May 13, 2021 • 37 mins
Clay Travis updates you on a poll he has up on Twitter regarding the Oakland A's potential move. Clay breaks down the cities that would make the most sense for the Athletics to relocate to. Geoff Schwartz joins the show and weighs-in on the next city for the A's, Blake Bortles, Eli Manning pitching/Little League, NFL schedule, Cam Newton, and more. Plus, Clay talks early gambling lines after the schedule release. What are the toss-up games and what does Vegas expect to be the most interesting games?
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Episode Transcript
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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
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 to Fox
(00:23):
Sports Radio. Just so you know roadmap for the rest
of the show, We're scheduled to be joined by John
Morrossy in the next segment, and then Will Kine usually
joins us On Wednesday. I was out yesterday. I had
an incredible time. I got to go tour the Buffalo
Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. We've got a lot of
OutKick fans up in the Buffalo Trace uh universe there
(00:48):
and so so I spent the day. They're trying a
lot of incredible whiskey. Is a really cool trip. So
that's where I was yesterday. Back today, thanks to Jonas
Knox and Jeff Shortz by the way for filling in.
But as we sort of project going forward, um, there's
a lot to get into and I thought one of
the most interesting stories that came out yesterday was I
(01:12):
guess it was kind of coming out on Tuesday a
little bit. But so a couple of days ago and
been talked about, bandied about quite a bit has been
what was going on with the Oakland A's and Major
League Baseball. And we're gonna talk some with John Morrossey
about this in a bit, But the Oakland A's not
happy in their stadium in Oakland. We know already that
(01:33):
the Raiders have moved to Vegas, We know already that
Golden State has moved from the Oakland side of the
Bay back to the San Francisco side of the Bay.
And so the last team really left standing in Oakland
is the A's. And so one of the questions that
I think is out there is, okay, are the A's
going to end up working it out with their local
(01:56):
administration local government there or is it possible that they
are going to relocate? And if they relocated, Look, there
are several different Canadian areas that have been discussed bandied
about as a potential relocation for Major League Baseball teams.
(02:17):
Montreal would like to get a team back. We know
obviously that Vancouver rapidly growing area of Canada. Both of
those areas have been much discussed as potential Major League
Baseball expansion sites. And by the way, there does seem
to be some likelihood that Major League Baseball might expand,
(02:37):
might be adding new franchises going forward, and that would
also factor in with this aspect of Oakland. But Rob Manfred,
the Major League Baseball Commissioner, has mentioned four different cities
in the United States, So I'm leaving Vancouver and Montreal
out of this equation right now for different cities in
(03:01):
the United States that would be potentially good destinations for
Major League Baseball in no particular order, Portland, Las Vegas, Nashville,
and Charlotte seemed to be the four cities that are
basically at the upper echelon at the top of the
(03:22):
potential destinations for where these franchise could pretend franchises could
potentially end up. So as a part of that question,
on Tuesday night, I sent out a poll question for
you guys to be able to react to, and I said, hey,
(03:42):
where would you put the team if you were in
charge of Major League Baseball and you had to make
a choice as to where the next team should be.
I over forty thousand of you voted in this, and
I said, Hey, those four cities that I just named,
(04:03):
Las Vegas, Portland's, uh, Charlotte, and Nashville, where should major
League Baseball put a team? And like I said, tens
of thousands of you voted, there may be a little
bit of a bias here because this is my hometown
and certainly there are a lot of people in my
hometown who follow me. But fifty two percent of you
(04:26):
said Nashville should be the city if the Oakland A's
had to relocate, that they should move to. Nashville was
your top choice. Thirty three percent of you said Las Vegas,
eleven percent of you said Charlotte, four percent of you
said Portland's. I think port and I and look, I
(04:47):
know we got a lot of listeners out in Washington State,
out in Oregon and everything else specific northwest. I think
Portland's is such a mess right now with the rioting,
with the looting, with the pro testing, with the fact
that Portland is just not very safe right now, that
I actually think Portland has killed its chances of getting
(05:09):
a Major League Baseball franchise if they were going to
make a choice sooner rather than later. Because Portland as
a city has a black eye maybe worse than almost
any city in America right now, just in terms of
all the protesting and the rioting and the looting and
the lack of safety. Frankly that exists in downtown Portland.
(05:30):
I think that is a major negative. So I'm not
surprised that Portland's got the fewest number of votes in
my poll. Vegas could make a lot of sense because
you're already on the West coast. What an unbelievable double
slap in the face Las Vegas would be providing to
Oakland if they already took the Raiders and built a
(05:54):
brand new stadium, which I'm excited to see at some
point in the near future. You already stole the eight
Ors away to Vegas, and now you are going to
potentially try to make a move to get a Major
League Baseball team. I'm gonna talk about that in a
little bit of a moment. But the success of the
Vegas Golden Knights, you know, for a long time there
was this idea of Vegas is such a transient town,
(06:16):
there's no way they will do very well when it
comes to having a pro sports franchise of their own.
And then the NHL, to their credit, was like, Hey,
you know what, We're gonna put Vegas Golden Nights here,
and they killed it. And we haven't seen yet the
overall crowds that are gonna be present for the for
the Raiders in their brand new stadium. But I think
(06:37):
the early read there is they're gonna kill it. And
I think one thing that Vegas has working for it
is the tourism angle, where, for instance, if you are
a fan of the Denver Broncos, or you're a fan
of the Chargers, or you're a fan of the Chiefs,
it's an easy excuse to be like, hey, let's go
to Vegas and go watch our favorite team play when
(06:58):
you know you're gonna play a divis gginal game against
him every single year, Like, that's a pretty cool trip
to get to take with your buddies, with your friends. Hey,
we're gonna go out to Vegas. There's tons of hotel rooms,
not super expensive to get to Vegas necessarily, and will
build an entire weekend around the game that ultimately ends
up taking place on Sunday. I can see why that's popular, certainly,
(07:22):
I can see what that's popular for hockey. To the
one thing I would wonder about and I'm not an
expert in Las Vegas politics. The one thing I would
wonder about is would you have to I think you
probably because of how hot it is in Vegas in
the summer. I think you would certainly have to build
a retractable roof stadium and door a dome stadium in
(07:46):
Vegas in order to have the A's play there. And
I don't know if in the meantime, in the short
term they could use the Raiders Stadium, uh, you know,
kind of reconfigure that to be able to to play
based all there. But I think it's so got awful
hot in Vegas that when you think about the July,
(08:07):
the August, the September's, the June's, how smoking hot it
is in that in that particular location, in that desert.
I think you probably would have to have some way
to build a dome related stadium. And I don't know
after building the Vegas Golden Nights facility, and after also
(08:31):
building the Raider Stadium, whether there is the political will
to build another stadium in such a short order. Given
that Las Vegas was one of the most devastated cities
by COVID in terms of unemployment in the entirety of
the country, So I think Vegas could make a lot
of sense in terms of keeping a team on the
(08:54):
West coast. The other side, if we go to the
East coast, I think Nashville is a no trainer for
a Major League Baseball team. I think it would kill it. Now,
whether it's an expansion franchise or whether it is a
it is a franchise that that it already exists, like
the A's. There's a group trying to bring pretty aggressively
(09:16):
a team to Nashville. They want to build a brand
new downtown stadium, which I think would kill it, and
much like Vegas has the tourist impact, I think the
number of tourists that Nashville is bringing in every year,
the millions of people already, there's a huge crowd in
downtown Nashville. The Preds do really well, obviously Titans. It's
(09:39):
not hard to fill up a stadium for an NFL
game because they only got ten times a year. But
I think with eighty one different games, there is a
tremendous amount of interest that would exist in Nashville, not
just for people traveling in to watch their favorite team play,
but also for people who are just coming on vacation
with families. Major League Baseball is a great summer activity
(10:03):
for vacations. And so I agree with the majority of
this group that is voting that Nashville, of all of
the cities out there, would do the best with a
Major League Baseball franchise. You've already got the Titans doing well,
You've got the Preads doing well. I think a major
League Baseball franchise in Nashville, if you've built a downtown
stadium and fitted in the right area, I think it
(10:25):
would absolutely dominate. I think it would kill. I think
it would be a fantastic addition. I also think to
a large extent, the same thing could be true of Charlotte,
so apart, the talk for a long time has been
that the Tampa Bay Rays might possibly be interested in relocating,
and if they relocated, given the expansion, given the A's,
(10:46):
we're talking about multiple different teams potentially in UH in
the mix to potentially relocate. And again I'm using the
United States examples that were even by Rob Manford as
the four teams that I'm allowing everybody to actually uh
everybody to actually vote on w hear these four cities.
(11:11):
I would rank them as Nashville one, Vegas to Charlotte
free Portland's four, exactly as my audience did the tens
of thousands of people who came and voted as to
which city would deserve the Oakland A's if they moved.
How would you rank them? Where would be the best location?
I think to me, I think Nashville and Charlotte would
(11:33):
be tied for first basically for me, just the main
reason being the geographic location. If you look at a
map of MLB franchises, the only team in the southeastern
post of the United States that's in Major League Baseball
is the Atlanta Braves. And baseball is a huge, huge
part of the culture in the southeast of the United States,
(11:54):
so they're not counting Tampa Bay or Miami is traditional
Southern locations exactly, And to me, it makes just too
much sense to not have another team in the southeastern
portion of the United States, whether that be Nashville or
Charlotte both. Yeah, that I would not be surprised if
that ends up happening sometime down the line. Uh, then
(12:14):
next I'd have Vegas. I think your concerns over the
heat in Las Vegas are very real and I think
there's no way that they would not have a retractable
roof or just a dome just because the some summers
in Vegas or no joke out in the middle of
the desert. I don't think anybody would be wanting to
play or watch a game in a hundred and eleven
degree heat in July. Uh. And then fourth, I think
(12:37):
it's pretty a pretty simple answer with Portland. I just
when I think of baseball Portland, maybe he's like the
seventie place in the country that I think of when
talking about baseball. So I would have Nashville Charlotte tied
for first, then Las Vegas in third, if you will,
then Portland coming in in the fourth spot. Yeah, and
again the other two cities. I think the Portland's angle,
(12:59):
if they truly are considering Vancouver, you know, geographically, I
don't think they would put two teams in the Pacific
Northwest like that. So I think probably Portland if Vancouver
is truly being considered. I kind of feel like the Expos,
and I understand some people are like, hey, you know,
Montreal de servicing like they lost a team. To me,
when you lose a team, you don't deserve to get
(13:21):
back at the top of the line unless your team relocates. Right.
They basically just wiped out the Expos because they didn't
have a good situation and a good setup. If I
were Major League Baseball, I would be more interested in
and uh, sort of advancing my brand in existing American
marketplaces as opposed to trying to go to Canada. That
(13:42):
would be my thought. This is outkicked the coverage with
Clay Travis. Remember that part of the show where I
was like, Hey, John Morrossy is going to join us
next Actually I was totally wrong. He's joining us on
Friday in this exact same time. So, uh, the wonders
(14:02):
of of my ability to keep guests in in order
dubbed Did you at any point recognize, Hey, Morosy is
tomorrow as opposed to Thursday. I mean, I'm gonna be
honest with you, Clay, every single day of the past
year plus has felt the exact same. I never know
what day it is. Yeah, I I totally get that too,
So Morosi will be on with us tomorrow instead. The
man who set in on Wednesday's edition of the program,
(14:25):
Jeff Schwortz, is back the next day usually would come
on with us Thursdays anyway, so he's with us now
as he often has been. Jeff, I'm gonna start here
because this is what we started off the second hour with.
Did you pay attention or have you been paying attention
to the idea of the Oakland A's moving and if so?
Major League Baseball Rob Manfred has previously listed four different
(14:48):
cities that he would be okay in the United States
with having a Major League Baseball franchise, And I'm going
west to east here, Portland, Las Vegas, Nashville, Charlotte. You
live in Charlotte, You've spent some time in Nashville. Where
do you think the next Major League Baseball franchise should be? Where,
(15:08):
if they move, should the A's go? I mean, I
obviously loves to be in Charlotte. I'm choosing um, who
who I would who I would take? UM? Look, we
have a beautiful stadium and accounta ready for Triple A team.
I don't think they're going to use that stadium though,
so that to find somewhere else, which is interesting that
built the stadium but didn't really build it to scale up.
UM feel Nashville obviously is growing fast, and I mean
(15:31):
would Nashville embrace a team. I imagine it would just
like I think it would. I think it would be killer.
It's interesting because I was talking about in the open.
Nashville has so many tourists, and I feel like Vegas
as well. At this point, when you're going to a city,
I'm not sure that the cities are big enough by themselves,
but there's so many tourists millions of people coming into
(15:53):
a city like Nashville or certainly Las Vegas, that I
feel like people would be looking for things to do.
So I think it would be hard to get a
ticket because not only would the local population embrace it
in cities like Nashville and Las Vegas, which have big
tourist towns, but but I'm curious on how the weather
would work in Las Vegas. And I think the South yeah,
(16:15):
no kidding. I think in general the South is undercovered
by sports, uh and then Major League Baseball in particular,
So I think both Charlotte and Nashville would probably do
pretty well. Um, I think I think they would do great.
And look here's me about Oakland is and they tried
to get a deal done in like four different parts
of the Bay Area, So maybe it's not just the
city of Oakland's fault, but that place is a dump.
(16:37):
Man like that. That's a bad place to play. Um,
and I remember it plays football there. I mean, obviously
they've moved their team. So it's it's disappointed they're gonna
have to leave. Oakland will end up having the Raiders leave.
Now the Warriors went to San Francisco, and now the
these are out of there, um and so um it's uh,
it's it's rough for them. But this is what happens, right,
(16:58):
you mean, new stadiums are what we want to see.
It's the humanities that people want. I mean, it's hard
to get people to get up out of their seats
at their house. I just say and go to a game.
And so this is one way to do that is
to have a beautiful stadium and make sure that it's done. Um,
it's done right. So I would expect them to leave. Um,
it would be great that came to the South. You're right,
the South is kind of underrepresented in pro sports. Obviously,
(17:21):
we know it's great in college football. Um, but i'd
be great to have a baseball team another one out
in Charlotte and Nashville. Yeah, I mean you think about it,
the Atlanta Braves are basically the South's major League baseball
team because there's no team in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee,
Kentucky kind of has the Cincinnati Reds, but still no
team in Kentucky. Uh, no team in Alabama, no team
(17:43):
in Mississippi, no team in Louisiana. There are a lot
of different states where there are a Rabbit and there
is a Rabbi baseball community. And you can just look
at the College World Series and see how dominated it
is very often by SEC teams. This to me feels
like a no brainer in terms of trying to get
more baseball in the Southeast. Um, all right, let's pivot
(18:08):
to the NFL. And I feel like this is a
question that we've been asking every day for a couple
of weeks. Now. Blake Boardles coming in as a camp
arm for the Green Bay Packers as the expectations are
that Aaron Rodgers is not going to be showing up
maybe ever again, We'll see what happens there. Do you
think Aaron Rodgers has played his final game for the Packers?
(18:31):
I mean, everything tells you yes, but I'm gonna say no,
just because the Packers kind of have the leverage here.
I know people disagree with that, um, but they're able
to just hold on him if they want, if they
don't play him, if they don't get him off their roster.
Um and they you know, they do a pretty big
capit even if they turned out to jukee one. Um.
(18:52):
You know, they don't George Love on the roster, right
and if you retires, the money's off their books. Like
I didn't have the leverage in this um out. They
could get something back for Aaron Rodgers. But if you
trade them to the Broncos, probably anything to trade them to.
You know that draft pick is going to be in
the twenties, right because we know that we know that
um uh, you know they're going to be in the
(19:13):
playoffs most likely. So like I just I don't think
they're gonna get the value they want. And I did
as you try to keep them and force him to
show up or does not play this year. Yeah, it
is interesting to think about the leverage situation here, and
I want to go back into Aaron Rodgers in a sec.
But you've been in a lot of different NFL locker rooms.
(19:35):
How do you think the offensive line for the Green
Bay Packers is reacting to this dispute over the course
of the summer, like are they texting each other like
every little latest update? Are they pushing putting pressure at
all on on Aaron Rodgers in general? Like how does
that story play out? That's a good question. I think
(19:58):
right now, it's nothing right, It's just it's Aaron Rodgers
sniping at the Packers. I'm sure he's talking his offensive
linement about hey, you know, this is the way I
feel about the Packers and and you know x y
Z and mah blah blake. I think there's definitely talk
about about that. But as far as him saying like,
I'm never gonna play for you guys again, I mean,
maybe it's possible that he's saying that, and I'm not
(20:19):
sure that they might you know, they might even believe him.
But I think in general, Clay, most of us want
our friends to get the most money and be happy, right,
And I think that if if you're David Bakari, the
left tackle of the Packers, and Aaron Rodgers like, look,
I'm gonna get out. I don't want to be here, Jeers,
I don't want to be here. I think Ultimately you're
(20:39):
gonna be upset your your friends going up up, you know,
future Hall of Famers go on the m v P.
But you're happy that your friend gets what he wants
right and your friend gets you know, goes to where
he wants. So I think in the end they'll they'll
be happy for him. I was disappointed they can't play
with him, but I think happy overall in the end
with UH, with the result of if Rogers is happy.
(21:01):
I saw a tweet and it made me think about
you because I know this is one of the quarterbacks
that you used to play with UH, and I have
I found myself in this situation A bunch to Eli
Manning tweeted yesterday morning. I woke up a little nervous
today the head coach of the seven eight year old
softball team can't make the game tonight. I'm in charge
(21:21):
and on the mound. How do you think Eli will
do as the coach pitch pitcher in softball? How? How
how old is this hold? Seven and eight year old kids? Okay,
so I don't I have a really a great a person.
Look right there, my son is six years old, okay,
from seven this summer and somehow he got stuck in
(21:42):
machine pitch, and I do not understand how this happened
in Charlotte. I I talked to the commissioner of the
Little League book don he skipped coach this last year
because of COVID, right he played? Yeah. Yeah, and there's
a kid on his team turned nine this week. Yeah,
he's got a mustache. Yeah, I'll tell you. Yeah, I'll
tell you this. Like I, um, so, I so we
(22:04):
have games. We had a game last night. I feel
like I'm a major league player manager right now. We
have games Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So four straight days. We
played last night Wednesday. Four straight days, four straight games,
four straight day games, like because of rain days and everything.
So I'm saying I think I'm in like major League Baseball.
People are like asking me to do things. I'm like,
(22:26):
you know, like sweat and bullets. I'm like, I'm sorry,
I don't have time to do anything. I gotta be
at this little league game. Uh and uh and make
sure that I'm coaching third base, which I'll get to
you at a moment. But when m so, I have
a kindergartener who's uh, you know, playing coach pitch, and
then I'm coaching ten year old nineteen year old boys baseball,
and there this is the first year of kid pitch,
(22:47):
which actually is much less stressful because I've been in
that Eli Manning situation where you get the call up
as the pitcher and you are just so nervous as
the dad or the mom, whoever it might be that's
out there on the field that has to make perfect
pitches because you only get I think it's like five pitches,
(23:07):
and so if you're not throwing strikes, you know, the
kids can't hit. It's not like you can walk them right, So,
like you have that awful feeling where you're like, hey,
this has to be the last. This is the last pitch.
And then if you you know, drop one in the
dirt or you throw one too high, or god forbid,
you hit them and they're trying to bail out on
you while that while you're throwing it. Like, it is
(23:29):
just a super stressful situation to be in. Um, I
could definitely stand it's super stressful. But imagine your kid
that's six years old. Everyone else is setting often machine
because they're eight and he's six and he can't do anything.
Like it's just terrible feeling as a parent watching your
kid who's not you know, not supposed to be in
the league, Like, oh man, I get it. Man, it's
(23:50):
it's funny watching your kids now play sports. It's tough.
It's tough, and you know, I think i'm pretty even
kill Like I understand the age thing obviously, and I
just wanted it's like you do well because you want them.
You just don't. You want him to like be deal
with his friends, right, you want to like be able
to play with it. It's a it's a weird feeling,
you know. I'll tell you what the toughest thing and
(24:11):
I've I've been now at this point with my kids.
They're old enough where we've done basically every sport. You know,
We've played soccer, flag, football, uh, basketball, baseball, even hockey,
Like we basically played everything in my household at this point.
The kids have the boys have the toughest single thing
to do. Your kid pitching by far the toughest thing
(24:35):
because it's them on the mound. Like it can be
tough for them to come up in bat, Like you're
talking about the mid pitching machine and all that stuff,
but they're only up to bat for you know whatever.
It is six or seven pitches on average, and so
it's not that long to be stressful for them. When
they are pitching. Every single pitch is you know, they're
(24:56):
like either throwing a ball or they're throwing a strike,
and it is excruciating to watch. By far, the toughest
thing I think to be a parent four is pitching
Little League because you know, there's just so much variety.
You know, if it's three to the kids probably aren't
gonna swing. So if you throw a strike, you're probably
gonna get a strike out. If you walk them, they're
(25:17):
probably gonna end up on third base because there's lots
of pass balls and everything else. I think, by far,
as a dad of three who's watched every sport and
you know, gone and participated in all of them on
some level, pitching is the toughest to watch your young
kids do. Um. I mean, I pitched in Little League
and all through high school. I'm curious. I'm gonna asking
my dad now about this. My aunt was. I think
(25:39):
when you get older, it probably is less, you know,
like by the time you're you know, high school age
or even teenage age, because the number of times that
you're gonna throw a strike is a lot higher. But
the range of potential outcome for nine and ten year
old boys baseball is so massive, right, Like you can
throw a pitch behind them, or you can throw a
(26:00):
strike right down the middle. Every single pitch there's a
wide risus. Like me in the T box playing golf
or you probably too, there's no telling where the t
SHOT's gonna go for me. I'm I'm golden. You're good
off the tea. I mean like like if I get
the ball, you know, I'm good basically up to like fifteen,
like fifteen yards and then it's just like from inside, Yeah,
(26:25):
fifty yards, I'm done. Yeah, that's just just terrible. Yeah,
I'm I'm a mess when it comes to pretty much
all my golf game. But the potential permutations of every
golf swing, if you put them like on a scattered
plot chart, would be everywhere, all right. So look, we
spent a lot of time so far in the show
talking about the NFL schedule released to me, more so
than anything else, what this represents is just the NFL
(26:48):
as every other sports daddy, because they can parachute right
into the middle of the NHL and the NBA playoffs,
Major League baseball regular season and be like, hey, Heisman,
you know, stiff arm. I know it's four months until
these games are going to be played, but everybody is
talking about them. Having said that, did anything stand out
to you in a big way about the schedule release
(27:10):
as it pertains to something you weren't anticipating or did
learn based on the schedule. Yeah, you know, I was
looking at the Aaron Rodgers situation in Green Band Team.
How many prime time games they've done, right, Because if
the NFL seals that is, the Jordan Loves Show, they
probably would get less by suppose actors still got the
normal amount of primetime games. You're right, um, And so
(27:31):
it kind of leads me to think that, hey, maybe
they believe, um, you know, they will they'll be able
to uh, you know, to be cheap Rodgers going. But
I mean, look, we know the opponents, right, so, um,
you know, the schedule is just when it feels real,
it feels like we're getting you know, you're getting a
kick off. I thought that, you know, it looks Cowboys Bucks.
You could say, you know, you should have saved that
(27:52):
game for maybe later in the year. But I mean,
if you want to start off with a bang and
get you know, that great TV number for the you know,
for the first game of the year. Um, that's the
way to do it, right. You have the Cowboys against
Tom Brady, and everyone's gonna tune in to basically root
against both teams. If you're not a fan of either
one of those those teams are players. It's a great
way to go. Class in this to you many times,
(28:13):
I'm so excited for this upcoming season, have fans back
in the stands. It's just like it's gonna feel normal again.
And we're gonna have his life as back to normal
as we can get it. Um. And it's gonna be
so much fun. Even college football Week zero, you know.
I mean you see like Hawaiian playing a step until eight,
you know, eight in the morning to watch that game. Um.
In Hawaii, they doesn't have a stadium. There's a players
(28:36):
like a municipal park this season in Hawaii. Like, I'm
just so sassful. All the football will come back, um, amen,
And I think we're going to have full stadiums because
of how successful we had, like the big fight down
in Dallas, fifteen thousand people for the UFC, the Braves
and the Rangers both have full stadiums going forward. Do
(29:00):
you believe, like some of the interesting storylines, it seems
like the Bears, based on where they're slotted, there might
be a gamble that maybe Justin Fields is going to start.
I think it's fair to say that Trevor Lawrence and
Zack Wilson, assuming they are healthy, are both going to
be starting every single game for their teams. Tray Lance,
Mac Jones or Justin Field shorts Which of those three
(29:23):
guys starts first and gets the nod from their team
in your mind? Oh, I think it's Justin Fields. I
think he gets it from day one. You think he's
started beings out Andy Dalton then starts for the Bears
from week one? I think so, yeah, Um, I think
he's from from the beginning, right right away. So I
think I think it's his job. Tray Lance likely not
(29:46):
to play at all if Jimmy G stays healthy. Is
that fair to say? Do you think Mac Jones think
might come in. I think Trey Lance had a good
chance to play. I think Rookie of the Year odds
for him are fairly interesting. Yeah, so you don't buy
into the yeah that Jimmy G is gonna be the guy.
Do you think Mac Jones beats out Cam at any point?
How would you assess those other two guys in terms
(30:06):
of if you think Justin Field is going to be
the third to start, might start starting week one? When
to Trey Lance and or Mac Jones get to start.
So you know, the the interrant part about the Mac
Jones and Cam noton thing is the base of the
offense for both quarterbacks would be the same. But obviously
you're gonna put in plays that Cam Noon has traditionally
(30:26):
run very well, right, all those quarterback powers, quarterback reads,
all the play action passes off of that um and
everything that you know kind of offer that so um,
you know that that is what you do with that offense.
W if Matt Jones comes in, you're not running that
offense right, So not to not what are you doing?
Are you just transitioning at some point in the middle
the year two different offense? It just feels like really
(30:47):
tough to get done. That always, I think if Cam's
a guy, he's the guy all season. Outstanding stuff as always,
Jeff Shortz, We'll talk to you next week. Enjoy the weekend, man.
That's Jeff Schwartz. When we come back, we got some
early Week one lines that are already out. You can
gamble on them. What does Vegas think? What are the
(31:09):
oddsmakers think are likely to be the biggest toss up
games going forward? We will discuss This is out kicked
the coverage with Clay Trafficks. Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.
Join me every weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fire
(31:30):
with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod pushing
the same tired narratives down your throat every day. Straight
Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines,
accurate stats to help you win big at the sports book,
and all the best guests. Do yourself a favor and
listen to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre on the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
(31:57):
Coming back in the top of the third hour. Here,
I'm gonna dive back into the NFL schedule and tell
you the five games to start the season that I
am most excited for, and I'll break all those down
for you. Count them down. But the odds makers have
already put out the numbers for Week one, even though
these games are four months away and many different things
(32:19):
can obviously transpire between now and when the games actually
get here. I was intrigued by how quickly they had
these numbers up and w are big gambler as well.
And uh, I am in the process of pulling these
things up. Let me see if I can get it
officially pulled up on my phone. But fan duel, you
can go to FanDuel dot com slash clay and get
all of your bets in no matter what you are pursuing.
(32:42):
What line stood out to you? Uh? In general about
NFL Week one action, Well, there's a few. And first
of all, I'm a big teaser guy in the NFL,
and there are It's just I I am very tempted
to already have a lot of get money down. You're ready,
You're ready to man, I'm ready to go. But one
thing that I did that did catch my eye was
(33:03):
that Denver Broncos game on the road playing Week one
against the New York Giants. Because as we stand right now,
the Denver Broncos are a slight favorite on the road
to New York. So which is telling us that every
line tells the story? Is my Buddy Todd Furman likes
to tell us, and we were talking about this off
air dub. In our opinion, there's no way Drew lock
(33:24):
or Teddy Bridgewater would be favored in that game against
the Giants. Yeah, this is kind of like a halfway
halfway line to me, because obviously, if Aaron Rodgers is quarterbacking,
they're probably more like minus three or minus three and
a half. If Aaron Rodgers is indeed not the quarterback,
they're probably more like plus two and a half plus three.
So I think Vegas is kind of just splitting the
difference here with this line. So it's kind of a
(33:46):
risky one. If you think Aaron Rodgers is gonna wind
up in Denver, well, I would probably recommend putting a
lot of money on the Broncos. If you don't think so,
you think he stays in Green Bay, I would consider
putting a fair amount of coin on the New York
Giants there in Week one. Yeah, it's interesting. I told
you guy, it's going to break that. I was gonna
tell you about the lines that were the most basically
toss up games Jacksonville, and I think this is the
(34:06):
worst game by the way of Week one. The Jags
are a one and a half point favorite against the Texans.
I don't know about you, Dub, but I look at
the Texans schedule, and how many games do you think
the Texans might actually be favored in. I believe they're
over under for wins is four and a half, but
it's possible looking at their schedule that they could almost
(34:27):
be an under if you're if you're a home underdog
against the Jags, who were coming off of a one
in fifteen season, and I know they've got Urban Meyer
now and they've got Trevor Lawrence and they may end
up with Tim Tebow. But if you're at home underdog
against a one in fifteen team, you're not gonna be
favored against very many teams. This is gonna be one
of the longest seasons, maybe ever in Houston Texans fandom,
(34:50):
and I think you just gotta be sitting around hoping
that you're gonna end up with the number one pick
in addition to whatever other number one picks you might
hopefully be able to put together. But the jag are
a one and a half point road favorite right now
over the Texans. Is according to fan Duel, you can
get your bets in at fan duel dot com slash Clay.
The other closest lines we just talked about Denver, They're
(35:11):
around a point favorite over the Giants, but the Chargers
are a one point favorite over Washington. That is an
incredible toss up game. And then New England is only
a one and a half point favorite over Miami. I
bet that's the smallest amount that New England has been
favored over the Dolphins in Foxborough in what what do
(35:34):
you think of twenty years? I just I can't imagine
that that line has been that close to a pick
them ever. That obviously is a testament to the Patriots
coming back to the pack, but also the trend lines
being very positive for Brian Flores in year three with
the Dolphins. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. They have
pretty much dominated the Dolphins in New England now, as
(35:56):
a lot of people know, when they go down to Miami,
it's kind of a different or even in the note
Triots Heyday in Miami's kind of down years, that was
one of the weirdest little things. Dolphins always seem to
have the Patriots number in Miami. I think partly that's
just weather, right, Uh, and I think vice versa, the
Dolphins getting an advantage here to get to go to
Foxborough on September twelve, because it's probably not gonna it's
(36:20):
not gonna be like super hot, but it's not gonna
be's freezing cold. It feels like they always try to
ship the Dolphins up to Foxborough and you know, December
or January when that kind of weighs on them even more.
I feel like they'll fit in pretty well. I kind
of like the Dolphins to pull off an upset there. Yeah,
it kind of seems like they caught a big break
in the schedule here getting to go up to New
(36:40):
England so early on in the season, because, like you
just said, the weather shouldn't be a factor. And uh,
And then your point is true that Bill Belichick and
the Patriots have not typically traveled very well to South Florida.
And I think that's the juxtaposition in the other way,
the Dolphins go far north and it's freezing, well, the
Patriots getting used to laying in the cold weather, and
(37:01):
then boom, suddenly they're down in the heat and the
humidity of South Florida and their bodies just don't seem
to to adjust in the same way. When we come
back top of the third hour, I will break down
with you all of the best games in my opinion
for the start of the NFL schedule. I'll break them
all down for you. Then we're gonna be joined by
Will Kine as we usually are on Wednesday. Instead, he
(37:23):
is going to join us on the Thursday edition of
the program. That usually is a fantastic conversation. That is next.
This is out kick. Thanks for hanging out with us
on Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio has the best
sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our
shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the
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Outkicked the Coverage with Clay Travis live every weekday morning
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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. Just so you know roadmap for the rest
of the show, We're scheduled to be joined by John
Morrossy in the next segment, and then Will Kine usually
joins us On Wednesday. I was out yesterday. I had
an incredible time. I got to go tour the Buffalo
Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. We've got a lot of
OutKick fans up in the Buffalo Trace uh universe there
(00:48):
and so so I spent the day. They're trying a
lot of incredible whiskey. Is a really cool trip. So
that's where I was yesterday. Back today, thanks to Jonas
Knox and Jeff Shortz by the way for filling in.
But as we sort of project going forward, um, there's
a lot to get into and I thought one of
the most interesting stories that came out yesterday was I
(01:12):
guess it was kind of coming out on Tuesday a
little bit. But so a couple of days ago and
been talked about, bandied about quite a bit has been
what was going on with the Oakland A's and Major
League Baseball. And we're gonna talk some with John Morrossey
about this in a bit, But the Oakland A's not
happy in their stadium in Oakland. We know already that
(01:33):
the Raiders have moved to Vegas, We know already that
Golden State has moved from the Oakland side of the
Bay back to the San Francisco side of the Bay.
And so the last team really left standing in Oakland
is the A's. And so one of the questions that
I think is out there is, okay, are the A's
going to end up working it out with their local
(01:56):
administration local government there or is it possible that they
are going to relocate? And if they relocated, Look, there
are several different Canadian areas that have been discussed bandied
about as a potential relocation for Major League Baseball teams.
(02:17):
Montreal would like to get a team back. We know
obviously that Vancouver rapidly growing area of Canada. Both of
those areas have been much discussed as potential Major League
Baseball expansion sites. And by the way, there does seem
to be some likelihood that Major League Baseball might expand,
(02:37):
might be adding new franchises going forward, and that would
also factor in with this aspect of Oakland. But Rob Manfred,
the Major League Baseball Commissioner, has mentioned four different cities
in the United States, So I'm leaving Vancouver and Montreal
out of this equation right now for different cities in
(03:01):
the United States that would be potentially good destinations for
Major League Baseball in no particular order, Portland, Las Vegas, Nashville,
and Charlotte seemed to be the four cities that are
basically at the upper echelon at the top of the
(03:22):
potential destinations for where these franchise could pretend franchises could
potentially end up. So as a part of that question,
on Tuesday night, I sent out a poll question for
you guys to be able to react to, and I said, hey,
(03:42):
where would you put the team if you were in
charge of Major League Baseball and you had to make
a choice as to where the next team should be.
I over forty thousand of you voted in this, and
I said, Hey, those four cities that I just named,
(04:03):
Las Vegas, Portland's, uh, Charlotte, and Nashville, where should major
League Baseball put a team? And like I said, tens
of thousands of you voted, there may be a little
bit of a bias here because this is my hometown
and certainly there are a lot of people in my
hometown who follow me. But fifty two percent of you
(04:26):
said Nashville should be the city if the Oakland A's
had to relocate, that they should move to. Nashville was
your top choice. Thirty three percent of you said Las Vegas,
eleven percent of you said Charlotte, four percent of you
said Portland's. I think port and I and look, I
(04:47):
know we got a lot of listeners out in Washington State,
out in Oregon and everything else specific northwest. I think
Portland's is such a mess right now with the rioting,
with the looting, with the pro testing, with the fact
that Portland is just not very safe right now, that
I actually think Portland has killed its chances of getting
(05:09):
a Major League Baseball franchise if they were going to
make a choice sooner rather than later. Because Portland as
a city has a black eye maybe worse than almost
any city in America right now, just in terms of
all the protesting and the rioting and the looting and
the lack of safety. Frankly that exists in downtown Portland.
(05:30):
I think that is a major negative. So I'm not
surprised that Portland's got the fewest number of votes in
my poll. Vegas could make a lot of sense because
you're already on the West coast. What an unbelievable double
slap in the face Las Vegas would be providing to
Oakland if they already took the Raiders and built a
(05:54):
brand new stadium, which I'm excited to see at some
point in the near future. You already stole the eight
Ors away to Vegas, and now you are going to
potentially try to make a move to get a Major
League Baseball team. I'm gonna talk about that in a
little bit of a moment. But the success of the
Vegas Golden Knights, you know, for a long time there
was this idea of Vegas is such a transient town,
(06:16):
there's no way they will do very well when it
comes to having a pro sports franchise of their own.
And then the NHL, to their credit, was like, Hey,
you know what, We're gonna put Vegas Golden Nights here,
and they killed it. And we haven't seen yet the
overall crowds that are gonna be present for the for
the Raiders in their brand new stadium. But I think
(06:37):
the early read there is they're gonna kill it. And
I think one thing that Vegas has working for it
is the tourism angle, where, for instance, if you are
a fan of the Denver Broncos, or you're a fan
of the Chargers, or you're a fan of the Chiefs,
it's an easy excuse to be like, hey, let's go
to Vegas and go watch our favorite team play when
(06:58):
you know you're gonna play a divis gginal game against
him every single year, Like, that's a pretty cool trip
to get to take with your buddies, with your friends. Hey,
we're gonna go out to Vegas. There's tons of hotel rooms,
not super expensive to get to Vegas necessarily, and will
build an entire weekend around the game that ultimately ends
up taking place on Sunday. I can see why that's popular, certainly,
(07:22):
I can see what that's popular for hockey. To the
one thing I would wonder about and I'm not an
expert in Las Vegas politics. The one thing I would
wonder about is would you have to I think you
probably because of how hot it is in Vegas in
the summer. I think you would certainly have to build
a retractable roof stadium and door a dome stadium in
(07:46):
Vegas in order to have the A's play there. And
I don't know if in the meantime, in the short
term they could use the Raiders Stadium, uh, you know,
kind of reconfigure that to be able to to play
based all there. But I think it's so got awful
hot in Vegas that when you think about the July,
(08:07):
the August, the September's, the June's, how smoking hot it
is in that in that particular location, in that desert.
I think you probably would have to have some way
to build a dome related stadium. And I don't know
after building the Vegas Golden Nights facility, and after also
(08:31):
building the Raider Stadium, whether there is the political will
to build another stadium in such a short order. Given
that Las Vegas was one of the most devastated cities
by COVID in terms of unemployment in the entirety of
the country, So I think Vegas could make a lot
of sense in terms of keeping a team on the
(08:54):
West coast. The other side, if we go to the
East coast, I think Nashville is a no trainer for
a Major League Baseball team. I think it would kill it. Now,
whether it's an expansion franchise or whether it is a
it is a franchise that that it already exists, like
the A's. There's a group trying to bring pretty aggressively
(09:16):
a team to Nashville. They want to build a brand
new downtown stadium, which I think would kill it, and
much like Vegas has the tourist impact, I think the
number of tourists that Nashville is bringing in every year,
the millions of people already, there's a huge crowd in
downtown Nashville. The Preds do really well, obviously Titans. It's
(09:39):
not hard to fill up a stadium for an NFL
game because they only got ten times a year. But
I think with eighty one different games, there is a
tremendous amount of interest that would exist in Nashville, not
just for people traveling in to watch their favorite team play,
but also for people who are just coming on vacation
with families. Major League Baseball is a great summer activity
(10:03):
for vacations. And so I agree with the majority of
this group that is voting that Nashville, of all of
the cities out there, would do the best with a
Major League Baseball franchise. You've already got the Titans doing well,
You've got the Preads doing well. I think a major
League Baseball franchise in Nashville, if you've built a downtown
stadium and fitted in the right area, I think it
(10:25):
would absolutely dominate. I think it would kill. I think
it would be a fantastic addition. I also think to
a large extent, the same thing could be true of Charlotte,
so apart, the talk for a long time has been
that the Tampa Bay Rays might possibly be interested in relocating,
and if they relocated, given the expansion, given the A's,
(10:46):
we're talking about multiple different teams potentially in UH in
the mix to potentially relocate. And again I'm using the
United States examples that were even by Rob Manford as
the four teams that I'm allowing everybody to actually uh
everybody to actually vote on w hear these four cities.
(11:11):
I would rank them as Nashville one, Vegas to Charlotte
free Portland's four, exactly as my audience did the tens
of thousands of people who came and voted as to
which city would deserve the Oakland A's if they moved.
How would you rank them? Where would be the best location?
I think to me, I think Nashville and Charlotte would
(11:33):
be tied for first basically for me, just the main
reason being the geographic location. If you look at a
map of MLB franchises, the only team in the southeastern
post of the United States that's in Major League Baseball
is the Atlanta Braves. And baseball is a huge, huge
part of the culture in the southeast of the United States,
(11:54):
so they're not counting Tampa Bay or Miami is traditional
Southern locations exactly, And to me, it makes just too
much sense to not have another team in the southeastern
portion of the United States, whether that be Nashville or
Charlotte both. Yeah, that I would not be surprised if
that ends up happening sometime down the line. Uh, then
(12:14):
next I'd have Vegas. I think your concerns over the
heat in Las Vegas are very real and I think
there's no way that they would not have a retractable
roof or just a dome just because the some summers
in Vegas or no joke out in the middle of
the desert. I don't think anybody would be wanting to
play or watch a game in a hundred and eleven
degree heat in July. Uh. And then fourth, I think
(12:37):
it's pretty a pretty simple answer with Portland. I just
when I think of baseball Portland, maybe he's like the
seventie place in the country that I think of when
talking about baseball. So I would have Nashville Charlotte tied
for first, then Las Vegas in third, if you will,
then Portland coming in in the fourth spot. Yeah, and
again the other two cities. I think the Portland's angle,
(12:59):
if they truly are considering Vancouver, you know, geographically, I
don't think they would put two teams in the Pacific
Northwest like that. So I think probably Portland if Vancouver
is truly being considered. I kind of feel like the Expos,
and I understand some people are like, hey, you know,
Montreal de servicing like they lost a team. To me,
when you lose a team, you don't deserve to get
(13:21):
back at the top of the line unless your team relocates. Right.
They basically just wiped out the Expos because they didn't
have a good situation and a good setup. If I
were Major League Baseball, I would be more interested in
and uh, sort of advancing my brand in existing American
marketplaces as opposed to trying to go to Canada. That
(13:42):
would be my thought. This is outkicked the coverage with
Clay Travis. Remember that part of the show where I
was like, Hey, John Morrossy is going to join us
next Actually I was totally wrong. He's joining us on
Friday in this exact same time. So, uh, the wonders
(14:02):
of of my ability to keep guests in in order
dubbed Did you at any point recognize, Hey, Morosy is
tomorrow as opposed to Thursday. I mean, I'm gonna be
honest with you, Clay, every single day of the past
year plus has felt the exact same. I never know
what day it is. Yeah, I I totally get that too,
So Morosi will be on with us tomorrow instead. The
man who set in on Wednesday's edition of the program,
(14:25):
Jeff Schwortz, is back the next day usually would come
on with us Thursdays anyway, so he's with us now
as he often has been. Jeff, I'm gonna start here
because this is what we started off the second hour with.
Did you pay attention or have you been paying attention
to the idea of the Oakland A's moving and if so?
Major League Baseball Rob Manfred has previously listed four different
(14:48):
cities that he would be okay in the United States
with having a Major League Baseball franchise, And I'm going
west to east here, Portland, Las Vegas, Nashville, Charlotte. You
live in Charlotte, You've spent some time in Nashville. Where
do you think the next Major League Baseball franchise should be? Where,
(15:08):
if they move, should the A's go? I mean, I
obviously loves to be in Charlotte. I'm choosing um, who
who I would who I would take? UM? Look, we
have a beautiful stadium and accounta ready for Triple A team.
I don't think they're going to use that stadium though,
so that to find somewhere else, which is interesting that
built the stadium but didn't really build it to scale up.
UM feel Nashville obviously is growing fast, and I mean
(15:31):
would Nashville embrace a team. I imagine it would just
like I think it would. I think it would be killer.
It's interesting because I was talking about in the open.
Nashville has so many tourists, and I feel like Vegas
as well. At this point, when you're going to a city,
I'm not sure that the cities are big enough by themselves,
but there's so many tourists millions of people coming into
(15:53):
a city like Nashville or certainly Las Vegas, that I
feel like people would be looking for things to do.
So I think it would be hard to get a
ticket because not only would the local population embrace it
in cities like Nashville and Las Vegas, which have big
tourist towns, but but I'm curious on how the weather
would work in Las Vegas. And I think the South yeah,
(16:15):
no kidding. I think in general the South is undercovered
by sports, uh and then Major League Baseball in particular,
So I think both Charlotte and Nashville would probably do
pretty well. Um, I think I think they would do great.
And look here's me about Oakland is and they tried
to get a deal done in like four different parts
of the Bay Area, So maybe it's not just the
city of Oakland's fault, but that place is a dump.
(16:37):
Man like that. That's a bad place to play. Um,
and I remember it plays football there. I mean, obviously
they've moved their team. So it's it's disappointed they're gonna
have to leave. Oakland will end up having the Raiders leave.
Now the Warriors went to San Francisco, and now the
these are out of there, um and so um it's uh,
it's it's rough for them. But this is what happens, right,
(16:58):
you mean, new stadiums are what we want to see.
It's the humanities that people want. I mean, it's hard
to get people to get up out of their seats
at their house. I just say and go to a game.
And so this is one way to do that is
to have a beautiful stadium and make sure that it's done. Um,
it's done right. So I would expect them to leave. Um,
it would be great that came to the South. You're right,
the South is kind of underrepresented in pro sports. Obviously,
(17:21):
we know it's great in college football. Um, but i'd
be great to have a baseball team another one out
in Charlotte and Nashville. Yeah, I mean you think about it,
the Atlanta Braves are basically the South's major League baseball
team because there's no team in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee,
Kentucky kind of has the Cincinnati Reds, but still no
team in Kentucky. Uh, no team in Alabama, no team
(17:43):
in Mississippi, no team in Louisiana. There are a lot
of different states where there are a Rabbit and there
is a Rabbi baseball community. And you can just look
at the College World Series and see how dominated it
is very often by SEC teams. This to me feels
like a no brainer in terms of trying to get
more baseball in the Southeast. Um, all right, let's pivot
(18:08):
to the NFL. And I feel like this is a
question that we've been asking every day for a couple
of weeks. Now. Blake Boardles coming in as a camp
arm for the Green Bay Packers as the expectations are
that Aaron Rodgers is not going to be showing up
maybe ever again, We'll see what happens there. Do you
think Aaron Rodgers has played his final game for the Packers?
(18:31):
I mean, everything tells you yes, but I'm gonna say no,
just because the Packers kind of have the leverage here.
I know people disagree with that, um, but they're able
to just hold on him if they want, if they
don't play him, if they don't get him off their roster.
Um and they you know, they do a pretty big
capit even if they turned out to jukee one. Um.
(18:52):
You know, they don't George Love on the roster, right
and if you retires, the money's off their books. Like
I didn't have the leverage in this um out. They
could get something back for Aaron Rodgers. But if you
trade them to the Broncos, probably anything to trade them to.
You know that draft pick is going to be in
the twenties, right because we know that we know that
um uh, you know they're going to be in the
(19:13):
playoffs most likely. So like I just I don't think
they're gonna get the value they want. And I did
as you try to keep them and force him to
show up or does not play this year. Yeah, it
is interesting to think about the leverage situation here, and
I want to go back into Aaron Rodgers in a sec.
But you've been in a lot of different NFL locker rooms.
(19:35):
How do you think the offensive line for the Green
Bay Packers is reacting to this dispute over the course
of the summer, like are they texting each other like
every little latest update? Are they pushing putting pressure at
all on on Aaron Rodgers in general? Like how does
that story play out? That's a good question. I think
(19:58):
right now, it's nothing right, It's just it's Aaron Rodgers
sniping at the Packers. I'm sure he's talking his offensive
linement about hey, you know, this is the way I
feel about the Packers and and you know x y
Z and mah blah blake. I think there's definitely talk
about about that. But as far as him saying like,
I'm never gonna play for you guys again, I mean,
maybe it's possible that he's saying that, and I'm not
(20:19):
sure that they might you know, they might even believe him.
But I think in general, Clay, most of us want
our friends to get the most money and be happy, right,
And I think that if if you're David Bakari, the
left tackle of the Packers, and Aaron Rodgers like, look,
I'm gonna get out. I don't want to be here, Jeers,
I don't want to be here. I think Ultimately you're
(20:39):
gonna be upset your your friends going up up, you know,
future Hall of Famers go on the m v P.
But you're happy that your friend gets what he wants
right and your friend gets you know, goes to where
he wants. So I think in the end they'll they'll
be happy for him. I was disappointed they can't play
with him, but I think happy overall in the end
with UH, with the result of if Rogers is happy.
(21:01):
I saw a tweet and it made me think about
you because I know this is one of the quarterbacks
that you used to play with UH, and I have
I found myself in this situation A bunch to Eli
Manning tweeted yesterday morning. I woke up a little nervous
today the head coach of the seven eight year old
softball team can't make the game tonight. I'm in charge
(21:21):
and on the mound. How do you think Eli will
do as the coach pitch pitcher in softball? How? How
how old is this hold? Seven and eight year old kids? Okay,
so I don't I have a really a great a person.
Look right there, my son is six years old, okay,
from seven this summer and somehow he got stuck in
(21:42):
machine pitch, and I do not understand how this happened
in Charlotte. I I talked to the commissioner of the
Little League book don he skipped coach this last year
because of COVID, right he played? Yeah. Yeah, and there's
a kid on his team turned nine this week. Yeah,
he's got a mustache. Yeah, I'll tell you. Yeah, I'll
tell you this. Like I, um, so, I so we
(22:04):
have games. We had a game last night. I feel
like I'm a major league player manager right now. We
have games Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So four straight days. We
played last night Wednesday. Four straight days, four straight games,
four straight day games, like because of rain days and everything.
So I'm saying I think I'm in like major League Baseball.
People are like asking me to do things. I'm like,
(22:26):
you know, like sweat and bullets. I'm like, I'm sorry,
I don't have time to do anything. I gotta be
at this little league game. Uh and uh and make
sure that I'm coaching third base, which I'll get to
you at a moment. But when m so, I have
a kindergartener who's uh, you know, playing coach pitch, and
then I'm coaching ten year old nineteen year old boys baseball,
and there this is the first year of kid pitch,
(22:47):
which actually is much less stressful because I've been in
that Eli Manning situation where you get the call up
as the pitcher and you are just so nervous as
the dad or the mom, whoever it might be that's
out there on the field that has to make perfect
pitches because you only get I think it's like five pitches,
(23:07):
and so if you're not throwing strikes, you know, the
kids can't hit. It's not like you can walk them right, So,
like you have that awful feeling where you're like, hey,
this has to be the last. This is the last pitch.
And then if you you know, drop one in the
dirt or you throw one too high, or god forbid,
you hit them and they're trying to bail out on
you while that while you're throwing it. Like, it is
(23:29):
just a super stressful situation to be in. Um, I
could definitely stand it's super stressful. But imagine your kid
that's six years old. Everyone else is setting often machine
because they're eight and he's six and he can't do anything.
Like it's just terrible feeling as a parent watching your
kid who's not you know, not supposed to be in
the league, Like, oh man, I get it. Man, it's
(23:50):
it's funny watching your kids now play sports. It's tough.
It's tough, and you know, I think i'm pretty even
kill Like I understand the age thing obviously, and I
just wanted it's like you do well because you want them.
You just don't. You want him to like be deal
with his friends, right, you want to like be able
to play with it. It's a it's a weird feeling,
you know. I'll tell you what the toughest thing and
(24:11):
I've I've been now at this point with my kids.
They're old enough where we've done basically every sport. You know,
We've played soccer, flag, football, uh, basketball, baseball, even hockey,
Like we basically played everything in my household at this point.
The kids have the boys have the toughest single thing
to do. Your kid pitching by far the toughest thing
(24:35):
because it's them on the mound. Like it can be
tough for them to come up in bat, Like you're
talking about the mid pitching machine and all that stuff,
but they're only up to bat for you know whatever.
It is six or seven pitches on average, and so
it's not that long to be stressful for them. When
they are pitching. Every single pitch is you know, they're
(24:56):
like either throwing a ball or they're throwing a strike,
and it is excruciating to watch. By far, the toughest
thing I think to be a parent four is pitching
Little League because you know, there's just so much variety.
You know, if it's three to the kids probably aren't
gonna swing. So if you throw a strike, you're probably
gonna get a strike out. If you walk them, they're
(25:17):
probably gonna end up on third base because there's lots
of pass balls and everything else. I think, by far,
as a dad of three who's watched every sport and
you know, gone and participated in all of them on
some level, pitching is the toughest to watch your young
kids do. Um. I mean, I pitched in Little League
and all through high school. I'm curious. I'm gonna asking
my dad now about this. My aunt was. I think
(25:39):
when you get older, it probably is less, you know,
like by the time you're you know, high school age
or even teenage age, because the number of times that
you're gonna throw a strike is a lot higher. But
the range of potential outcome for nine and ten year
old boys baseball is so massive, right, Like you can
throw a pitch behind them, or you can throw a
(26:00):
strike right down the middle. Every single pitch there's a
wide risus. Like me in the T box playing golf
or you probably too, there's no telling where the t
SHOT's gonna go for me. I'm I'm golden. You're good
off the tea. I mean like like if I get
the ball, you know, I'm good basically up to like fifteen,
like fifteen yards and then it's just like from inside, Yeah,
(26:25):
fifty yards, I'm done. Yeah, that's just just terrible. Yeah,
I'm I'm a mess when it comes to pretty much
all my golf game. But the potential permutations of every
golf swing, if you put them like on a scattered
plot chart, would be everywhere, all right. So look, we
spent a lot of time so far in the show
talking about the NFL schedule released to me, more so
than anything else, what this represents is just the NFL
(26:48):
as every other sports daddy, because they can parachute right
into the middle of the NHL and the NBA playoffs,
Major League baseball regular season and be like, hey, Heisman,
you know, stiff arm. I know it's four months until
these games are going to be played, but everybody is
talking about them. Having said that, did anything stand out
to you in a big way about the schedule release
(27:10):
as it pertains to something you weren't anticipating or did
learn based on the schedule. Yeah, you know, I was
looking at the Aaron Rodgers situation in Green Band Team.
How many prime time games they've done, right, Because if
the NFL seals that is, the Jordan Loves Show, they
probably would get less by suppose actors still got the
normal amount of primetime games. You're right, um, And so
(27:31):
it kind of leads me to think that, hey, maybe
they believe, um, you know, they will they'll be able
to uh, you know, to be cheap Rodgers going. But
I mean, look, we know the opponents, right, so, um,
you know, the schedule is just when it feels real,
it feels like we're getting you know, you're getting a
kick off. I thought that, you know, it looks Cowboys Bucks.
You could say, you know, you should have saved that
(27:52):
game for maybe later in the year. But I mean,
if you want to start off with a bang and
get you know, that great TV number for the you know,
for the first game of the year. Um, that's the
way to do it, right. You have the Cowboys against
Tom Brady, and everyone's gonna tune in to basically root
against both teams. If you're not a fan of either
one of those those teams are players. It's a great
way to go. Class in this to you many times,
(28:13):
I'm so excited for this upcoming season, have fans back
in the stands. It's just like it's gonna feel normal again.
And we're gonna have his life as back to normal
as we can get it. Um. And it's gonna be
so much fun. Even college football Week zero, you know.
I mean you see like Hawaiian playing a step until eight,
you know, eight in the morning to watch that game. Um.
In Hawaii, they doesn't have a stadium. There's a players
(28:36):
like a municipal park this season in Hawaii. Like, I'm
just so sassful. All the football will come back, um, amen,
And I think we're going to have full stadiums because
of how successful we had, like the big fight down
in Dallas, fifteen thousand people for the UFC, the Braves
and the Rangers both have full stadiums going forward. Do
(29:00):
you believe, like some of the interesting storylines, it seems
like the Bears, based on where they're slotted, there might
be a gamble that maybe Justin Fields is going to start.
I think it's fair to say that Trevor Lawrence and
Zack Wilson, assuming they are healthy, are both going to
be starting every single game for their teams. Tray Lance,
Mac Jones or Justin Field shorts Which of those three
(29:23):
guys starts first and gets the nod from their team
in your mind? Oh, I think it's Justin Fields. I
think he gets it from day one. You think he's
started beings out Andy Dalton then starts for the Bears
from week one? I think so, yeah, Um, I think
he's from from the beginning, right right away. So I
think I think it's his job. Tray Lance likely not
(29:46):
to play at all if Jimmy G stays healthy. Is
that fair to say? Do you think Mac Jones think
might come in. I think Trey Lance had a good
chance to play. I think Rookie of the Year odds
for him are fairly interesting. Yeah, so you don't buy
into the yeah that Jimmy G is gonna be the guy.
Do you think Mac Jones beats out Cam at any point?
How would you assess those other two guys in terms
(30:06):
of if you think Justin Field is going to be
the third to start, might start starting week one? When
to Trey Lance and or Mac Jones get to start.
So you know, the the interrant part about the Mac
Jones and Cam noton thing is the base of the
offense for both quarterbacks would be the same. But obviously
you're gonna put in plays that Cam Noon has traditionally
(30:26):
run very well, right, all those quarterback powers, quarterback reads,
all the play action passes off of that um and
everything that you know kind of offer that so um,
you know that that is what you do with that offense.
W if Matt Jones comes in, you're not running that
offense right, So not to not what are you doing?
Are you just transitioning at some point in the middle
the year two different offense? It just feels like really
(30:47):
tough to get done. That always, I think if Cam's
a guy, he's the guy all season. Outstanding stuff as always,
Jeff Shortz, We'll talk to you next week. Enjoy the weekend, man.
That's Jeff Schwartz. When we come back, we got some
early Week one lines that are already out. You can
gamble on them. What does Vegas think? What are the
(31:09):
oddsmakers think are likely to be the biggest toss up
games going forward? We will discuss This is out kicked
the coverage with Clay Trafficks. Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.
Join me every weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fire
(31:30):
with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod pushing
the same tired narratives down your throat every day. Straight
Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines,
accurate stats to help you win big at the sports book,
and all the best guests. Do yourself a favor and
listen to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre on the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
(31:57):
Coming back in the top of the third hour. Here,
I'm gonna dive back into the NFL schedule and tell
you the five games to start the season that I
am most excited for, and I'll break all those down
for you. Count them down. But the odds makers have
already put out the numbers for Week one, even though
these games are four months away and many different things
(32:19):
can obviously transpire between now and when the games actually
get here. I was intrigued by how quickly they had
these numbers up and w are big gambler as well.
And uh, I am in the process of pulling these
things up. Let me see if I can get it
officially pulled up on my phone. But fan duel, you
can go to FanDuel dot com slash clay and get
all of your bets in no matter what you are pursuing.
(32:42):
What line stood out to you? Uh? In general about
NFL Week one action, Well, there's a few. And first
of all, I'm a big teaser guy in the NFL,
and there are It's just I I am very tempted
to already have a lot of get money down. You're ready,
You're ready to man, I'm ready to go. But one
thing that I did that did catch my eye was
(33:03):
that Denver Broncos game on the road playing Week one
against the New York Giants. Because as we stand right now,
the Denver Broncos are a slight favorite on the road
to New York. So which is telling us that every
line tells the story? Is my Buddy Todd Furman likes
to tell us, and we were talking about this off
air dub. In our opinion, there's no way Drew lock
(33:24):
or Teddy Bridgewater would be favored in that game against
the Giants. Yeah, this is kind of like a halfway
halfway line to me, because obviously, if Aaron Rodgers is quarterbacking,
they're probably more like minus three or minus three and
a half. If Aaron Rodgers is indeed not the quarterback,
they're probably more like plus two and a half plus three.
So I think Vegas is kind of just splitting the
difference here with this line. So it's kind of a
(33:46):
risky one. If you think Aaron Rodgers is gonna wind
up in Denver, well, I would probably recommend putting a
lot of money on the Broncos. If you don't think so,
you think he stays in Green Bay, I would consider
putting a fair amount of coin on the New York
Giants there in Week one. Yeah, it's interesting. I told
you guy, it's going to break that. I was gonna
tell you about the lines that were the most basically
toss up games Jacksonville, and I think this is the
(34:06):
worst game by the way of Week one. The Jags
are a one and a half point favorite against the Texans.
I don't know about you, Dub, but I look at
the Texans schedule, and how many games do you think
the Texans might actually be favored in. I believe they're
over under for wins is four and a half, but
it's possible looking at their schedule that they could almost
(34:27):
be an under if you're if you're a home underdog
against the Jags, who were coming off of a one
in fifteen season, and I know they've got Urban Meyer
now and they've got Trevor Lawrence and they may end
up with Tim Tebow. But if you're at home underdog
against a one in fifteen team, you're not gonna be
favored against very many teams. This is gonna be one
of the longest seasons, maybe ever in Houston Texans fandom,
(34:50):
and I think you just gotta be sitting around hoping
that you're gonna end up with the number one pick
in addition to whatever other number one picks you might
hopefully be able to put together. But the jag are
a one and a half point road favorite right now
over the Texans. Is according to fan Duel, you can
get your bets in at fan duel dot com slash Clay.
The other closest lines we just talked about Denver, They're
(35:11):
around a point favorite over the Giants, but the Chargers
are a one point favorite over Washington. That is an
incredible toss up game. And then New England is only
a one and a half point favorite over Miami. I
bet that's the smallest amount that New England has been
favored over the Dolphins in Foxborough in what what do
(35:34):
you think of twenty years? I just I can't imagine
that that line has been that close to a pick
them ever. That obviously is a testament to the Patriots
coming back to the pack, but also the trend lines
being very positive for Brian Flores in year three with
the Dolphins. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. They have
pretty much dominated the Dolphins in New England now, as
(35:56):
a lot of people know, when they go down to Miami,
it's kind of a different or even in the note
Triots Heyday in Miami's kind of down years, that was
one of the weirdest little things. Dolphins always seem to
have the Patriots number in Miami. I think partly that's
just weather, right, Uh, and I think vice versa, the
Dolphins getting an advantage here to get to go to
Foxborough on September twelve, because it's probably not gonna it's
(36:20):
not gonna be like super hot, but it's not gonna
be's freezing cold. It feels like they always try to
ship the Dolphins up to Foxborough and you know, December
or January when that kind of weighs on them even more.
I feel like they'll fit in pretty well. I kind
of like the Dolphins to pull off an upset there. Yeah,
it kind of seems like they caught a big break
in the schedule here getting to go up to New
(36:40):
England so early on in the season, because, like you
just said, the weather shouldn't be a factor. And uh,
And then your point is true that Bill Belichick and
the Patriots have not typically traveled very well to South Florida.
And I think that's the juxtaposition in the other way,
the Dolphins go far north and it's freezing, well, the
Patriots getting used to laying in the cold weather, and
(37:01):
then boom, suddenly they're down in the heat and the
humidity of South Florida and their bodies just don't seem
to to adjust in the same way. When we come
back top of the third hour, I will break down
with you all of the best games in my opinion
for the start of the NFL schedule. I'll break them
all down for you. Then we're gonna be joined by
Will Kine as we usually are on Wednesday. Instead, he
(37:23):
is going to join us on the Thursday edition of
the program. That usually is a fantastic conversation. That is next.
This is out kick. Thanks for hanging out with us
on Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio has the best
sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our
shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the
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