May 4, 2021 • 37 mins
Clay Travis continues his conversation about Zack Wilson and asks if any good athlete has ever benefitted from anything they've ever said about off the field issues. Clay explains why he believes social media makes people like star athletes less. Petros of AM 570 LA Sports is in the house to talk Aaron Rodgers vs. contract, LeBron's return, social media, and more. Plus, Clay has another strange off the diamond injury by an MLB player.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Outkicked the Coverage with Clay Travis Live every weekday morning
from six to nine a m. E. Stern three to
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(00:23):
Sports Radio. We continue to break down a lot of
different stories throughout and one of the interesting angles, uh,
surrounding the NFL Draft that we actually talked about on
Wednesday of last week was whether or not there was
gonna be any Twitter blow up, and it happened. You
(00:45):
just heard me talking about it with Zack Wilson, and
I just want you to think about this question. Just
think about this question. If people only had opinions on
athletes for what they did in games, is that better
or worse for athletes? Because this is a broad question,
(01:05):
right and it's something we kind of debated a long time.
The Michael Jordan's Tiger Woods era basically believed, Hey, I
want people to judge me for my athletic performance essentially alone,
and that's what people did. Most people don't really have
a strong opinion about Michael Jordan's off the court related
(01:27):
political endeavors, whatever they might be, and the same thing
is true of Tiger Woods. Now, Tiger Woods made his
personal life more of a story with the way that
situation blew up with Ellen, when there was a police
called to their house and everything else. I think if
he had just gotten divorced in that story hadn't begun
the way it did, I don't think it would have
spiraled out of control in the same way. And honestly,
(01:50):
we've talked about a little bit on this program the
way that Tiger Woods was covered being somewhat similar to
Britney Spears. But my point is Tiger has his own
failings and challenges in his personal life, but most people
at this point have an opinion about Tiger Woods that
is rooted to his golf and I would say that
(02:11):
Tiger Woods is still by far the most popular golfer
in America and probably the world. And so the reason
why I raised that as an issue, Roger Federer's the
best tennis player of all time. Have you ever heard
of Roger Federer saying anything other than a tennis related answer?
I haven't not to say that he hasn't done it.
So the question that I would ask you kind of
(02:32):
building on that discussion we were just having about Zack
Wilson to finish off the second hour, and if you're
just waking up in your alarms just going off on
the West Coast, some of the blue check losers have
been going through all of the all the headlines there
and looking at the favorites of Zack Wilson over the
past several years and who he follows and everything else,
(02:53):
and they were like, oh my god, this guy supports
Donald Trump. And it's like, well, how is that actually
in any way relevant to whether or not he's going
to be a good quarterback. I don't know of any
like if there's a despositive factor. Maybe Bill Belichicks figured
it out. Hey, in order to be a successful quarterback,
you have to be liberal or you have to be concerned.
I doubt that there's an equation where you can plug
(03:15):
that in and it matters in any way. My point
here is this, has anyone actually gained in athletics from
something that has nothing to do with playing sports in
terms of their overall value and branding. The only person
(03:36):
I can even think of is Colin Kaepernick. You can
make an argument that if Colin Kaepernick never becomes an activist,
that nobody even knows his name at this point, because
I think Colin Kaepernick was trending towards not being an
all at all involved in the NFL. You get benched
for blame gabber, maybe somebody else would assigned him, but
(03:57):
his career trajectory was on a substantial to line anyway,
So I don't think that it's likely that Colin Kaepernick
would be known at all. And obviously he's made millions
of dollars based on almost entirely off the field political
related statements, even though he doesn't even talk very much.
But is there any good athlete right? I understand like
(04:19):
how social media can be a difference maker for guys
that may not be the stars of their team, that
it can be a way for them to get noticed. Uh.
My buddy Jeff Shorts, who comes on this show and
sometimes guest host otherwise might be an anonymous offensive lineman,
but I think he's used Twitter well to kind of
(04:39):
build his brand. But that's most offensive linemen are anonymous.
But in terms of superstars, like Peyton Manning's not on Twitter. Uh,
Michael Jordan's not on Twitter. Tiger Woods is not very
active on social media in general, do you actually gain anything?
I would argue that most guy who are going to
(05:01):
be real stars lose more than they gain from social media.
In other words, is Lebron James making more money right
now because he's super active on social media than he
would if he was just a great basketball player. That's
not even talking about the time that he spends. I
would actually argue that Lebron James would be far more
(05:25):
popular than he is if he were not active on
social media. And so this kind of ties in with
the question of a lot of kids are getting ready
to graduate from college or high school now this time
of year. How much are you gaining from social media
versus how much you are risking or losing. I think
Lebron James would be infinitely more popular, and I think
(05:46):
he would sell way more shoes if he had followed
Michael Jordan's example and just allowed his excellence on the
basketball court to be his hallmark. Is a great story
here that doesn't get a lot of attention, but it's
one of my favorite facts. Did you know? And this
is wild? Michael Jordan's by himself sells more sneakers every
(06:08):
year than every current NBA player combined. Think about that,
Think about how wild that is. By the way, you
can also toss Kobe into this discussion. I don't really
remember Kobe being super outspoken in any way other than
allowing his excellence to be his hallmark on the basketball court.
And I'm not an expert, but a lot of you
are waking up in l A and listening to us
(06:29):
this morning. And I'll ask Petros this whether he believes it,
But I think Lebron Lebron is way less popular in
l A. Than Kobe and probably still certainly Lebron is
way less popular in l A. Than Michael Jordan's is.
And so there is a lot of noise in terms
of people diving in and chasing whatever that story might
(06:51):
be of a day to day basis, and it can
make you believe, Oh this many people liked this tweet this,
many people liked this picture. But for guys like Lebron
and the Peyton Mannings of the world and the Tiger
woods Is of the world, I think they're so famous
that they only have opportunities to lose fans on social
(07:13):
media as opposed to gain them. And I think this
is true in the larger context with sports as well,
because I think what has happened is in sharing so
much of their lives, they're giving oftentimes a lot of
reason for people not to like them. Does that make sense?
And some people say, well, you're active on social media,
that's true, But I'm in the opinion business. And when
(07:35):
you're in the opinion business, as soon as you take aside,
some people are going to disagree with it, right, Like
some people are going to be of the opinion hey,
this is a good choice, and other people are gonna
be like, oh, that's an awful opinion. And so it's
gonna break down either positive or negative, like what you
think about my belief that Aaron Rodgers is going to
(07:57):
end up in Denver. Some people out there, like Packer fans,
maybe some of you are like, oh, you're full of it,
Clay Travis, There's no way that's true, And then other
of you out there like, well, I don't know if
the Broncos makes the most sense. In other words, every
time you open your mouth and share an opinion, they
are going to be some people who agree and some
people who disagree. That's the job. But when you are
an athlete, your goal is to appeal to everybody, and
(08:20):
so I don't know that you're gaining anything. And I
think the precedent that's being set of, oh, this athlete
liked this tweet. Oh this athlete like that tweet. And
therefore trying to define people outside of the world of
the sport itself is interesting. Also. I think, by the way,
(08:41):
whatever opinions you might have if you're a great athlete,
they don't really matter in the context of you being
a great athlete, because the locker room is the ultimate
prove it to me place. If you show that you
are an elite level performer, then I don't think there's
any uh, there's any ang all uh in the grand
scheme of things that would really get confusing there if
(09:05):
that makes any sense, right, Like, and that was not
a well articulated statement. If you are really great at something,
then the greatness that you are in that particular category
is what people are going to remember, not the periphery
of that greatness. And I feel like in many ways
(09:27):
social media is making people like athletes less. The games
make you like them more, social media can make you
like them less. If you are a star. Now again,
I think it makes a lot of sense if you're
on the periphery, if you're an offensive alignment, if you
are like Juju Smith. Schuster is way more known now
(09:49):
because of his social media profile, but he wouldn't have
been a star otherwise. If you are excellent, your excellence
is your hallmark. It speaks for itself. And I wonder
how many of these guys are making choices that aren't
actually helping themselves and also might even be hindering. In
other words, simply summing this up, are there people who
(10:11):
like Lebron because of social media that wouldn't have liked
him otherwise? I find that hard to believe. Are there
people who dislike Lebron James because of social media that
might have liked him otherwise? I think the answer to
that is yes. And so if I were giving advice
to all the high schooling pollege kids out there, you're
sending out resumes right now, think about what your social
(10:35):
media profile says about you, and if you look good
on paper already with your resume, I think all you
could do with your Instagram or your Twitter accounts, if
the recruiters look you up as they are certain to do,
is actually hurt yourself. If your resume is already great,
(10:56):
you don't need social media. If you're resume isn't great,
or people might not know you, that can be what
gives you a leg up and allows you to advance
your career. But I think, building on that Zack Wilson story,
I think a lot more people are hurt by social
media in general than they are helped by it. And
by the way, I think we've also set the president
(11:18):
which doesn't make any sense at all, which is, hey,
we're gonna treat somebody's social media post as really serious
and legitimate news. Uh, Even though, as I said earlier, like,
is it really surprising that a guy who played for
b y U and grew up in Utah would be
a supporter of a Republican presidential candidate? I mean, do
you look at election returns at all? I don't know
(11:38):
what the percentages would have been in a b y
U student election for president, but I'm betting Donald Trump
of those votes at least, I'm betting every Republican president
wins at least eight percent of the average b y
U student uh vote every single four years. So it really, like,
are you really uncovering some massive story. You find out
(12:00):
that Zack Wilson might have been a Trump supporter in
and why does it matter in the grand scheme of things.
We're gonna talk with Petro's Papadakis here coming up in
a moment. I talked about this earlier in the show.
I'd encourage you to download the podcast. I think Aaron
Rodgers gonna end up in Denver. I think the other
big story from a quarterback perspective is that as soon
as the Houston Texans drafted uh Davis Mills, I think
(12:24):
they had already moved on from Deshaun Watson. I don't
believe Deshaun Watson will ever be in a Texans uniform again.
And I think that's starting to become apparent to a
lot of Texans fans out there. Oh, by the way,
you're over under, as Todd Furman just told us, incredibly low,
especially given the fact four and a half. I think
it is, given the fact that we're going to seventeen
(12:44):
games and there's a lot of pain coming with Torod
Taylor and Davis Mills being the guy, and I wonder
whether the Texans are going to end up deciding just
to move on from Davis Mills. In general, it's a
intriguing question. I think in general, going forward, all of
that much to be discussed. Petro's Papadeka is coming up
(13:06):
with us next. This is outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis.
It is time for Petro's Papadakis at the Old Po
On Twitter five seventy a m l A. Sports with
the Petros and Money Show. We were just talking about
the open of our three. One of the biggest stories
(13:26):
coming out of the NFL Draft, Aaron Rodgers. Do you
have a strong opinion one way or the other on
the Aaron Rodgers situation at all? Do you find yourself thinking, Hey,
I understand where Aaron Rodgers is coming from. This is
a ridiculous kind of situation that the Packers have put
him in with drafting Jordan's Love. Or do you find
yourself like Aaron Rodgers a lot of drama. I think
(13:49):
he should just shut up and complete his contract. Well,
I'm much more leaning toward the latter on Aaron Rodgers.
And one of my favorite people that I have are
played with was Carson Palmer, and he was just like
he was built to be a quarterback and a leader.
(14:10):
And he had a lot of ups and downs when
I played with him at USC not personally, just on
the field. He threw a lot of picks and kind
of wasn't living up to all the hype to a
certain degree until Norm Chow got ahold of him and
he want to Hisman Trophy in two thousand two and
then was the number one pick and all that. But
(14:32):
I always just admired him from what a great teammate
he was, how he took criticism, what a tough guy
he was taking hits. He was always the same in
the huddle. And I've always kind of washed Carson's balls
to a certain degree whenever anybody asked about him, because
he was a big recruit and he played his ass
(14:55):
off and he competed his ass off, and he worked
his ass off and he cared. But that stuff he
pulled in Cincinnati wasn't cool. And I didn't know him.
I wasn't very close with him at that time, really
close with him at all after college. And I know
(15:15):
that Cincinnati is supposed to be a dysfunctional pro football team,
and I'm not just dismissing that, but you said the
word right there. You just said it. Contract and you
signed a contract. You know what the people are like
that you signed with. You've been there a long time,
you know what the place is like. You signed the contract,
and he took their money, and then he had a
(15:39):
giant kind of temper tantrum. I guess would be kind
of a mean way to say it, but that's what
Aaron Rodgers did. To contact all the people in the media,
tell him how unhappy you are, spray it across social media.
Aaron was even worse because he did it on the
draft vindictively to take over the draft and a bunch
(16:00):
of young people having the day of their life. And
what a vindictive, kind of selfish and self centered thing
to do to a bunch of people that have nothing
to do with you or Green Bay or who they
drafted last year. Who cares? And it's a terrible look,
there's no doubt about it. Like at least Carson didn't
(16:22):
try to take over the draft. He just tried to
get the hell out of Cincinnati. And I think they
had more success than when when he left and went
to the Raiders and didn't have a lot of success there,
And that had a bit of a renaissance in Arizona.
And I mean, far be it for me to criticize,
But I'm just using the example because I'm paid to
criticize that. It just doesn't work like that in football.
(16:45):
It's too fleeting of a thing, you know, the same
as the Russell Wilson situation. Like I don't care what
Russell Wilson says or does. He seems like the biggest
dildo on earth, Like he's a dork. He's a great
football player, but everything he does he seemed like a dork.
He uses a different accent every time he talks, like
he's a weird dude. But it doesn't matter, None of
(17:07):
it matters. Until he said he went on the show
that follows you in most markets, Dan Patrick Show, and
he said, while these other guys on the team, you
know my legacy and this and that, and look, football
is a live bullets game that ruins your body and
you see a lot of really gnarly nasty things, and
(17:28):
in a perfect world that probably wouldn't exist. I promise
you not one of those guys out there playing this
game to make a living in a very dangerous situation
and being what paid well for it. They're not worried
about your legacy and that kind of self absorption that
we see in the NBA and sort of just take
for granted now in the NBA where now we don't
(17:50):
even blink our eyes anymore at some of this massive
I don't know what you'd call it vanity from a
lot of these players. Well, you just it just doesn't
fly in football in the same way because there's too
many guys out there and they're they're too much at
risk and your success is so fleeting. So it's a
(18:12):
long answer, but there's an old example where Carson I thought,
really screwed up and kind of screwed up his legacy,
so to speak. In Cincinnati. There's a situation with Aaron Rodgers.
And then there's earlier in the year with Russell Wilson
talking about his legacy on on sports radio before he's
done playing what an idiot we're talking to petros public.
(18:36):
It is kind of fascinating, right um to think about
how exactly and he went to the Kentucky Derby, and again,
I think the big part of the story here that
we've talked about as well, he made the choice to
go public with this story on the day of the
NFL Draft, and people can say, well, he didn't talk
to like his agents. They don't make this choice. This
has been playing out for weeks now, and he decided
(18:57):
to get maximum attention here. It doesn't matter there. You
can be a Hollywood guy and be married to a
famous person and talk to everybody in the media whenever
you want or get whatever kind of attention you want
and be Tom Brady and be a great teammate. Right,
Aaron Rodgers, he didn't seem that way to me. You know,
(19:18):
he seems like a guy who's never happy with anything.
And it's football. It's a terrible, imperfect thing. It's like
a rock fight, Like how do you screw up a
rock fight? I mean, I know that every every football
player you ever talked to, Clay you can get Joe
Montana on and give him true serum, and he's going
to tell you he got aft along the way at
(19:41):
every place he's ever been. That's all of us, no
matter what level you finished on. If you played a
higher level of football, you you know nine at the
time you feel like he got screwed or or ft
in one way or another. To go public with it
and have your agent called Schefter and Glazer during the draft.
That's to be hard to live down. I mean, that's
(20:01):
a it was a really ugly look, and I hope
people don't forget it when he has another Hollywood girlfriend
or when he and this one break up. We're talking
to petrosis, all right. The other big news I would
say is the Lakers. Lebron James has come back. They
have lost their first two games. Uh, he's not he
didn't play last night. Anthony Davis hasn't looked great. How
much discussion about the Lakers is there in l A
(20:24):
And do you believe that this talk about the play
in series and everything else. Are the Lakers in trouble
as a as a title contender in your mind? Well,
I mean I'm no basketball analysts, but join the club. Yes, yeah,
our basketball analysts have said, you know because we you know,
you basically asked the same question about the Lakers to
(20:45):
everybody for for the last few weeks, if not months,
which is, you know, one of these guys coming back,
will they be ready for the playoffs? And everybody says
the same thing. They say, well, yeah, you know, as
long as they get back and time so they don't
have to go to that plan. It's like, well, Okay,
well now potentially yeah, yeah, they're there on the plan
(21:07):
in the face, and Lebron is starting to bitch about it,
which is funny because, by the way, to Lebron's credit,
that Dallas Mavericks did the same things. Everybody likes the
idea of a play in when they think they don't
have to play in it, and as soon as they do,
they're like white, whoever came up with this idea? You know, like, yeah,
this is this is horrible. So that's uh that I
expect that to make a little bit of news. But
(21:30):
I mean I wouldn't. I wouldn't be telling you the
truth if I didn't tell you that interest has waned
in the NBA considerately, even in this town where the
Lakers are a gigantic brand, which is not to say
there's still people that are in love with the Lakers.
But first of all, like we had to read the
rules to go to a game at Staples Center on
(21:50):
air because we do Clipper stuff, I guess, and I mean,
I mean the thought that anybody would want to go
through that, let alone pay to go through that, and
to go to like a designating roped off eating area
where you stand like a sheep and eat as quickly
as you can so you can get bad. I mean,
it's just it's not a fun environment. It's not worth it,
(22:14):
you know, It's just it doesn't seem worth it, and
it doesn't seem like I mean, things could change, and
the playoffs could change, and Lebron could I don't know,
but there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest.
And I do believe that there are a lot of
people pretty turned off by it at this point. The
other thing going on in town is that the Dodgers
are struggling and had been struggling much more than people fun.
(22:37):
And yes it's April, but it's pretty clear that they're
not the same baseball team that one that shortened season.
So you've got both these teams have won last year
under very odd circumstances. I mean, the Dodgers played every
World Series game and most of the playoffs in Texas,
and UH, and you have them trying to repeat as favorites,
(22:58):
and right now are of them are living up the
expectations kind of treading water and thinking, yeah, you know,
it is interesting in uh in that respect and the
other this is a big question for you, And I
know you're not a huge fan of social media in general.
But I was just talking about this to start off
the show. If social media didn't exist, right, if we
(23:18):
were like, let's say, social media isn't going to be
invented in the way that it exists now until twenty right,
and Lebron has already finished his career and he plays
for most of his career in the same sort of
rough environment that Jordans did. Is Lebron more or less
popular because of social media? In your mind and in
a bigger picture, the question that I was asking to
(23:39):
start off the third hour the program is how many
stars out there? I don't mean like role players, I
don't mean like side actors, you know, like, for instance,
us in media. I think social media can in many
ways help us. Certainly it's helped me, but it also
can come with its downsides. But in general, um, how
would you say that social media has impacted Lebron James
(24:03):
popularity has fifty million Twitter followers, however many that he
has on Instagram as well to people like him more
or less than if he didn't have social media at all.
It really is. Since you've been explaining it, I thought
the answer was really easy when you first started asking it.
But I don't think it's I think it's a really
complex answer, and I think it really can be applied
(24:25):
to all of us to a certain degree. Right, social
media exposes you to a lot more people then you
would normally be explore, exposes some form of you write
some of your opinion and what you want to write
down on Twitter or whatever pictures you want to put
up at some some arm of of of your being.
(24:47):
Social media exposes you to a lot more people than
would you would normally be exposed to. And so it's
not only an opportunity for a lot more people to
like you and a lot more people to revere you,
but it's also an opportunity for a lot more people
to hate you. So and and it's such a polarizing
(25:08):
place that we, you know, social media, Like you said
that I use it, and obviously I remember you using
it when I first met you, you know, twelve, I
mean two thousand, twelve, eight eight nine years ago I
met you and you were attached to Twitter, and I
understood it to a certain degree, and I understood it
as important and growing. Uh. But also it's a place
(25:32):
for kind of like it's a lighter, fair type of
place for me, because it's a place that forces you
to one side or the other. You know, you're not
allowed to go on to social media and say, hey,
Lebron is a great basketball player, but you know some
of this stuff is not cool. You know, like, no
one's going to be happy with you, Lebron. People like
(25:52):
if you try with the least, the least hot take comment,
whatever it might be, right, like the most lukewarm comment
that you could have have, uh, not a pro or con.
It's the same thing, by the way, with for instance,
like reviews on the internet, everything is either a one
star or a five star. Right, especially in our business,
people either like, man, I love that guy, or they're like, man,
(26:14):
I hate that guy. Almost never, but almost no one
would be like, yeah, I'd give him a two and
a half to three and a half. He's pretty much
just totally average. I don't really have a strong opinion
one or the other social media. What works is strong
opinions one way or the other. And what you also
have to think about it like this, think about it
in the context of what we do. The lowest rung
of the world of entertainment. Sports talk radio just this
(26:37):
what we're doing right now. When we were younger, when
there was no social media. Frankly, when I started in
the business, it just started to turn and thank god,
we weren't people allowed to have strong opinions or be
entertaining or have a lot of fun because that wasn't
our role. Our role was to be informational. The role
was to tell people if Lebron was gonna play tonight,
(27:01):
because that information wasn't available to everybody on everybody's phone.
Now on the radio, you don't know anything that everybody
else doesn't know in the moment. That's right. It's very
rare that there's even breaking news on this show, and
we have to break out the breaking news sounder. Like
almost doing this show five years, I think we've legitimately
had breaking news that changes what we would talk about,
(27:23):
like four or five times in five years, but basically
once and your time slots a little bit different, but
it almost never happens in the words here. It's not
different in a lot of ways, Clay, because so many
people podcast shows. Well, I didn't hear the show live,
but it doesn't stop me from listening to it in
beautiful clear sound on I Heart Radio. So it doesn't
(27:44):
really matter if you had, you know what time the
listener Rocker Bueller wasn't going to play, because I mean
an overwhelming amount of the listeners are listening at their convenience,
sometimes two weeks later. Be entertaining and speak your your
most honest, freaking show, you know, and the most fun
(28:06):
you can have is is the best way to do it,
you know now because it's morphed, but with Lebron James
or people like that, Like the more you put yourself
out there publicly and touched these hot topics as an
athlete or somebody you know, an actor or somebody like that,
you you, I mean, you're going to expose yourself to
(28:28):
a whole country of people, and maybe half of those
people are gonna like you, where none of them would
have known you, but now half of them like you
and half of them hate you. You know. That's why
kind of point, like I understand it for purposes of
guys who are on the periphery, Like if you're an
offensive lineman right on a football team and you're witty
and you're funny and you're good at social media, I
(28:49):
can understand the benefit of being active because people might
not have known you otherwise you were on that periphery.
But you know, Peyton Manning and Michael Jordan are pretty
big names. They've never needed social media in order to
be big names. They still don't have it, And I
wonder on some level for Lebron whether the guys of
that ilk that magnitude would be more popular without it. Now.
(29:10):
I do think Tom Brady in the last couple of
years has started using social media pretty well and made
himself a little bit more likable than he might otherwise
be because he seems so inaccessible and when he's drunk
and he puts out like a funny tweet afterwards, it
makes him seem more likable. But I am just kind
of fascinated by how quickly the universe in which we
(29:31):
live in the world of sports has changed. In general,
it is Uh. It is wild because you'd never think, like, wow,
I want to go watch Lebron James uh, and then
a way maybe I don't, because you know, he kind
of bugged me with what he said a couple of
weeks ago, like you know, that's yeah, that's going through
more people's minds than you know, you'd say, well, I
(29:53):
don't like Michael Jordan because he beat my sons, you know,
or he beat my Sonics or Trailblazers or lay Curs
or whatever. Uh, it's it's it's a lot different, and
it's I think it is. It's a problem for the
NBA obviously, and it's something uh that they need to address,
but everybody has to like kind of come to terms
with it in their league. And it's the long in football.
(30:17):
I've made this point for a long time. Figure it
out in your collective bartaing bargaining agreement. Figure out what
is a proper form of protest and how you want
to handle this new political climate that we're in that
will satisfy the owners, the sponsors, all your social justice
people and then your normal sort of fans. And I
(30:39):
don't know if you can do that. You know, that's
gonna be a tall order. But they're gonna have to
figure it out because right now, and we're kind of
in a no man's land, and I think a lot
of different platforms are suffering because of it. We've we've
alienated each other so much that basically a lot of
people can't even stand a look at each other. Yeah,
there's no doubt quick leave. Who's more popular in l
(31:01):
A right now? Lebron James or Kobe Bryant. Oh, Kobe Kyant.
Kobe felt like he was, you know, two people here
in l A. Kobe when for all his warts and zits,
and you know, many of them have just been forgotten
and forgiven because of the horrible tragic way that he
and his daughter and and uh many others died and
(31:27):
that's kind of been erased from our memory, especially locally. Kobe,
for whatever he was, he felt like he was the
city's So Lebron James could be here for another ten
years and that wouldn't change. This is outkicked the coverage
with Clay's ravas Hey. It's been host of The Fifth
(31:50):
Hour with Ben Malley along with my trustees sidekick David Gascon.
Would meet a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey, he asked. One in God's name
is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin
off of the Benn Mather Show, Cold Hit overnights on
fs ARE. Why should you listen? Picture if you will?
A world will we chat with captains of industry in media,
sports and more every week Explorer some amazing facts about
(32:13):
a human nature and more. Let's sen to the fifth
hour with Ben Mallow on the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Appreciate all
of you hanging out with us. My fakes to Petro's
Papadaka is always great. Encourage you to go download the
podcast so you don't miss any of the show so far.
If you're just waking up with us. Paulka Harski was
great in the first hour breaking down the NFL Draft
and more. My buddy Todd Furman from Fox bet Live
(32:35):
in the second hour, and now Petro's Papadakis just finished
off with us. Whether it's iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play,
go download podcast and make sure you don't miss a minute. Dub,
you had a ridiculous story that we just teased about
a guy injuring himself playing video games, which feels like
the perfect ending to the show so far. I haven't
(32:56):
seen all the details there, but video game injuries never
get old, and it always seems that these odd injuries
happen in baseball. Yeah, you never really hear about a linebacker,
you know. It's like, well, it's the Aaron Boone back
in the day. You know, they always think Ken Griffey Jr.
Like injured himself with the game boy back in the day.
Like people who remember like the old school game boy
(33:17):
that you could hold in your hand, like in the
grand scheme of things, that is, uh, that's where we
are right like that, we've moved a lot, But it
does seem like it's baseball players getting injured very often. Yeah,
So this guy on the A's he breaks his finger
playing video games. He's currently on the ten day I
l and they're gonna revisit him. Do we know what
the game was? I'm trying to find out exactly what
(33:40):
the game was. Don't you have to lie? That's what
I'm saying. Maybe it is a lie. Maybe it was
even worse, Maybe it was broke his finger doing something
even dumber exactly. But I mean, my perspective on this
is if you injure yourself in a really stupid way,
and you are an athlete, I think you could just
make something up. Right. It seems like you would have
to be playing video games insanely aggressively to break a
(34:02):
finger and put yourself on the disabled list. So if
you I don't know, you could say you slipped and
fell right and try to catch yourself. I mean, that's easy,
easy way. I mean you're probably everybody out there. I
bet at some point you've been in the shower and
like you've gotten soap under your foot and like you've
took a little bit of a step and maybe you
slip a little bit, and you think, God, that would
be awful if I fell and like seriously injured myself
(34:24):
in the shower. Um, you know. Or you are walking
down the stairs and there's like a toy, a lego,
maybe if you've got kids, and you end up slipping
on it and you think, oh my god, I almost
fell all the way down the stairs. Maybe Uh, certainly
in the wake of that huge ice storm and snowstorm
that we had that hit uh in late February and
March all over the country, I'm sure a lot of
people like fell going down their front steps and things
(34:47):
like that. In other words, I guess it's honest if
he's being honest, But I don't know that I would
want to admit that I was going on the I
guess they call it the I L right, because disabled
is now a it's an offensive word. Remember they used
to have the disa able list, and they're like, now
they're calling it the injured list. I think, um, because
it's uh. I don't know that they decided that language
(35:07):
is not appropriate because everybody's obsessed with all sorts of
stupid things in this country now. But I don't know
that I would admit to that kind of injury. Yeah.
So apparently he was playing a video game. He got
mad and angry and slammed his controller, and in the
process of slamming his desk, I assumed or whatever it was,
he broke his pinky. I mean, I just I think
I would lie, Like you could say that you slammed
(35:28):
the door your car door on yourself, right, like you could.
I just think it's a weird thing to admit to.
I'm sure that in the locker room he is going
to hear a great deal of people making fun of
him over time. Um, in general, right, No, there's no doubt.
I mean, could you imagine, imagine if one of the
guys on the crew here for out Kick broke his
(35:48):
pinky playing video games? I mean, they would never would never,
we would never stop talking. Especially how old is this guy,
do we know? I mean he looks pretty young. I
mean I'm sure he's young if he's all in on
video games, but I still want to know what the
game was that he was playing and what had occurred
that made him so angry. We need to get that
guy on the radio show. And he's twenty three years
(36:09):
old originally from Lima, Peru in the Oakland A's he's
a picture, so that maybe amplifies the injury a little
bit more. And also maybe he didn't realize how much
he was gonna get made fun of from saying that
he hurt himself this way. If he's from Lima, Peru, like,
maybe he doesn't realize that he's just gonna get absolutely ridiculed.
Maybe I don't know. I just it seems to me
(36:30):
to be an utterly ridiculous way to get injured. And
I think I would make something else up. I mean,
he could say that he got hurt somehow during the
course of warm ups, right, like show up with a
hurt pinky, Like you're out there fielding a ball and
like you say, like you got you know you somehow
you bent your finger the wrong way and then you
go and admit to it. Like I feel like I
would probably lie. I'm gonna be honest with you, there's
(36:52):
no way that I'm admitting this injury. But it was
good news forever for the guy who got called up
from the minors to take a spot getting called up
for a guy that broke his pinky playing video games.
Maybe it never goes back. That's what happened with obviously
Luke Garrett coming in and never replacing that starting job
forever at at first base for the Yankees. All right, Uh,
there you go. Don't break your don't lose your job
(37:13):
or go on the disabled list or the injured list
or whatever you wanna call it because you're so angry
about a video game, especially if you're an adult like
I would be upset at one of my kids if
they did this much less when you're actually twenty three
years old. As the situation is, We'll be back tomorrow,
same bad time, same bad channel. Thanks to all the guests,
Paul Kaharski, Todd Ferman, Petros Papadekas, Lots of good stuff
(37:35):
out there. Encourage you all to go check it out.
Make sure you download the podcast, whether it's UH, whether
it's Spotify, whether it's iTunes, whether it's Stitcher, whether it
is Google Play. So many different ways to listen Thanks
to all our three plus a m FM affiliates in
all fifty states. This is OutKick on Fox Sports Radio.
Outkicked 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 Outkicked the Coverage at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every morning on the i Heart
Radio app by searching fs are you're listening to Fox
(00:23):
Sports Radio. We continue to break down a lot of
different stories throughout and one of the interesting angles, uh,
surrounding the NFL Draft that we actually talked about on
Wednesday of last week was whether or not there was
gonna be any Twitter blow up, and it happened. You
(00:45):
just heard me talking about it with Zack Wilson, and
I just want you to think about this question. Just
think about this question. If people only had opinions on
athletes for what they did in games, is that better
or worse for athletes? Because this is a broad question,
(01:05):
right and it's something we kind of debated a long time.
The Michael Jordan's Tiger Woods era basically believed, Hey, I
want people to judge me for my athletic performance essentially alone,
and that's what people did. Most people don't really have
a strong opinion about Michael Jordan's off the court related
(01:27):
political endeavors, whatever they might be, and the same thing
is true of Tiger Woods. Now, Tiger Woods made his
personal life more of a story with the way that
situation blew up with Ellen, when there was a police
called to their house and everything else. I think if
he had just gotten divorced in that story hadn't begun
the way it did, I don't think it would have
spiraled out of control in the same way. And honestly,
(01:50):
we've talked about a little bit on this program the
way that Tiger Woods was covered being somewhat similar to
Britney Spears. But my point is Tiger has his own
failings and challenges in his personal life, but most people
at this point have an opinion about Tiger Woods that
is rooted to his golf and I would say that
(02:11):
Tiger Woods is still by far the most popular golfer
in America and probably the world. And so the reason
why I raised that as an issue, Roger Federer's the
best tennis player of all time. Have you ever heard
of Roger Federer saying anything other than a tennis related answer?
I haven't not to say that he hasn't done it.
So the question that I would ask you kind of
(02:32):
building on that discussion we were just having about Zack
Wilson to finish off the second hour, and if you're
just waking up in your alarms just going off on
the West Coast, some of the blue check losers have
been going through all of the all the headlines there
and looking at the favorites of Zack Wilson over the
past several years and who he follows and everything else,
(02:53):
and they were like, oh my god, this guy supports
Donald Trump. And it's like, well, how is that actually
in any way relevant to whether or not he's going
to be a good quarterback. I don't know of any
like if there's a despositive factor. Maybe Bill Belichicks figured
it out. Hey, in order to be a successful quarterback,
you have to be liberal or you have to be concerned.
I doubt that there's an equation where you can plug
(03:15):
that in and it matters in any way. My point
here is this, has anyone actually gained in athletics from
something that has nothing to do with playing sports in
terms of their overall value and branding. The only person
(03:36):
I can even think of is Colin Kaepernick. You can
make an argument that if Colin Kaepernick never becomes an activist,
that nobody even knows his name at this point, because
I think Colin Kaepernick was trending towards not being an
all at all involved in the NFL. You get benched
for blame gabber, maybe somebody else would assigned him, but
(03:57):
his career trajectory was on a substantial to line anyway,
So I don't think that it's likely that Colin Kaepernick
would be known at all. And obviously he's made millions
of dollars based on almost entirely off the field political
related statements, even though he doesn't even talk very much.
But is there any good athlete right? I understand like
(04:19):
how social media can be a difference maker for guys
that may not be the stars of their team, that
it can be a way for them to get noticed. Uh.
My buddy Jeff Shorts, who comes on this show and
sometimes guest host otherwise might be an anonymous offensive lineman,
but I think he's used Twitter well to kind of
(04:39):
build his brand. But that's most offensive linemen are anonymous.
But in terms of superstars, like Peyton Manning's not on Twitter. Uh,
Michael Jordan's not on Twitter. Tiger Woods is not very
active on social media in general, do you actually gain anything?
I would argue that most guy who are going to
(05:01):
be real stars lose more than they gain from social media.
In other words, is Lebron James making more money right
now because he's super active on social media than he
would if he was just a great basketball player. That's
not even talking about the time that he spends. I
would actually argue that Lebron James would be far more
(05:25):
popular than he is if he were not active on
social media. And so this kind of ties in with
the question of a lot of kids are getting ready
to graduate from college or high school now this time
of year. How much are you gaining from social media
versus how much you are risking or losing. I think
Lebron James would be infinitely more popular, and I think
(05:46):
he would sell way more shoes if he had followed
Michael Jordan's example and just allowed his excellence on the
basketball court to be his hallmark. Is a great story
here that doesn't get a lot of attention, but it's
one of my favorite facts. Did you know? And this
is wild? Michael Jordan's by himself sells more sneakers every
(06:08):
year than every current NBA player combined. Think about that,
Think about how wild that is. By the way, you
can also toss Kobe into this discussion. I don't really
remember Kobe being super outspoken in any way other than
allowing his excellence to be his hallmark on the basketball court.
And I'm not an expert, but a lot of you
are waking up in l A and listening to us
(06:29):
this morning. And I'll ask Petros this whether he believes it,
But I think Lebron Lebron is way less popular in
l A. Than Kobe and probably still certainly Lebron is
way less popular in l A. Than Michael Jordan's is.
And so there is a lot of noise in terms
of people diving in and chasing whatever that story might
(06:51):
be of a day to day basis, and it can
make you believe, Oh this many people liked this tweet this,
many people liked this picture. But for guys like Lebron
and the Peyton Mannings of the world and the Tiger
woods Is of the world, I think they're so famous
that they only have opportunities to lose fans on social
(07:13):
media as opposed to gain them. And I think this
is true in the larger context with sports as well,
because I think what has happened is in sharing so
much of their lives, they're giving oftentimes a lot of
reason for people not to like them. Does that make sense?
And some people say, well, you're active on social media,
that's true, But I'm in the opinion business. And when
(07:35):
you're in the opinion business, as soon as you take aside,
some people are going to disagree with it, right, Like
some people are going to be of the opinion hey,
this is a good choice, and other people are gonna
be like, oh, that's an awful opinion. And so it's
gonna break down either positive or negative, like what you
think about my belief that Aaron Rodgers is going to
(07:57):
end up in Denver. Some people out there, like Packer fans,
maybe some of you are like, oh, you're full of it,
Clay Travis, There's no way that's true, And then other
of you out there like, well, I don't know if
the Broncos makes the most sense. In other words, every
time you open your mouth and share an opinion, they
are going to be some people who agree and some
people who disagree. That's the job. But when you are
an athlete, your goal is to appeal to everybody, and
(08:20):
so I don't know that you're gaining anything. And I
think the precedent that's being set of, oh, this athlete
liked this tweet. Oh this athlete like that tweet. And
therefore trying to define people outside of the world of
the sport itself is interesting. Also. I think, by the way,
(08:41):
whatever opinions you might have if you're a great athlete,
they don't really matter in the context of you being
a great athlete, because the locker room is the ultimate
prove it to me place. If you show that you
are an elite level performer, then I don't think there's
any uh, there's any ang all uh in the grand
scheme of things that would really get confusing there if
(09:05):
that makes any sense, right, Like, and that was not
a well articulated statement. If you are really great at something,
then the greatness that you are in that particular category
is what people are going to remember, not the periphery
of that greatness. And I feel like in many ways
(09:27):
social media is making people like athletes less. The games
make you like them more, social media can make you
like them less. If you are a star. Now again,
I think it makes a lot of sense if you're
on the periphery, if you're an offensive alignment, if you
are like Juju Smith. Schuster is way more known now
(09:49):
because of his social media profile, but he wouldn't have
been a star otherwise. If you are excellent, your excellence
is your hallmark. It speaks for itself. And I wonder
how many of these guys are making choices that aren't
actually helping themselves and also might even be hindering. In
other words, simply summing this up, are there people who
(10:11):
like Lebron because of social media that wouldn't have liked
him otherwise? I find that hard to believe. Are there
people who dislike Lebron James because of social media that
might have liked him otherwise? I think the answer to
that is yes. And so if I were giving advice
to all the high schooling pollege kids out there, you're
sending out resumes right now, think about what your social
(10:35):
media profile says about you, and if you look good
on paper already with your resume, I think all you
could do with your Instagram or your Twitter accounts, if
the recruiters look you up as they are certain to do,
is actually hurt yourself. If your resume is already great,
(10:56):
you don't need social media. If you're resume isn't great,
or people might not know you, that can be what
gives you a leg up and allows you to advance
your career. But I think, building on that Zack Wilson story,
I think a lot more people are hurt by social
media in general than they are helped by it. And
by the way, I think we've also set the president
(11:18):
which doesn't make any sense at all, which is, hey,
we're gonna treat somebody's social media post as really serious
and legitimate news. Uh, Even though, as I said earlier, like,
is it really surprising that a guy who played for
b y U and grew up in Utah would be
a supporter of a Republican presidential candidate? I mean, do
you look at election returns at all? I don't know
(11:38):
what the percentages would have been in a b y
U student election for president, but I'm betting Donald Trump
of those votes at least, I'm betting every Republican president
wins at least eight percent of the average b y
U student uh vote every single four years. So it really, like,
are you really uncovering some massive story. You find out
(12:00):
that Zack Wilson might have been a Trump supporter in
and why does it matter in the grand scheme of things.
We're gonna talk with Petro's Papadakis here coming up in
a moment. I talked about this earlier in the show.
I'd encourage you to download the podcast. I think Aaron
Rodgers gonna end up in Denver. I think the other
big story from a quarterback perspective is that as soon
as the Houston Texans drafted uh Davis Mills, I think
(12:24):
they had already moved on from Deshaun Watson. I don't
believe Deshaun Watson will ever be in a Texans uniform again.
And I think that's starting to become apparent to a
lot of Texans fans out there. Oh, by the way,
you're over under, as Todd Furman just told us, incredibly low,
especially given the fact four and a half. I think
it is, given the fact that we're going to seventeen
(12:44):
games and there's a lot of pain coming with Torod
Taylor and Davis Mills being the guy, and I wonder
whether the Texans are going to end up deciding just
to move on from Davis Mills. In general, it's a
intriguing question. I think in general, going forward, all of
that much to be discussed. Petro's Papadeka is coming up
(13:06):
with us next. This is outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis.
It is time for Petro's Papadakis at the Old Po
On Twitter five seventy a m l A. Sports with
the Petros and Money Show. We were just talking about
the open of our three. One of the biggest stories
(13:26):
coming out of the NFL Draft, Aaron Rodgers. Do you
have a strong opinion one way or the other on
the Aaron Rodgers situation at all? Do you find yourself thinking, Hey,
I understand where Aaron Rodgers is coming from. This is
a ridiculous kind of situation that the Packers have put
him in with drafting Jordan's Love. Or do you find
yourself like Aaron Rodgers a lot of drama. I think
(13:49):
he should just shut up and complete his contract. Well,
I'm much more leaning toward the latter on Aaron Rodgers.
And one of my favorite people that I have are
played with was Carson Palmer, and he was just like
he was built to be a quarterback and a leader.
(14:10):
And he had a lot of ups and downs when
I played with him at USC not personally, just on
the field. He threw a lot of picks and kind
of wasn't living up to all the hype to a
certain degree until Norm Chow got ahold of him and
he want to Hisman Trophy in two thousand two and
then was the number one pick and all that. But
(14:32):
I always just admired him from what a great teammate
he was, how he took criticism, what a tough guy
he was taking hits. He was always the same in
the huddle. And I've always kind of washed Carson's balls
to a certain degree whenever anybody asked about him, because
he was a big recruit and he played his ass
(14:55):
off and he competed his ass off, and he worked
his ass off and he cared. But that stuff he
pulled in Cincinnati wasn't cool. And I didn't know him.
I wasn't very close with him at that time, really
close with him at all after college. And I know
(15:15):
that Cincinnati is supposed to be a dysfunctional pro football team,
and I'm not just dismissing that, but you said the
word right there. You just said it. Contract and you
signed a contract. You know what the people are like
that you signed with. You've been there a long time,
you know what the place is like. You signed the contract,
and he took their money, and then he had a
(15:39):
giant kind of temper tantrum. I guess would be kind
of a mean way to say it, but that's what
Aaron Rodgers did. To contact all the people in the media,
tell him how unhappy you are, spray it across social media.
Aaron was even worse because he did it on the
draft vindictively to take over the draft and a bunch
(16:00):
of young people having the day of their life. And
what a vindictive, kind of selfish and self centered thing
to do to a bunch of people that have nothing
to do with you or Green Bay or who they
drafted last year. Who cares? And it's a terrible look,
there's no doubt about it. Like at least Carson didn't
(16:22):
try to take over the draft. He just tried to
get the hell out of Cincinnati. And I think they
had more success than when when he left and went
to the Raiders and didn't have a lot of success there,
And that had a bit of a renaissance in Arizona.
And I mean, far be it for me to criticize,
But I'm just using the example because I'm paid to
criticize that. It just doesn't work like that in football.
(16:45):
It's too fleeting of a thing, you know, the same
as the Russell Wilson situation. Like I don't care what
Russell Wilson says or does. He seems like the biggest
dildo on earth, Like he's a dork. He's a great
football player, but everything he does he seemed like a dork.
He uses a different accent every time he talks, like
he's a weird dude. But it doesn't matter, None of
(17:07):
it matters. Until he said he went on the show
that follows you in most markets, Dan Patrick Show, and
he said, while these other guys on the team, you
know my legacy and this and that, and look, football
is a live bullets game that ruins your body and
you see a lot of really gnarly nasty things, and
(17:28):
in a perfect world that probably wouldn't exist. I promise
you not one of those guys out there playing this
game to make a living in a very dangerous situation
and being what paid well for it. They're not worried
about your legacy and that kind of self absorption that
we see in the NBA and sort of just take
for granted now in the NBA where now we don't
(17:50):
even blink our eyes anymore at some of this massive
I don't know what you'd call it vanity from a
lot of these players. Well, you just it just doesn't
fly in football in the same way because there's too
many guys out there and they're they're too much at
risk and your success is so fleeting. So it's a
(18:12):
long answer, but there's an old example where Carson I thought,
really screwed up and kind of screwed up his legacy,
so to speak. In Cincinnati. There's a situation with Aaron Rodgers.
And then there's earlier in the year with Russell Wilson
talking about his legacy on on sports radio before he's
done playing what an idiot we're talking to petros public.
(18:36):
It is kind of fascinating, right um to think about
how exactly and he went to the Kentucky Derby, and again,
I think the big part of the story here that
we've talked about as well, he made the choice to
go public with this story on the day of the
NFL Draft, and people can say, well, he didn't talk
to like his agents. They don't make this choice. This
has been playing out for weeks now, and he decided
(18:57):
to get maximum attention here. It doesn't matter there. You
can be a Hollywood guy and be married to a
famous person and talk to everybody in the media whenever
you want or get whatever kind of attention you want
and be Tom Brady and be a great teammate. Right,
Aaron Rodgers, he didn't seem that way to me. You know,
(19:18):
he seems like a guy who's never happy with anything.
And it's football. It's a terrible, imperfect thing. It's like
a rock fight, Like how do you screw up a
rock fight? I mean, I know that every every football
player you ever talked to, Clay you can get Joe
Montana on and give him true serum, and he's going
to tell you he got aft along the way at
(19:41):
every place he's ever been. That's all of us, no
matter what level you finished on. If you played a
higher level of football, you you know nine at the
time you feel like he got screwed or or ft
in one way or another. To go public with it
and have your agent called Schefter and Glazer during the draft.
That's to be hard to live down. I mean, that's
(20:01):
a it was a really ugly look, and I hope
people don't forget it when he has another Hollywood girlfriend
or when he and this one break up. We're talking
to petrosis, all right. The other big news I would
say is the Lakers. Lebron James has come back. They
have lost their first two games. Uh, he's not he
didn't play last night. Anthony Davis hasn't looked great. How
much discussion about the Lakers is there in l A
(20:24):
And do you believe that this talk about the play
in series and everything else. Are the Lakers in trouble
as a as a title contender in your mind? Well,
I mean I'm no basketball analysts, but join the club. Yes, yeah,
our basketball analysts have said, you know because we you know,
you basically asked the same question about the Lakers to
(20:45):
everybody for for the last few weeks, if not months,
which is, you know, one of these guys coming back,
will they be ready for the playoffs? And everybody says
the same thing. They say, well, yeah, you know, as
long as they get back and time so they don't
have to go to that plan. It's like, well, Okay,
well now potentially yeah, yeah, they're there on the plan
(21:07):
in the face, and Lebron is starting to bitch about it,
which is funny because, by the way, to Lebron's credit,
that Dallas Mavericks did the same things. Everybody likes the
idea of a play in when they think they don't
have to play in it, and as soon as they do,
they're like white, whoever came up with this idea? You know, like, yeah,
this is this is horrible. So that's uh that I
expect that to make a little bit of news. But
(21:30):
I mean I wouldn't. I wouldn't be telling you the
truth if I didn't tell you that interest has waned
in the NBA considerately, even in this town where the
Lakers are a gigantic brand, which is not to say
there's still people that are in love with the Lakers.
But first of all, like we had to read the
rules to go to a game at Staples Center on
(21:50):
air because we do Clipper stuff, I guess, and I mean,
I mean the thought that anybody would want to go
through that, let alone pay to go through that, and
to go to like a designating roped off eating area
where you stand like a sheep and eat as quickly
as you can so you can get bad. I mean,
it's just it's not a fun environment. It's not worth it,
(22:14):
you know, It's just it doesn't seem worth it, and
it doesn't seem like I mean, things could change, and
the playoffs could change, and Lebron could I don't know,
but there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest.
And I do believe that there are a lot of
people pretty turned off by it at this point. The
other thing going on in town is that the Dodgers
are struggling and had been struggling much more than people fun.
(22:37):
And yes it's April, but it's pretty clear that they're
not the same baseball team that one that shortened season.
So you've got both these teams have won last year
under very odd circumstances. I mean, the Dodgers played every
World Series game and most of the playoffs in Texas,
and UH, and you have them trying to repeat as favorites,
(22:58):
and right now are of them are living up the
expectations kind of treading water and thinking, yeah, you know,
it is interesting in uh in that respect and the
other this is a big question for you, And I
know you're not a huge fan of social media in general.
But I was just talking about this to start off
the show. If social media didn't exist, right, if we
(23:18):
were like, let's say, social media isn't going to be
invented in the way that it exists now until twenty right,
and Lebron has already finished his career and he plays
for most of his career in the same sort of
rough environment that Jordans did. Is Lebron more or less
popular because of social media? In your mind and in
a bigger picture, the question that I was asking to
(23:39):
start off the third hour the program is how many
stars out there? I don't mean like role players, I
don't mean like side actors, you know, like, for instance,
us in media. I think social media can in many
ways help us. Certainly it's helped me, but it also
can come with its downsides. But in general, um, how
would you say that social media has impacted Lebron James
(24:03):
popularity has fifty million Twitter followers, however many that he
has on Instagram as well to people like him more
or less than if he didn't have social media at all.
It really is. Since you've been explaining it, I thought
the answer was really easy when you first started asking it.
But I don't think it's I think it's a really
complex answer, and I think it really can be applied
(24:25):
to all of us to a certain degree. Right, social
media exposes you to a lot more people then you
would normally be explore, exposes some form of you write
some of your opinion and what you want to write
down on Twitter or whatever pictures you want to put
up at some some arm of of of your being.
(24:47):
Social media exposes you to a lot more people than
would you would normally be exposed to. And so it's
not only an opportunity for a lot more people to
like you and a lot more people to revere you,
but it's also an opportunity for a lot more people
to hate you. So and and it's such a polarizing
(25:08):
place that we, you know, social media, Like you said
that I use it, and obviously I remember you using
it when I first met you, you know, twelve, I
mean two thousand, twelve, eight eight nine years ago I
met you and you were attached to Twitter, and I
understood it to a certain degree, and I understood it
as important and growing. Uh. But also it's a place
(25:32):
for kind of like it's a lighter, fair type of
place for me, because it's a place that forces you
to one side or the other. You know, you're not
allowed to go on to social media and say, hey,
Lebron is a great basketball player, but you know some
of this stuff is not cool. You know, like, no
one's going to be happy with you, Lebron. People like
(25:52):
if you try with the least, the least hot take comment,
whatever it might be, right, like the most lukewarm comment
that you could have have, uh, not a pro or con.
It's the same thing, by the way, with for instance,
like reviews on the internet, everything is either a one
star or a five star. Right, especially in our business,
people either like, man, I love that guy, or they're like, man,
(26:14):
I hate that guy. Almost never, but almost no one
would be like, yeah, I'd give him a two and
a half to three and a half. He's pretty much
just totally average. I don't really have a strong opinion
one or the other social media. What works is strong
opinions one way or the other. And what you also
have to think about it like this, think about it
in the context of what we do. The lowest rung
of the world of entertainment. Sports talk radio just this
(26:37):
what we're doing right now. When we were younger, when
there was no social media. Frankly, when I started in
the business, it just started to turn and thank god,
we weren't people allowed to have strong opinions or be
entertaining or have a lot of fun because that wasn't
our role. Our role was to be informational. The role
was to tell people if Lebron was gonna play tonight,
(27:01):
because that information wasn't available to everybody on everybody's phone.
Now on the radio, you don't know anything that everybody
else doesn't know in the moment. That's right. It's very
rare that there's even breaking news on this show, and
we have to break out the breaking news sounder. Like
almost doing this show five years, I think we've legitimately
had breaking news that changes what we would talk about,
(27:23):
like four or five times in five years, but basically
once and your time slots a little bit different, but
it almost never happens in the words here. It's not
different in a lot of ways, Clay, because so many
people podcast shows. Well, I didn't hear the show live,
but it doesn't stop me from listening to it in
beautiful clear sound on I Heart Radio. So it doesn't
(27:44):
really matter if you had, you know what time the
listener Rocker Bueller wasn't going to play, because I mean
an overwhelming amount of the listeners are listening at their convenience,
sometimes two weeks later. Be entertaining and speak your your
most honest, freaking show, you know, and the most fun
(28:06):
you can have is is the best way to do it,
you know now because it's morphed, but with Lebron James
or people like that, Like the more you put yourself
out there publicly and touched these hot topics as an
athlete or somebody you know, an actor or somebody like that,
you you, I mean, you're going to expose yourself to
(28:28):
a whole country of people, and maybe half of those
people are gonna like you, where none of them would
have known you, but now half of them like you
and half of them hate you. You know. That's why
kind of point, like I understand it for purposes of
guys who are on the periphery, Like if you're an
offensive lineman right on a football team and you're witty
and you're funny and you're good at social media, I
(28:49):
can understand the benefit of being active because people might
not have known you otherwise you were on that periphery.
But you know, Peyton Manning and Michael Jordan are pretty
big names. They've never needed social media in order to
be big names. They still don't have it, And I
wonder on some level for Lebron whether the guys of
that ilk that magnitude would be more popular without it. Now.
(29:10):
I do think Tom Brady in the last couple of
years has started using social media pretty well and made
himself a little bit more likable than he might otherwise
be because he seems so inaccessible and when he's drunk
and he puts out like a funny tweet afterwards, it
makes him seem more likable. But I am just kind
of fascinated by how quickly the universe in which we
(29:31):
live in the world of sports has changed. In general,
it is Uh. It is wild because you'd never think, like, wow,
I want to go watch Lebron James uh, and then
a way maybe I don't, because you know, he kind
of bugged me with what he said a couple of
weeks ago, like you know, that's yeah, that's going through
more people's minds than you know, you'd say, well, I
(29:53):
don't like Michael Jordan because he beat my sons, you know,
or he beat my Sonics or Trailblazers or lay Curs
or whatever. Uh, it's it's it's a lot different, and
it's I think it is. It's a problem for the
NBA obviously, and it's something uh that they need to address,
but everybody has to like kind of come to terms
with it in their league. And it's the long in football.
(30:17):
I've made this point for a long time. Figure it
out in your collective bartaing bargaining agreement. Figure out what
is a proper form of protest and how you want
to handle this new political climate that we're in that
will satisfy the owners, the sponsors, all your social justice
people and then your normal sort of fans. And I
(30:39):
don't know if you can do that. You know, that's
gonna be a tall order. But they're gonna have to
figure it out because right now, and we're kind of
in a no man's land, and I think a lot
of different platforms are suffering because of it. We've we've
alienated each other so much that basically a lot of
people can't even stand a look at each other. Yeah,
there's no doubt quick leave. Who's more popular in l
(31:01):
A right now? Lebron James or Kobe Bryant. Oh, Kobe Kyant.
Kobe felt like he was, you know, two people here
in l A. Kobe when for all his warts and zits,
and you know, many of them have just been forgotten
and forgiven because of the horrible tragic way that he
and his daughter and and uh many others died and
(31:27):
that's kind of been erased from our memory, especially locally. Kobe,
for whatever he was, he felt like he was the
city's So Lebron James could be here for another ten
years and that wouldn't change. This is outkicked the coverage
with Clay's ravas Hey. It's been host of The Fifth
(31:50):
Hour with Ben Malley along with my trustees sidekick David Gascon.
Would meet a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey, he asked. One in God's name
is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin
off of the Benn Mather Show, Cold Hit overnights on
fs ARE. Why should you listen? Picture if you will?
A world will we chat with captains of industry in media,
sports and more every week Explorer some amazing facts about
(32:13):
a human nature and more. Let's sen to the fifth
hour with Ben Mallow on the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Appreciate all
of you hanging out with us. My fakes to Petro's
Papadaka is always great. Encourage you to go download the
podcast so you don't miss any of the show so far.
If you're just waking up with us. Paulka Harski was
great in the first hour breaking down the NFL Draft
and more. My buddy Todd Furman from Fox bet Live
(32:35):
in the second hour, and now Petro's Papadakis just finished
off with us. Whether it's iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play,
go download podcast and make sure you don't miss a minute. Dub,
you had a ridiculous story that we just teased about
a guy injuring himself playing video games, which feels like
the perfect ending to the show so far. I haven't
(32:56):
seen all the details there, but video game injuries never
get old, and it always seems that these odd injuries
happen in baseball. Yeah, you never really hear about a linebacker,
you know. It's like, well, it's the Aaron Boone back
in the day. You know, they always think Ken Griffey Jr.
Like injured himself with the game boy back in the day.
Like people who remember like the old school game boy
(33:17):
that you could hold in your hand, like in the
grand scheme of things, that is, uh, that's where we
are right like that, we've moved a lot, But it
does seem like it's baseball players getting injured very often. Yeah,
So this guy on the A's he breaks his finger
playing video games. He's currently on the ten day I
l and they're gonna revisit him. Do we know what
the game was? I'm trying to find out exactly what
(33:40):
the game was. Don't you have to lie? That's what
I'm saying. Maybe it is a lie. Maybe it was
even worse, Maybe it was broke his finger doing something
even dumber exactly. But I mean, my perspective on this
is if you injure yourself in a really stupid way,
and you are an athlete, I think you could just
make something up. Right. It seems like you would have
to be playing video games insanely aggressively to break a
(34:02):
finger and put yourself on the disabled list. So if
you I don't know, you could say you slipped and
fell right and try to catch yourself. I mean, that's easy,
easy way. I mean you're probably everybody out there. I
bet at some point you've been in the shower and
like you've gotten soap under your foot and like you've
took a little bit of a step and maybe you
slip a little bit, and you think, God, that would
be awful if I fell and like seriously injured myself
(34:24):
in the shower. Um, you know. Or you are walking
down the stairs and there's like a toy, a lego,
maybe if you've got kids, and you end up slipping
on it and you think, oh my god, I almost
fell all the way down the stairs. Maybe Uh, certainly
in the wake of that huge ice storm and snowstorm
that we had that hit uh in late February and
March all over the country, I'm sure a lot of
people like fell going down their front steps and things
(34:47):
like that. In other words, I guess it's honest if
he's being honest, But I don't know that I would
want to admit that I was going on the I
guess they call it the I L right, because disabled
is now a it's an offensive word. Remember they used
to have the disa able list, and they're like, now
they're calling it the injured list. I think, um, because
it's uh. I don't know that they decided that language
(35:07):
is not appropriate because everybody's obsessed with all sorts of
stupid things in this country now. But I don't know
that I would admit to that kind of injury. Yeah.
So apparently he was playing a video game. He got
mad and angry and slammed his controller, and in the
process of slamming his desk, I assumed or whatever it was,
he broke his pinky. I mean, I just I think
I would lie, Like you could say that you slammed
(35:28):
the door your car door on yourself, right, like you could.
I just think it's a weird thing to admit to.
I'm sure that in the locker room he is going
to hear a great deal of people making fun of
him over time. Um, in general, right, No, there's no doubt.
I mean, could you imagine, imagine if one of the
guys on the crew here for out Kick broke his
(35:48):
pinky playing video games? I mean, they would never would never,
we would never stop talking. Especially how old is this guy,
do we know? I mean he looks pretty young. I
mean I'm sure he's young if he's all in on
video games, but I still want to know what the
game was that he was playing and what had occurred
that made him so angry. We need to get that
guy on the radio show. And he's twenty three years
(36:09):
old originally from Lima, Peru in the Oakland A's he's
a picture, so that maybe amplifies the injury a little
bit more. And also maybe he didn't realize how much
he was gonna get made fun of from saying that
he hurt himself this way. If he's from Lima, Peru, like,
maybe he doesn't realize that he's just gonna get absolutely ridiculed.
Maybe I don't know. I just it seems to me
(36:30):
to be an utterly ridiculous way to get injured. And
I think I would make something else up. I mean,
he could say that he got hurt somehow during the
course of warm ups, right, like show up with a
hurt pinky, Like you're out there fielding a ball and
like you say, like you got you know you somehow
you bent your finger the wrong way and then you
go and admit to it. Like I feel like I
would probably lie. I'm gonna be honest with you, there's
(36:52):
no way that I'm admitting this injury. But it was
good news forever for the guy who got called up
from the minors to take a spot getting called up
for a guy that broke his pinky playing video games.
Maybe it never goes back. That's what happened with obviously
Luke Garrett coming in and never replacing that starting job
forever at at first base for the Yankees. All right, Uh,
there you go. Don't break your don't lose your job
(37:13):
or go on the disabled list or the injured list
or whatever you wanna call it because you're so angry
about a video game, especially if you're an adult like
I would be upset at one of my kids if
they did this much less when you're actually twenty three
years old. As the situation is, We'll be back tomorrow,
same bad time, same bad channel. Thanks to all the guests,
Paul Kaharski, Todd Ferman, Petros Papadekas, Lots of good stuff
(37:35):
out there. Encourage you all to go check it out.
Make sure you download the podcast, whether it's UH, whether
it's Spotify, whether it's iTunes, whether it's Stitcher, whether it
is Google Play. So many different ways to listen Thanks
to all our three plus a m FM affiliates in
all fifty states. This is OutKick on Fox Sports Radio.
Hosts And Creators
Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
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