Best of Outkick the Coverage: 07/31/2020

Did the NBA hypocrisy due to the China situation bother Clay Travis too much during it’s return? Clay answers that, and also dives into what he calls “destruction versus construction.” Clay also has a great speech about how our country finds a way when in trouble. Sports gambling is back, Clay’s TV partner Todd Fuhrman joins the show to catch up and give you his best bets! Plus, Petros makes a special Friday appearance, he chimes in on all the top sports stories AND Clay finally gets to the bottom of Jeff Goldblum stealing his date when he attended USC! 

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of out Kick the
Coverage podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
morning from six to nine am Eastern three to six
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for OutKick the Coverage at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every morning on the I Heart
Radio app by searching f s R. This is the
best of OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis on Fox

(00:22):
Sports Radio. So we talked about the NBA returning to
open off the show, which I think is by far
the biggest story out there, and it's exciting and it's
a great story about sports being back, and if you're
listening to me this morning, it's also fantastic to think
about the NHL returning tomorrow, major League Baseball being underway.

(00:46):
There's a lot of positivity out there, and I'm gonna
talk a little bit about some of the challenges that
I see in the way that sports are coming back here,
and also a bit about college football, because I know
many of you are one orrying about what in the
world is going on right now with college football. But
if you listen to me in the open, you know

(01:07):
that I said I think the n b A. Just
looking at the product on television, if you just sit
back and watch the actual game, I think so far
it looks a lot more normal than Major League Baseball.
And I think the NBA did a really really good
job making their court seems somewhat normal. We're in an

(01:30):
abnormal time in the world of sports, other than maybe golf,
where you can argue a golf course is just as
much fun to watch without a single person on it
in the crowd, because you can actually see the course
better without people on it. Other than that, I think
you can look at the NBA game on television and think, hey,
this product looks pretty good. Here's what I think is

(01:52):
going to be a challenge for the NBA, to what
extent are they going to lean into the political side
for the entirety of their time in the bubble here.
There was a massive production put on before each of
these games when it came to kneeling for the national anthem.

(02:14):
And the truth of the matter is, kneeling has become
so commonplace now that it's actually braver to stand than
it is to kneel, and the degree to which kneeling
is a shock to the American body politic is really

(02:34):
kind of gone. When everybody is doing something, it's not
rebellious anymore. And so the process of kneeling for the
national anthem, whether you are Mookie Betts, the highest paid
l A Dodger, or whether you're Lebron James or Zion Williamson,
or whoever you are one of the coaches, when everybody

(02:58):
does something, it is rebellious anymore. Jason Whitlock has been
analogizing kneeling to like the ice bucket challenge. It's become
so corporatized now that it's hard to argue that it's
a radical act anymore. In fact, the last night, what

(03:18):
would have been incredibly brave would have been if one
player or two players had refused to kneel for the
national anthem. That would have turned into a story. In
the space of a couple of years American sports, we've
gone from hey, if you kneel, you are the rebel.

(03:41):
Two if you stand, you are the rebel. The most
rebellious thing you can do in sports now, crazily is
stand with your hand over your heart during the national anthem.
Think about how crazy that is, and so to me,
when you look at the larger context here, of the

(04:04):
larger NBA issues going forward. I think you have to
be careful of forgetting who your audience is. And let
me explain what I mean by this. Everything in American life,
just about that tries to make money, is about expanding
your audience to the largest possible degree, except for like

(04:30):
American politics, which is about winning the election by any
means necessary. If you are a politician, you want to
get one more electoral vote than possible than necessary to win,
or one more vote than necessary to win. But in
order to do that, you might well have to recognize

(04:53):
that the vast majority of the you know, the hundred
percent of people are never going to agree. I used
to work in politics, and I was always fascinated when
you would go into a voting booth and there will
be a yes no question. And I bet some of
you have been in the same scenario where I am,
where you're getting asked to yes no question, and it

(05:14):
occurs to you. While you stand there reading that yes
no question, You're like, man, I have no idea what
the answer to this is. I went to law school.
I'm reading these two options and I'm like, man, I
don't have any clue what's going to happen here, and uh,
somebody told me. In politics, they said, you know what's interesting,

(05:35):
all those ballot measures, at least thirty percent of people
always vote no. You give two people, you get people options,
and at least thirty of people are going to vote no.
It doesn't matter what's out there. That's just the way
human nature is. Okay. The great thing about sports, if

(05:58):
you are in a business, is that theoretically, unlike in politics,
where you can only appeal to about half the people
and the other half you're gonna lose, in sports you
can appeal to everybody. And I think the NBA needs
to be careful in saying things which I'm sure you

(06:18):
hear every single day, Well, if you don't like what
we're doing, then don't watch. Well that's a little bit
of an interesting perspective, because why would you tell somebody
who otherwise liked your product not to watch anymore? If
you're the NBA, it doesn't I don't think benefit the

(06:39):
m b A to be political. I don't believe there
is a single person that would otherwise watch not watch
the NBA that is watching because they are kneeling for
the national anthem. I don't believe there is anybody out there.
If you're a big NBA fan, you're going to watch

(07:02):
whether they kneel or not. But if you're a casual
NBA fan, if you're somebody who comes in and you're like, hey,
I kind of like basketball, I'll watch the NBA playoffs,
but I'm not gonna watch a random game early in
the season. I think the NBA is gonna lose that fan.
And when you lose a fan, it's hard to get

(07:24):
him back. And so I think the NBA has to
be very careful. And I think all sports do with
the idea that people want in any way to have
a substantial audience that is being intensely political in the
world of sports. Does that make sense? Um? And some

(07:45):
people can say, well, you share your opinions all day
long on this show, and the answer that I always
say is yeah, but I'm not in the business of
trying to appeal to everyone. If I was the CEO
of Coke, I wouldn't ever say anything remotely if sive,
I wouldn't be on Twitter, I wouldn't run a Twitter account.
I wouldn't be sharing my opinions because I would want

(08:07):
everybody to drink coke to me, the NBA and Major
League Baseball and also the NHL and everybody else. They're
in the business of selling something that theoretically everybody should like.
They're selling coke or they're selling beer, right, And so
if you know somebody already likes your product, what are

(08:31):
you gaining by taking the stands that you are. I
think you have to be very careful that you aren't
losing far more than you're gaining. And here's the bigger issue.
Are we sure because because people say, well, they need
to use their platform, it's important that they use their
platform to make the world a better place. Okay, I'm

(08:54):
in favor of that, But are we sure that they're
using their platform to make the world a better place?
Because right now the murder rate in this country is skyrocketing.
The NBA players don't have any jersey statements that support

(09:15):
police officers at all, not one. They also, by the way,
of course, as we've talked about, don't have a single
thing to be said about China on their jerseys either,
which is a massive hypocrisy. But we have allowed athletes
to speak out against police misconduct, and they certainly have

(09:38):
a right to do that. But in the process. Remember,
we haven't allowed athletes or leagues to lean into police officers.
And I know a lot of police officers are listening
to me right now across the entire country, and I
think a lot of you are looking around and you
were saying, man, we have allowed athletes to demonize police,

(10:04):
and we have allowed media to demonize police. And what
has happened is we have created a massive increase in
shootings and murders in this country so far in this summer.
As we have had people start to argue how you
need to defund the police. And one thing that I

(10:26):
want you to think about is it's important to use
your platform, But what if you're using your platform to
destroy more than you're using your platform to create. It
to a brave thing out there would be for athletes,
any of them out there, to say, you know what,

(10:47):
I support police officers. I understand that some police officers misbehave,
and those police officers should be punished. But the vast
majority of police officers across this entire country, many of
whom are listening to me right now, protect far more
lives than we ever give them credit for. And we
don't indeed see all of the lives that police officers

(11:10):
are saving until we actually step back. Police officers pull
them back from being able to do their jobs, and
we see all of the crime that is there that
we didn't even know was there otherwise, And all of
the shootings and all of the murders that are skyrocketing

(11:31):
across this country. Whether you're in New York City, Atlanta,
whether you are in l A, whether you are in Chicago.
All over this country, the murder rate and the shooting
rate is skyrocketing. And so I feel like one of
the frustrating things that we find ourselves in the middle

(11:53):
of as a country right now is the disconnect that
social media is bringing to bear between creation and destruction.
And I'm gonna get into this a little bit to
finish off the hour, and I'm preaching a little bit here,
but I want you to think about it. It's far
easier to destroy something than it is to build something.

(12:13):
I want you to think about that idea, just for
a minute. It's far easier to burn down a building
than it is to build it. It's far easier to
tear down a statue than it is to build the
statue up. Okay, we have to be careful. I believe

(12:35):
that when we decide to tear something down, we aren't
actually tearing down something that's much better than we have
to replace it with. And to me, what athletes are
doing right now by arguing against police is they are
tearing down one of the great protectors of life in

(12:58):
this country, the idea that police like. We can't put
the television show Cops on anymore because there's too many
positive portrayals of police. There wait a minute, most policemen
and women are pretty good dudes and girls. They're out
there helping us on a day to day basis. Are

(13:21):
some of them bad, Yes, but some part of every
profession is bad. Whether you're an architect or a grocery
store worker, whether you're a neurosurgeon or a janitor. Every
profession you've ever had in your life, there have been
people who were not good human beings who did it.

(13:42):
That's a function of humanity, not a function of That's
a human failure, not a function of police failure. And
so what I'm seeing right now across society in many
ways is we are destroying many of our institution ends
and what we are replacing them with is nowhere near

(14:04):
as good as what was there before. Was it imperfect? Yes,
But I would like to actually hear athletes talk about that.
If you're going to get on a social justice platform
and argue that you're gonna use your voice to change things,
what do you want replaced? And why do we not

(14:27):
follow up with media and with athletes. Everybody wanted to
pay attention to George Floyd when the protests were going
on in Minneapolis. Well, now that the crime rate has
surged in Minneapolis, those same media have vanished. We saw
this happen in Ferguson, we saw it happen in Baltimore,

(14:50):
everywhere where protests were the most aggressive. The murder rate
skyrocketed in the wake of the protest, and the media left.
They weren't still there anymore covering the protest. They didn't
stay to cover the resulting increase in death and destruction

(15:12):
for the people who were left behind. So if the
NBA wants to get political, I think it's a challenge
for their business. But in the larger context, I also
think we have to hold them accountable for a goal
to make things better. I don't hear a lot of
names being shared by athletes for innocent people who are

(15:37):
being murdered all over the country at record high rates
historically as a result of all of these protests and
the movement to defund the police. And what's frustrating to
me is I feel like we have to hold everybody accountable.
It's not enough to want to tear down something. You

(16:00):
need to have a plan in place to build something
to replace it. And I feel like social media in
general and athletes are a big part of this, is
very good at pointing out flaws and trying to tear
down things, but it's not very good at trying to
be constructive and build new things to replace that that

(16:22):
is better than what's been torn down. There's zeroed doubt
that police are imperfect because they are human. There's also
zero doubt if you look at the data that if
you put fewer police officers on the street, the crime
rate will skyrocket. It's not rocket science. That's just looking

(16:43):
at the data and extrapolating exactly what's going to happen.
So it's fine for NBA athletes to be political and
to have all these things on their jerseys, But how
come not one NBA player wants to support police. How
come not one NB a player wants to try to
construct something better as opposed to just tearing down. I'm

(17:08):
just troubled by this because I think the ultimate end
result of many of these athlete actions is going to
be worse than what existed before, and we're already seeing
that happen all over the country. And I think it's
an important lesson to us about thinking in our minds.
Creating is hard work. Destroying his easy work. Much of

(17:32):
what social media seems to embrace his destruction. I'm going
to cancel that person. Did you see what they said
twenty years ago? Oh my god, that person doesn't deserve
to have a job anymore. Did you see what they
posted on Facebook? We spend a lot of time tearing
down on social media, not as much time building up.

(17:52):
What are you doing in your life to actually make
things better, not just to try to tear something down?
Because you're agree it's important question, I'm gonna talk about
it in the context of my own industry next, because
I see a lot of people in sports media, especially
in the middle of this coronavirus mess, that are very

(18:13):
very excited to share negativity, the fear, porn, the doom
and gloom. They want to tear things down, but there's
very little they're offering to try to build back up.
We'll talk about it next, but first I'm preaching this morning.
This is outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis. You know,
I was talking about construction versus destruction, and how I

(18:35):
thought much of social media is about destruction, and I
see it in my own industry. And so we're obviously
excited to have the NBA back, and I'm excited to
have Major League Baseball back, and I'm excited to have
the n NHL back. But what I see in my
own industry is there are a lot of people on
social media who make a living in sports media that

(18:56):
it seems to me share all the most negative stories
out there about the coronavirus. And I put up a
poll question. We talked about this a little bit. Uh
fifty six thousand of you voted in it, and I asked, hey,
based on what sports media members share, do you on Twitter,
do you think many of them are rooting for sports

(19:17):
not to come back? And seventy percent of you said yes,
And I said, okay, well, look, everybody's audience is not representative,
no matter who they are. Probably of the whole nation.
So I said, I'd love to see another sports media
member actually put this up on on his or her
Twitter feed and see what the results were. And so

(19:38):
Darren Ravel did it. And his audience is different than mine, obviously,
and he had around thirty three thousand people I think
voteing his poll, and forty eight percent of his audience
said yes said no about whether they thought sports media
was was rooting for sports not to come back. And
what is intriguing about that is his audience has certainly

(20:00):
had a very different response than mine, but it was
still a really high percentage of his audience that thought
the same thing. And so if you combine those two audiences,
we had around ninety thousand people vote, and yes, some
people might vote in both polls, but nine thousand people voting,
and right at two thirds, six percent of people believed

(20:20):
that the sports media was rooting against sports actually coming back.
And I got a lot of feedback from people out
there about why would fans believe this, because you know
sports media people will say, well, it would be so
against my economic self interests for sports to come back.
But my argument is sports media in general has looked

(20:43):
at everything going on with the coronavirus, and they have
chosen as a group to typically share the worst story
that is out there as evidence of why nothing can
be done right, and so using as an example the
Miami mark on the Miami Marlins test positive. Uh, they

(21:04):
have all the issues that have been going on with them,
And the immediate storyline on Monday was, oh, my god,
we gotta shut down major League Baseball. There's no way
to justify bringing back baseball based on what happened with
the Marlins. That was the overall consensus, and a lot
of people who are NFL media were like, how in
the world's the NFL gonna play? And a lot of

(21:24):
people that are college football media were like, how in
the world is college football gonna play? That is, to me,
a destructive line of thinking obstacle exists. Instead of trying
to come up with a way to overcome that obstacle,
you immediately say, well, let's throw up our hands. There's
no way we can get past this. That's a fundamentally

(21:48):
anti American value way of thinking. It's anti capitalistic, it's
anti everything that we have stood for as a country,
and the media is rampant with stories like that. I
gotta give credit to Adam Silver. I think on China
he's been an unmitigated disaster. But Adam Silver came up

(22:08):
with a bubble that makes a great deal of sense
to figure out how to get the NBA back to
playing and back to on television and get his guys
back to work. I gotta give credit to Gary Bettman,
who came up with a way in the NHL even
with all the obstacles that exist to getting an NHL

(22:29):
season complete. I gotta give credit to Rob Manfred who
got the Major League Baseball season back. To Dana White
with the UFC, to what I think is gonna be
Roger Goodell with the NFL, and what I hope is
gonna be many different college football conference commissioners. I hope
they're all gonna find ways to get their sports back.

(22:51):
They're having to build a solution to an incredibly difficult problem.
That's hard work. Other people out there in the social
media arena don't have to build solutions at all. They
just have to show up and then just tear down
whatever else somebody else is trying to build. And as

(23:13):
I see this happening more and more on social media,
I think it's a really fascinating question for all of
us out there to think about in our day to
day lives. Are there we all as a group. Are
we building and constructing or are we coming up with

(23:35):
ways to destroy? And I just think it's such a
fascinating way to look at the world. Sports has found
a way to construct, a method to return. That's hard work.
The hundred plus page rules that are in play right

(23:56):
now that are different than have ever existed for the
NBA or Major League Baseball or the NHL. They found
a way. That's what America is about. We find a
way even when there are immense obstacles in front of us.
And what troubles me a great deal that I see

(24:18):
happening all the time in America now is it seems
like we're elevating people who aren't trying to find a way.
They're just trying to destroy the way that others are
trying to create. And so some people criticize me for
being too optimistic. They said, oh my god, Clay Travis,
you are sharing too many reasons for optimism. During the coronavirus,

(24:40):
I never want to leave my house again. It's terrifying.
Oh my god, you've been saying for months that you
think sports are gonna be back, Yeah, because I believe
in American creators finding a way. I think we're gonna
have a vaccine one day. I believe that our American
ingenuity and exceptionalism is going to rise to the challenge

(25:03):
of this virus, just like we rose to the challenge
in World War Two, and just like throughout our history
as a nation, and frankly throughout world history, man has
risen to the challenge time after time after time. But
constructing things is hard, and it often leads to imperfect results.

(25:24):
But what I wish all of us would spend more
time doing, and certainly I'm guilty of this as well.
It's easy to be negative. It's easy to tear down something,
But how much work are we putting into building new
things that are better than what we're tearing down? And

(25:44):
how much easier is it to sit around on our
phones and say, Oh, that will never work. Oh look
at that obstacle. This is stupid. Why are we trying
to do anything at all? We're trying to do something
because the credo of America has always been be better.
That's what capitalism is. It's a constant mantra to be better.

(26:05):
If your company is better than somebody else's company, they win,
and over time that efficiency leads to a rising standard
of living for all of us out there. And so
I want to applaud the NBA, even though I don't
agree with everything they're doing. And I want to applaud
Adam Silver for finding a way. The same thing with
Major League Baseball and Rob Manfred, the same thing with

(26:26):
Gary Bettman and hockey. And I want all of you
as we finished the first hour of this program, I'm
gonna talk some about college football coming back to start
off hour two, and then I've got Todd Ferman to
talk about gambling with us, and then I got Petros
Papadeka schedule to join us an hour three and talk
about the Clippers and the Lakers and Dodgers run that
they're on, and everything that's going on right now in

(26:49):
the world of sports of college football, plus what happened
with him in Jeff Goldbloom. Oh, that's still to come
on the show. But I just want you to think
right now, as we finish our one construction versus destruction,
how much time do I spend in my own life?
And this is something I think about too constructing something

(27:10):
as opposed to just trying to tear down something else.
How much time do I spend on Facebook constructing versus destructing.
How much time do I spend in my marriage or
with my child raising constructing versus destructing? How much time
at work? Construction is hard, it requires a lot of effort,
and it's imperfect. Destruction is easy, but it often leads

(27:34):
to worse results. It seems to me like far too
often as a country, we are leading into destruction. And
I think that's why so many people in my industry
are doing it, but also why so many sports fans
out there are fundamentally rejecting many people in the sports
media because we're tired as a country. I think of
destruction deep thoughts. We'll get back into college football when

(27:57):
you return, but it's something that I've been thinking about
a lot, and I wanted to discuss with all of you.
I appreciate you hanging out with me, spending your morning
right here on OutKick. This is Outkicked the coverage with
Clay Traffics. I did television a lot with this guy,

(28:18):
and then we had about a hundred and forty odd
days off and now we're back about later today to
finish the first week since we have returned Todd when
Todd Ferman joins us now at Todd Ferman on Twitter.
He's also on Fox bet Live the Daily Show I
do on FS one. Would you have ever believed when
Rudy Gobert walked off the court that we would not

(28:39):
be back until the last week of July to do
our television show again. Well, first things first, let me
say the last hundred forty plus days has been absolutely
glorious in the fact that I haven't had to deal
with you on a daily basis, knowing that we've known
each other for the better part of what ten plus
years now. I don't know where time flies when you're
absolutely miserable. But as far as it pertains the Rudy

(29:00):
Bear in sports getting shut down, absolutely not. I mean,
we kind of joked about the whole thing and said, oh,
you might miss a game here. There had no idea
the landscape we were going to be walking into nearly
six months after you talk about the Marlin situation, sports
being played in bubbles, the potential that you wouldn't have
an NFL or college football season. It's mind boggling when
you try and contextualize everything that's gone on, what could

(29:22):
possibly unfold something I never would have imagined it thirty
years So one of the things I've been talking about
is the n B A I think looks better than
any other league so far in term team sport. Anyway,
in terms of on the court, it doesn't feel that
much different, right at least to me. I mean the uh,
the you know, the optics may be different with the jerseys,

(29:43):
and obviously you know in your head, hey, this is
not a normal NBA arena, but it looks normal. What
does it feel normal is for what we do? How
in the world do you assess what kind of value
there is in in looking at these games like right,
with no ice advantage, no home court advantage. Can you

(30:03):
think of anything like this and you're gambling career? Well,
one thing I do want to give credit you're a
spot on with the NBA and how it's presented visually
last night when we finally got to see it in
all of its glory. I think the NHL, watching some
of the exhibition games as well, the camera angles they're
experimenting with, they've taken a lead from what we saw
in European domestic soccer leagues with tarps, advertising and everything else.

(30:24):
I'm kind of surprised that Major League Baseball hasn't done
something similar because as funny as is to see cardboard cutouts,
seeing the optics of MTCs just reminds you the world
we're living in right now. But as far as handicapping
is concerned, no, I mean, you're working off of a
baseline power number, backing out home field advantage, building in
a little bit of public perception as much as anything else.
And I'm as curious as anybody to see how oddsmakers

(30:46):
are going to adjust throughout the course of the best
of five qualifying around in the NHL ultimately a best
of seven in the NBA as well, moving numbers from
game to game. Typically, point spreads will move based on
the situation of a team's down three oh, or you're
talking about home and road, But it doesn't move based
on just what you're seeing on the court. So let's
see if books believe that the number between the Celtics

(31:08):
and Bucks should be four and a half five, will
we see them hanging the same number every single game
until things play out. So it's a variable in handicapping
that I don't think any of us have ever been
faced with. Ultimately, I'm hoping it creates some opportunity. So
you mentioned hockey. You paid more attention to hockey than
I have. It comes back tomorrow. What should viewers who
haven't put it on at all but might see it

(31:28):
flipping around on the television expect to see there? Well,
I think, you know, from a handicapping standpoint, you get
a lot of the marquee players that were nicked up
coming back. The one thing different in the NHL versus
the NBA, these players had one tune up game to
get themselves ready for. In some cases the five and
through twelve seeds playing a best of five qualification round.

(31:51):
It's win or go home right off the bat. They
don't get eight games to seed teams like we're seeing
in the NBA, So intensity is going to be cranked
up right out of the gates. I think it's going
to be fascinating to see which of these teams can
find their mid season form. Playing goalie myself, having you know,
almost five months of layoff time and going into playoff
type atmospheres, conditioning is going to be a big part

(32:11):
as long as as well as soft tissue injuries, So
I think the sense of urgency you're going to see
in the NHL is going to be more pronounced than
even the NBA. Todd, we don't know what's going to
happen with the NFL or with college football. I know
you desperately want both to be back. I wanted to
be back. Feel good about the NFL. College football is
still a lot of moving parts. I still think they'll

(32:31):
at least attempt to play the season. A big part
of both of those sports, the NFL and college football,
is what actually happens with the crowd in the environment,
especially in college football. How do you assess what the
value might be if it's a totally basically neutral site
games all season in both college football in the NFL.

(32:53):
I think as far as college things can snowball a
lot quicker than they will in the NFL because you're
not going to have that home crowd if you're the
inferior team from a talent perspective, to help get you motivated.
If you get that big turnover, suddenly a hundred thousand
fans are screaming behind you, Whereas if you make one
or two mistakes a game that might be fourteen three
suddenly turns into three. You tuck your tail between your

(33:14):
legs and you leave. So I think it's so important
for the bad teams to get off to quicker starts
and not trust the fans and their home crowd to
bring some of that energy. So for what you could
typically talk about, you know, home field advantage of college
football and some of the better venues four and a half, five, six,
even seven points, in some circumstances, things will be a
lot different the NFL, in my opinion, travel still going

(33:36):
to play a role. We're not quite sure how those
arrangements will work out when you go into Denver, even
if there aren't fans. Altitude and playing in heat in
September will definitely have an impact. But I think it's
just being fluid. It's not coming in with this preconceived
notion that home field advantage is worth X. I'm gonna
be able to back it out of these numbers and
be able to back games the same way. But when
you look at the week one point spreads that are

(33:57):
up on Fox Bed and everywhere else in the world,
those numbers have home field advantage built in. I think
as soon as we were to potentially see an Edict
candid down that none of these teams are gonna have
fans in the building, Those numbers are gonna move a
little bit, and teams that play their toughest opponents at
home are gonna wish those games are on the road
because their win probabilities are going to change, so will
win totals and the entire outlook as far as divisions

(34:18):
are concerned. All right, let's dive into some of these
individual sports and what you have seen so far. Let's
start with Major League Baseball. Is there anything that you've
noticed in the first week that you have thought to yourself, Oh,
that feels different in terms of breaking down a game
than it might have been if you know it was
a regular season, right. Is there anything that you've noticed

(34:40):
in the numbers? Is there anything that sort of stands
out to you? You know, I haven't noticed anything really
in the numbers. I don't think a lot of bookmakers
have backed out home field advantage so many times. The
home field number that's baked into this is all based
on how a team is constructed for their particular ballpark.
The one thing I have seen changed a little bit,
and you know, of course, there's a little bit of
recent ce bias that will factor in here is the

(35:02):
bullpen situation. So much of being a closer. And we've
all seen the movie Major League. You've seen the likes
of k Rod coming into games in the ninth You've
seen Trevor Hoffman, Erik on you. The list goes on
and on. You take the energy, whether it's the booing
on the road or the fans that are foaming at
the mouth knowing the three ounce away from a victory
at home. It's so important for the relievers that come

(35:22):
in for those spots to bring the energy themselves, and
I think that may be part of the reason we've
seen a little bit less velocity on the guns and
maybe more blown saves in the first week of the
season than we typically would. Yeah, there's no doubt about that.
What do you think about the runner on second base
and extra innings? Do you think that's something that might stick.
I know some people love the idea of a twenty
inning game or whatever the heck it is, but it

(35:44):
seems like it's a lot more strategy involved when you
actually have, you know, the runner on second base. Once
you get to extra innings, it's definitely going to test
all the saber matricians out there to make sure they
go all right. If I have first base open, do
I walk the runner to set the double play up
and give myself a force? Do we just kind of
concede the run on second and hope that we're going

(36:05):
to be able to match and the key becomes avoiding
the beginning. I think in a season like this, it's
a great idea because you don't see bullpens get taxed.
I mean, earlier this week we saw the Dodgers and
Astros play what will be defined as a marathon by standards,
and the Dodgers had to use eight relievers for a
shade under ten innings. That when you're playing pretty much
sixty out of sixty five days or whatever, it works

(36:25):
out to even more what you're going to be the
Marlins and Phillies making up some of those lost games.
You want to make sure that the product is the best.
And I think the league announcing that they're going to
go to seven inning games as part of a doubleheader
beginning August first is a way that they can conserve arms,
starting pitching and the bullpen, and they can keep players
from milling around because I think the more time they

(36:46):
spend together, whether it's in the clubhouse or on the
field or anything else. Just kind of alleviate that and
mean that if you're gonna get two games in, we're
talking about fourteen instead of eight teams. All Right, I
don't know much about the NHL. We make fun of
that sometimes on the television show You as you mentioned earlier,
played hockey. How would you assess what's going to be
going on with the NHL? And for people out there who, frankly,

(37:07):
I've bet a huge part of my audience doesn't even
necessarily know, uh, they're in Canada. There in two different locations,
basically bubble like in Canada, what is going on there? Yeah,
bubble situations being created, a little bit more freedom for
the hockey players given the fact that both Edmonton and
Toronto have had a little bit of better luck in
terms of dealing with the pandemic situations, so they won't

(37:30):
quite be contained the one resort like the NBA players
are individual team hotels and not to get bogged down
in some of the specifics. But what the NHL is
going to do is they're going to have the top
four teams in both the Eastern and Western conference, they're
gonna play around robin format. The team that finishes the
top there will be playing for seating, and those four
teams in each conference are already into what we're gonna
call the playoffs. Teams seed at five through twelve are

(37:53):
going to go through a best of five format for
what they're calling a qualification round. Those teams will then
get thrown into the pot. Everybody will be receded, So
if you have an upset where the twelve beats the five,
the number one will take on the twelve and it
won't be a bracket style format right off the bat.
The other thing about it, when you look at the
way the NHL is going to stagger it, if you're
not a hockey fan, now you're going to be a

(38:14):
hockey fan with games starting as early as eleven o'clock Central,
and you may have games going to one o'clock in
the morning, as they're going to try and alternate venues
from Toronto to Edmonton, and it could have that US
Open type feel, whereas if you have a game go
to triple overtime earlier in the day, you can't create
an extra sheet of ice, so you may have puck
drop that starts significantly later, and I really think we're
gonna be treated to one of the best products as

(38:35):
far as these teams in the resumption of leagues are concerned. Um,
the NHL is always wide open when you get to
the playoffs. You know, the eight seed can get hot
and end up winning the Stanley Cup. Do you think
it will be even wilder now without home ice factoring in? Really?
In any way, I do, because I think it's all
going to be about what team can gain that mid

(38:55):
season form right out of the gates. I mean, there's
no wiggle room because if you have rust in your
playing in that qualification around and suddenly you find yourself
down oh too. You know, some of the best teams
in the league that maybe didn't perform during the regular
season are going to be on the brink of elimination.
We talked about it all the time as you go
into the quest to win the Stanley Cup. A hot
goalie is ultimately the great equalizer. So if a goalie

(39:17):
gets hot and finds his rhythm right out of the gates,
all of a sudden, you're talking about a team that
maybe inferior in terms of talent on the blue line
and upfront that can win low scoring, tight checking hockey games.
And I think it's the recipe that a team in
your backyard, the Predators, can employ. I mean, we saw
both goalies look good in the tune up game. You
see Sorrows and Pecker Renny getting some reps against the

(39:37):
Dallas Stars. But a veteran team that hadn't performed their
expectations during the regular season, you get a chance to
hit the pause and the restart button, and all of
a sudden, you're talking about a semi level playing field
going into a postseason format. All right, let's go into
the NFL a little bit um. With everything that is
going on in the NFL, we talked about the lack
of home field advantage and how that might factor in.

(40:00):
Do you make the Chiefs a substantial favorite? Are they
an even bigger favorite because that all these other teams,
with all the young talent everybody else hasn't been able
to work together. What would you say are the two
or three teams that you are the most intriguing from
a gambling perspective entering into this NFL season. I think
connuity is going to be key, There's no doubt about that.

(40:21):
But when you look at Kansas City. I mean, you're
not going to get any value trying to back the
super defending Super Bowl champions weekend week out. I clearly
wouldn't tie up money in the futures market at such
short prices, because if Patrick Mahomes were to mis extended
period of time and suddenly the Chiefs aren't the one
seat in the a f C, the road to get
to the Super Bowl a lot more daunting with only
one buy in each conference and instead of two. I

(40:43):
think this year we talked about it all the time.
It's not necessarily the best team in the NFL that
wins the Super Bowl. It's the healthiest well that's going
to resonate across the league and you're going to see
some of these deeper rosters rewarded. You have to love
the fact if you have a veteran quarterback waiting in
the wings, and I think it's a team like the
Dallas Cowboys, who have a ton frontline talent. But you
go out and you sign a quarterback in Andy Dalton.
Sure he's not Dak Prescott, but if Prescott were to

(41:05):
miss him extended time, you have a quarterback that you trust.
I don't think the Bears feel that way about Nick
Foles and Mitchell Robinski. I don't think there are a
lot of teams in the league that feel that way.
But suddenly the Saints look like genius is giving Jamis
Winston a one million dollar deal, my guy that he
can fill in if Drew Brees were to miss time,
and I think the deepest rosters in the league will
be rewarded more so than the team that can put

(41:26):
its best twenty two on the field weekend week out. Yeah,
you wanna tell everybody that you picked Jamis Winston to
be the m v P before he was let go
by the Bucks. I do have Jamis Winston to be
the m v P. And who knew. I mean, when
you looked at the way things were going for Drew
Brees if he was forcing in an early retirement, Suddenly
having Jamis with a Sean Payton let offense was gonna
look like a pretty good bet. But little to say

(41:47):
right now. I don't like my ticket on Jamis Winston.
There are a few circumstances beyond his control that are
gonna have to unfold if he is going to win
the m v P and go from the outhouse to
the penthouse. What about Brady in the Bucks? I think
I've said before on this show that if I had
to only pick one team to follow, I could watch
only one team for sixteen games this year. Other than

(42:09):
the team that I have season tickets for, the Tennessee Titans,
I would pick the Bucks. Which team would you pick
and how would you assess the Bucks going forward? There's
no doubt they're the most interesting team when you look
at Tom Brady changing addresses, working with an offense. It's
arguably gonna have the most skilled position talent that he's
ever had as his disposal. But it's an organization that
doesn't have a history of winning. And while I have

(42:30):
a lot of respect for Bruce Arians, I like what
Todd Bowls brings defensively, I'm curious to see how things
play out, especially if everybody doesn't buy into the culture
that Tom Brady expect. For me. If I'm gonna pick
one team, and this is gonna sound a little bit ridiculous,
I think the Arizona Cardinals are gonna be a fun
watch weekend week out. I think what Kyler Murray brings
to the table in year two in Cliff Kingsbury's offense,
along with DeAndre Hopkins, Christian Kirk and some of their

(42:52):
other receivers. They're not going to play a lot of defense,
and this is gonna feel very similar to Texas Tech
style football. It's just gonna one fold in the NFC West.
Good stuff as always. You can watch us later today
on Fox bet Live four o'clock Eastern, three o'clock Central,
two o'clock Mountain, one o'clock Pacific. This is outkicked the
coverage with Clay Traffics. We are in the final hour

(43:19):
of the week, and I teased this back on Tuesday.
I said, we're gonna go to Petro's Papadakis and we're
gonna get to the bottom of the Jeff Goldbloom story
that we've been talking about for a couple of We'll
get to that in a sec, but I'm gonna start
with I mean, first of all, where were you for
the earthquake? Did you get woken up by the earthquake

(43:39):
on Thursday morning? No, I was up and I saw
the tweets. So I was up already and I was
milling around when the rest of the family was asleep,
and I saw the tweets. The valley. I know you
understand some part of Los Angeles geography, but the valley

(44:00):
is in a different spot than me. And this was
pretty deep in the valley. Now, there's been some really
big earthquakes in the valley, like the Northward Ridge quake
when I was younger, that we definitely felt and woke
us all up and all that. But this was not
the case for us this time. But I'm from here,

(44:23):
so earthquakes are not the end all be all. I mean,
they I feel them, and every once in a while
I'll take a videotape of the pool or something, but
it's not as fascinating for people. I think here if
if I have the right kind of tone there, does
that make sense? I mean, whenever there's an earthquake, you
get like a huge earthquake boner and there are a

(44:47):
lot of people out there that are I remember there
was an earthquake once that you were in the hotel. Yeah,
I've been out here. I've been out for Yeah, I've
been out for three different earthquakes in California. Right, And
it was almost like you were on the grass, know
when Kennedy got that's right, That's what I felt like. Yeah,
you were really excited, which was great. You know. I remember,
do you remember a quarterback named John David Booty, Oh yeah,

(45:09):
of course, yeah, John David who was from Shreveport and
came out, yeah, and came way out to USC and
then ended up winning two Rose Bowls. I mean, that
guy's got to be in the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame.
He ended up having a great career at USC and
left high school early in the whole deal. And the

(45:29):
only thing John David Booty cared about was what to
do if there was an earthquake. He asked everybody, Like
everybody he took like a pole. Like so you're saying,
getting the ball way, it's always been fat, you know,
as somebody who's from the West Coast and you know
there's been earthquakes. And when you're a kid and your
parents are like picking up your sister by her crotch

(45:50):
and her neck and throwing her under the table and
they're screaming at each other, like John, there's a chandelier.
You know all that, And I mean it's frightening, But
I guess you just end up getting kind of used
to them in a certain way. Unless people start dying
and freeways start collapsing, which sucks. Yeah, well it's it's
interesting because there were a bunch of California guys who

(46:12):
ended up on the East coast, and if you were
anywhere where tornadoes might be, the California crew was all
obsessed with tornadoes, right the tornado. Like, whatever natural disaster
isn't near you is one that you're terrified of. Hurricanes.
If you're somebody who like lives on the coast, you're
kind of used to the idea of a hurricane. Not

(46:32):
to say it's not scary, but whatever natural disaster isn't
in your geographic region. Like where I live in Nashville,
sometimes we have tornadoes and they're awful and they're scary,
but you're used to them on some level. Nashville guy
like me goes out to l A, never been in
an earthquake. So when you're in the you know, the
tall building, I would have been like, if there was
an tornado coming, I'd have been like, well, this is scary,
but it kind of used to it. And and the

(46:54):
same thing, by the way, when I lived in the Caribbean, Uh,
you know, everybody's still kind of scared of of hurricane
is down there, but if you haven't ever been in
a hurricane, you're super afraid of hurricane. I remember one
of my first trips when I started doing Big twelve,
and now I feel like a Big twelve veteran. I
don't know if the Big twelve feels like I have
a Big twelve veteran, but I've been everywhere. I like

(47:16):
doing Big twelve games for sure. And I remember one
of my first trips to Oklahoma, I saw a T
shirt in the airport, and of course, you know, desperate
to get home. I saw a T shirt in the
airport that had a picture of a tornado on it
and it said come at me. It was like, what
the hell that? Yeah, I don't know if I want

(47:38):
a tornado? How is this being celebrated like that's pretty
that's unreal. But but you're absolutely right with the natural disasters.
But this particular earthquake, Clay, I did not feel and
U I was, as you know, on I was islanding
over the weekend, so I know you're on Catalina. Yeah,

(47:59):
I still have like land sickness. So I felt like
I've been rocking back and forward for like the last
five days. So I'm not the guy to ask, uh,
the Dodgers are back. How much an interest did you feel,
even though it's a non traditional baseball season in what
I thought was a pretty interesting back to back games

(48:20):
against the Astros, right, I mean, it seemed like it
took over everything, even though it's a you know, it
felt different when you're watching it. But I sat and
watched both those games, and I don't remember the last
time I said and watched you know, really let's call
it early season baseball, but it was pretty compelling. Great
to you well, and and honestly for a guy like
you too, because I mean, national baseball is not really

(48:42):
something people are super interested in, you know what I mean.
I mean that the baseball does great, but it does
great reasonally because it's it's a very you know that
somebody who knows the whole starting lineup of the Dodgers,
who is likely not to be able to name one,
one or two players on the Cleveland Indians, and which
is interesting, you know. Uh, So it's interesting that you

(49:05):
watched all what it was at two innings, Yeah, every
every inning of every game. But I watched a lot
of it, right, and I found myself pretty intrigued by
the extra inning rules, I stayed up late, even though
I got to get up early for the show. Uh,
And I wouldn't have anticipated that I was going to
end up doing that, right, And I was riveted, you know,
I was. I was all into it, and I didn't

(49:28):
know that I would be either. And you know, I
enjoyed the basketball last night. And how would you assess
That's what I was, That's what I was leading with.
How would you assess the city of Los Angeles interest
in the Dodgers right now as it compares to the
bad A Battle of Los Angeles. Well, people are excited
about basketball, but I still think, you know, just like

(49:50):
it kind of was with the Dodgers, where it took
a couple of days and they beat the Giants up
really bad in the first two games, and then the
last two they lost their bats kind of fell asleep
to what is a very very weak Giants team and
the payrolls aren't even comparable, and that upset people. And

(50:10):
then all of a sudden, you know, everybody was kind
of glued to their TV watching the Houston game. Fans
in the stands be damned, so that I think that
kind of took people that long to kind of get
acclimated to it. I don't know how how how how
much these guys are really going after it as opposed
to what it's going to be like in the playoffs

(50:31):
and the bubble, especially for teams like the Lakers and
the Clippers, who they probably are going to lose any
ground or momentum with these eight games. It's kind of
more of a feeling out period, and I think we're
going to have a feeling out period as as a
fan base watching the basketball stuff, and everybody's going to
have to make their peace with whatever political stance they

(50:53):
want or don't want somebody to take. Uh. I saw
education reform go for a couple of rebounds last night.
It was fun to watch. Hey do you so? For
Major League Baseball? They had a big show at the
start the opening Thursday night, and we obviously saw the
big show to start the NBA season last night. But
do you feel like the NBA will be like Major

(51:16):
League Baseball? Where basically I don't about you, but when
I watch Major League Baseball now, it feels even though
it's abnormal, it feels normal in the way the game's
being played. Right. It doesn't feel like there's some sort
of political angle hanging over it. Do you think the
same thing will happen in the n b A or
do you think this is going to be an ongoing
multi month process. Well, I think it's totally going to

(51:39):
be different. I mean the NBA is totally different. I
mean a bubble for baseball with how many people are
involved in the equipment and ballparks and all that different stuff.
It's it's really just not as feasible. But for basketball,
you've got fifteen guys and and the staff, and you
can you have a lot of lee way, well, the

(52:00):
majority of those guys happen to be black. So in
the political message and the whole I guess, uh framing
of it is going to be different. And you're gonna
see it with the commercials and I mean Lebron James

(52:21):
is going to become Rapino is going to become at
pungent Cobo and you know, I mean it's there's gonna
be a big, diverse message and all this different stuff
and people are gonna have to figure out how they
feel about it. And I don't like I never I was,
you know, kind of freaked out a little bit after
nine eleven, Like every American was but I got a

(52:44):
little bit wary of like the super hardcore patriotism, just
like the the Really, I don't know, it was an
unbelievable backlash, and I understood why, but just I don't
know if if I'm making any sense, just kind of,
I I get it. I mean, it was like and
and then this feels like it's kind of the opposite direction,

(53:06):
you know. It just feels like we're being kind of
saturated with with with somebody's political message. And and I
get it. I understand, and especially I look, I was
a captain of a football team that the majority of
it was black, and there's certain things that they are
the way they are. The arguments of today are about

(53:27):
George Floyd. The ones we had were about Rodney King
and and the l A Riots and and different things
of that nature. So it's really not new to me,
to be honest, be political messaging is pretty thick though
in the n b A. And I understand why. I mean,

(53:49):
the majority of the league is black. Do you think
if the Lakers and the Clippers were playing in l
A in the playoffs that it would be a bigger
story than having them play in Orlando? Does that impact
in any way, uh, the way that the games feel, well,
I think it impacts it because those games, like if
the Lakers are playing the Clippers in the playoffs, I mean,

(54:11):
we're putting on Barry from Barry's Tickets to talk about
how much a ticket in the upper Bowl is going first,
And it's wild around the Staples Center. Like you guys
cast for the opening of the NBA season for the
Clippers and the Lakers to start the season, people show
up that It's like when Kobe died. People just show
up at the Staples Center for no reason, even they

(54:33):
have no tickets. They're just there to be there. So
it's certainly different. But I think just like the Dodgers,
it's different, but we all embrace it. And look, I
respect these guys for having a I am fully into
whatever your work allows you to do, you should be

(54:54):
allowed to do. Obviously, the NBA is facilitating these guys
to have their say pull it really and they're taking
full advantage of it. I don't know how long it
will go. I think it's going to prolong itself much
more than baseball because of the circumstances and if if
your work lets you get away with more, if you
could say the effort on all the radio stations that

(55:16):
you work on, Clay, you would right probably occasionally, although
I've tried to cut out all the cursing in my show.
But I do wish we could have what you would though.
I mean, yes, I wish we could have no FCC
restrictions on the radio show. I do wish that. So,

(55:36):
I mean, whatever your work lets you get away with.
I mean, if they let you get away with saying
things that are relieven more racy than the things you say,
you probably would. So if the NBA is going to
facilitate these guys to have a message and it's part
of them going out and playing and doing what they
do to entertain the country, then that's fine. You know.

(55:57):
If baseball is gonna let everybody do whatever they want
to do, that that's cool. You have to negotiate these
things with your players unions. And that's kind of the
biggest problem that the NFL ran into in the first place.
They took a bunch of military money in advertising. They
brought the guys out there for the anthem because of it.

(56:18):
They put the cameras on the guys during the anthem,
But they never figured out what the players union or
gave him a cut of the advertising money as to
what was going to be done while the anthem was planned.
And that's a form of propaganda too, So you know,
I see a lot of it. I see all this
through a lot of different lenses, and I'm just glad

(56:38):
to watch the athletes moving around again. It's been a
long time, right, Yeah, speaking of the athletes moving around,
you know who used to move around a lot and
be very athletic, Jeff Goldblum. You know he still looks
pretty good. Seven now. I watched um, so we had
the kids. It's just it's funny, you you just we
had We watched all five did You're Asset parks, including

(57:01):
the first two Jurassic parks. So let's talk about gold
Bloom still in your girl and finally get to the
bottom of it. Okay, See, you know here's why people
some people have an issue with the way you go
about your business. I have constantly told you what the
circumstances of this situation were, and I'm not lying. If

(57:21):
I need to get people on to corroborate it, I will.
This was not this was not my girlfriend. So you
keep saying it was my girlfriend. And you know he
stole your girlfriend. He stole your girlfriend, he stole my
date is a much more accurate way to put it.
I had a girlfriend who was in Italy. I was

(57:44):
trying to get away for the weekend. I didn't want
to go alone. I tried to get this girl to
go with me, who I was casually dating. She ended
up with gold Bloom instead. I was upset. I hated
gold Bloom for years. I'm not going to say it
didn't miss me, as it would any young man who

(58:05):
had confident in himself, even if he had a long,
sharp nose. But it was not my girlfriend. It wasn't
like my girlfriend disappeared for a weekend with gold Bloom
and I took her back. That's not the case. So
uh so whatever happened? Like, have you ever seen gold
Bloom out in person? In l A yes, and like

(58:28):
no conversation though, no, Well I used to see gold
Bloom all yeah, all the time people talk to gold
Bloom is a weird dude, and I mean he says
he used to sit in a band before COVID. Of course,
he used to sit in a band that played in
the you're familiar with the Los Felas area. Uh in

(58:49):
Los Angeles. If you're familiar with the movie Swingers, Yes, yes, Uh,
he used to that's kind of a hipster area. And
he used to sit in a band and he plays
all kinds of different instruments. He plays a keyboard in
this band and it's called Jeff Goldbloom and the Mildred
Schnitzer Orchestra. Multi talented. Yeah, So like you if you

(59:13):
want to see I know how much you love seeing
movie stars. So like if if l A Is up
and running, if you're like Tuesdays and Thursdays at one
of those bars in Los Filas, gold Blooms just sitting there, Uh,
playing the keyboard and he'll talk to anybody. I used
to see him at independent rock shows and gold Bloom.

(59:34):
Let's just put it like this. He's cut a wide
swath with the ladies. And he's not the only weird,
creepy looking actor over the years to be a known slinger. Uh.
There's Milton Burrow, the comedian Uncle Milty, who was known
as one of the most well endowed comedians in the
history of the world. Uh. There was Peter Lori Are

(59:56):
you familiar with that name, Peter? That's the Blanca and
it wasn't wasn't Peter Laurie like a German actor. He
was German very good. No, no, but I'm saying like
he was in German silence films. Yes. And he also
had a giant giant and just laid it across Hollywood

(01:00:22):
Boulevard like a speed bump. So, Peter Laurie from Casablanca,
Peter Lourie from the Maltese Falcon. Yes, So these gold
bloom is in their image, you know. Uh. Character actor
a little bit odd, but a huge ladies man. Uh

(01:00:42):
and known over the years to be so Peter Laurie was,
by the way, Hungarian. But I'm gonna look at because
I remember when I was in uh In. Yeah, he
was in um M, which was a really really famous
Uh yeah, It's like I'm it's a it's a university movie. Yeah, right,
but I mean all of these so I did because uh,

(01:01:03):
I got into Russia. I watched, right, I took a
class in Russian cinema, cinema and in German cinema as
Hans Beckert the movie M German thriller film directed by
Fritz Lange Fritz, starring Peter Lorie Cabinet of Dr Kligari
was one of the most famous German expressionist films that
was ever made. By the way, probably didn't expect to

(01:01:24):
get into that. So, so you're the girl that you're
somewhat interested in chooses to go hang out with with
gold Bloom in the weekend. Yeah, the weekend, and then
later what happens the girl like, like, well later, what happened?
You know? I mean, it probably took me months to
forgive her. I believe she came around. I don't know

(01:01:45):
what happened. I don't know if it was before or
after I got hurt or what she ended up coming
around a little coming coming to her senses. No, but
just like coming to my house, you know. Uh she
in the year two thousand, Okay, so whatever that was
separated from gold Bloom or not. To be honest, you

(01:02:07):
same woman I tried to tell you, and you wouldn't
even listen. This same girl, I believe dated the thin
lipped Kyle Shanahan, the head coach of the Yeah, so
do you. And so she's like the female version of
gold Bloom. She is the female version of gold bloombe
uh so what, by the way, I'm glad we finally

(01:02:31):
got an answer. But you know what this girl does
now is she's still in l A. Yeah, she married
a card dealer in Denver and has children. Everything gets
boring eventually, even for gold Bloom. Gold Bloom is married
with kids now too. He married a young chymnast. That's
an unbelievable story. Did you know that Bloom married like

(01:02:53):
a woman thirty years is jr. I mean, that doesn't
surprise me at all that he married somebody thirty years
younger than him, because he looks, you know, um, like
he's twenty years younger than he that he actually is.
Peter's probably gonna outlive both of us. It's probably gonna
outlive both of those. Petra's h I hope not to
because he's nearly thirty years older. Hey, I appreciate you

(01:03:15):
coming on early with us again for a second day
this week. I just wanted to get to the bottom
of your love affair, um and uh, and also hang
out and talk about the all the wonderful things going
on now that sports are back. Does it still feel
weird to you by the way that sports are back finally,
after all the time we had where there was nothing
going on You know, it set weird that we had

(01:03:36):
like all kinds of box scores, but we were still
talking about montral We were still talking about Montrese Harold
versus Lou Williams versus Kendrick Perkins on Twitter. Yes, like,
you know, back up, youngster. You know, like we're reading
tweets back and forth, and it's like, dude, we have
other things to talk about. It's almost kind of like
we forgot how to do it. But hey, look, I'm

(01:03:57):
a football analyst. Someone there's football adolt. Oh yeah, I've
meant to ask you about that. Do you feel like
there's a lot of uncertainty now going on surrounding college
football and obviously the SEC decision, the Pact twelve decision,
like everything that's going on to Big ten estimate, Like
do you feel good as a guy who calls college
football games about college football playing? Well, I feel good

(01:04:20):
about it. Look, I just think overall this has to
shake the truth out of the throat of the actual sport, right.
I Mean, we all love stories about student athletes quote unquote,
but that's not what's happening here. These are billion dollar
industries that are wrapped up an institution of higher education,

(01:04:42):
and all of a sudden, all these people who are
kind of saying shut it down, and we can't do this,
and how could we do this? These are young people,
these are student athletes. Like they've suddenly become the skeptics
of our industry. Like these people have suddenly been come
the realists of what we do. No, I don't think

(01:05:04):
so you don't all of a sudden get to become
a realist in the media. And most of the time
all you do is washballs that you look at what
you do for a living. I mean, look at what
this sport is. It's a tough, hard sport that ruins
people's bodies, and it's wrapped up in our institutions of
higher education. Why a for the branding and a for

(01:05:28):
the money, and those things have to continue. They need
the money. Just like the NBA's playing for the money
right now, MLB's planned for the money, that fl is
going to play for the money. College is just the same.
Even the MLS is playing for the money. I mean,
there's enough money to be made in the MLS for
them to create a bubble, for God's sakes. So college

(01:05:50):
has to play because it's about the money. It's not
about student athletes or anything like that. It never has been.
College football is a revenue sport. It is a pro
sport inside higher education, and anybody that argues that is
going to see how quickly red tape gets cut through
to make this thing happen, because it's a pro sport

(01:06:11):
within colleges and it funds the university's whole athletic departments
and colleges in some cases and definitely helps them raise
money and the whole branding episode of it. So to me,
it has to happen. Everybody's going to get their ten
games and play within their conferences because that's what they
can control. Notre Dame in the a c C figured

(01:06:33):
something out, and it's going to have to be like
a pro football type of deal. If you want to play,
you're gonna have to go full protocol and try to
control your players and be as diligent as you can.
But if you think they're not going to try to
play college football, you're crazy as hell. Petros fapad Akis,
thank you for getting up early with us. Have a

(01:06:54):
fantastic weekend, and uh i'd encourage all of you to
go listen to a show A m five seventy l
A warts it