December 28, 2020 • 37 mins
Clay Travis reacts to what he thought was going to be a fun game in the snow for his Titans in Green Bay. Clay shares the inspired audio from J.J. Watt, which make him nervous for the Titans/Texans matchup next week. Houston Chronicle's John McClain joins Outkick to weigh-in on J.J. Watt's speech, the AFC South, NFC East, MVP race, a big film and more. Plus, Clay dives back into the NFL playoff picture and changes one of the teams in his Super Bowl pick.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'll kick the Coverage with Clay Travis live every weekday
morning from six to nine a m. E Stern three
to six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your
local station for OutKick the Coverage at Fox Sports Radio
dot com or stream us live every morning on the
i Heart Radio app by searching fs are you're listening
(00:22):
to Fox Sports Radio. We have been breaking down everything
in the world of the NFL. With only one game
left in the next to last weekend of the regular season,
the Bills going up against the Patriots encouraged you to
go get your bets in. You get fifty three dollars
(00:44):
right now at fan duel dot com slash Clay fifty
dollar bet win. You got the Bills plus over a
hundred points. Now. It's one of the best deals out
there ever in the world of game bulling, and they
are effectively giving you away a fifty dollar bet when
(01:05):
it is a Christmas gift from my guys. At fan Duel.
All you have to do is go to fan duel
dot com again over a hundred points you are guaranteed
to win. W make this bet yet locked it in
last night, Clay, There you go, I've locked I've locked
it in as well. Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa. Really is
(01:27):
free money Tennessee, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Colorado,
West Virginia, Michigan and Virginia about to be legal to
sports gamble in Michigan and Virginia. All you gotta do
go sign up at fan duel dot com slash clay.
Free money really is rare. You say that. Free money
(01:48):
from fan duel to all of you. Free fifty dollar
bet win at fan duel dot com slash clay. All right,
much to get to here, We've been talking about everything
in the world of the nf felt. We're about to
talk with John McClain here in a few moments. But
Sunday Night football, I was excited, dub you know, I
was thrilled. You know. I was locked and loaded and
(02:10):
ready to roll. And then my Titans just got absolutely
punched in the mouth and they never responded. It's so
excited for the game. In the snow is a great setting.
Props to the Packers. They look like legitimate Super Bowl contenders.
Titans look like what I think they are, Super Bowl pretenders. Right.
I've said this for several weeks Titans can't get any
(02:32):
pressure on the quarterback. And to me, what stood out
about this game, other than the awful officiating, because there
were a lot of really bad officiating calls, what stood
out to me was Titans punned on the first drive
from the thirty two. The only way the Titans are
going to win is in shootouts. You have to presume,
(02:54):
if you are the Titans, that your opponent is going
to score thirty points. Titans can't get any pressure on
the quarterback. They're bad on third downs. But that's okay,
that's what they are. That's why you play the season
to find out what your strengths are and what your
weaknesses are. And the Titans have virtually no strengths on defense.
(03:16):
Really good offense, however, and so you have to call
a game predicated on the idea we're gonna win thirty one.
That's what you have to do. And the Titans cannot
punt from the thirty two yard line down six nothing
(03:36):
already they bombed it into the end zone. What happened?
Then the Packers get the ball, drive back down, they
score another touchdown. It was never really in doubt a
little bit of uncertainty after the Titans cut it to
nineteen to fourteen with the great read read option play
from Tannehill. But that was really it, and that was
(03:57):
just a short lived idea that the Titans we're gonna
be able to contend in a big way. And so
the Packers are rolling. They are headed for the number
one overall seed in the NFC. And the significant factor
about that, and I've been hitting on this with you
guys for a couple of weeks. Now, crowd is not
(04:17):
gonna matter wherever you're playing, Relatively small, crowds, not gonna
be very loud. All of those things are not going
to be major issues. What's going to matter if you're
Green Bay is making people come up to Lambeau and
you wanted to be cold, you wanted to be frigid,
you wanted to be snowing. You want for your opponent
(04:38):
to be uncomfortable. That's what your home field advantages. Whether
you're Kansas City. I don't think it's gonna be much
of a home field advantage for Kansas City because the
teams that they would theoretically be playing against aren't that different. Buffalo, Pittsburgh,
whoever wins if it's the Titans in particular, roughly similar
(04:59):
weather to what's going on in Kansas City in all
of those locations, not massively different anyway, And so in
the a f C, I don't think home field advantage
is going to matter very much. In the NFC, it
could be a huge deal. And I thought you got
a little bit of a preview of that tonight. Uh.
I thought you got a little bit of a preview
with that last night with the Green Bay Packers, because
(05:21):
think about the teams that could have to travel to
Lambeau right now. Saints Dome team, whether or not they're
able to get there, the Rams, warm weather team l A. Seattle.
They don't have great weather, but it's nothing like what
happens in Lambeau. And you start to run down the
(05:43):
list of all of the teams that are contending in
the NFC, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, warm Florida weather, you start
to look at it and say, oh, that could be
pretty significant in terms of the way that they perform
when they actually get there. I love right now the
(06:03):
Packers because early in the season I said, hey, I
thought before the season started, my my Super Bowl pick
was Kansas City going up against the Saints. I'm adjusting
that now. I think it's gonna be Kansas City still,
even though they've been playing to the level of their competition,
and I think they're gonna be going up against I
(06:23):
think they're gonna be going up against the Packers one
week in the regular season. Left. I want to make
sure that I play this audio for you because J. J.
Watt has got a chance to decide who wins the
a f C South. Not gonna be the Houston Texans.
It's gonna be either the Titans or the Colts, the
(06:43):
only undecided division in the a f C. J J.
Watt was asked about his team's effort. They just lost
to the Cincinnati Bengals. They have not had a good season.
They're sitting at four and eleven. The Titans are coming
to town and J. J. Watt had this to say,
which I think is gonna get you guys a little
(07:04):
bit fired up and would make me a little bit
nervous if I were a Titans fan. Here's what J. J.
Watt had to say. If you can't come in and
put working in the building, go out to the practice
field and work hard, do your lifts, and do what
you're supposed to do. You should not be here. This
is a job. We're getting paid a whole lot of money.
There are a lot of people that watch us and
invest their time and their money into buying our jerseys
(07:27):
and buying a whole bunch of and they care about it.
They care every single week. We're in week sixteen and
work four and eleven, and there's fans that watch this game,
that show up to the stadium, that put in time
and energy and effort and care about this. So if
you can't go out there and you can't work out,
you can't show up on time, you can't practice, you
(07:47):
can't want to go out there and win, you shouldn't
be here because this is a privilege. Is the greatest
job in the world. You get to go out and
play a game. And if you can't care enough, even
in weeks seventeen, even when you're trash, when you're four
and eleven, if you can't care enough to go out
there and give everything you've got and try your hardest,
that's bullet So that's how I just I think it's
(08:08):
that's there are people every week that still treats you,
that's still come up to you and say, hey, we're
still rooting for you. We're still behind you. They have
no reason whatsoever to we stink, but they care and
they still want to win, and they still want you
to be great. That's why those people aren't getting paid.
We're getting paid handsomely, That's why. And that's that's who
(08:32):
I feel the most bad for is our fans and
the people who care so deeply in the city and
the people who love it and who truly want it
to be great, and it's not. And that sucks as
a player to know that we're not giving them what
they deserve. All right, Well you heard J. J. Watt.
(08:54):
We're gonna talk next with John McClain from the Houston Chronicle.
We will see what he think about the a f
C South, about the overall playoff picture, how about the
ridiculousness of the NFC East. What do we think about
the Rams and the big win from the Seahawks to
win their division. All that will be breaking down for
(09:16):
you with John McClain up next from the Houston Chronicle.
All that, plus we're gonna ask him what he thinks
about that J. J. Watt commentary. All that still to come.
This is OutKick the coverage with Clay Travis in the
NFL for a long time now has been John McClain
of the Houston Chronicle. He is hanging out with us now. Uh, John,
(09:40):
I'm gonna start with you. Uh. And what's going on
down in Houston? We played J. J. Watts. Uh really,
I thought compelling comments about why he cares even in
the wake of a tough loss to the Bengals. Let's
start with the team that you know the best. What's
going on in Houston. Who do you think is in
the mid to potentially take over as the next head coach?
(10:03):
And what do you expect to see from the Texans
in their final game of the season. First of all,
they're gonna are a general manager before they are a coach,
and he's going to add the search committee and and
he'll recommend who he wants to hire, and then cal McNair,
the owner, will sign off on it. And they're not
married to an offensive coach like a lot of people
(10:25):
think because of Deshaun Watson. Uh. Cal mcnaire's told Watson
said they may hire defensive coach. The two top candidates
in my book Robert Slop forty Niners defensive coordinator who
coached here six years under Gary Kubik and Tom Caper's
and the other one is uh one that knows his
(10:46):
team better than anybody. That's Indianapolis defensive coordinator met Ebert
Flus and then offensive coordinators Eric de Enemy, Arthur Smith
and the Titans. I think Smith will finally get a
coaching job because he's done a fabulous job. He's been
there for ten years for coach that kept him, Mike
Brable was shrewd enough to promote him the offensive coordinator
(11:10):
when it raised a lot of eyebrows. I think Arthur
Smith the league candidate to be interviewed here. But first, Clay,
They've got to hire the GM. There's a lot of
qualified candidates. A lot of people think they're more GM
candidates who are heading birth health departments and then they
do head coaching candidates. But the Texans are gonna stick
(11:31):
to their plan to get the coach after the general manager.
We're talking to John McLean. All right, there's a lot
to dive into from the Sunday we just saw in
the NFL, and we just spent a lot of time
talking about the game between the Packers and the Titans.
You've covered the a f C South for a long
time in the Texans. I don't think anybody saw them
(11:53):
falling off like they did. I think the Philip Rivers experiment.
Even in the wake of the loss to the Steelers,
you have to be fairly happy with how that has
gone for the Colts. And now it looks like the
Jags are going to be making a move to go
grab Trevor Lawrence, how would you assess the overall division
as we come into the final week of the season
(12:14):
relative to maybe your expectations. I picked the Titans to
win the division. I had the Texans as a wild card.
I thought, after what Mike Rabel accomplished last year in
the playoffs, that would give them momentum this year. They
learned a lot about their team last season, and one
of the things they learned give the ball to Derrick Henry.
(12:35):
It's amazing his durability and the way he doesn't get hurt.
And one of the things I believe the team best
equipped to go to Arrowhead Stadium and when they see
championship game or division around would be the Titans to
the same reason they went to Gillette Stadium and they
went to him a t Bank Stadium in Baltimore. One
(12:56):
last year because they controlled the ball with Derry Ken
and the best offense is one that would keep the
other team on the bench, and so Patrick Mahomes can't
have a chance to throw five or six touchdown passes.
And that's why I believe the Titans are best equipped
to go in there and dominate ball and possibly pull
(13:18):
it upset that keeps the Chiefs and even winning a
second consecutive Super Bowl. Are you troubled at all by
the fact that the Chiefs have not covered in seven
straight weeks and that they haven't beaten anybody by six
or more points. Now they're twenty three and one in
their past twenty four, So I mean, yeah, it's you're
obviously quibbling with something that a lot of teams would
(13:38):
like to have those issues with. But do you think
there's any larger concern there about the Chiefs given the
way that they have not necessarily dominated inferior opponents and
even yesterday winning seventeen to fourteen against the Falcons, the
Falcons finding another way to lose. I mean, it's really
kind of crazy at this point, missing what should be
a chip shot field goal in the FL to send
(14:00):
it into overtime. What kind of assessment would you give
the Chiefs. They're obviously the number one seed, they only
have to win two games. They're defending champs there twenty
three and one. There's a lot to like, but they
really haven't been able to sort of hit a different
gear so far this season. I would say in terms
of putting away bad teams, one reason is I think
(14:21):
they're bored when they played bad teames. I think that
when you win a Super Bowl and you have an
offense like they do in Patrick Mahomes being so extraordinary,
defensive coaches spend a whole lot of seasons them and
general managers spend the off season trying to come to
free free agents and draft choices. They helped beat the
(14:42):
team in their division and beat the team on their schedule.
I think they're just like, uh, playing with a puppy,
slapping them around a little bit. Then we'ren't getting the playoffs.
We're going to see a different Chiefs team. Yeah, it
is interesting. So um the a f C. Potentially there
(15:02):
could be an eleven win team left out that we
mentioned the Colts a minute ago. They were up twenty
four to seven. John They looked like they were in
total control. The Steelers offense looked like they couldn't do
anything and they were on their road, on their well
in their way to losing a fourth straight game. How
significant is the outcome there? Do you have faith in
(15:22):
the Steelers in the postseason or not? And what about
the Colts who couldn't find themselves on the outside looking in? Heck,
it's possible we could have an eleven win team not
make the playoffs in the a f C. I can
remember Denver, New England going eleven and five and not
making the playoffs, and that is difficult for a team
and fans. But I didn't believe in the Steelers because
(15:45):
they don't have a running game and their trademark for
decades has been to run the football, to be physical
on defense, which they are now. That game, making that
great comeback against the calls that could catapult them back
to where they were when they started leven O, even
though they weren't dominating teams. The key to that game
as they finally scored more than twenty points and been
(16:08):
four four games in a row, the most since Ben
Roethlisberger's rookie yere But I still don't think they're gonna
go Tarowhead Stadium and beat the Cheese. As far as
the calls, boy, their defense has been really good. But
they were fortunate to beat the Texas to the last
three weeks when the Texans got to their two yard
(16:28):
line twice and fumbled and lost fumbles, so they was
almost like on borrowed time and then they were exposed
in that comeback by the Steelers. So it wouldn't surprise
me if it was Indianapolis or it was um, it
was Miami, depending on how Buffalo decides to approach the
(16:48):
last game at home against the Dolphins, how do you
think teams will approach the I mean, it's been a
tough year for everybody out there, COVID wise. A lot
of times guys decide not to play their starters in
games down the stretch, particularly uh, you know you're talking
about Buffalo. They got a game tonight. They can effectively
lock up there. They're you know, they're already the a
(17:11):
f C North champs, but they can effectively lock up
the two or the three seed, depending and do they
really care. You know a lot of times you care
about whether you're the two because you used to get
double buys. Do you think given the lack of home
field advantage that teams are really caring other than the
one seed, which you obviously want to get to be
able to avoid having to play in the wild card round.
(17:34):
The teams really care if they're the two, the three,
or the four. If the game doesn't mean anything. The
Bills are going to arrest all their top guys because
they don't get that by like they did in the past,
and home fiel advantage doesn't mean as much because of
the pandemic as it did before. Teams still don't want
to travel, but it's a whole lot different strategy when
(17:55):
you don't have to worry about a sellout crowd, especially
in the playoffs when being were so ramp bumpshus and relentless.
So I think Buffalo is capable of beating the Cheese,
but I want to see Josh Allen doing the playoffs.
I watched him help blow a six lead against the
Texans last season in the playoffs when they lost in overtime.
(18:18):
He's been great this season for most of the season.
Now he's got to prove it in the playoffs and
it would help him consider how much he runs if
he could get a weekend off. Yeah, I don't think
there's any doubt at all about that. We're talking with
John McClain from the Houston Chronicle. I finished off the
second hour of the of the program, John talking about
(18:38):
Dwayne Haskins and obviously he got pulled and benched on
route to a game that the Washington Washington football team lost,
when you thought they might be in really good position
to potentially finally end all the drama in the NFC East.
Alex Smith, the guy I know you've covered a lot
over the years, unable to to go. Dwayne Haskins though,
(19:00):
gets caught in a strip club, gets photographed in a
strip club. What are you hearing people say about him
going forward? He's now been binged buy for a guy
named Taylor hann Heinuk, who I don't think most people
even really know. What are you hearing people say around
the league about him and about his decision making? He's gone?
You know there was a reason this year when Royan
(19:21):
Rivera went with Kyle Allen and demoted him to number three,
you thought then something was up with him. He started
one year in college, but Daniel Snyder is the one
that wanted him there, that took him. They gotta have
a quarterback. And if they go ahead and lose this
last game and it helps them get closer and getting
a quarterback, that's good for Washington because let's be let's
(19:43):
be honest here, and they're not gonna beat anybody in
the playoffs. And I don't care if they play at home,
and I don't care if it's against who it's ain
who's playing quarterback. They've got to get another one. Wiped
their hands and Paskins letting go somewhere else has a
backup and hopefully grow up and mature and show another
team he serious about playing football. Brady and the Bucks
(20:06):
look good to get to eleven wins. They're obviously into
the playoffs. They dominated against uh a Detroit Lion team.
How would you assess Tom Brady in year one in
Tampa Bay? And to me, it looks like he's pretty
good shape to come back for at least another year
or the year after because they seemed to be rounding
in deform and look that Bucks hadn't been in the
(20:27):
playoffs in a long time. Did he perform about as
you would have expected better? How would you assess the
match up with he and Bruce arians Well, First of all,
Clay we acted like he was invincible no matter where
he went or who he played for. He was gonna
step in and play the way he did for the
Patriots all those years. But that was a system he
basically created. So he goes into a system that's totally
(20:51):
different than what he was used to with new receivers, backs, lineman,
and he struggled and a new play caller. But now
do you watch that game. Considering the New Orleans, you know,
I picked New Orleans to win the Super Bowl before
this season beat Baltimore. I still feel good about them
in the NFC. But the Buccaneers, they seem to be
(21:11):
peaking at the right time. And but we have to
also look at who they're doing it against. And I
think though Brady, because of his experience and all the
talent he's got around him, they don't need him to
do great things to throw the ball deep down the field.
But boy, he sure looked good against the Lions, and
he looked good in the second half in the Preser's team.
(21:32):
So I think anybody plays them is gonna worry about
him because when he's in the playoffs, it's just like
him playing any other game. He's been in there so
many times. There's nothing you can do to surprise him.
So you have to try to beat him by bledching
him and put him pressure on him. Saints, Drew Brees
has come back. Alvin Kamara on Christmas Day had those
(21:55):
great red and green cleats And by the way, happy holidays, Mary,
Christmas to you and your family. I know it's the
holiday season, so I appreciate you hanging out with us
early this morning. Uh. How good do you think the
Saints can be going forward? And what would you anticipate
seeing from them? They've lost three straight seasons. It's crazy
(22:16):
stat in the postseason on the final play of their
season unheard of. Can this be the year they get
back to the super Bowl? In your mind, it could
be because there's no great team in the NFC, and
that includsing them. They got a really good defense. Braves
was hurt. You know you've got to Uh. I would
say Tampa Bay, of course, nobody from the NFC East,
(22:39):
but Green Bay is awfully good. It's hard. It's hard
for a dumb team to go outside and win in January,
especially in the cold. One thing I like about if
you think about the three best teams and four best
teams in NFC. You're talking about Drew Braves, Tom Brady,
Aaron Rodgers, and Russell Wilson, four quarter backs who are
(23:00):
going to be in the Hall of Fame. Those guys
are leading their teams. And that's why to me, it's
so much more exciting and interesting in the NFCAT than
is the a f C, because clearly the Chiefs are
the best team. Josh Allen. You mentioned a moment a
little bit ago, you got the Patriots tonight Monday night
football going on, you said you wanted to see how
(23:21):
Josh Allen could perform in the postseason. Granted he hadn't
been very good. I think arguably he's the biggest story
in the NFL this year because the other guys that
are good at the quarterback position are guys that we
would have anticipated being good. To have a guy like
Josh Allen come on like he has in his third year,
(23:41):
it's pretty remarkable, right, and he's done. They've done a
great job coaching. Then Brian day Ball is probably gonna
partly lives into his first head coaching job, and he's
done a great job his last two years. They've gotten
so much better. They don't have a great running game,
which you usually have to have in Buffalo because of
(24:01):
bad weather. But Josh Allen has a great arm, he's
a great runner, and he has done a tremendous job
of bouncing back from that discipline playoff loss in Houston.
And I would say of all the quarterbacks who have
stepped up, known has been more impressive than Alan has.
(24:22):
It's going to be fun to watch him in the
playoffs to see if they can can continue to the
kind of improvement of showing regular season. It's Patrick Mahomes
your m VP. You may have a vote. I'm not
sure officially if you do. But would he be your
guy or would you go with Aaron Rodgers or is
there somebody else you've got your eye on? No, well,
Derrick Henry is the only one. The other one I
have my eye on. But it's hard to go against
(24:44):
Patrick Malms because he's been so great and they're the
best team. They've lost one game. I think he will
win his second MVP award. Outstanding stuff has always John Um.
I want to kind of give you an opportunity here
to to give us some tips. A lot of people
home for the holidays, staying home still more than they
(25:05):
ever have been before. And you are one of the
guys that's the best at knowing movies. I went to go,
so I took my kids to go see Wonder Woman. Uh,
And I was curious, have you rented out a movie
theater yet? I know you had talked about the idea
of doing that, because I know you love movies. My
wife told me we were going to do that for
one woman and I don't know when it is, but
I like the fact that we'd be the only people
(25:26):
in there. She said, do you want to buy bring
any friends? I said, only they don't talk on their
phone or have it all. I'll be happy to have them.
I'll tell you an interesting show. It's been on this
the fourth here and I had not watched it, but
I've gone back and watched it from the first season
Sale Team m CBS. I like Sale Team, FBI and SWAT.
(25:47):
I've gone back to watch them from the beginning and
the Sale Team. If you like things with a lot
of fighting and killing and a lot of romance, that's
my kind of show. I really really recommens if you
go back to the first show. Have you watched The
Man in the High Castle, John, do you know what
(26:07):
I'm talking about with that show? I know where it is,
but I have not watched it. So we started watching
that over the weekend. Uh. And the concept is pretty cool.
I like alternate history stories sometime, you know, just to
think about what might have happened if things had gone
a little bit different. And so oh that I loved
Once upon a Time in hollywod absolutely loved it. Oh yeah,
(26:32):
so good. Um. But the concept for people haven't watched that,
The Man in the High Castle. It's based on a
I think of Philip Dick uh story. But the idea
is what would have happened if America lost World War two?
In other words, if Japan and UH and Germany had
one and they had ended up taking over America. So
the conceit of it is the eastern part of the
United States is controlled by the Nazis, by by the Germans,
(26:56):
and the western part of the United States is controlled
by the by the Japanese. And so it's early in
the show. I'm only in season one and I think
there were four years. But I'm really liking It's kind
of a wacky show. Um and uh And and now
that you know they're coming up on fewer football games
to watch. That's kind of when I start to pivot
and watch some other things. So so I'm curious to
(27:18):
see how that goes. But I went. I went and
took the boys to Wonder Woman. Yeah, I went and
took the boys to Wonder Woman. So it's just okay.
I mean, I you know, I like taking the boys
to all the superhero movies. I enjoy them, and it
was kind of cool to go back in time to uh,
you know, almost like Stranger Things, which I love for
the nostalgia factor. Um, and my kids like to watch
(27:40):
it because they're like, man, Dad, was it really like
that in the eighties and the nineties. They think that's
cool like I did when I was a kid watching
the Back to the Future and they went back to
the nineteen fifties and I could ask my parents about it.
But just okay, I would just you know say, I'd
probably give it a six on a scale one to
ten worth watching. I was excited just to see a
big movie again. But but we it and check that
out the day after Christmas. I love the first one.
(28:03):
There was no way the second one was going to
be as good as the first one. And when you
say nineteen eighty four, I'm sitting here thinking, Man, I
used to weigh one eighty and run three miles, now
live three miles a day. Uh, what was your favorite year?
By the way, if you had to go back. I
always think it's interesting to ask people. So right now
(28:24):
I'm forty one, and if you asked me my favorite time,
I would probably say the late nineties early two thousands,
and uh, and you know, it's just a really fun time.
I thought, like everybody seemed to kind of get along
the last second term of Bill Clinton before you had
the nine eleven happened. I like the late nineties, right
early two thousands, that's probably my Favorite's a favorite time
(28:45):
just in terms of years that I've lived in. And
I'm not one of those people who always says things
are getting worse, Like I think it's pretty remarkable all
the things going on today, even with a tough But
what when you look back on on the years that
you've lived and even the NFL season that you've seen,
when do you think, like, hey, this was the best time,
this was my favorite. First of all, I thought about
(29:06):
when I started working at the Waco Tribute Herold. I
was a junior Baylor in nineteen seventy three, and I
was working sixty hours a week and trying to go
to school and get through class, and somehow I did.
And uh, I knew I never had to get a
job because I had what I wanted to do and
covering high schools and junior colleges and Baylor making a
hundred ten dollars a week and not knowing if I'd
(29:28):
ever get a raise. Those were great times. But they
had covering the Love You Blue oilers with bum Phillips
and Earl Campbell and Dan Pastorini and those guys. Those
that was That was kind of like the gas House
Gang of Cardinals. They were so much fun, and I
remained friends with a lot of them. Wasn't friends with
them when I covered them, but bum Phillips was such
(29:51):
a character, a great guy to cover great quotes every day.
And I really looked back on that with find because
it kind of kick started my career covering the NFL,
which now I'm forty fours here. Do you think guys
had more fun playing football in the seventies and eighties
(30:11):
than they do now? Like I we played the JJ
Watt clip explaining why he you know, the way that
he why he felt the way he did about the team.
And I feel like social media maybe isn't the thing
that's kind of put it over the edge. But you
hear from a lot of athletes and a lot of
times it's like they don't seem like they really love
what they're doing, you know. And J. J. Watt, I
think speaks to the way that most people think they
(30:33):
would feel if they were fortunate enough to play a
pro sport for a living. But do you get the
sense you said, he've been covering them forty four years.
The guys now seem happier, even though they're making a
lot more money than the guys did in the seventies
or eighties or how would you characterize, uh, sort of
the the atmosphere, they seem happier today. Back then, there
were more strikes, There were a lot of injuries that
(30:55):
they couldn't they couldn't fix the way they can now.
Players were all always underpaid. There was no free agency.
They constantly complained about money. If you held out, all
you can do is not play, and then they can
suspend you, find you. They could get away with anything,
and today they've got a much stronger union. They make
(31:16):
a lot more money. They know if they do well,
if their kids are taken care of, their grandkids are
taken care of. And I think, listening to J. J. Watt,
if you just given up five forty yards to the
Bengals without their starting quarterback, leading Russier and leading receiver,
you feel like you just kissed the graund going eighty
(31:38):
John McClain, I appreciate a man. Stay safe. How happy
holidays to you and your family. Uh, and look forward
to seeing you again in person sometime soon. Thank you
very much, and stay safe and happy New Year. This
is out kicked the coverage with cleats R a couple
(32:00):
of different things. We were talking about the Titans getting
whipped by the Packers, the fact that the Packers now
have a major pathway to the Super Bowl. Uh, huge advantage, right.
It's always a big advantage to get to buy, but
this year in particular, and I think if you haven't
been paying a lot of attention to things, seven teams
(32:22):
from the a f C, seven teams from the NFC,
and as a result, only one team is going to
get a by which makes the buy that much more
of a powerful uh attribute to have on your team side.
And so Kansas City only needing two wins coming through
Kansas City, the Green Bay Packers only needing two wins
(32:44):
coming through Green Bay. And that's always a big advantage
to only need to win two playoff games to get
to the Super Bowl. But when everybody else has to
win three, and you're talking about the COVID year and
all of the craziness that has been going on this season,
that is becoming even more of a monumental advantage now. Now, NFL,
(33:05):
I think deserves a lot of credit here because it's
been a challenging year for the NFL. But the Bills
hosting UH the UH the the New England Patriots tonight
to finish off the next to last week of the NFL,
and they are going to be able to have a
I think, pretty successful season in the NFL without having
(33:27):
knock on wood to change anything. Now, the postseason could
get challenging because you could have some COVID positive players
who can you imagine what would happen. We saw the
Browns basically have their offense thrown up in the air
over the fact that their wide receivers couldn't play earlier
we saw the Broncos with all the issues that they
had over the fact that their quarterbacks couldn't play in
(33:49):
those games. Certainly in the postseason those issues would get
magnified to a much higher degree. But right now we
are trending awards at least the NFL completing their regular
season without needing to add any weeks. The challenge obviously
will come in getting all these games in in the postseason.
(34:12):
But there are a lot of moving parts here, and
I think you have to make the Chiefs a big favorite,
and I think you have to make the Green Bay
Packers a big favorite as we come down the stretch
run of the season. Uh and the Packers demonstrated against
the Titans why they are and should be a big
favorite now stretch run. Here, only two divisions have not
(34:36):
been decided so far, the a f C South, which
is down to the Titans or the Colts. The Titans win,
they win the division. If the Colts win and the
Titans lose, then they win the division. That's where we
are in the NFC East. Amazingly, three teams are still
(34:58):
alive to potentially win the NFC East. All three of
those teams with losing records. You know it's been a
bad year for the Eagles when the Eagles are the
team that is not alive in the NFC East and
everybody else is still alive. The Washington football team has
the inside track, followed by the Cowboys, followed by the Giants.
(35:21):
All three of them have reason to believe that they
potentially could end up hosting a home playoff game, which
is crazy and which I think they're gonna have to
go back and reassess again. I've been arguing this for years.
Doesn't make any sense to me that you get to
host a home playoff game just because you win a division,
particularly when you win a division with a losing record.
(35:43):
But that's where the Bucks are sitting. In a decent spot.
Because of all the wild card games, I bet the
Bucks are going to end up the biggest favorite, barring
any substantial injury or anything else crazy that could happen there.
So that is where we are hang it out. Still
teams to be decided, certainly in the wild card there's
(36:04):
a possibility that an eleven and five team could be
left out of the playoff race. In the a f C.
That would be wild if we had seven teams that
finished eleven and five or better that make the playoffs,
but then an eighth team that also finishes eleven and
five or better and misses that. That would be wild.
(36:25):
All right, tonight, what's your pick tonight? Monday Night Football
dub How do you see this one? Chaking out? Well?
I love the Bills plus a hundred, I say, yeah,
fan duel dot Com slash Clay gets you the Bills
plus a hundred. That's not an exaggeration. You get the
Bills plus a hundred there as a giveaway Christmas special
from fan Duel fan duel dot com slash Clay Bills
(36:47):
plus a hundred. They would have to lose by over
a hundred points for you to lose this bet. Yeah,
it's hard not to see. It's hard not to like
the Bills tonight, even though Josh Allen is playing. Yeah,
so I like the Bills. I agree. I think Josh
Allen gets it done. I think the Bills get the
win and take over the number two seed in the
a f C playoff race. All right, download the podcast
(37:09):
search out by name, Clay Travis or OutKick. Appreciate all
of you. I hope you're having a good holiday season.
Thank you for spending your Monday morning with us. Will
be back tomorrow, same bad time, same bad channel. Congrats
the Packers on a big win and to the Chiefs
on the number one overall seed. This is OutKick on
Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch live editions about
kick the coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am
(37:30):
Eastern three am Pacific,
I'll kick the Coverage with Clay Travis live every weekday
morning from six to nine a m. E Stern three
to six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your
local station for OutKick the Coverage at Fox Sports Radio
dot com or stream us live every morning on the
i Heart Radio app by searching fs are you're listening
(00:22):
to Fox Sports Radio. We have been breaking down everything
in the world of the NFL. With only one game
left in the next to last weekend of the regular season,
the Bills going up against the Patriots encouraged you to
go get your bets in. You get fifty three dollars
(00:44):
right now at fan duel dot com slash Clay fifty
dollar bet win. You got the Bills plus over a
hundred points. Now. It's one of the best deals out
there ever in the world of game bulling, and they
are effectively giving you away a fifty dollar bet when
(01:05):
it is a Christmas gift from my guys. At fan Duel.
All you have to do is go to fan duel
dot com again over a hundred points you are guaranteed
to win. W make this bet yet locked it in
last night, Clay, There you go, I've locked I've locked
it in as well. Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa. Really is
(01:27):
free money Tennessee, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Colorado,
West Virginia, Michigan and Virginia about to be legal to
sports gamble in Michigan and Virginia. All you gotta do
go sign up at fan duel dot com slash clay.
Free money really is rare. You say that. Free money
(01:48):
from fan duel to all of you. Free fifty dollar
bet win at fan duel dot com slash clay. All right,
much to get to here, We've been talking about everything
in the world of the nf felt. We're about to
talk with John McClain here in a few moments. But
Sunday Night football, I was excited, dub you know, I
was thrilled. You know. I was locked and loaded and
(02:10):
ready to roll. And then my Titans just got absolutely
punched in the mouth and they never responded. It's so
excited for the game. In the snow is a great setting.
Props to the Packers. They look like legitimate Super Bowl contenders.
Titans look like what I think they are, Super Bowl pretenders. Right.
I've said this for several weeks Titans can't get any
(02:32):
pressure on the quarterback. And to me, what stood out
about this game, other than the awful officiating, because there
were a lot of really bad officiating calls, what stood
out to me was Titans punned on the first drive
from the thirty two. The only way the Titans are
going to win is in shootouts. You have to presume,
(02:54):
if you are the Titans, that your opponent is going
to score thirty points. Titans can't get any pressure on
the quarterback. They're bad on third downs. But that's okay,
that's what they are. That's why you play the season
to find out what your strengths are and what your
weaknesses are. And the Titans have virtually no strengths on defense.
(03:16):
Really good offense, however, and so you have to call
a game predicated on the idea we're gonna win thirty one.
That's what you have to do. And the Titans cannot
punt from the thirty two yard line down six nothing
(03:36):
already they bombed it into the end zone. What happened?
Then the Packers get the ball, drive back down, they
score another touchdown. It was never really in doubt a
little bit of uncertainty after the Titans cut it to
nineteen to fourteen with the great read read option play
from Tannehill. But that was really it, and that was
(03:57):
just a short lived idea that the Titans we're gonna
be able to contend in a big way. And so
the Packers are rolling. They are headed for the number
one overall seed in the NFC. And the significant factor
about that, and I've been hitting on this with you
guys for a couple of weeks. Now, crowd is not
(04:17):
gonna matter wherever you're playing, Relatively small, crowds, not gonna
be very loud. All of those things are not going
to be major issues. What's going to matter if you're
Green Bay is making people come up to Lambeau and
you wanted to be cold, you wanted to be frigid,
you wanted to be snowing. You want for your opponent
(04:38):
to be uncomfortable. That's what your home field advantages. Whether
you're Kansas City. I don't think it's gonna be much
of a home field advantage for Kansas City because the
teams that they would theoretically be playing against aren't that different. Buffalo, Pittsburgh,
whoever wins if it's the Titans in particular, roughly similar
(04:59):
weather to what's going on in Kansas City in all
of those locations, not massively different anyway, And so in
the a f C, I don't think home field advantage
is going to matter very much. In the NFC, it
could be a huge deal. And I thought you got
a little bit of a preview of that tonight. Uh.
I thought you got a little bit of a preview
with that last night with the Green Bay Packers, because
(05:21):
think about the teams that could have to travel to
Lambeau right now. Saints Dome team, whether or not they're
able to get there, the Rams, warm weather team l A. Seattle.
They don't have great weather, but it's nothing like what
happens in Lambeau. And you start to run down the
(05:43):
list of all of the teams that are contending in
the NFC, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, warm Florida weather, you start
to look at it and say, oh, that could be
pretty significant in terms of the way that they perform
when they actually get there. I love right now the
(06:03):
Packers because early in the season I said, hey, I
thought before the season started, my my Super Bowl pick
was Kansas City going up against the Saints. I'm adjusting
that now. I think it's gonna be Kansas City still,
even though they've been playing to the level of their competition,
and I think they're gonna be going up against I
(06:23):
think they're gonna be going up against the Packers one
week in the regular season. Left. I want to make
sure that I play this audio for you because J. J.
Watt has got a chance to decide who wins the
a f C South. Not gonna be the Houston Texans.
It's gonna be either the Titans or the Colts, the
(06:43):
only undecided division in the a f C. J J.
Watt was asked about his team's effort. They just lost
to the Cincinnati Bengals. They have not had a good season.
They're sitting at four and eleven. The Titans are coming
to town and J. J. Watt had this to say,
which I think is gonna get you guys a little
(07:04):
bit fired up and would make me a little bit
nervous if I were a Titans fan. Here's what J. J.
Watt had to say. If you can't come in and
put working in the building, go out to the practice
field and work hard, do your lifts, and do what
you're supposed to do. You should not be here. This
is a job. We're getting paid a whole lot of money.
There are a lot of people that watch us and
invest their time and their money into buying our jerseys
(07:27):
and buying a whole bunch of and they care about it.
They care every single week. We're in week sixteen and
work four and eleven, and there's fans that watch this game,
that show up to the stadium, that put in time
and energy and effort and care about this. So if
you can't go out there and you can't work out,
you can't show up on time, you can't practice, you
(07:47):
can't want to go out there and win, you shouldn't
be here because this is a privilege. Is the greatest
job in the world. You get to go out and
play a game. And if you can't care enough, even
in weeks seventeen, even when you're trash, when you're four
and eleven, if you can't care enough to go out
there and give everything you've got and try your hardest,
that's bullet So that's how I just I think it's
(08:08):
that's there are people every week that still treats you,
that's still come up to you and say, hey, we're
still rooting for you. We're still behind you. They have
no reason whatsoever to we stink, but they care and
they still want to win, and they still want you
to be great. That's why those people aren't getting paid.
We're getting paid handsomely, That's why. And that's that's who
(08:32):
I feel the most bad for is our fans and
the people who care so deeply in the city and
the people who love it and who truly want it
to be great, and it's not. And that sucks as
a player to know that we're not giving them what
they deserve. All right, Well you heard J. J. Watt.
(08:54):
We're gonna talk next with John McClain from the Houston Chronicle.
We will see what he think about the a f
C South, about the overall playoff picture, how about the
ridiculousness of the NFC East. What do we think about
the Rams and the big win from the Seahawks to
win their division. All that will be breaking down for
(09:16):
you with John McClain up next from the Houston Chronicle.
All that, plus we're gonna ask him what he thinks
about that J. J. Watt commentary. All that still to come.
This is OutKick the coverage with Clay Travis in the
NFL for a long time now has been John McClain
of the Houston Chronicle. He is hanging out with us now. Uh, John,
(09:40):
I'm gonna start with you. Uh. And what's going on
down in Houston? We played J. J. Watts. Uh really,
I thought compelling comments about why he cares even in
the wake of a tough loss to the Bengals. Let's
start with the team that you know the best. What's
going on in Houston. Who do you think is in
the mid to potentially take over as the next head coach?
(10:03):
And what do you expect to see from the Texans
in their final game of the season. First of all,
they're gonna are a general manager before they are a coach,
and he's going to add the search committee and and
he'll recommend who he wants to hire, and then cal McNair,
the owner, will sign off on it. And they're not
married to an offensive coach like a lot of people
(10:25):
think because of Deshaun Watson. Uh. Cal mcnaire's told Watson
said they may hire defensive coach. The two top candidates
in my book Robert Slop forty Niners defensive coordinator who
coached here six years under Gary Kubik and Tom Caper's
and the other one is uh one that knows his
(10:46):
team better than anybody. That's Indianapolis defensive coordinator met Ebert
Flus and then offensive coordinators Eric de Enemy, Arthur Smith
and the Titans. I think Smith will finally get a
coaching job because he's done a fabulous job. He's been
there for ten years for coach that kept him, Mike
Brable was shrewd enough to promote him the offensive coordinator
(11:10):
when it raised a lot of eyebrows. I think Arthur
Smith the league candidate to be interviewed here. But first, Clay,
They've got to hire the GM. There's a lot of
qualified candidates. A lot of people think they're more GM
candidates who are heading birth health departments and then they
do head coaching candidates. But the Texans are gonna stick
(11:31):
to their plan to get the coach after the general manager.
We're talking to John McLean. All right, there's a lot
to dive into from the Sunday we just saw in
the NFL, and we just spent a lot of time
talking about the game between the Packers and the Titans.
You've covered the a f C South for a long
time in the Texans. I don't think anybody saw them
(11:53):
falling off like they did. I think the Philip Rivers experiment.
Even in the wake of the loss to the Steelers,
you have to be fairly happy with how that has
gone for the Colts. And now it looks like the
Jags are going to be making a move to go
grab Trevor Lawrence, how would you assess the overall division
as we come into the final week of the season
(12:14):
relative to maybe your expectations. I picked the Titans to
win the division. I had the Texans as a wild card.
I thought, after what Mike Rabel accomplished last year in
the playoffs, that would give them momentum this year. They
learned a lot about their team last season, and one
of the things they learned give the ball to Derrick Henry.
(12:35):
It's amazing his durability and the way he doesn't get hurt.
And one of the things I believe the team best
equipped to go to Arrowhead Stadium and when they see
championship game or division around would be the Titans to
the same reason they went to Gillette Stadium and they
went to him a t Bank Stadium in Baltimore. One
(12:56):
last year because they controlled the ball with Derry Ken
and the best offense is one that would keep the
other team on the bench, and so Patrick Mahomes can't
have a chance to throw five or six touchdown passes.
And that's why I believe the Titans are best equipped
to go in there and dominate ball and possibly pull
(13:18):
it upset that keeps the Chiefs and even winning a
second consecutive Super Bowl. Are you troubled at all by
the fact that the Chiefs have not covered in seven
straight weeks and that they haven't beaten anybody by six
or more points. Now they're twenty three and one in
their past twenty four, So I mean, yeah, it's you're
obviously quibbling with something that a lot of teams would
(13:38):
like to have those issues with. But do you think
there's any larger concern there about the Chiefs given the
way that they have not necessarily dominated inferior opponents and
even yesterday winning seventeen to fourteen against the Falcons, the
Falcons finding another way to lose. I mean, it's really
kind of crazy at this point, missing what should be
a chip shot field goal in the FL to send
(14:00):
it into overtime. What kind of assessment would you give
the Chiefs. They're obviously the number one seed, they only
have to win two games. They're defending champs there twenty
three and one. There's a lot to like, but they
really haven't been able to sort of hit a different
gear so far this season. I would say in terms
of putting away bad teams, one reason is I think
(14:21):
they're bored when they played bad teames. I think that
when you win a Super Bowl and you have an
offense like they do in Patrick Mahomes being so extraordinary,
defensive coaches spend a whole lot of seasons them and
general managers spend the off season trying to come to
free free agents and draft choices. They helped beat the
(14:42):
team in their division and beat the team on their schedule.
I think they're just like, uh, playing with a puppy,
slapping them around a little bit. Then we'ren't getting the playoffs.
We're going to see a different Chiefs team. Yeah, it
is interesting. So um the a f C. Potentially there
(15:02):
could be an eleven win team left out that we
mentioned the Colts a minute ago. They were up twenty
four to seven. John They looked like they were in
total control. The Steelers offense looked like they couldn't do
anything and they were on their road, on their well
in their way to losing a fourth straight game. How
significant is the outcome there? Do you have faith in
(15:22):
the Steelers in the postseason or not? And what about
the Colts who couldn't find themselves on the outside looking in? Heck,
it's possible we could have an eleven win team not
make the playoffs in the a f C. I can
remember Denver, New England going eleven and five and not
making the playoffs, and that is difficult for a team
and fans. But I didn't believe in the Steelers because
(15:45):
they don't have a running game and their trademark for
decades has been to run the football, to be physical
on defense, which they are now. That game, making that
great comeback against the calls that could catapult them back
to where they were when they started leven O, even
though they weren't dominating teams. The key to that game
as they finally scored more than twenty points and been
(16:08):
four four games in a row, the most since Ben
Roethlisberger's rookie yere But I still don't think they're gonna
go Tarowhead Stadium and beat the Cheese. As far as
the calls, boy, their defense has been really good. But
they were fortunate to beat the Texas to the last
three weeks when the Texans got to their two yard
(16:28):
line twice and fumbled and lost fumbles, so they was
almost like on borrowed time and then they were exposed
in that comeback by the Steelers. So it wouldn't surprise
me if it was Indianapolis or it was um, it
was Miami, depending on how Buffalo decides to approach the
(16:48):
last game at home against the Dolphins, how do you
think teams will approach the I mean, it's been a
tough year for everybody out there, COVID wise. A lot
of times guys decide not to play their starters in
games down the stretch, particularly uh, you know you're talking
about Buffalo. They got a game tonight. They can effectively
lock up there. They're you know, they're already the a
(17:11):
f C North champs, but they can effectively lock up
the two or the three seed, depending and do they
really care. You know a lot of times you care
about whether you're the two because you used to get
double buys. Do you think given the lack of home
field advantage that teams are really caring other than the
one seed, which you obviously want to get to be
able to avoid having to play in the wild card round.
(17:34):
The teams really care if they're the two, the three,
or the four. If the game doesn't mean anything. The
Bills are going to arrest all their top guys because
they don't get that by like they did in the past,
and home fiel advantage doesn't mean as much because of
the pandemic as it did before. Teams still don't want
to travel, but it's a whole lot different strategy when
(17:55):
you don't have to worry about a sellout crowd, especially
in the playoffs when being were so ramp bumpshus and relentless.
So I think Buffalo is capable of beating the Cheese,
but I want to see Josh Allen doing the playoffs.
I watched him help blow a six lead against the
Texans last season in the playoffs when they lost in overtime.
(18:18):
He's been great this season for most of the season.
Now he's got to prove it in the playoffs and
it would help him consider how much he runs if
he could get a weekend off. Yeah, I don't think
there's any doubt at all about that. We're talking with
John McClain from the Houston Chronicle. I finished off the
second hour of the of the program, John talking about
(18:38):
Dwayne Haskins and obviously he got pulled and benched on
route to a game that the Washington Washington football team lost,
when you thought they might be in really good position
to potentially finally end all the drama in the NFC East.
Alex Smith, the guy I know you've covered a lot
over the years, unable to to go. Dwayne Haskins though,
(19:00):
gets caught in a strip club, gets photographed in a
strip club. What are you hearing people say about him
going forward? He's now been binged buy for a guy
named Taylor hann Heinuk, who I don't think most people
even really know. What are you hearing people say around
the league about him and about his decision making? He's gone?
You know there was a reason this year when Royan
(19:21):
Rivera went with Kyle Allen and demoted him to number three,
you thought then something was up with him. He started
one year in college, but Daniel Snyder is the one
that wanted him there, that took him. They gotta have
a quarterback. And if they go ahead and lose this
last game and it helps them get closer and getting
a quarterback, that's good for Washington because let's be let's
(19:43):
be honest here, and they're not gonna beat anybody in
the playoffs. And I don't care if they play at home,
and I don't care if it's against who it's ain
who's playing quarterback. They've got to get another one. Wiped
their hands and Paskins letting go somewhere else has a
backup and hopefully grow up and mature and show another
team he serious about playing football. Brady and the Bucks
(20:06):
look good to get to eleven wins. They're obviously into
the playoffs. They dominated against uh a Detroit Lion team.
How would you assess Tom Brady in year one in
Tampa Bay? And to me, it looks like he's pretty
good shape to come back for at least another year
or the year after because they seemed to be rounding
in deform and look that Bucks hadn't been in the
(20:27):
playoffs in a long time. Did he perform about as
you would have expected better? How would you assess the
match up with he and Bruce arians Well, First of all,
Clay we acted like he was invincible no matter where
he went or who he played for. He was gonna
step in and play the way he did for the
Patriots all those years. But that was a system he
basically created. So he goes into a system that's totally
(20:51):
different than what he was used to with new receivers, backs, lineman,
and he struggled and a new play caller. But now
do you watch that game. Considering the New Orleans, you know,
I picked New Orleans to win the Super Bowl before
this season beat Baltimore. I still feel good about them
in the NFC. But the Buccaneers, they seem to be
(21:11):
peaking at the right time. And but we have to
also look at who they're doing it against. And I
think though Brady, because of his experience and all the
talent he's got around him, they don't need him to
do great things to throw the ball deep down the field.
But boy, he sure looked good against the Lions, and
he looked good in the second half in the Preser's team.
(21:32):
So I think anybody plays them is gonna worry about
him because when he's in the playoffs, it's just like
him playing any other game. He's been in there so
many times. There's nothing you can do to surprise him.
So you have to try to beat him by bledching
him and put him pressure on him. Saints, Drew Brees
has come back. Alvin Kamara on Christmas Day had those
(21:55):
great red and green cleats And by the way, happy holidays, Mary,
Christmas to you and your family. I know it's the
holiday season, so I appreciate you hanging out with us
early this morning. Uh. How good do you think the
Saints can be going forward? And what would you anticipate
seeing from them? They've lost three straight seasons. It's crazy
(22:16):
stat in the postseason on the final play of their
season unheard of. Can this be the year they get
back to the super Bowl? In your mind, it could
be because there's no great team in the NFC, and
that includsing them. They got a really good defense. Braves
was hurt. You know you've got to Uh. I would
say Tampa Bay, of course, nobody from the NFC East,
(22:39):
but Green Bay is awfully good. It's hard. It's hard
for a dumb team to go outside and win in January,
especially in the cold. One thing I like about if
you think about the three best teams and four best
teams in NFC. You're talking about Drew Braves, Tom Brady,
Aaron Rodgers, and Russell Wilson, four quarter backs who are
(23:00):
going to be in the Hall of Fame. Those guys
are leading their teams. And that's why to me, it's
so much more exciting and interesting in the NFCAT than
is the a f C, because clearly the Chiefs are
the best team. Josh Allen. You mentioned a moment a
little bit ago, you got the Patriots tonight Monday night
football going on, you said you wanted to see how
(23:21):
Josh Allen could perform in the postseason. Granted he hadn't
been very good. I think arguably he's the biggest story
in the NFL this year because the other guys that
are good at the quarterback position are guys that we
would have anticipated being good. To have a guy like
Josh Allen come on like he has in his third year,
(23:41):
it's pretty remarkable, right, and he's done. They've done a
great job coaching. Then Brian day Ball is probably gonna
partly lives into his first head coaching job, and he's
done a great job his last two years. They've gotten
so much better. They don't have a great running game,
which you usually have to have in Buffalo because of
(24:01):
bad weather. But Josh Allen has a great arm, he's
a great runner, and he has done a tremendous job
of bouncing back from that discipline playoff loss in Houston.
And I would say of all the quarterbacks who have
stepped up, known has been more impressive than Alan has.
(24:22):
It's going to be fun to watch him in the
playoffs to see if they can can continue to the
kind of improvement of showing regular season. It's Patrick Mahomes
your m VP. You may have a vote. I'm not
sure officially if you do. But would he be your
guy or would you go with Aaron Rodgers or is
there somebody else you've got your eye on? No, well,
Derrick Henry is the only one. The other one I
have my eye on. But it's hard to go against
(24:44):
Patrick Malms because he's been so great and they're the
best team. They've lost one game. I think he will
win his second MVP award. Outstanding stuff has always John Um.
I want to kind of give you an opportunity here
to to give us some tips. A lot of people
home for the holidays, staying home still more than they
(25:05):
ever have been before. And you are one of the
guys that's the best at knowing movies. I went to go,
so I took my kids to go see Wonder Woman. Uh,
And I was curious, have you rented out a movie
theater yet? I know you had talked about the idea
of doing that, because I know you love movies. My
wife told me we were going to do that for
one woman and I don't know when it is, but
I like the fact that we'd be the only people
(25:26):
in there. She said, do you want to buy bring
any friends? I said, only they don't talk on their
phone or have it all. I'll be happy to have them.
I'll tell you an interesting show. It's been on this
the fourth here and I had not watched it, but
I've gone back and watched it from the first season
Sale Team m CBS. I like Sale Team, FBI and SWAT.
(25:47):
I've gone back to watch them from the beginning and
the Sale Team. If you like things with a lot
of fighting and killing and a lot of romance, that's
my kind of show. I really really recommens if you
go back to the first show. Have you watched The
Man in the High Castle, John, do you know what
(26:07):
I'm talking about with that show? I know where it is,
but I have not watched it. So we started watching
that over the weekend. Uh. And the concept is pretty cool.
I like alternate history stories sometime, you know, just to
think about what might have happened if things had gone
a little bit different. And so oh that I loved
Once upon a Time in hollywod absolutely loved it. Oh yeah,
(26:32):
so good. Um. But the concept for people haven't watched that,
The Man in the High Castle. It's based on a
I think of Philip Dick uh story. But the idea
is what would have happened if America lost World War two?
In other words, if Japan and UH and Germany had
one and they had ended up taking over America. So
the conceit of it is the eastern part of the
United States is controlled by the Nazis, by by the Germans,
(26:56):
and the western part of the United States is controlled
by the by the Japanese. And so it's early in
the show. I'm only in season one and I think
there were four years. But I'm really liking It's kind
of a wacky show. Um and uh And and now
that you know they're coming up on fewer football games
to watch. That's kind of when I start to pivot
and watch some other things. So so I'm curious to
(27:18):
see how that goes. But I went. I went and
took the boys to Wonder Woman. Yeah, I went and
took the boys to Wonder Woman. So it's just okay.
I mean, I you know, I like taking the boys
to all the superhero movies. I enjoy them, and it
was kind of cool to go back in time to uh,
you know, almost like Stranger Things, which I love for
the nostalgia factor. Um, and my kids like to watch
(27:40):
it because they're like, man, Dad, was it really like
that in the eighties and the nineties. They think that's
cool like I did when I was a kid watching
the Back to the Future and they went back to
the nineteen fifties and I could ask my parents about it.
But just okay, I would just you know say, I'd
probably give it a six on a scale one to
ten worth watching. I was excited just to see a
big movie again. But but we it and check that
out the day after Christmas. I love the first one.
(28:03):
There was no way the second one was going to
be as good as the first one. And when you
say nineteen eighty four, I'm sitting here thinking, Man, I
used to weigh one eighty and run three miles, now
live three miles a day. Uh, what was your favorite year?
By the way, if you had to go back. I
always think it's interesting to ask people. So right now
(28:24):
I'm forty one, and if you asked me my favorite time,
I would probably say the late nineties early two thousands,
and uh, and you know, it's just a really fun time.
I thought, like everybody seemed to kind of get along
the last second term of Bill Clinton before you had
the nine eleven happened. I like the late nineties, right
early two thousands, that's probably my Favorite's a favorite time
(28:45):
just in terms of years that I've lived in. And
I'm not one of those people who always says things
are getting worse, Like I think it's pretty remarkable all
the things going on today, even with a tough But
what when you look back on on the years that
you've lived and even the NFL season that you've seen,
when do you think, like, hey, this was the best time,
this was my favorite. First of all, I thought about
(29:06):
when I started working at the Waco Tribute Herold. I
was a junior Baylor in nineteen seventy three, and I
was working sixty hours a week and trying to go
to school and get through class, and somehow I did.
And uh, I knew I never had to get a
job because I had what I wanted to do and
covering high schools and junior colleges and Baylor making a
hundred ten dollars a week and not knowing if I'd
(29:28):
ever get a raise. Those were great times. But they
had covering the Love You Blue oilers with bum Phillips
and Earl Campbell and Dan Pastorini and those guys. Those
that was That was kind of like the gas House
Gang of Cardinals. They were so much fun, and I
remained friends with a lot of them. Wasn't friends with
them when I covered them, but bum Phillips was such
(29:51):
a character, a great guy to cover great quotes every day.
And I really looked back on that with find because
it kind of kick started my career covering the NFL,
which now I'm forty fours here. Do you think guys
had more fun playing football in the seventies and eighties
(30:11):
than they do now? Like I we played the JJ
Watt clip explaining why he you know, the way that
he why he felt the way he did about the team.
And I feel like social media maybe isn't the thing
that's kind of put it over the edge. But you
hear from a lot of athletes and a lot of
times it's like they don't seem like they really love
what they're doing, you know. And J. J. Watt, I
think speaks to the way that most people think they
(30:33):
would feel if they were fortunate enough to play a
pro sport for a living. But do you get the
sense you said, he've been covering them forty four years.
The guys now seem happier, even though they're making a
lot more money than the guys did in the seventies
or eighties or how would you characterize, uh, sort of
the the atmosphere, they seem happier today. Back then, there
were more strikes, There were a lot of injuries that
(30:55):
they couldn't they couldn't fix the way they can now.
Players were all always underpaid. There was no free agency.
They constantly complained about money. If you held out, all
you can do is not play, and then they can
suspend you, find you. They could get away with anything,
and today they've got a much stronger union. They make
(31:16):
a lot more money. They know if they do well,
if their kids are taken care of, their grandkids are
taken care of. And I think, listening to J. J. Watt,
if you just given up five forty yards to the
Bengals without their starting quarterback, leading Russier and leading receiver,
you feel like you just kissed the graund going eighty
(31:38):
John McClain, I appreciate a man. Stay safe. How happy
holidays to you and your family. Uh, and look forward
to seeing you again in person sometime soon. Thank you
very much, and stay safe and happy New Year. This
is out kicked the coverage with cleats R a couple
(32:00):
of different things. We were talking about the Titans getting
whipped by the Packers, the fact that the Packers now
have a major pathway to the Super Bowl. Uh, huge advantage, right.
It's always a big advantage to get to buy, but
this year in particular, and I think if you haven't
been paying a lot of attention to things, seven teams
(32:22):
from the a f C, seven teams from the NFC,
and as a result, only one team is going to
get a by which makes the buy that much more
of a powerful uh attribute to have on your team side.
And so Kansas City only needing two wins coming through
Kansas City, the Green Bay Packers only needing two wins
(32:44):
coming through Green Bay. And that's always a big advantage
to only need to win two playoff games to get
to the Super Bowl. But when everybody else has to
win three, and you're talking about the COVID year and
all of the craziness that has been going on this season,
that is becoming even more of a monumental advantage now. Now, NFL,
(33:05):
I think deserves a lot of credit here because it's
been a challenging year for the NFL. But the Bills
hosting UH the UH the the New England Patriots tonight
to finish off the next to last week of the NFL,
and they are going to be able to have a
I think, pretty successful season in the NFL without having
(33:27):
knock on wood to change anything. Now, the postseason could
get challenging because you could have some COVID positive players
who can you imagine what would happen. We saw the
Browns basically have their offense thrown up in the air
over the fact that their wide receivers couldn't play earlier
we saw the Broncos with all the issues that they
had over the fact that their quarterbacks couldn't play in
(33:49):
those games. Certainly in the postseason those issues would get
magnified to a much higher degree. But right now we
are trending awards at least the NFL completing their regular
season without needing to add any weeks. The challenge obviously
will come in getting all these games in in the postseason.
(34:12):
But there are a lot of moving parts here, and
I think you have to make the Chiefs a big favorite,
and I think you have to make the Green Bay
Packers a big favorite as we come down the stretch
run of the season. Uh and the Packers demonstrated against
the Titans why they are and should be a big
favorite now stretch run. Here, only two divisions have not
(34:36):
been decided so far, the a f C South, which
is down to the Titans or the Colts. The Titans win,
they win the division. If the Colts win and the
Titans lose, then they win the division. That's where we
are in the NFC East. Amazingly, three teams are still
(34:58):
alive to potentially win the NFC East. All three of
those teams with losing records. You know it's been a
bad year for the Eagles when the Eagles are the
team that is not alive in the NFC East and
everybody else is still alive. The Washington football team has
the inside track, followed by the Cowboys, followed by the Giants.
(35:21):
All three of them have reason to believe that they
potentially could end up hosting a home playoff game, which
is crazy and which I think they're gonna have to
go back and reassess again. I've been arguing this for years.
Doesn't make any sense to me that you get to
host a home playoff game just because you win a division,
particularly when you win a division with a losing record.
(35:43):
But that's where the Bucks are sitting. In a decent spot.
Because of all the wild card games, I bet the
Bucks are going to end up the biggest favorite, barring
any substantial injury or anything else crazy that could happen there.
So that is where we are hang it out. Still
teams to be decided, certainly in the wild card there's
(36:04):
a possibility that an eleven and five team could be
left out of the playoff race. In the a f C.
That would be wild if we had seven teams that
finished eleven and five or better that make the playoffs,
but then an eighth team that also finishes eleven and
five or better and misses that. That would be wild.
(36:25):
All right, tonight, what's your pick tonight? Monday Night Football
dub How do you see this one? Chaking out? Well?
I love the Bills plus a hundred, I say, yeah,
fan duel dot Com slash Clay gets you the Bills
plus a hundred. That's not an exaggeration. You get the
Bills plus a hundred there as a giveaway Christmas special
from fan Duel fan duel dot com slash Clay Bills
(36:47):
plus a hundred. They would have to lose by over
a hundred points for you to lose this bet. Yeah,
it's hard not to see. It's hard not to like
the Bills tonight, even though Josh Allen is playing. Yeah,
so I like the Bills. I agree. I think Josh
Allen gets it done. I think the Bills get the
win and take over the number two seed in the
a f C playoff race. All right, download the podcast
(37:09):
search out by name, Clay Travis or OutKick. Appreciate all
of you. I hope you're having a good holiday season.
Thank you for spending your Monday morning with us. Will
be back tomorrow, same bad time, same bad channel. Congrats
the Packers on a big win and to the Chiefs
on the number one overall seed. This is OutKick on
Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch live editions about
kick the coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am
(37:30):
Eastern three am Pacific,
Hosts And Creators
Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!