, where let's say you could have three teams, right,
it's possible the Blue Jays are gonna be playing in Pittsburgh.
You've got the Pirates, and you've got the Phillies all there.
But they go on the road and they play against

(01:29:39):
let's say, a team in Texas or Florida or wherever
they may be playing, and maybe those states and those
mayors are more amenable to the idea of fans president
because you know, like in NASCAR, they've already got fans president. Again,
I saw the D five hundred in obviously Indianapolis is
going to have fans present, and so you could have
a situation where some teams and have fans president. And

(01:30:01):
by the way, this could be for the NFL as well,
in a different way, with the Eagles and with the Steelers,
and they don't have the home field advantage that other
teams do. I mean, this is kind of a wacky
protocol to even think about. Well, yeah, absolutely, and then
it creates a dynamic where certain teams can have a
source of revenue that other trains that can't have. Um,
how does that sit with the players who have made concessions? Um?

(01:30:23):
How does that work out in just the the equity
of the league? Um? Yeah, it gets complicated quickly. Here's
another possibility that God forbid. But you know, we could
have a governor or a mayor or both in a
in a host place. Wake up one day inside, you
know what, We've had too much of an outbreak. We
can't have baseball anymore. And then, boy, that would be

(01:30:46):
quite a monkey wrench to throw into the whole system,
do you And and you're we're talking to center pat
to me from the great state of Pennsylvania here as
we talk about all of the different, uh uh, different
aspects around Major League Baseball, are you still has bothered
by the intense politicization of everything related to this virus
such that this is what I get so frustrated by.

(01:31:08):
Like the data is the data, and I can look
at it from an analytical perspective and say, Okay, this
is what should happen regardless of whether you're a Democrat, Republican, independent,
whatever your political affiliation might be. But what you just
mentioned is somebody could easily start playing politics with sports
and say, oh, we're shutting down everything in my city

(01:31:29):
because they think it's good for their own political standing,
even if the data doesn't support that. Yeah, that's there's
the risk of that. I certainly hope that no one
would decide that that's an appropriate course of action, but
I know, I totally agree this is it's crazy that
this has been politicized. You know, back in April, I
was a first member of Congress to publicly call for

(01:31:51):
the use of masks, and I did a video and
I put it up on YouTube because it was clear
to me the data said, if you if we're all
wearing masks, the rate of transmission drops dramatically. So as
simple as that, and that's a good thing. So let's
wear masks. And uh, you know, unfortunately, to some degree
that's been a little bit politicized. Hopefully, hopefully we get

(01:32:11):
away from that and just focus on the actual data. Yeah,
the same thing has happened with schools. It doesn't matter
what happens like when you actually come out and make
an argument, and I've been saying. We thought started this
interview by saying, hey, kids should be back in school,
and the data reflects that whether your kids, whether you're
a Democrat, Republican, or anything else. Mask data is also
I think pretty clear that there is a value there

(01:32:33):
whether you're a Democrat or Republican. Like, it doesn't seem
like this should be so political. I agree, but nowadays
most most things in our society are well at least
hopefully Major League Baseball is not going to be very political,
and it is starting tomorrow. Senator to me, thank you
for the time, Thank you for the work that you've
been doing to try to get us back to normalcy.
And hopefully you'll be able to to enjoy watching not

(01:32:55):
just two, but three teams in the state of Pennsylvania
this this summer, I hope. So thanks for having me, Clay,
thank you that Senator Pat Toomey. This is outkicked the
coverage with Clay Travis the Eagles bringing us back, you said,
Danny g it's Don Henley seventy three birthday. Happy birthday,
Don Henley, one of the founding members of the Eagles.

(01:33:17):
There you go, h we have been rolling here back
to back senators. I don't think that happens very often
on very many shows anywhere in the country for that matter.
We're gonna talk about that and unpack what we learned
from Senator Josh Holly and Missouri and Senator Pat Toomey
of Pennsylvania. But first Brian Finley, which got for me,
thanks Clay. Multiple outlets reporting the NFL Players Association held

(01:33:38):
a conference call on Tuesday highlighting where they stand in
hammering out just health and safety guidelines. The league is
reducing team rosters to eight players, and according to MLB Network,
the Blue Jays will stage their home games in at
Pittsburgh's p n C Park. Clay back to you, we
were just talking about that in the state of Pennsylvania,

(01:33:58):
potentially having three different teams if the Blue Jays are
actually gonna play in Pittsburgh, as MLB is reporting. The
senator from Pennsylvania said he didn't know that for sure
on the round table he asked about it yesterday. But man,
that's a lot of information we just hit you guys
with across the board from the senator from Missourian senator
from Pennsylvania. Uh, And I think it just speaks to

(01:34:21):
the overall growth of OutKick that people want to come
on and talk about sports related issues with you guys
because they know this is the biggest possible audience they
can find anywhere in the country in the world of
sports to start off your day. So I just want
to say thanks to you guys for helping to make
that happen. If I showed you the growth rate of,

(01:34:45):
for instance, our podcast downloads and maybe we need to
do that, I mean, they're off the charts. I don't
even think there is a show that has grown at
half the rate that we have in the last six
months on this program. And uh, I think we learned
a lot. There so much to unpack. Let's start with
Major League Baseball coming back. That is really intriguing, Danny G.

(01:35:07):
Don't you don't you think to consider some of the
complexities that are going to arise as we go forward.
Right now, Major League Baseball is starting without any plans
for fans to be present at all. But I think
it's fair to say if you look at NASCAR, you
look at the n D five hundred, you look at
high school football, for instance, as Major League Baseball continues,

(01:35:28):
there are going to be more and more states. I
believe that would be open to the idea of having
fans present. Yeah, and really quick, let me start by
thanking Senator to me for going O G with a
landline there. Dub was like audio guy during the interview,
telling me, man, is that a microphone? Senators on? I
wish all our guests could sound that. I don't even have.

(01:35:49):
Do you have a landline in the house? No? Do
you have a landline at your house? Absolutely not? Roberto,
do you have a landline at your house? Yeah? So,
I mean I do a lot of radio interviews to I.
It's been I don't know that I've ever lived. I
remember when I first did it. Uh, When in my
first place that I lived, I got this would have
been like in two thousand one, I didn't have a landline.

(01:36:12):
I don't think I've had a land line in a
place where I lived in uh in twenty years now.
So it's rare when we have like old school landlines,
maybe in d C in the in the Senate office,
where I'm sure they still have a lot of a
lot of people calling the you know, display and everything
else in the in the Senate offices. But yeah, that's
pretty wild. Uh. We hardly have anybody that still has

(01:36:35):
a landline. He spoke so well and clearly with that
awesome landline. Um. What stood out to me the most
was when he brought up to you, what if any
given city decides that they want attention and so they
pull the plug on their local mL mayor. Yeah, exactly
if that happens, Oh my god, I think I I actually,

(01:36:56):
unfortunately think there's a decent chance that somebody's going to
make a move like that, because it seems to me
that many mayors and governors have become drunk on their
power in general, and so I can see somebody deciding, hey,
this is a politically popular move for me to make
with certain of my demographic right uh. And the in general,

(01:37:18):
big city mayors are being incredibly protective about everything relating
to the virus, although ironically enough, they're allowing their citizens
to get shot down at a rate that has not
occurred in decades, and many of them, right this this
is one of the inherent This is why politics frustrates
me in many ways, because I can totally see a

(01:37:38):
mayor deciding to shut down sports in their city and
arguing they're doing it to try to protect people from
the coronavirus while simultaneously saying we've got to defund the police,
and then seeing the number of shooting skyrocket in that
same city. So it's like, on the one hand, you're
claiming that you care about public health when it comes

(01:37:59):
to the coronavirus and you're Coonian restrictions, but on the
other hand, you're saying, oh, police don't protect us, let's
go ahead and just let shootings happen like crazy. And
one of my buddies who listens to the show texted
me and he was like and and And this ties
in with the UH, with the idea that the NFL

(01:38:20):
is embracing of using helmet decals and UH and allowing
UM players to make political statements based on who's been
shot by police, but not allowing Jason Witten to honor
the Dallas police when they were shot, and how the
NFL has got a broken precedent there. But it is fascinating.
How many times have you ever heard someone say we're

(01:38:42):
gonna spend less money and something is going to get better.
Just think about that for a minute. Regardless of what
your politics are, the idea of defunding the police is
that you are going to spend less money on something
and it's going to get better. How often does that happen?

(01:39:03):
Can anybody on the show think of a situation where
they've had a problem and they've spent less money on
it and that problem has gotten better? Honestly, Well, yeah,
if you're have an addiction. But I'm saying, yeah, that's
that's maybe that's maybe a good example if you spend
if you're addicted to drugs and you spend less money

(01:39:23):
on them, that could get better. But from a public
that's a pretty good response. But from public policy perspective,
like then, like if you said, hey, schools are are
having lots of problems, and if you were a politician
he said, hey, hey, hey, wait a minute, I've got
the solution for our issues with schools. We're gonna give
them less money and they're gonna get better. Everybody out

(01:39:47):
there would be like what, No, No, I want you
to listen to me. My plan to make schools better
in this city is to spend less money on them,
and they're gonna get way better. Everybody out there would
just be like, yeah, this, this dude's an idiot. That's
the argument for police. People are like, oh, we think
we've got an issue with police. The way we're gonna

(01:40:09):
solve it is we're gonna defund them. And I'm like,
are you crazy. It's like if your washer is not
working in your house, your dishwasher, and or your refrigerator.
Let's say you refrigerator. The refrigerator is not working. Instead
of calling the refrigerator repair man or going and buying
a new refrigerator, I'm actually going to spend less money

(01:40:35):
on this refrigerator than we ever have before, and it's
gonna get better. My car is not working. I was
thinking about taking into the mechanic to get it fixed.
That would cost more money. Instead, I've just decided to
go get a wrench and just break all the windshields.
That's basically the defund the police argument. Something's not working,

(01:40:57):
Oh you know what we're gonna do. We're gonna take
money out of it. It literally makes no sense, and
the argument is that's somehow going to make things better.
There's no logic behind it, but I can certainly see
and that this is, by the way, why I'm so
frustrated by so many of these sports leagues, because they're
making things worse. Athletes are out there thinking that they're

(01:41:21):
using their platforms to make things better. By being anti
police athletes are actually leading to more deaths than if
they had just shut up and dribbled and never said
anything at all. Let me explain. James Harden wears a
mask that is a blue Lives Matter mask. If you're
not familiar with the concept of blue lives matter, it

(01:41:43):
is that police officers lives matter. Police officers are killed
at a very high rate. Stat doesn't get any attention.
But if you are an unarmed black man, your odds
of being killed by police ee our miniscule. If you
are a police officer, your odds comparatively of being killed

(01:42:07):
by a young black man are eighteen and a half
times as great. I know stats make people uncomfortable, in
facts make people uncomfortable, But a police officer today in
America is eighteen and a half times as likely to
be murdered by a black man in America as an
unarmed black man is to be killed by a police officer.

(01:42:28):
So we talk a lot about police misconduct, we don't
talk very much about police danger or the fact that
police every single day, when they kiss their wife and
their kids goodbye and walk outside are putting their lives
on the line to try and protect you and me
and white, black, and Asian and Hispanic people across the country. Well,

(01:42:50):
when police are coming out and not being supported. When
James Harden comes out and he's asked, hey, are you
wearing a blue Lives Matter mask? He says no. And
when the entire NBA is upset at him on social
media at the idea that he could believe police officer
lives matter. That's how broken the NBA political discourses and

(01:43:13):
what appears to be happening with the NFL as well.
We have created a mindset among athletes and young fans
who support them that being in favor of police officers
not being killed is unacceptable. What's you think about that
for a minute. And as a result, we have emboldened

(01:43:34):
idiots who are waging war with police officers and who
are arguing we need less police officers on the streets.
And do you know what is happening. The murder rate
is skyrocketing in this country. Far from making things better
by using their platforms, athletes are making things worse. The

(01:43:56):
NBA has got black Lives Matter painted on its basketball courts.
If that were actually true, they would support police because
guess what, nobody protects more black lives than police officers.
And the data is clear. If you look in Atlanta,
or you look in New York City, or you look
in Chicago, or you look in Baltimore, you look in
Los Angeles. All of our big cities that are defunding

(01:44:20):
the police, are even considering defunding the police are seeing
their murder rate skyrocket. And do you know who most
often is being killed in those big cities, Black people.
So all these athletes are running around talking about black
lives matter. It's literally written on the basketball court. And
because they're not supporting police officers, the number of black

(01:44:40):
lives that are being lost is skyrocketing. And it's an
inconvenient truth to have to acknowledge that police officers are
the number one protectors of black lives in this country.
No one does more to protect black lives than police office. Now,

(01:45:01):
some police officers misbehave. When that happens, they should be prosecuted.
But this idea that we should be painting with a
broad brush and saying police officers are awful, you need
to defund them is frankly the lunacy. It's insanity and
I don't know why more members of the sports media
aren't pointing out that athletes are leading to more people
being shot and more murders occurring, because they are arguing

(01:45:24):
that police are the problem as opposed to primarily the solution.
Shooting cause I saw this morning up two hundred and
fifty three percent over this time last year. In Chicago,
fourteen people got shot last night at a funeral. A funeral,
police have become the problem in the eyes of many athletes.

(01:45:47):
Police are the solution. Look, I don't understand how we
ever ended up in a universe where you have to
pick one side or the other. Police who misbehave should
be prosecuted, but the vast majority of police who are
doing good work should be supported. And this idea that
athletes have gone to war with police, which is occurring

(01:46:08):
right now and a guy like James Harden can't even
say yeah, I support the police, is a fundamental flaw
of our country right now. And if the NBA truly
cares that black lives matter, then NBA players should be
coming out and supporting police because right now police are
so unsupported by politicians and young people people in this

(01:46:30):
country that the murder rate and the shooting rate of skyrocketing,
and it's all self evident. Again, we were just talking.
People get mad at me because I actually look at
the data, and I actually look at the facts, and
I share them, and I say, only three things matter
when I look at it, the facts, the facts, the facts.
That's what lawyers do. We look at data and we

(01:46:53):
make arguments best based on that data. There is no
argument to the contrary. Defunding the police is going to
lead to way more black murders than have ever existed before.
And it's just it blows my mind that athletes who
think they are a part of the solution are actually
creating more problems because they're creating more tension between police

(01:47:16):
officers and the people they're trying to protect. And I
know because I hear from all the time. There's a
ton of police officers in all fifty states driving around
listening to me right now, Like, thank God, hallelujah, Clay Travis,
thanks for finally saying what we all see every day.
This idea that somehow athletes are making things better by

(01:47:37):
demonizing the police is wrong. They're making things worse. They're
gonna lead to more deaths and if you truly care
about black lives, White lives, Asian lives, Hispanic lives. Nobody
protects more of them than police, and you should be
trying to say we need bad police off the streets,
but we need more good police. And if you truly care,

(01:48:00):
you should be encouraging young people to go be police officers.
The more diverse the police force it is, the better,
the better able they are to interact with the community.
But I get so fired up when I just see
blatant falsehoods and stupidity being trumpeted by players in the
media who cover them that don't look at the actual

(01:48:23):
data and just want to blindly argue that something positive
is happening when the data isn't reflecting it. I'll take
a few of your calls if people want to weigh
in to finish off the program eight seven seven six nine.
This is outkicked the coverage with Clay traffics. Do we

(01:48:44):
have anybody who wants to weigh end up? Or should
I continue to just fire away? We got a few
callers on hold here, Let's go to Jeff in California. Jeff,
what you got for me? Hey, Clay, how are you
doing excellently? Good day. I'm a police officer in California
and I just wanted to think you for the kind
of words. Uh, it means a lot more. You think,
and you're kind of spot on what's going on, and

(01:49:06):
how have you understand that? Yeah, I'm sorry to cut
you off, but how has the treatment for police officer?
How long have you been a police officer? Twenty seven years?
How has the treatment from the general public changed over
the course of the twenty seven years that you have
been a First of all, thanks for doing this, but secondly,
twenty seven years on the force, how has the treatment
from the average person changed over the course of those

(01:49:28):
twenty seven years. It's um, it's the worst I've ever
seen it for us. Um. You know, politicians have turned
their backs on us for the most part, and we're
completely told to stand down right now. So for people
that think we're not doing anything, it's kind of the
orders were being directed and our violence. I'm in a
pretty big city has gone up about our students in

(01:49:49):
the last couple of months. So you guys are being
told because of all the tension to defund the police movement.
Your bosses are like, hey, we don't want any bad
videos or viral moments from something that can be mischaracterized
or somebody making a mistake, and so you're being told, hey,
don't aggressively police, and boom, you see the bad guys
almost immediately move in and start to take advantage of

(01:50:11):
your pullback. Yeah, exactly that. And I mean you can
see the inmates that are getting released in uh, California
as well on top of it. It's it's a perfect
storm going on. But yeah, we're we're kind of hands
off at this point, and that's our direction we've been
told to be because of the backlash. Is it frustrating
to you, as I'm assuming you're a sports fan if
you're listening to the program to see athletes demonizing you,

(01:50:32):
Guys like James Harden wears the back the blue face
mask and immediately says, oh no, no, it wasn't like
I actually believe police officer lives matter. I just like
the mask. Yeah, it's hard because I am a big
sports fan, and you know, you feel in some sense
betrayed by believe me, the Floyd incident as a good officer.
We don't want that kind officer around that. It makes

(01:50:53):
it life worse on all of us. And to watch
you know, yeah, with the you know, a couple of
years ago, like you said, with Dallas, they wouldn't have
out the details on the helmets, and now all of
a sudden, this is okay what they're allowing. So it
is frustrating. And you agree with me that athletics they
think they're making things better. But for purposes of what
you see on the streets, are athletes making your job easier?

(01:51:16):
And are they making the streets safer? Or is it
the opposite? No, I agree, it's it's the opposite. So
they're using their platform to make it more difficult for
the average person on the streets and for you to
do your job exactly exactly. Well, thank you for what
you do. I know we got thanks for calling in.

(01:51:36):
We got police officers all over the country who listened
to this program. A ton of you have already reached out. Um,
I just I am frustrated. I'm frustrated by what I
see going on and the fact that so few people
in my industry. Frankly, we're supposed to speak truth to power. Uh.
In my opinion, that's the only reason to exist in media.
Athletes and teams and owners are incredibly powerful, uh and

(01:51:59):
in instead of being U powerful and and and and
holding them accountable for their hypocrisies. It seems to me
there's a lot of people in my industry who just
want to coddle the balls, for lack of a better
way of saying it, of all the famous people, oh
you know, Oh, it's so great to be in your presence.
Can I cut your balls while I talk to you?
Can I twil Can I twirl them? Can I play

(01:52:21):
with them? That's what media does now, And I just
I don't understand the point of that. You know, you
notice that a lot of times I don't put very
many athletes or coaches on the show. It's because they
don't say much, and because I'm not a ball coddler.
There's plenty of people in my industry who want to
do that. They want to giggle and they want to
hold the balls, and they're like, oh, it's so funny,
you're so great, Like that's a fine you If you

(01:52:42):
like that kind of program, you can do it. But
when I think the athletes, and I think the owners,
and I think the leagues are making things less safe
for American citizens, and they're putting our police officers in
more danger. I think it's important to call them on
their hypocrisy. A couple other people want to way end up.
Yeah got stand in Houston. Stand what you got for me? Yeah?

(01:53:04):
What's up? But I just I think it's not from necessarily. Look,
people want to but it's a lack of prosecution. Should
I believe allows because stay okay, I gotta let stay
in because I can barely hear him. But stand saying
it's a lack of prosecutions. I think that's an issue. Well,

(01:53:26):
the police don't decide whether they're prosecuted or not. And
everybody's been rioting and protesting over George Floyd. And my
understanding is no one has ever been charged with a
crime faster than George Floyd and the three other officers
who were charged with crimes in Minneapolis. So it seems
to me that police officers by and large are being

(01:53:49):
held accountable when they commit crimes. But again, we focus
on a tiny pen prick of misbehaving officers as if
they are representative of the larger hole. Let me give
you an example. When people are out there protesting in
the streets, which is their right. I'm a First Amendment absolutist.
They certainly have the right to protest for anything they believe,
and some people riot. What does the media always say

(01:54:12):
the vast majority of the protesters were peaceful, some of
them misbehaved and decided to riot, to loot, whatever else. Right,
the media specifically decides not to paint with a broad
brush and to say that the rioters and the looters
are a small minority of the overall quote peaceful protesters.

(01:54:34):
Yet when they talk about police, they never say, oh,
officers who misbehave and commit crimes are a tiny minority
of the overall police force. They always say as if
this police officer is representative of everybody else. Why do
you not paint with a broad brush when it comes

(01:54:54):
to protesters and you paint with a broad brush when
it comes to police. I'm frustrated by the because athletes
are claiming that they're using their platform to make America better,
and I think for most people right now in this country,
they are making America worse. And that's because their protest
is not rooted in factual data. Appreciate all of you.

(01:55:15):
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