Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome in podcast listeners. I appreciate you guys. We are
rolling in July, continuing to dominate out there. That's because
of you guys. Yesterday we had a bunch of five
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made a major announcement Dr David chow at Pro Football
Doc joining the OutKick crew. We are super excited to
(00:20):
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He's the best at what he does, and I like
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if you agree, go sign up for the OutKick v
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(00:43):
I think we're gonna be able to guarantee you an
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i P phone line for the radio show when we
open up. Callers. All of that and more loaded show
for you today Frankie Sola in the first hour. In
the second hour, we talked with Chris Mannix who's in
the NBA bubble, and an hour three, Dr David Chow
on to discuss all of his latest knowledge as it
(01:05):
pertains to the coronavirus and the return of sports, plus
the return of the Animal Thunderdome, all that more. It's
Outkicked usually at six to nine am Eastern live on
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podcast and it begins now. I'll Kick the Coverage with
Clay Travis live every weekday morning from six to nine
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(01:27):
Sports Radio. Find your local station for OutKick the Coverage
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fs are you're listening to Fox Sports Radio. I actually
(01:48):
think we're under playing one of the stories out there.
And uh, let me explain right off the top what
I mean. Last night Bristol had around twenty or thirty
thousand people show up for a sporting event and it
was live on television and you could see the people
(02:08):
in the crowd and they were spaced out, and I
thought almost no one talked about it. We haven't seen
a crowd at a sporting event anywhere in this country
that is in the tens of thousands at least you
can tweet me, or you can call in and let
me know, or the crew can let me know. Since March,
(02:31):
I mean since the Rudy Gobert fallout began in the
n b A and all of the different sports leagues
shut down college and pro that ensuing couple of days,
we haven't seen anybody produce a sporting event with tens
of thousands of people in the crowd. Yes, I know
(02:54):
Bristol can sit a ton of people. I was there
for the night or ace before, and a couple of
years ago, I was there for the Tennessee Virginia Tech
game when there were a hundred and fifty thousand people
plus in that stadium, so I know, trust me, how
monstrously large that stadium is. But when you saw the
(03:18):
aerial shots last night on FS one and you could
see how many people were in there at the NASCAR
event part close to the stadium tailgating, this seemed like
a pretty big deal to me. That is not receiving
that much attention overall, that we had a crowd like
that for a sporting event. And one of the things
(03:41):
as I watched that sporting event take place, I'm thinking
to myself hold on, and I asked this if you
heard yesterday in my interview with Greg Sanky, I was
ahead of it, but now having watched it on television,
my question is pretty straightforward for everybody out there. They're
only seems to be a folk us on whether college
(04:01):
football can play or not. Well, obviously, the SEC is
a big part of college football, and I think many
different leagues will take their lead based on what the
SEC does. And I mean like high school football. I
mean a lot of different people I think will piggyback
off of the SEC decision. And I thought it was
(04:23):
interesting that we're talking about whether or not college football
can happen, and two of the fourteen SEC teams are
in the state of Tennessee, Vanderbilt and the University of Tennessee,
and we're not talking about massive crowds for any of
their games. And I think a lot of you probably
(04:45):
have the same question that I do. If tens of
thousands of people can watch a NASCAR race in July,
why can't a handful or relatively small amount of people
watch an SEC football game in September. I don't have
(05:06):
a good answer for why that couldn't be allowed. There
were as many people just about watching that race in
Bristol as watches the average Vanderbilt football game. Anyway, Vanderbilt
football has been social distancing since before social distancing was cool.
(05:27):
The University of Tennessee Stadium, it's a hundred thousand people,
so things would need to be different there. But I
haven't heard anybody anywhere in the media explain to me
why NASCAR can have tens of thousands of fans present
in July and we can't do the same thing in
September even smaller crowds for college football. Let me bring
(05:52):
in the crew pretty quick because I want to get
a reaction to that. Do you think, Danny g that
this was underplayed? Given how many people did you watch
the race last night in Bristol? I did watch it.
I mean there's a lot of people in the crowd, right,
I mean now they were socially distanced, and it looks
quite a bit different than ever before, There's no doubt.
But don't you think this is a big deal given
(06:14):
how long it has been since we had tens of
thousands of people in a crowd at all for a
sporting event. And I actually think it's been undercovered by
the media. I understand it's a NASCAR, but when you
look at the way things are set up right now
in the country, having a sporting event with tens of
thousands of fans present seems like a pretty big deal. Yeah.
(06:36):
And when Chase Elliott crossed the finish line and was celebrating,
the crowd was celebrating with them. The announcers let the
crowd ambiance go for a few seconds and then talked
about it. And it was music to my heirs because
we just haven't heard that and so long. It was awesome.
The Corona Bros on your Twitter feed last night, I
noticed we're saying, well, it's because Bristol can set a
(06:59):
hundred and six two thousand people, so of course they
can social distance in this man. Okay, but the Corona
pros the percentage. I'm glad you're reading my mentions. I
hardly read my mentions now because it's just, uh, it's
just a perpetual war. And also, frankly, this show is
exploded in such an extent I can't even keep up
with my mentions even if I wanted to. But the
(07:22):
tent or whatever it was, of the overall seating capacity,
the percentage could be the same for other sporting events. Yes,
Bristol is just a monumentally large stadium and uh and
they can fit twenty or thirty thousand people in even
with social distancing requirements. But there are a lot of
(07:42):
hundred thousand seats stadiums in college football. If the if
the precedent that is being set at Bristol is that
twenty percent of their crowd can attend, well, the niel
And Stadium in just down the road in Knoxville seats
a hundred thousand, So does that mean that they could
not see twenty thousand there. I mean that's still a
(08:06):
pretty good sized crowd. That's more people than attend the
average NBA game in general. And look, I'm not if
you go back and listen to the tape back in March,
I don't care about crowds. Let me be clear, I
don't care about crowds being present because like most of you,
I'm going to watch sports on television. But if you
(08:30):
can have twenty thousand plus fans present at a sporting
event in July, I don't understand how anybody can argue
that college football isn't possible to happen without fans at all,
like I'll gladly give up, and I'm sure most college
football conferences would as well. It arguably makes their decision
(08:54):
a little bit easier. But if you start in September
with no fans present at all for college football games,
I would still watch. I mean, yes, the pomp, the circumstance,
the pageantry of college football is impressive. But when you
look at all of those fans being present at that
(09:15):
at that event, and you think about, okay, thirty thousand,
twenty thousand, whatever the final tally was at Bristol, and
you think about the fact that by August one, Major
League Baseball, the NHL, NBA, MLS, p G, A w
n B, a UFC, NWSL, p B A, boxing, NASCAR,
(09:38):
all of those sports plus the NFL theoretically is going
to be in training camp are going to be happening,
and college football can happen. It just doesn't make any sense.
Dub did you watch any of the race last night?
I didn't watch any of the race, but I saw
pictures on social media and stuff, and it's got It
gave me a positive feeling, especially combined with our interview
(10:00):
Greg Sanky yesterday when he gave out not exact numbers
about the testing details, but he did say near zero. Yeah,
near zero. Uh. That information combined with you know, thirty
people in a crowd on July fift and the state
of Tennessee, I mean, it gives me a lot more
hope than I probably had a couple of days ago
about college football actually happening. If you can have you
(10:21):
know of a NASCAR stadium full, I don't really get
why you can't have college football with no fans, especially
when Greg Sanky said that the testing numbers are as
low as they are currently. Yeah, I mean it's a
it's a it's a good question. What about you, Eddie?
Did you watch any of this race at all? I
saw a lot of the highlights. I did not watch
(10:43):
it live. Okay, So, but from your college football fan, um,
and from your perspective when you see that many fans
present in mid July, does it also raise the issue
with you, like, wait a minute, how could we not
play college But by the way, the reason are in
college football on this program is obviously because I'm a
big college football fan, but also because it's literally the
(11:06):
only sport that anyone is talking about now not playing
I mean It's kind of crazy that everybody else is like, yeah,
we're playing, and the storyline just disappears. Right. I don't
see very many people. I mean major League Baseball starts
this week, I mean next week, this day, seven days
from now, major League Baseball is going to be back underway,
(11:29):
and I don't hear anybody saying, oh my god, what's
major League Baseball doing. A lot of people are covering
the ridiculousness of the NBA bubble, and in fact we're
gonna be joined by Chris Mannox, who is currently quarantining
in the NBA bubble an hour two. But I don't
hear anybody talking about the NBA bubble related issues. And frankly,
other than every now and then somebody coming out and
(11:50):
talking about a particular element of the NFL, I don't
hear like, oh, you can't change jerseys. H we'll talk
about that with Dr chow an our three this program,
the jersey trade and NFL football in general, but I
don't hear anybody talking about how the NFL can't play.
And so it seems strange to me that the NASCAR
(12:11):
crowd story is not a much bigger one, just given
how long we've gone without a crowd of that size
or significance existing in sports, and I think it makes
it tough on the corona brows when we've got tens
of thousands of people watching a NASCAR event and they're
trying to say, oh my god, there's no way we
can play college football. Well, if you're talking, first of
(12:34):
all about the fans, there's no argument to be made.
If someone says they're okay with thirty thousand fans being
at a NASCAR then, but they're not okay with fans
being at a college football game, it doesn't make any
sense at all. That's right. But the only difference between
college sports and pro sports is that the whole idea
that there's compensation, and that's the only thing that someone
(12:55):
can point to as for a reason. You know, there's
a feel amongst them that these are quote unquote kids
being pushed out there by adults for our entertainment, whereas
professional sports they're adults being allowed to make their own
decision and being compensated for. That's that's the difference. That Yeah,
the difference, I would say, And by the way, I
(13:15):
think it applies for high school football too, because obviously
high school football players are being paid. Um, if you
don't want to play, you don't have to. And I
think if we polled college football players right now, I
think of them, maybe higher would say, yeah, I want
to play college football this fall. I don't disagree with that,
And so the one percent that doesn't or their parents
(13:38):
that don't want them to. I give credit to all
of the sports leagues in college sports because what they've
all said is if you don't want to play, you
keep your scholarship. And I would imagine the n C
Double A would allow you to take a red shirt
year so you don't actually lose out at all. I
(13:58):
think your sports should be taking place as well in
high school, as opposed to going a full year, which
is where we're headed right now without many different states
being able to allow kids to play high school sports.
And by the way, I also believe a little league
should be going because your kid is under greater danger,
(14:19):
as we talked about yesterday on this program, your kid
is under greater danger from the flu if they are
under fifteen years old than they are from the coronavirus.
Other big news that is out there. First of all,
Dak Prescott did not sign his UH did not sign
any extension and therefore he is on the franchise tag.
(14:40):
As we anticipated what happened. The other big name that
decided at the last minute to sign a deal was
Derrick Henry and Derrick Henry UH signed a fifty million
dollar deal. Now, as everyone knows at this point in
the NFL, the only thing that matters is how much
of that contract was guaranteed. And Derrick Henry got what
(15:04):
I think is a contract that is not really that
difficult for the Tennessee Titans. He got twenty five point
five million dollars guaranteed. And for the Titans, they were
able to drop Derrick Henry's cap number UH to six
million dollars as opposed to ten point seven million dollars,
(15:26):
So they saved four point seven million dollars on this
year's cap number. Why does that matter, Well, they've been
pursuing Jadeveon Clowney. Is it possible that they get a
deal done the Titans for Jadeveon Clowney. Yes, in theory
that would be possible. The Titans now have a two
year contract effectively with Derrick Henry UM. Next year he'll
(15:50):
count thirteen and a half million dollars. But basically they
got a two year window where they're running back is
not going to overwhelm their overall salary cap and they
theoretically are going to uh to to be able uh
to in their mind anyway, make a run like they
did last year to potentially put themselves into a good
(16:13):
position when it comes to not only what they're doing
with their running back, but what they're gonna do with
Ryan Tannehill and also what they're going to do with
the additional talent that they bring in to support him.
This is outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis joined now
by Frank I Solo. You can find him at the
(16:35):
Frank I Sola. Frank, does any part of you, first
of all, thanks coming on. Secondly, does any part of
you wish you were a part of the NBA bubble
because for all the years that you covered the NBA,
uh if this thing had happened back in two thousand
as opposed to now, you might have been there. Or
you're perfectly happy to continue to stay at home. You
want me down there tweeting out photos of the meal
(16:57):
I'm getting and complaining about life in the bubble. It's
it's not bad enough that we have the players complaining
about it. Now we have all the writers down there
talking about it. It would it would be tough to
be away that long. I told you, you know, I've
done the Olympics twice. Man, you go away for you know,
twenty one days, that's a long time to be there.
Like I think Mark Stein from the New York Times,
(17:17):
he said he was going to stay there until some
point in September, and then Scott Cacciola is going to
replace him. So they're splitting it up. But that's I mean,
they go down, they start to finish. That's a that's
a long one. That's that. That would be tough, no
doubt at all. How what's the vibe in New York
By the way, We've asked you this now for months,
but do you feel like it's starting to feel normal
(17:39):
in you're part of New York City area? Well, it
was for a while. Like in New Jersey, they we're
going to have the restaurants open up where you can
sit inside. That wasn't the case. I was in all
the way out on the east end of Long Island
over the weekend and there was indoor seating at a
couple of the places that I was at. It it
all depends on you know, different in places you go to.
(18:00):
If you go to more like a vacation kind of place,
it seems like everything is kind of back to normal,
But when you're home, it's still I will say this,
you do see even a lot more people wearing masks
now than maybe we're even like two months ago. Yeah,
I don't know, I don't know what what what the
exact reason for that. I've always bring a bandanna with
me so when I whenever I passed them, but I
(18:21):
just put it on. That's way people don't get get annoyed.
And obviously when you go inside that where, but you
can tell the people. I think people here in terms
of sports are getting it scided because baseball is going
to start up. I mean it seems like baseball has
completely falling off the map, and you know, the NBA
starting and the soccer has been going on. So I
think people are starting to get a little excited. I said,
it is kind of crazy. Baseball is starting a one
(18:42):
week from today, and after all of the attention that
the argument got between the players and the owners and
everything else, it seems like baseball has basically gone underground.
As Spring Training Part two has been happening, there hasn't
been that much discussion. I mean, it's like, Okay, well,
now are gonna play, and let's move on to something else,
(19:02):
and next Thursday, a week from today, we're gonna officially
have games underway. Well, you touched on a bunch of
times the owners and the players kind of being tone
deaf as they were going back and forth fighting over money.
So the fighting over money at the time, but there's
so many people out of work. They could have started
July for that. They both sides should have been focused
on that, because think about it, now, they would be playing,
(19:23):
they would be into what their second and third week
of playing. It would be more of a legitimate season.
I get it's a hundred sixty two games necessary, probably not,
but a sixty game baseball season it is a little silly.
It's like playing I don't know, five NFL regular season
games at thirty NBA regular season games. That part of it.
I mean, you talked about all these seasons that are
going on right now, the NHL trying to end, the
(19:45):
NBA trying to finish their season, and how it's gonna
be a little bit different, but a sixty game baseball season,
come on that. That's that's a lot. We UH talked
to start the show a little bit about NASCAR again,
and NASCAR is an example of a sport that has benefited,
although not all of it has been positive, but NASCAR
has benefited by the amount of attention that they have
gotten because there hasn't been a lot of other sports
(20:07):
going on. I even watched last night on FS one
some of the race at Bristol, and I'm not a
you know, NASCAR guy, but I do think it's a
big story that's kind of being not talked about very much.
I mean, frank, they had over twenty thousand people in
the crowd last night, which is the biggest sports crowd
(20:27):
we've seen in America for an event since, uh since March,
and yet it happened last night, and I saw a
very few people talking about you know, that number of
people being in there watching a live sporting event. Well,
it's funny to say that because last night I was
flicking around and there was a USL game on, which
is the soccer league that's right below the MLS, and
(20:50):
the team in Memphis was playing, I believe was Birmingham.
In fact, the team in Memphis is partly owned by
Tim Howard, the former U S goal you have playing
really from Memphis last night and looked like he was
about sixty years old. He was getting destroyed. Was he
was down through nothing in the first half. There were
fans there and that was in Memphis, Okame. I thought,
I thought it was really interesting. Now. I don't know
if it was the smartest crowd because it's a lower
(21:11):
level soccer game, or if they were social distancing, but
he would be my thing because if you remember, I
think it's Gene Smith, the athletic director of Ohio State.
It was more than six weeks ago where he talked
about wanting to have not only to play football this season,
but about having fans in the stadium. He was hoping
to maybe have like what you said, maybe twenty fans here.
He would be my thing. How did they get into
(21:33):
the stadium and out and kind of like a social
distance kind of way, because we've all been the sporting events,
it's not you know, getting that's part of the biggest
pain about going to a game, like a huge crowd
to face outside just trying to get in and then
you know once the game ends, everyone's getting up at
the same time and trying to get out. I'll bet
you that would be kind of like the one complication.
But we've talked about it. I think these schools, like
(21:55):
an n SEC, they want fans there. They're gonna can
trust see what they can do, like to your point,
to get maybe I don't know if they could pull
it off, but I think that's the goal. Well, I
don't understand, and again somebody can can try to explain
it to me. I understand on a city basis, like
Vanderbilt University, if the city of Nashville is saying, hey,
(22:16):
we're not going to allow large gatherings of people, okay,
that influences you. Same thing could happen in Knoxville, but
absent the city disallowing it. I don't understand how you
can have twenty or thirty thousand people for a sporting
event in Bristol and you can't have a small crowd
or no crowd for an SEC football game at Vanderbilt
(22:39):
or at the University of Tennessee. And just the logic
on it doesn't apply. And by the way, let me
say this eight seven seven nine six three six nine
if you were at the Bristol event. Maybe we've got
some people who are listening to us right now who
were there. I'm actually curious what the environment was like.
Frank just raised a couple of interesting questions about the entrance.
(23:00):
I would imagine the exit as well as like concession stands,
things like that. What did it feel like as a fan?
Eight seven seven uhe six nine. We will take your call.
I'd actually be curious about that in the next segment
to hear what your experience was like. If you're listening
to us right now and you were there last night. Um, Frank,
(23:21):
when you look at at Major League Baseball coming back
the NBA coming back, one of the big issues with
both of those leagues, particularly Major League Baseball was the
negotiation that led to the games themselves. Do you think
the NFL is going to be able to get everything
worked out as it pertains to players being paid in
the NFL or do you think we might have a
(23:41):
messy situation between owners and players as we try to
get things ready there? Yeah, we've seen this song and
dance before. You know. The one thing about the players union,
it's the strongest union out of all the mazor professional sports.
You know, it's it seems like, uh, you know, the
um the league can never try to break it or
get them to bend a little bit. I think the
(24:03):
NFL is a little bit different. I think you have
a lot of players. I think the majority of the
rank and file members aren't making the crazy Patrick Mahomes
Tom Brady kind of money, and they know their career
lifespan is about three or four years and they want
to get paid. So I always think that's really difficult
for the NFL. I think the league, if they can
(24:25):
get the players out there playing, I think a lot
of the players are gonna be concerned about safety and
things like that. I know they're trying to come up
with like a special kind of face mask. But when
it comes to a C B A, I think the
owners always have the players where they wanted because I
just think the players are in a different financial position
than baseball is and investing. The NBA probably falls in
the middle there, but football stuff, because come on, these
(24:47):
guys know it's like a two or three year deal.
They're looking to get their money and when they can,
and the lesson they want to do is to you know,
hold out and fight anybody over money, because I think
in the long one they don't believe they're gonna win. Yeah,
we're talking to Frankie sola Um. Everybody was talking yesterday
and certainly we talked about it on this program about
Dak Prescott and his contract situation with the Dallas Cowboys. Uh,
(25:09):
do you think Dac will be the quarterback of the
Cowboys next year? I mean, if if he comes back,
he signs of the franchise tag and then this contract
would be I think there's a thirty seven point seven million.
He's been clearly underpaid considering you're the starting quarterback in
the NFL point seven million total four first four years
(25:30):
of his contract. But you know, I mean he is
one and two in the playoffs and if you go
back to the game last year against the Eagles, that
wasn't very a playing game and he didn't play well there.
Do I think he's good enough to win a Super Bowl? Yeah,
because there's been a lot of like good quarterbacks that
have won Super Bowls. But like the idea just because
(25:50):
Patrick Mahomes got this crazy money. Mahomes is a generational talent.
I think Dak Prescott is good, but I think There's
a lot of quarterbacks that are good, and I this thing,
it just it just doesn't seem like the Cowboys are convinced.
I think if they were convinced, it would have tried
to work out a deal. He's gonna get crazy money
this year, so good for him. He's finally gonna get paid.
(26:10):
I mean, he was underpaid now, I guess you could
make the case that he was overpaid. I still think
a year from now, I still think will be the
quarterback of the team. I think the Cowboys are in
a great position because not signing him to a long
term deal. I think it's smart from their standpoint because
it's not like Patrick Mahomes. It's not Russell Wilson, it's
not Aaron Rodgers, it's not Tom Brady in his prime.
(26:31):
It stack Press that was a very good quarterback, not
a generational talent. Though. Did the sports media. I bet
you read Mitch Album's column in the Detroit Free Press
taking everybody to task for the way that the sports
responded to DeShawn Jackson and Steven Jackson. And then yesterday
you might have seen this, we had Dwyane Wade endorsing.
(26:55):
At least it appeared although he later said he didn't
mean it on social media. Had Nick Cannon, who lost
his job for anti Semitic comments, has sports media in
general given too much of a pass two athletes for
all of the anti semitic stories that came out last
week and that have continued into this week. It's interesting,
(27:18):
right because the Sean Jackson when he said what he said,
you know, the NFL clearly got to the Eagles did.
And he's apologized a bunch of times, kind of like
what Drew Brees had done, right, And you know that
he seems to have handled it, even though what he
said was absurd, and you know he's going to be
educated on the matter. Who knows, But I I think
your point is well taken. And I think Dwayne Wade,
(27:39):
anytime that I've dealt with him, I think he's a
good guy. I think he's speaking about something which he's
probably not that knowledgeable about, and he was kind of
he was even tone deaf in his first kind of
clarification that he had and then he came up with
a second clarification. And I would think that Dwayne Wad
could be a little bit concerned because he does work
for Turner the big personality there, and if it's one
(28:01):
thing to support, he probably has a relationship with Nick Cannon,
you could support him and probably do it privately. I
don't think text message would be an easy, easy thing
to do. And instead you think you're somehow being I
don't know if the word is defiant or if you
think you're trying to prove a point to people. And
when you said you know, you keep leading, I mean,
(28:23):
come on, Dwayne looked at what he had said. I mean,
it was reprehensible, the things that Nick Cannon said. And
then of course, I mean it seems like Twitter probably
went after more than the media did. But I think
I think a lot of people, especially the NBA media,
it's probably thinking, at any time that we've dealt with
Dwayne Wade, he's always been good, maybe we'll maybe we'll
get him a pass on this one. And he did
and he did seem contract and he plays in Miami.
(28:46):
I would think, you know, I would think there's a
large segment of the season ticket holders down there that
are Jewish. People in that organization are so he's gonna
he's gonna answer to a lot of people that he knows.
I think at the end of the day. It's probably
an embarrassing thing for you mentioned something that I do
think is interesting. Uh, that could be more challenging for athletes,
(29:06):
at least in the short term. A lot of times,
if you deal with a guy face to face and
you feel like you know him a little bit, like
you've been into a lot of locker rooms, You've gotten
to know a lot of athletes, you might be more
likely if that guy is a decent dude to you
to give him a little bit of a pass if
he does something that's a little bit outside the bounds
of acceptable behavior. Right. I think that's human nature. When
(29:29):
you don't have that face to face interaction, that probably
becomes less likely, right. And I'm kind of curious how
that's going to play out in terms of the coverage
of sports in general. I think you're right. I'll give
you an example years ago. Uh, like one of the
first jobs I've ever had, I was covering the match
and Eddie Murray was on the Eddie Murray is like
a legendary player, right, but he was a miserable dude
(29:52):
and he sat next to Chico Walker, Chico Woko. He
used to tell me way back when my nephew was
a kid in Chicago. His nephew was in Van Walker
telling me my nephew is gonna become this great player.
And I'm like, day everybody says their nephew is gonna
be great players. But Eddie Eddie Murray was miserable, but
he was a great player. I remember being around some
of the baseball writers, older baseball writers. They're like, I'm
(30:13):
not going to vote him the first time in on
the ballot Hall of Fame ballot because he was so
difficult to deal with. And I remember thinking, all right,
I get that, but that's like a little unfair. But
it also goes to show you that the interaction that
that players will have with certain people, they're going to
get the benefit of the dad. I think that's probably
happened to Kareem Aldubar because he was kind of miserable
(30:33):
to a lot of people, not just the media, and
he's always kind of been fighting to get back into
the league, where other guys that are more accommodating, I
think they do kind of get a pass. And any way,
have you ever dealt with him, like he's very engaging
the first time you meet him. You want to remember
your name the next you know, twenty times you see him.
He's just that kind of guy. So, you know, I
think for a lot of these guys like Dwyane Wade,
(30:55):
he's probably a little bit bored. His wife is an
entertainment and she got thrown off show, so maybe he's
like a little his you know, antenna is up because
of that, and you know he's talking all his buddies
and he's saying I'm gonna go show my support for
Nick Cannon without really thinking what he's tweeting and maybe
not understanding the full ramifications of it. And to your point,
(31:16):
I think I don't think that Sean Jackson got a break.
I think enough people went after Steven Jackson were they're
probably kind of rolling their eyes. Twain wades in a
little bit of a different category, just because kind of
the guy that he's been over the last twenty years
in the league. Last question for you. You're a big
soccer guy. You mentioned watching lower level soccer below the MLS,
which I think gives you big time bona fides. Is
(31:37):
Christian Pulistic already the greatest American men's soccer player of
all time? I mean Landon Donovan Tabramos, Clint Dempsey. I mean,
considering how young he is and that he's playing in
the Premier he's not, and not even just that he's
playing the Premier League. I think you could be on
a lower level team in the Premier League. He's on
(31:59):
one of the better and he's dominating right now. He's
he's he's been really good. And the thing is I
said this before, like we and you know, Tim Howard
played there, so you know, we sent a lot of
good goalkeepers over there. Our kids over here grow up
in the States playing different sports. Some hour played basketball.
In fact, I think he might have played basketball in
high school with Jay Williams. You know, we've sent defenders
(32:20):
over there, big hulking guys that can head the ball.
And then you know, we've even sent strikers over there,
like Brian McBride who had the guts to like dive
for headers and we always get kicked in the head.
But Christian Polistic. The one thing about him he has
like the ability to hold the ball, to be confident
with the ball, to take guys on and attacked. He's
got like a little bit more flair to his game.
(32:42):
He makes quick decisions, he's fast. I mean, he's got
like the whole package. He could tell he's been embraced
by the bridge because over there they're they're kind of
hard on. American players were much nicer when the European
players come over here. Maybe that wasn't the case like
the NBA thirty years ago. Today, it's a lot different
over there. They look at like Americans, like, what do
you guys know, You're a bunch of American football players
(33:04):
and basketball players. You don't really play this sport. They
don't show them the proper respect. But I think that
he's starting to get the respect from the coaches and
the fans because he's helped them. He's you know, the
last game they played, he had the game winning assistant
the game. A few games before that, he has been
scoring important goals. So I think if he's not there
right now, I would put him right there with those
(33:24):
guys that I mentioned. I think by next season he
will be the best. And honestly, if you think about it,
of everybody that's in American sports right now, I almost
would rather buy stock in Pulistic because I think he's
gonna be just extraordinary. Given the fact that soccer is
blowing up in a good way. We'll think, well, well
quill Clay, and also think about this, you know, think
(33:46):
about the marketing opportunities for him, because like a team
like Chelsea is immensely popular in Asia, then you have
all of Europe covered. Now it's in America. I've already
seen just going around this kids, you know, all over
the place, where in his ChIL funny that that kid's
gonna make and endorsements forget it as always good stuff
with frank Solo at the Frankie Solo on Twitter. This
(34:09):
is outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis, Eddie Garcia, what
you got for me? We'll start with news from the NFL,
where the deadline to sign franchise players was four pm
Eastern on Wednesday. Third team players failed to reach long
term deals with their respective teams. They'll play under the
franchise tag this season. That includes Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback
(34:31):
Dak Prescott will be just the third quarterback in NFL
history to play a season under the franchise tag, joining
Drew Brees and Kirk Cousins, who did it twice. Basketball
another top high school recruits choosing to play in the
nbas G League instead of going to college. Jonathan Comina,
who had offers from Kentucky and Duke, becomes the fourth
five star recruit to join the NBA's developed mental league
over going to college. Now about to Clay Travis and
(34:51):
the Guico outkicked the coverage studios, I ain't that's a
smart move, especially because we don't know if college basketball
is gonna happen. A lot of people focused on college football,
but to me, college football is infinitely easier to play
right now than college basketball would be because you have
the advantage of being outdoors at least for college football,
whereas inside of the Gems now maybe they can follow
(35:13):
the lead of the NBA and have no crowds present
and all of those different factors. But college basketball seems
much more complicated to me to make happen uh than
college football. We're talking about, uh the NFL franchise tag deadline,
which happened yesterday, and I feel like the biggest winner
of the franchise tag deadline was the Titans because they
(35:35):
effectively get Derrick Henry at a somewhat reasonable price. I
think when you look at what has happened with the
other running backs that have been highly paid in this uh,
in this era of running back sort of obsolescence. You
look at at at what happened with Levian bell, I
don't think most Jets fans think they're getting their money's worth.
(35:58):
You look at what happened with Ezekiel Elliott. I don't
think most Cowboy fans felt like a Zekiel Elliott played
up to the level of his contract last year. UH.
You look at Christian McCaffrey now getting the biggest dollar
figure in the history of any running back position, and
that has to make a lot of people nervous. And
then you look at the overall running back market in general,
(36:18):
whether it's Alvin Kamara, Dalvin Cook, Melvin Gordon, there are
a lot of guys out there that are expecting big
pay days. And it feels like to me, the Titans
getting Derrick Henry in as a top five paid running
back but only having to commit to him for two years.
It feels like this is a big win for the
Titans because over the next couple of year window, then
(36:40):
you can find out whether Ryan Tannehill is your guy
or not. But you haven't broken the proverbial salary cap
bank over a guy at the running back position who
inevitably ends up. Really, when you look at the numbers,
almost always the running back position, does, you always feel
like you overpaid. So the Tights are saving six million
(37:01):
dollars on the cap this year, which they could theoretically
or sorry, four point seven million, which they could theoretically
display in another manner, go after maybe Jadeveon Clowney, who's
one of the biggest free agents that's still out there.
And then you managed to only lock yourself down with
Travis with Derrick Henry for two years. Almost said Travis
(37:22):
Henry there back in the day. But you lock in
Derrick Henry for two years. He's still only twenty seven
when you have an out if necessary, he's got a
lot of mileage on him. But you haven't over overplanned yourself.
And frankly, in the first four years that Derrick Henry
was in the league, he didn't run very much for
(37:42):
the first two and a half years, so it was
used a lot at Alabama, But the first two and
a half years with the Titans, he looked like he
was not necessarily going to turn into the player that
he has. And then the last year and a half
he's been arguably the best running back in the NFL
just in the last year and a half. So is
he gonna be Adrian Peterson, like a bit upright runner
who lasts for a long time in this league, or
(38:04):
is he going to be what a lot of NFL
running backs are great for a couple of years and
then kind of vanished. The Titans are protected in many
ways as they break that down. Be sure to catch
live editions about Kicked the coverage with Clay Travis week
days at six am Eastern three am Pacific. We are
tracking all of the stories that are out there as
(38:24):
we move into Thursday. I would say the biggest story
by far was having tens of thousands of fans present
for the first time since March for an American sporting event,
which took place at NASCAR. Even though NASCAR's event at
Bristol last night, even though a lot of people are
not talking about it, that is a monumental step towards
(38:46):
a return to some sort of normalcy to have that
many fans present. We got a caller who wants to
to weigh in on the v I P phone line
about motor sports crowds. Uh to anyg pop him up? Yeah?
John in Indiana. John, what's up? Thanks for being an
out kick? V I P Hey, how's it going, Clay? Yeah,
(39:07):
it's great, great stuff that you're doing. I love your show. Um,
I just wanted to comment. I was actually at a
sporting event this last weekend. I went two days. It
was Saturday and Sunday in um In Wisconsin at a
race track known as Road America. It was an Indy
car race and they had no limit on crowds. President
we went both days and we brought our whole family.
(39:28):
We absolutely loved it. How many people do you think
we're there? Um? I've been going there since I was
a kid, and it's a very big track. It's four miles,
so you can really spread out in certain turns where
I think most of the crowds congregate. I would have
said it was about fifty of what it would normally be. Yeah,
so I put that estimate around twenty five thousand per day.
(39:51):
So so it felt that What did it feel like
as a fan to be amongst that crowd? Did it
feel normal to you? Uh? For me? I think it
felt normal for us. I mean they took our temperatures
before we got in, and so did you stand in line.
I'm kind of curious when you enter. So they they have,
like I'm assuming, the thermometers that are like guns, and
they put them up to your forehead and they take
(40:12):
it as you're walking in. Actually, the place is so
big you actually drive your vehicle inside the track and
park on the grass. So they took they took our
temperatures while we were in our vehicle, gave us hand
sanitize your masks. Masks were required indoors. It was really
no big deal. Cool. Well, I appreciate you being a
v I P. Thanks for calling and giving us feedback there.
(40:34):
UM and uh that that is really kind of interesting
to think about UM as we go forward. For instance,
we talked about college sports a lot because it seems
like college sports are the only one that that might
be in question. I think we talked about it on
this program back when the study came out. But somebody
look it up to confirm that Cornell hasn't changed their opinion,
(40:56):
because sometimes when stories like these come out, then somebody
else comes out and say, oh, no, we're not actually
going to do that. But I know we gave a
lot of attention in the media to Harvard and to Princeton,
who both I think have announced a substantial portion of
their college experience will be online this fall. But I
believe Cornell has announced that students will be back on campus.
(41:19):
And the study that I read that Cornell released was
they had found that if students were not allowed back
on campus, that many college kids are going to travel
to the college town, live off campus and apartments or
houses in the college community because they don't want to
(41:39):
be home with mom and dad for the entire fall,
and that there would actually be a higher rate of
infection in Cornell if the school wasn't open. Uh, Is
that correct? Dub that that that that still is the
decision by at least one of the Ivy League schools
in Cornell. Yeah, that's correct. I'm looking at an article
(42:00):
from Forbes UH in late June, and as far as
I can tell, that that is still the case. So
you are the youngest on the show. You graduated from
Auburn a couple of years ago. Do you think if
you were a college kid right now, even if Auburn
didn't have classes, that you would be inclined to go
back down and just live in Auburn Because a lot
(42:23):
of the other college kids might be around there in
apartments or in houses or what not, Uh, living the
college experience even without being able to go to class. Yeah,
I think I absolutely would. And another part is, you know,
I'm sure all these kids are still having to pay rent,
so I mean, you might as well start down there
and take advantage of you know, if you're paying you know,
X amount of dollars a month and you're not even
(42:44):
living there, that seems kind of silly to me. I
would be I would be down there in Auburn even
if there was no classes on campus and I'd be
doing the online thing or whatever that they decided to do.
I would absolutely be down there. Yeah, this is I mean,
that's kind of the argument. Cornell says, Hey, if they're
coming on campus, were able to test them and find
out whether or not they're sick in a way that
we would not be able to if obviously they're off
(43:07):
campus in school and classes are not going on. Which
is I mean, they did a study and found that
the rate of infection would be a lot lower with
school going on than with school not going on. And
it's a little bit maybe of a counterintuitive thought, but
when you actually read into their study, it made a
lot of sense. And uh, I wonder how many other
(43:28):
colleges have come to similar conclusions as we get closer
to the return date. I think yesterday Greg Sanky told
us that the first class schedule set to begin in
the SEC is August seventeen. Uh So we're talking about
basically a month from now that kids would officially get
back to two classes. All right, we teased it. We
(43:51):
haven't done it in a while, Danny g cub The
music we've been had a lot of demand for everybody
out there. Uh And by the way, I want to
thank you guys uh for are all the podcast love
that we have been getting and the amount of massive
growth that we have seen there. We keep setting new records.
We're gonna set another record, it looks like in July.
But a lot of people old school OutKick fans have
(44:13):
been saying, where's the thunderdome? I need the thunderdome. Well,
it's time animal Thunderdome, ladies and gentlemen. I'm just glad.
I was scared, boys and good. I thought he thought
I was like this enormous piece of chicken diarm times.
(44:35):
I is animal Thunderdome. What have you got for me,
Danny g Clay, This first story specifically is going to
haunt you at night. You're gonna have nightmares about this.
It is not good. Is it snake related? Yes? No,
I don't want to hear it. A police officer pulled
over a pickup truck on an Australian highway and he
(44:58):
did not expect to find this the world's deadliest snake
inside this guy's truck. The driver, twenty seven year old
man identified only as Jimmy and the police news release,
was heading down the Dawson Highway in the state of
Queensland when he noticed the snake in his truck. It
was an eastern brown, highly venomous. In fact, it is
(45:20):
indoors inside the truck, in the truck with him in
the cab. Yeah, this is my nightmare. They by the way,
the brown snake responsible for the majority of snake bite
deaths in Australia. Jimmy said, the more I moved my legs,
it started to wrap around me. It's head just started
striking and trying to strike him. Yeah, and was hitting
(45:41):
the driver's seat. So he was moving out of the
way as it's trying to while he was driving. I
between his legs, he said in the news release. He
then used a seatbelt and a nearby knife to fight
it off while trying to stop the car. Did he
kill it? What a badass? Yep. So Jimmy kills the
(46:03):
snake during his tussle with it while driving. He thought
though during the fight with the snake that it had
bit him, so he hits the the accelerator he heads
for the nearest hospital. That's when this police officer spotted
his speeding car. He was driving about seventy six miles.
(46:24):
I'm just gonna say, I'm going at least one thirty.
A brown snake is in the back of my truck,
he told the police officer. I think it's bitten me.
It was in the car with me, he told the
officer in the Yeah, you can feel my heart, mate.
So now he's trying to convince the police officer that
you don't think I would have pulled over. The officers
(46:46):
saw the dead snake lying in the back of the
guy's truck and called for help. When paramedics arrived to
the scene, they determined that Jimmy had not been bitten
but was suffering from shock. It was pretty terrifying I've
never been so happy to see red and blue lights.
Me said, I this is this might be my nightmare. Actually,
my nightmare would be my wife is driving while there
(47:09):
is a snake in the car, because I know we
would all die. I mean, like the fact that Jimmy
didn't wreck is I mean, that guy should be on
the NASCAR circuit right now, and not just a snake,
the world's deadliest snake. You want to talk about bad luck?
Bad luck is having a snake in your car. Double
bad luck is Oh, and by the way, it's not
(47:32):
like a garter snake, which is scary enough. It's the
world's deadliest snake and it's trying to strike you while
you're driving, in between your legs. It was going, it
was going for the going for the Yeah, oh that's
a I mean, I don't even know. Do they have
to amputate your penis? Then Jimmy, you said, does he
(47:54):
have kids? It doesn't say the life would have been
over if he gets bitten by the world's deadliest it's
probably a bad I don't know where the worst place
to be bitten by a snake of the world's deadliest
snake is. But I would actually think the penis is
probably the worst place. I get like, if you're really
thinking about it, wherever you might have a vein, right,
(48:16):
because I would think if you got bit closest to
the vein, the venom would go in faster. Right. So
the hand is actually probably a bad place to get
bit because you know, you don't have a lot of
skin to protect you, and there are lots of veins there.
But I think every guy listening right now would be like, no,
the clay. The worst place to get bitten by the
world's deadliest snake is the penis. At least it happened
(48:37):
in Australia because it's said a nearby knife, So we
can guess that a lot of guys in Australia happen
to have a knife on their dashboards, like crocodile. Dundee's
just got a huge booie knife. I mean, I don't
even know how how do you kill the snake with
a knife while you're driving? Yeah, he used the seatbelt
and the knife, but I mean to stab a snake
(48:58):
with the knife, you have to put your hand in
close proximity to him. I don't even I mean, that's
I just the whole thing is terrifying. But even to
be able to kill him like and then to throw
the snake in the back. Would you touch the snake
after you stabbed it? I don't. Jimmy is just way
too much of a man for me. Alright. This next
(49:20):
story from Japan, by the way, every woman listening to
us right now wants to wants to bang Jimmy. Jimmy
kills the deadliest snake in the world while he's driving
his car, throws it in the back. Every woman, I
think is is like thinking of themselves. I guarantee you
Jimmy's a better man than my husband as long as
(49:42):
he doesn't take them out on a date to seafood.
If he does, then he will save them. Yeah, they'll
feel protected with him. That's right. I was gonna ask you,
are you a fan of seafood? Yeah? I am all right.
This next story I love seafood and I do too,
And it bothered me to see this story. A woman
in Japan and got more than she bargained for after
seeing the doctor with an irritated throat. She told the
(50:05):
doctor that for a week her throat had been hurting her.
So the doctor examines her and he finds a worm
living inside her tonsil. Oh my god. The year old
woman underwent a physical at Tokyo St. Luke's International Hospital
after the five days of throat irritation she said she
(50:26):
had eaten assorted sashimi. Medics identified it as a black worm,
which was one and a half inches long, still alive,
still moving inside the woman's left tonsil. The doctors removed
it using tweezers. DNA testing on the worm identified it
as a fourth stage larva out of the sushi. Yes,
(50:49):
I would think that's a good lawsuit. A study from
the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene says that
these kind of parasites infect the stomach after a host
has consumed larva in raw or undercooked marine fish. The
study says that more than seven cases like this are
reported in Japan, North Pacific Country, South America, and the Netherlands.
(51:11):
So this hasn't happened in the United States yet, not
that I'm seeing here in the story, because I would
tell you, I mean, I would definitely think about whether
I was going to eat sushi or not if this
happened in the United States. Same here that can you
imagine they pulled a moving worm out of her tonsil.
Maybe she in the seven year old from Australia can
get together and uh and and make babes uh and.
(51:35):
Right when you thought couldn't get any more interesting, a
squirrel in Colorado has tested positive for the bubonic plague.
I saw this. How did the squirrel get the plague?
They don't know. The squirrel tested positive on July. I
saw this headline, but I didn't click on the link.
Why did they think that the squirrel might have the
(51:57):
plague and test him? I read through this CNN article
here and they don't address that. I mean, I'm just
like I see a lot of squirrels every day, and
my first thought isn't hey, let's go test this squirrel
for the bubonic plague? Right? Like? I just I don't know.
I saw that headline and I'm like, okay, Like I
understand when a dog gets tested for rabies because it
(52:20):
might have bitten somebody, right Like, oh, you know, like
we gotta go test the dog for rabies because it
might have been somebody. Did the squirrel attack somebody? Is
this a common thing to be checking squirrels for the plague?
We need an expert Yeah, I mean, I don't understand
how that ends up happening. It certainly is a perfect story.
(52:41):
Whereas I've said before, we discovered UFOs exist and nobody
even cared. But if if squirrels have the bubonic plague,
is this strange? Is this rare? Why did one in
Colorado end up with it? It got it from a rat, right,
that's where the plague come. Yeah. Now, if you know
anything about this disease, it's obviously been around for centuries.
The deadly is pandemic and human history where fifty million
(53:03):
people in Europe died during the Black Death pandemic of
the Middle Ages. They say that this disease can be
transmitted from flea bites and infected animals. Yeah, there's a
So when I was in college, ridiculously um, I went
to I studied abroad in London one summer and we
(53:23):
had a class where we studied that plague. And one
of the books that we read, which was a contemporary
article that was written about it. This was, you know,
I studied pandemics and whatever. It was like the year
two thousand in London. But one of the article, one
of the books we read was Journey a Journal of
a Play gear. I believe it was by Daniel Dafoe.
(53:46):
Somebody looked that up. Uh if you uh, if you
are a teacher and you've got literature to teach or
whatever else, and you're like, hey, everybody is dealing with
this pandemic. Now, maybe I could teach my kids that
historically pandemics were much more deadly and much more commonplace.
I believe it's Daniel Dafoe, who later became one of
(54:09):
the first novelist, But he wrote back in the sixteen
sixties Journal of a Plague Year, which is about his
experience in London during the play and again I studied
that overseas. We did a class on the plague and
uh in London and literature and everything else, and so
we spent a lot of time talking about that. Am
(54:30):
I correct in the name of that title? I think
it's free, by the way online because it's such an
old book that you can just go type it in
and go read it for free online because there's no
copyright associated with it anymore. Am I correct in the
name of the title there dubbed yeah title author correct
published in sevento all right, But I think he wrote
(54:51):
it contemporaneously in like sixteen sixty six or something like that.
All right, that's pretty good knowledge from a twenty year
old class. So congratulations to Vanderbilt University, Uh, the one
didn't study abroad program for putting me in in in
such good stead there to remember all that. This is
outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis, joined now by a
(55:16):
guy who I don't think you can leave his hotel room. Uh.
He is Chris Mannix. He is down in Orlando. Chris,
am I right. You have to spend I read your
article at s I a full week without leaving the
hotel room basically, right. Yeah, you arrive on Sunday or
the past Sunday, and you are uh sent into your
(55:38):
room with instructions not to leave for under any circumstances. Uh.
They drop off food three times a day. Um. They
left me with a couple of cases of bottled water.
If you need more, you just call them and they'll
bring them. You know, if you want ice, still bring
that to Uh. The only time you can really open
your doors to get your food and to step kind
(55:59):
of into your door frame where they do testing every afternoon.
So it's uh, it's it's pretty regimented here for the
first seven days, so you're getting tested every day for
the coronavirus, and then I assume they tell you the
next day, Hey, you passed or whatever the verdict is. Yeah,
it's usually uh, it's it's every afternoon or evening, and
(56:21):
you usually get the results within twenty four hours on
an app for the NBA has set up for for
people inside the bubble, so it's about twenty four turnaround.
And uh for the testing. Is this like the nasal
swab where they go all the way back up to
your brain? Basically, No, thankfully, it's I'm not getting that version.
(56:42):
It's a combination nasal and throat swap. They swap both
nostrils and then they swap swap both sides of your throats.
So it's it's all done within twenty seconds, so it's
pretty fast and uh man, hopefully I guess efficient, so
they they can make sure everything's on, everything set so
(57:02):
you will be able to leave your hotel room on Monday.
Is that right? Is that the way this will work?
I think so, I'm not on the timing. You know,
you've got to get that last positive tests or last
negative test to say, from Sunday. Um and depending on
when that comes in. Uh. And at that point, I
believe we switch hotel rooms again to go to a
(57:24):
different portion of the hotel. Um. But it's Sunday night
and we're told that on Monday we can start covering
you know, practices and and different things inside the bubble.
So where so a lot of people have been to
Disney World. Are you in a hotel that is isolated
from like moms and dads that are taking their kids
to Disney World? Like what hotel? Are you in? One
(57:46):
of the player hotels? How is this set up? Yeah?
I believe. I mean god, I wouldn't even know who's outside,
Like I have a window that faces always so like
foot traffic going back and forth. Um. But we're the
Coronadom Springs Hotel, which on the Disney campus, and um,
I believe it's inside the bubble. You don't have that
(58:09):
foot trap because I'm also sure it's connected to one
of the player hotels. So I can't imagine the NBA
would would have that be the case. So I think
it's it's fairly isolated everybody else. How many guys are
like you? In the NBA media community inside the bubble. Yes,
(58:29):
there's about ten of us UM and several of us,
myself included, will swap out with somebody else in September. Uh,
some of them will be here the entire time. I
find that daunting to say the least. But uh, it's
about ten of us that are in here, kind of
(58:49):
interacting via text messages and they have semi regular zoom
calls with league officials to kind of talk about the
next steps and talk about what we can and can't do.
So we try to stay inn act. But at this point,
I mean, look, one of the Joe Barden from the
Athletic is right down the hall from me. I couldn't
even step out to wave at this point without risking,
you know, one in another quarantine like some players event. Yeah,
(59:11):
so let's go to that. UM, we got what are
players doing right now? Like, so if players leave the
campus like we've seen happen a couple of times, I
believe now they get quarantined. And you're not. I mean,
this is not an enjoyable thing, right, Like you're not
allowed to leave your room or have contact with anybody
else for a full week. Most people haven't done that,
(59:33):
you know, I mean, it's it's a form of imprisonment
in some way. Now. I'm sure you know that they're
bringing you food, it's not an awful thing. But you
can't go to the gym. You can't, uh, you know,
you can't even step outside. You said you don't even
have a window to look outside. I mean, do you
feel claustrophobic at all? Um a little bit? I mean, god,
I lived in New York fifteen years, so it's not
(59:53):
that much different from what I experienced for a long time.
But it is starting to resemble my college dorm room
in here, with kind of clothes on the floor and
seeing like food containers lying around everywhere. It's it's pretty nasty.
But the players, yeah, I mean I I felt that,
in addition to you know, being the mandatory punishment for
(01:00:14):
you know, players that violated the rules what happened with
brutal Ka Buccalo of the Rockets and Recant Holmes of
the Sacramento Kings, I felt like as much as it
was to punish them, there was a method that the
NBA was sending like don't scroll with this, Like if
you if you leave this campus or if you step outside,
our are kind of bubble here. You know you're gonna
(01:00:34):
get nailed for it. And if you get nailed, you've
got to spend ten days inside EU hotel room. And
not only will you have to deal with it, but
your team has to deal with it. They're not gonna
have to have practice. You're not part of, you know,
the build up in Sacramento is trying to make the
playoffs here like that, they reached on Holmes is is
a role player on that team. So I think that
was a message the league was trying to send that
(01:00:54):
this is not just lip service. We're not gonna give
you second chances. The integrity of this bubble is all
that matters to us right now. So a couple of things.
I'm sure you probably saw that the MLS had initial
bubble related issues. Now it seems like they've basically wiped
the virus clean as you look at the the the
(01:01:14):
the incredibly detailed UH specifications the NBA has followed. And
now that you're a part of it, are you more
optimistic maybe than you were before about the NBA's ability
to pull this off? Yeah? And you you hate to
kind of get you know, Stockholm syndrome. Yeah, right here,
And you're like, well, it's like, wow, this is great.
The protocols are intense, there's no way this bubble can
(01:01:36):
be penetrated. But the reality is, I mean, it's it's
pretty as you said, it's pretty detailed, it's comprehensive, and
it's as close to air tight as you can get.
So I think for the short term, yeah, I'm I'm
pretty confident that everything is going to start on time.
You've had two players test positive since they got to Orlando,
and needed one of those players had stepped out of
(01:01:57):
their initial quarantine players and coached. When they get here
have to go through about a thirty six hour quarantine,
and in that window that's when the two players the
NBA announced were were test depositives. So they haven't had
any players test positive since they left their rooms and
got into the bubble. The MLS situation, the NBA wasn't
all that worried about because MLS made what I thought
(01:02:20):
was a pretty big mistake and having scrimmages before they
got down to Orlando, and that's a easy kind of
event to to potentially spread coronavirus. The NBA, their players
tried to get in here, they were allowed to do
individual workouts. There was no three on threes or five
on five's, there was no one on ones. It was
just shooting drills with an assistant coach who had to
(01:02:41):
be wearing a maskt all times. So, you know, I
think the NBA prepared for this properly by not, you know,
putting themselves in a bad position before they got to Orlando.
So what would you consist of once you can step
outside of the of your room. Do they give you
a detailed list of win players and teams are practicing
and you can just show up and go sit in
(01:03:02):
the crowd and watch this. Do you know exactly what
your day to day will be? Obviously once the game start,
I'm assuming you'll get a roster of those. But do
you have access basically to go watch any basketball game
you want? Yeah? I mean when it comes to practices,
you have the ability to do what media does. Traditionally
(01:03:22):
with NBA practice, you can't watch the whole thing, but
you can get there and watch the final fifteen minutes
of it. And theoretically you can ask for and get
one on ones with certain players. Now they'll have to
be socially distant. You can't just you know, sidle up
to a guy like many of us are used to
and have a conversation. Everything's gonna be done through team
in league PR officials, but theoretically you can, you know,
(01:03:44):
sit down at a table and do an interview with
a player, and that's his obviously huge value in that
given that everything being done right now is is be
a zoom. Uh. The other two advantages when it does
come to game times, Yeah, you can go to pretty
much every game that you want to, and you're gonna
see and hear things that we've never heard before. Are
(01:04:04):
the bubble seats are going to be right courtside, and
you know you're gonna be able to hear coaching instructions,
player interactions, referee interactions. I think, looking you want to,
you know, be able to tell deeper, rich stories, but
I think every day, what I'm probably gonna do is
just going to write the sights and sounds of what
I'm seeing on that court, what players are saying, and
how they're interacting, and what they look like, and really
(01:04:26):
everything you can pick up that ordinarily you know we'd
never get to pick up. When you look at the
at the larger universe, I mean, I know you couldn't
have missed at the Adrian Wojanarowski story which brought up
back into into the storylines the NBA Hong Kong China.
Do you expect the lead to address that in any way?
Do you expect players to address that in any way?
(01:04:49):
I mean maybe, like there's there's the ability for them to,
you know, be asked the questions every single day. Um,
it's possible. I'm assum at some point that Adam Silver
is going to have a press conference for all the
media prior to the restart of the season, as he
often does before events like this. Um, when it comes
(01:05:12):
to the the Hong Kong and China stuff, the one
thing I've I've asked, you know, it just seems at
this time it's a solution without a problem. Yet, like
no player has asked to wear any of that on
his jersey, and it looked at somebody does in the
NBA says no, that's a different conversation. But up until
this point, and I've asked the officials, I've asked player agents,
I've asked players themselves, you know, if anybody had wanted
(01:05:34):
to do it, and I've yet to hear of any
player that that wants to wear it. So if if
it comes to that point, I think it's it's it's
worth talking about. But if no players looking to do it,
I don't know exactly what the discussion is supposed to be.
Do we know what rejected terms players wanted on their
jersey and the NBA said no to. I don't know.
(01:05:57):
Here's the thing. I don't know that they said no anything,
but that they made was not being more inclusive with
the process. And its flabbergasted me that they didn't involve
Lebron James. And it's the biggest star in the NBA,
should you know, bring him into that discussion. But in
their discussions, they negotiated them with Chris Paul of the Union,
with Michelle Roberts of the players Union, and and this
(01:06:20):
is what they came up with. Doesn't it surprise you
by the way that Chris Paul, who's supposedly good friends
with Lebron James, wouldn't have had a conversation with Lebron
about what he might want on his jersey. I just
don't think that. I guess at the time, and I
have a sort of a cursory understanding of what went
on there, But I guess at the time it wasn't
really they thought this was to fight, They thought this
(01:06:41):
would be uh that this list was was solid. But
the reality is they probably should have involved not just Lebron,
but the rank and file. I mean, immediately you heard
Jaalen Brown say I was I was more involved. Mike Scott,
you know, called it a big miss like this that
they clearly should have brought more people into the loop
and these guys, I don't think these guys would come
up with something that the NBA wouldn't have have one.
(01:07:02):
I just don't think they involved the people in this process.
And they certainly opened the door to asking about political
questions when you take any kind of statement like this
and put it on a jersey, right, yeah, I mean, yes,
looking And we've talked about this before. I mean I
think the NBA, you know, I don't think. I mean,
they have made a consciousnessison to you know, offer the
(01:07:25):
full proath support for the Black Lives Matter movement. And
there's gonna be backlash to back from from some corners.
And there's going to be if like we're running into
right now with what players can wear and what they
can't wear. But this is kind of the decision the
NBA has made, and they've they've decided they'll deal with
any to fallout. We're talking to Chris Mannox at s
I Chris Mannix on Twitter. How will you get to
(01:07:46):
the Games? Do you have a driver? Is there a
bus that leaves every day? Like, I'm kind of fascinated
with the mechanics because theoretically they're trying to limit your
interaction as well. Are their drivers in the bubble like
the bust drivers have to stay in the ball, Like,
I'm utterly fascinated by all the mechanics involved here. Yeah,
they're there there. I believe they're van drivers that just
(01:08:08):
sort of pick up the approved media members and drop
them off at a certain bookcase. Because you're right, the
NBA does not want the media, you know, stepping outside
of the boundaries. And believe me, once I find out
what those boundaries are, I'm not going anywhere near the
this this again. But there's gonna be a van driver
of some kind that picks you up at a specified
location and will take you directly to the entrance you're
(01:08:31):
supposed to enter. Uh and look the you know, before
you can even like one thing about these these magic
bands the NBA asked you to wear. It makes you
wear UM. They're tied to this app that the NBA has.
Downloads on this app, you have to do like ten
different things when you get access to anything. You have
to take a temperature, you have to put a pulse
(01:08:51):
pulse oxometer on your finger. You have to do I mean,
I'm just looking at the pile of crap that's in
front of me right now that I have to go
through before I can even get access. So if you
try to waive that magic band at a checkpoint where
approved media is supposed to be allowed to go through,
and you haven't gone through your protocols, it'll beat read
(01:09:12):
won't be allowed into into that area. So you have
to go through a pretty extensive checklist, which included that
going through daily testing UM everything that before you can
even access in arena or a practice two weeks until
games basically start. I'll ask you this question. We've been
asking you for a while. I appreciate the time. Who
do you think should be favored? What do you think
(01:09:35):
as you're now down there hearing and and maybe talking
with people about about the bubble environment, how would you
assess the race for the championship from Orlando. Yeah, there
there's a lot more buzz amongst coaches that I've talked
to you about the Clippers at this point. I mean,
we don't want to overestimate the loss of guys like
(01:09:55):
Avery Bradley and Rajon Rondo because they're not Lebron and
Anthony Davis and those of the drivers of that team.
But you know, when you deplete your backcourt, right that
like that and you're dusting off you know, Dion Waiters
and j R. Smith for potential minutes, that's that's a problem.
And the Clippers, by all accounts, they're healthy down here,
you know, Kauai. You know from what I hear from
early practices, early practice, Singular is in in pretty good shape.
(01:10:18):
So you know that there's the sense of the Clippers
might be are gonna be more ready to pick up
where they left off than the Lakers are because of
that depleted backcourt. But again we've we've said the score
like those scrimmages start on the twenty two. You know,
that's when that's what we're really going to get a
look at this because right now it's everything is awesome.
You know, everybody is is insane everybody's ready to go.
(01:10:39):
Those those scrimmages are going to reveal where players are
at at this stage of the season. How serious do
you think that Rondo injury is for the Lakers and
both also for his ability to come back? Well, it's
if you know anything about Rondo's career, like six d
eight weeks is laughable, Like the guy played for a
broken arm in a playoffs game when when Dwayne took
(01:11:00):
him out, uh seven or eight years ago. I mean,
this guy plays through pain as well as any player
I've ever seen. So I would expect to be back
close to the four week range, which will put him
right around the start of the playoffs, maybe a little
bit uh into it. It's it's not as significant as Bradley.
I mean, Ronda was not having a great season this year,
but he is a ball handler and that puts more
pressure on Lebron to be the primary ball handler in
(01:11:22):
this to scoring and facilitating. So you know, there's that
part of it. But I look at Avery Bradley as
being a much more significant injury. That's an on ball
defender they wanted to play important in the first round.
You ask to what games I'd be going to I'm
going to that series every single time because the Blazers
with Livita McCollum could eat up that backcourt. They've got
two guys that were done for the year back in
March that are playing in use of nurkicch and Zach Collins.
(01:11:45):
So I mean that's that's a team. That's the team
in a matchup I would love to see in the
first round. Outstanding stuff. He's Chris Mannox at s I
Chris Mannos. Enjoyed the rest of the lockdown and we'll
talk to you next week. This is outkicked the coverage
with plates. This is interesting to uh TO to think
(01:12:08):
about in general, that idea of being locked up in
a room, but also, how in the world are you
going to exercise in any way journalistic independence when you're
at the beck and call of the NBA like this, right,
And I don't blame journalists for going down there to
cover the NBA. And I think it's gonna be interesting
(01:12:29):
to see if they're sitting courtside what they hear during
games and what could turn into stories that guys are
saying during the course of basketball that ordinarily you wouldn't hear.
What coaches are yelling what officials are saying. There's gonna
be an entirely different method and manner to cover the
(01:12:51):
sport than before. But also it's like the n b
A is pre approving what journalists can come down and
actually over their league now, because it's gonna be a
relatively small subset of people that are able to cover
whatever happens in the league. And granted, you and I
may become as as impactful if these games are going out,
(01:13:13):
because remember Adam Silver said, hey, we're talking about potentially
playing these games on delay because he was so concerned
about what players might say during the course of games.
And maybe the solution is that they're gonna, you know,
hype in a bunch of crowd noise so that you
can't hear what's being said or yelled from the coaches
or you don't have to worry about expletives making it through.
(01:13:36):
But I don't know about you, guys, but I would
actually be curious to hear the game itself as opposed
to hearing fake crowd noise, Like wouldn't you guys, don't
don't isn't this a potentially really interesting storyline here? Uh?
That you would be able to hear what the guys
are saying back and forth to each other, and what
coaches are yelling, and frankly, what officials are saying as well.
(01:13:59):
This is one of the reasons why Top Rank Boxing
and the UFC have been so much fun to watch
because you can listen to the corner, you could listen
to the guys being given instructions. It's been really interesting
to hear all of what we normally can't. Yeah, I mean,
doub don't you think this potentially is going to create
storylines that the NBA isn't necessarily going to love. On
(01:14:22):
the PGA tour, they've miked up a bunch of guys
and you can hear the conversation between the players and
the caddies and just hearing the conversations about what goes
into each and every shot. I think it's been awesome
because usually they're not really making up that many guys
live during their rounds, but they've been doing it lately
since there is no crowd to try to keep people watching,
and it's been awesome. Yeah, I mean, miked up is
(01:14:43):
a feature that has exist certainly last year we talked
about the Sam Donald I c ghost to comment that's existed,
but usually it's sort of a a uh a nest
and an estecize, like we're gonna look at it and
make sure that nothing that bad is going on, and
so they're editing, censoring it before it comes out to
the larger general public. If the NBA games are on live,
(01:15:06):
and I can't imagine anything other than being on live,
there's potentially going to be things that are said on
the court, whether it's players, coaches, or referees, that become
the primary storyline of the game, and potentially it could
end up being something that we talked about on here,
which almost never happens. In general, Fox Sports Radio has
the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
(01:15:28):
of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com and
within the I Heart Radio app search f s R
to listen live. Big moment if you are rooting for
the return of sports, as almost my entire audience is,
to have tens of thousands of fans present last night
at the NASCAR race in Bristol is just further evidence
(01:15:51):
of the return of sports, And in particular, I feel
like after all the talk about whether sports we're gonna
be back or not, whether crowds would be back or not.
It's happening pretty quick. We're one week away from the
return of Major League Baseball, so at this point next
week we will be on opening day of Major League Baseball.
(01:16:15):
The week after that we will hit opening day for
the NBA and for the NHL, and in theory, we
will hopefully have the business side parameters worked out in
the NFL such that NFL training camps can be back underway,
and that is setting us up for in August and
(01:16:36):
September that is more packed with athletic events than has
ever existed in the history of American sports. I just
want you to follow me along here and think about
all of what is going to be going on starting
next week. Major League Baseball, n h L, n b A, MLS,
(01:17:00):
p g A, W n B A, UFC, NWSL, professional bowling, boxing, NASCAR,
and the NFL are all going to be underway or
already having started by next week. That's pretty crazy that
(01:17:21):
we will either be having preseason games going on scrimmages
like will be existing in the n b A and
in the NHL, or will officially be underway with games
which will be happening one week from today with MLB
and all the other sports that I just ran through.
The one sport that is not on that list is
(01:17:41):
college football. And if you listen to yesterday's podcast, and
if you didn't, I would encourage you to go downloaded
and go listen to Greg Sanky, commissioner at the SEC.
He gave us some pretty good moments and reasons for
optimism in that interview. He said that the number of
coronavirus IRIS infections among SEC athletes is approaching zero. He
(01:18:05):
said that there was at least one school president that
has come to them and said, Okay, I feel good,
we can do this. Uh. He said that there is
a twelve, a ten, and an eight game schedule all
potentially on the horizon. And I think there are gonna
(01:18:25):
be a lot of examples that people are gonna be
able to point to and say, hey, sports are coming back.
How in the world can you have tens of thousands
of fans present for NASCAR and you can't play college
football games without substantial numbers of crowds present. Now we
(01:18:45):
know what the Corona bro community is going to do,
because they have lost every battle about sports except for
college football. I just ran you through that entire list
of sports that are gonna be back MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA,
mL S, p G, A W n B, a UFC, NWS,
(01:19:08):
l p b A, boxing, and Nascar. If you are
a fan of any of those sports, which virtually everybody
listening to this show right now is a fan of
at least one of those, then your sport is going
to be back. It's crazy to me that college football
could not be back, and that all of those other
(01:19:29):
sports I just ran through our finding a way to play.
But you know what's gonna happen. It happens already because
college football hasn't just come out and said we're playing.
There's no commissioner who can just say, hey, the games
are taking place, deal with it. Then all of the
(01:19:49):
corona brows in the sports media have decided to descend
upon college football and try to pick it apart. So
it's the one sport that doesn't happen. But when you've
got tens of thousands of sports fans showing up to
watch NASCAR in person in the state of Tennessee, it's
(01:20:10):
hard for me to buy into there being any argument
whatsoever that it doesn't make sense to play college football,
potentially with a lot smaller audiences. Does it seem strange
to you as as strange to you guys as it
does to me that basically there's no longer any members
of the media arguing about whether or not Major League Baseball, NFL,
(01:20:34):
n H, L n B, A, mL S, p G A,
w n B, a UFC, UH NWS, l p b A,
boxing and NASCAR are going to happen, but that there
are still Corona Bros out there and they basically forced
all of their attention now upon college football. Doesn't it
seem odd, Danny g that all those other sports because
(01:20:57):
they're coming back the Corona Bros have lost, Right, There's
a lot of people out there, and you hear from
them too who have been saying, oh, there's not gonna
be any sports that are taking place in the world's done.
You should never leave your house. And all those people
are losing in sports their only possibility left that they
(01:21:17):
could get canceled as college football. Hopefully the fans in
attendance in your state last night in Bristol will start
a conversation going from here forward with the return of
college football. Because you're right, I'm not hearing this on
very many of the sport, and I watched a couple
of sports TV shows each day. They're not talking about it.
(01:21:38):
How much of this has to do with unpaid athletes?
And you were talking about Corona bros. Robert tweeted me.
He says, I swear I'm not a Corona bro. Can
you please ask Clay to put his lawyer hat on?
Do you think that this is because it's unpaid athletes
showing up with a risk of getting six so the
universities are worried about possible lawsuits. I think what's happening
(01:21:59):
here is the universities are hotbeds of left wing politics.
If you really want me to break it down, your
average professor on a college campus is far left wing
in his political leanings. Uh. Your average school president has
to deal with far left wing faculty. The overall culture
(01:22:22):
of universities is to be very very left wing and uh.
And that doesn't mean a lot of the same things
that it might have meant when you and I were
in school. By the way, um, which is to me,
liberalism is about defending, for instance, the First Amendment, that
is to me, a very liberal position that now has
(01:22:42):
been primarily defended by the Republican Party. Which is traditionally
a right wing conservative party. So one of the things
I always like to say about politics is politics are
a circle a lot more than they are a left
or right spectrum, and everything constantly is shifting. So like
after nine eleven, Republicans were the ones who were like, Oh,
(01:23:06):
you're not patriotic enough, therefore we're gonna shut you down.
And now Democrats, by and large, the left wing Democrats,
are like, oh, my god, twenty five years ago you
said X, therefore you can't work now. Right, Like, the
cancel culture has moved from being a Republican thing in
the wake of nine eleven. We're gonna cancel you if
(01:23:29):
you don't believe we should go to war in Iraq,
and you're not a patriot. You you don't hate terrorists
enough to now being the opposite side right where, Oh
you don't support Black Lives Matter a hundred percent, Well
you're racist. Oh well, you you think that every woman
who does every woman who claims that she was sexually
(01:23:49):
assaulted isn't necessarily telling the truth. Oh well, you're a sexist.
And I don't always feel like I fit perfectly in
the culture because my beliefs are consistent and UH many
of politicians and political beliefs are constantly shifting, and so
I'm using that as a background. I think the liberalism
(01:24:09):
of college UH campuses, in conjunction with the liberalism of
the sports media that covers left wing politics. Of the
media that covers college football is putting it uniquely under siege.
I think that the fact that these are college kids
(01:24:30):
playing is secondary because I think you're seeing the same
pressure on high schools. Like to me, there is no
reason why high schools shouldn't be open. You know, you
know this. I gave you the data. I'll give you
the data again today because I think it's significant. But
and we're gonna talk, by the way, with Dr David
Chow next and I'll ask him about this. But this
(01:24:52):
is from the c d C. Thirty kids under the
age of fifteen have died from COVID nineteen. In a
typical year, a hundred and nine kids die of the flu,
four hundred and thirty six from suicide, six hundred and
twenty five from homicide, four thousand, one hundred and fourteen
(01:25:12):
from unintentional deaths such as drowning. I think what's going
on here is UH that the data doesn't matter. And
I think that people have made the decision we need
to shut everything down because the President has come out
and said we need to open things up. And we
have a situation in America right now where it doesn't
(01:25:35):
matter what Donald Trump says. People who don't like Donald
Trump oppose him on everything. Like I I wrote about
this uh Tuesday on out kick. If instead of supporting
hydroxy color quin, if Donald Trump is a drug that
it appears, based on some medical studies, has a positive
(01:25:56):
impact on the coronavirus, it appears based on some medical
buddies that it might not like. It's kind of unclear exactly,
but if Donald Trump had come out in favor of
masks back in March, when the CDC and the Surgeon
General and all the experts were saying, hey, no, definitely
don't wear a mask. They won't protect you. I mean,
(01:26:18):
one of the issues that's out there is our quote
unquote medical experts, and I'm putting the word experts and
quotation marks have told us exact opposite advice back in March.
If you go watch all the press conferences, they specifically
instructed everybody. Dr Fauci Uh, the Surgeon General who's been
(01:26:39):
on this show, Uh, the director of the CDC. They
all came out and said, whatever you do, don't wear masks,
they won't protect you. Well, now they're saying you should
wear a mask, it will protect you. As an experiment,
I wish we could go back in time and Donald
Trump could have said, I know the experts are telling
(01:26:59):
you not to wear asks, but I think we should
be wearing masks. My argument is a huge percentage of
left wingers would refuse to wear masks now because Trump
told them to wear masks. In other words, we've reached
such a toxic part of American life that the truth
(01:27:19):
doesn't matter and people just stand up and oppose whichever
side of the political equation they don't like. And this
troubles me, and this is why it's disappointed me. When
I was in school, people who were mathematicians and people
who were scientists used to make fun of people like
me who were history majors or were English majors or
(01:27:42):
psychology majors or philosophy majors or whatever it is, the
so called liberal arts. They would be like, I don't
know you know you have a conversation. I don't know
how you do something where you don't know a definite answer, right,
does that make sense? Like if you are an English major,
your job is to write about something that doesn't have
(01:28:03):
a definite answer. Same thing with history. Everybody can argue
about the history, uh, the importance of history. Math and
science have answers, right Like we know what uh temperature
water boils at and we know what temperature water freezes at.
Those are factual scientific data that are not able to
(01:28:25):
be argued with. What I have seen, which is very unfortunate,
is science has become like politics. So you had all
these scientists come out and say, no, no, no, protesting
is awful. We can't allow protesting. It's the primary way
in which a virus could spread. That's what everybody was
(01:28:47):
saying when those protests started, from primarily conservatives focused on
the lockdown up in Michigan. Everybody was focused on that.
They said, no, no, no, you can't do it. Well,
when Black Lives Matter starts, protesting infinitely more large protests,
millions of people are out in the streets, and I
think it's fair to say that a lot of infections
(01:29:10):
have been result it appears of protesting. But all the
same experts and epidemiologists and scientists came out and said, well,
it's okay to protest this. So they made a values
judgment that wasn't predicated on science at all. If you
believe that it's dangerous to protest against lockdowns, then it's
(01:29:34):
dangerous to protest against police violence. You might support one
more than the other, you might agree with it, but
the virus doesn't care whether you are protesting the lockdown
or whether you're protesting Black Lives matter, UH police protests.
So this idea that there were different rules for different protests,
(01:29:57):
I think has a lot of Americans not rusting experts
not to mention. You had people saying, oh, millions of
people are gonna die, and clearly that wasn't accurate, right,
and so uh the overall scenarios here, I think that
college football is getting dragged into politics like going back
to school uh and UH and whether or not to
(01:30:21):
wear a mask or all these other situations have gotten
politicized as well, And I think the difference is certainly
college kids are involved, but I think colleges are intensely
political places in a way that those other businesses are not.
The people buy my argument there, you are a big
(01:30:42):
college football fan, Eddie, do you think that politics is
getting more involved in college football than it is in
the other sports in terms of whether or not they're
coming back, not in terms of like the NBA making
politics the essence a part of their part of their
game plan. I mean, you know this from the part
of the country you're in. I mean, how tied are
(01:31:04):
politicians to universities and college football programs and supporting you know, uh,
certain programs and things like that. I mean, no one's
gonna already speaking out against them, you know. I mean,
so I think you could easily end up Let's use
the SEC as an example. I think you could easily
end up in a situation where primarily Republican governors. Right
(01:31:25):
off the top of my head right now, the governors
of Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas,
and Missouri. I'm not sure somebody look up what the
the governor of Missouri is. I'm not sure who the
governor of Missouri is right now. But I think all
(01:31:47):
of those states that I just ran through, I think
in Louisiana, Louisiana has a has a has a Democrat
I think the only two SEC states with democratic governors
are Louisiana and Kentucky. I think I'm correcting that the
other nine SEC states are Republicans. I think you could
end up in a scenario where the governors are arguing
(01:32:09):
something different than the university presidents. Okay, so there are
eleven there are eleven SEC states. And by the way,
I don't think John Bell Edwards, who is the governor
of Louisiana, is gonna come out against l s U football,
right yeah, Coach O came and said, hey, we want
to play, We're healthy, We're ready to go, basically at
(01:32:31):
a at a public event on Tuesday. So I think
you can take him off the equation. Kentucky is a
little bit different with their governor. But to me, that
is a that is an interesting question because I think
college sports could and I stress could end up in
a major political battle like we're seeing over whether or
(01:32:53):
not school should open back up, with different perspectives based
on whether you're a Republican or Democrat. Mike Parson is
governor of Missouri. He's a Republican, all right, So it's
just again, somebody can correct me if I'm wrong, But
I'm pretty almost under present confident now that I know
Kentucky has a democratic governor, I know Louisiana does. I
think the other nine are all Republicans, and I can't
(01:33:15):
imagine I can't imagine a Republican governor saying I'm not
going to allow college football in a state. I could
be wrong, but that seems like a very politically unpopular
move to make, particularly when all these other sports are
coming back. But it's gonna be certainly something worth following
when we come back major And now I'll go ahead
(01:33:36):
and tell you. I'll go ahead and tell you as
we're going to break right now. Big announcement. We are
hiring and bringing Dr David Chow into the OutKick family.
So you guys have been listening to Dr Chow on
the radio show. Yes, you can give me some applause there.
You guys have been listening to Dr Chow on out
Kick in the third hour of Thursday for a long time.
(01:33:57):
He now is moving all of his right to OutKick
dot Com, all of his analysis of injury related issues.
And also he's gonna be doing a regular podcast for us.
We're expanding a big podcast universe. Jason Whitlock is gonna
have a podcast. Uh, Dr David Chow. We've got a
lot of different podcasts that we're gonna be announcing in
the month of August that are going to be a
(01:34:19):
part of the OutKick network. But Dr Chow is going
to be a part of our v I P message boards.
He's gonna be breaking down injury issues for you. If
you are a gambler and you want to be able
to reach Dr Chow, He'll be on our v I
P message boards. That yet another reason why you need
to sign up for the rapidly growing OutKick family. Uh.
(01:34:39):
Excited to announce again, Dr David Chow at Pro Football
Doc now a part of the OutKick family. You can
go sign up and be a part of the OutKick
family to help us fight the battle against absurdity in
the world of sports media and beyond. Go to OutKick
dot com, sign up for the v I P v
i P message board, access to me, Jason Whitlock, Dr
David Chow, lots of other people. Also, you get the
(01:35:02):
ability to comment on all the articles, and you get
a v I P phone line, which a couple of
people I think have called in so far this week.
Using the v I P phone line to get to
skip ahead of all the other callers. You can go
sign up at out kick dot com when we come back.
Dr David Chow the newest member of the OutKick family.
This is Outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis. Dr David
(01:35:26):
Chow at Pro Football Doc on Twitter. We're excited to
have you writing, running podcasts, continuing to be on the show.
A lot of good stuff coming. I'm just super excited.
I know you are ready. You have to get rolling
as well. Yeah. Thanks, I'm I'm honored to come a
long way from just talking to each other on Twitter
to this. I really appreciate the opportunity well, and look
(01:35:48):
for people out there who are who are new to
the show or have not seen Dr Child's War, because
we're our show is exploding in a really good way. Um,
we're gonna set another record in July for listenership. And
I find people that that I think are interesting all
the time on Twitter. And I'm particularly drawn to people
who have unique talents and an ability to express them
(01:36:11):
in a really succinct and intelligent manner. And that's what
I found with you, Dr Jowl. Since we started working
together on the radio, but I initially found you on Twitter.
I was like, my god, this guy is incredible when
it comes to diagnosing in real time what's going on
during football games. And I just think we're gonna help
to expand your audience. And if you are a football fan,
(01:36:34):
you need to be following at Pro Football Doc to
get the latest information because injuries are such an integral
part of the way that football is played. Yeah, well
that's what I try and do. Decipher to why not
only the injury, but you know, decipher what really questionable means?
Is it questionable and they're finding there's no issue or
questionable and uh, it's hide the bacon and this player
(01:36:57):
isn't gonna play. All right, let's let to go into
So you've got a couple of articles that are gonna
go up today, but I want to start with Cam. Uh.
There's been a lot of questions. People say, Okay, well,
the uh, the the situation is very very well set
up here for the Patriots given the cost. But people
are a little bit apprehensive about Cam Newton's health given
(01:37:19):
that list frank injury in his foot. How would you
assess it? What do you expect to see from Cam
now that we're not very far from training camp starting
back up. Yeah, I think this is the perfect storm
for the Patriots to sign him. First of all, the
lack of getting in person physicals, uh made the competition
to sign for signing Cam very weak, and so he
(01:37:41):
ended with the Patriots on a low budget deal. And uh,
you know the irony is that's how where how where
He first heard his foot in the preseason against the Patriots.
But in any case, all List Frank injuries are not
the same. There are different versions, different arrieties. Yes, there
are some List Frank injuries that I hand and said,
(01:38:01):
you know, uh, you know, I'm pessimistic on someone's return,
but here I'm optimistic. There's no way this was a
high grade severe List Frank fracture dislocation type injury. Otherwise
he would have had surgery immediately in the preseason. He
tried to play out of the regular season, and he
rested for several months. He didn't have the surgery until December.
I mean, it would be absolute malpractice that have him
(01:38:24):
waiting four months to have surgery if it were severe
List franc So this is why I think he's going
to be fine with his foot. His shoulder is also
an issue potentially because it's his throwing shoulder, two procedures
in the last two years, but even that, I think
he's fine in the short term. In his own YouTube
(01:38:45):
video YouTube channel postoperatively, the doctor talked about somewhere on
the articular cartilage indicating some arthritis, but for two thousand
twenty two thousand twenty one, it shouldn't be an issue.
All right, let's go into the the large or universe.
You've got a great piece that's gonna be up. I'm
not sure if it's officially up yet because I haven't
clicked through to OutKick, but you're going to have it up.
(01:39:06):
I'd encourage all of you to go to OutKick dot
com and check it out. Talking about the way that
the virus is going to have to manage by the NFL,
and in particular, you said you're not as nervous or
apprehensive about the virus spreading during the course of games
as you are during the course of of preparation for
(01:39:28):
games around the locker room, meeting rooms, things like that.
Explain why that would be for people out there who
are listening to us. Well, the first thing I would
love to do is when people read this article or
listen to these comments start with pre conceptions and taking
sides on on whether this is quote a hoax or
whether this is like the worst thing in the world.
(01:39:50):
The truth is it's somewhere in the middle and the
medical facts. What I say is I can talk someone
off the cliff who hasn't left their home in three months,
and I could scare the g is out of somebody
who thinks that this is a hoax. It's real. But
here's the big miss perception. I've made the statement that
you're more likely to get it in the get coronavirus
(01:40:12):
in the six days of the week in the team
facility practices and meetings than you are on Sunday in
a game. And people have the mist perception of that
if you tackle someone that you could get coronavirus. I
suppose it's possible, but it's been shown, at least what
we know so far. It's not one virus that infects you.
(01:40:33):
It's not the movie contagion. It's not the instantaneous contact.
It's contact over time, continuously with multiple hundreds, maybe thousands
of viruses before you contract coronavirus. And the way you
tackle and play. You're not typically in contact with the
opposition for fifteen minutes over the three hours, and that's
(01:40:57):
what the CDC says need you need for contact tracing.
But in the locker room, in meeting rooms, in the
training room at the facility, you potentially are. So that's
why the focus on you know, tackling, etcetera isn't the
real focus in terms of how coronavirus is spread. And
the NFL doesn't help the situation by banning postgame jersey swaps, right,
(01:41:21):
because that kind of looks silly to me. If I
were in charge, you allow the postgame jersey swaps, but
you make everyone wear a mask as soon as the
game is over. There's your optics, there's your your your
thing that to promote some safety as opposed to banning
the jersey exchanges. And by the way, uh, and look,
(01:41:41):
I'm not saying you can't get coronavirus by playing in
the NFL. Certainly it is possible. We say in the
article that if you have zero tolerance or contracting the disease,
you shouldn't play NFL football and there shouldn't be a
season if there's zero tolerance for it. But the reality
is in the facility where there's going to be significant
(01:42:02):
testing is actually less likely or less dangerous than out
in society where there's a fair amount of coronavirus in
different places. Right now, we're talking to Dr David Chow
at Pro Football Doc now writing. You can see him
every day at out kick dot com, and his article
about the spread of the virus by playing football is
(01:42:23):
up right now. I would encourage all of you to
go read that as we are finishing up the show
here go check it out. You can read his his
explanation in full detail. And I think that's important because
you talk a couple of analogies that I think makes
sense that if you're walking down the aisle at a
grocery store and you later find out that you're somebody's
(01:42:43):
uh yeah at the grocery has tested positive, you aren't
considered to be high risk. It's not like you need
to quarantine yourself. And the other analogy you make is
talking about the viral load and how being in close
proximity and getting a lot of potential exposure to the
virus matters. The different between being let's say, someone who
is susceptible to sunburn but doesn't put on their sunscreen
(01:43:06):
until they've already walked down to the beach. The minute
that you expose yourself to the sun, unless you are
just the fair skinned person on the planet, you don't
get sunburned. It's prolonged exposure. And that's typically the case
with the virus as well. Yeah, and that and that's
how I'm trying to describe the concept of viral loads.
But of course I'm not comparing you sunburned to getting coronavirus. Yeah,
(01:43:28):
but the but the point of it is people can
understand that that it's not short Like if your walk
outside of your house to go to get to your car,
you're not gonna get sunburned. That's like passing somebody in
the in the let's say, the grocery store or whatever.
But if let's say it's your significant other and you
guys are in close proximity to each other, you're much
(01:43:51):
more exposed to the virus that way and more likely
to get it. Yes, continuous exposure within six feet UH
multiple viral owed more than one virus. UH many more
need needed to cause UH to COVID and catch coronavirus.
Just like not one ray of the sun, multiple rays
(01:44:11):
of the sun. And there's no question that you know
if you're out in the sun at high noon, uh,
that you're more likely to be sudden burned than if
you're at eight am or five pm. Just like if
you're next to someone who's coughing, sneezing and infected with coronavirus,
you're going to get it much more likely, uh than
if someone who's asymptomatic. Look uh in locally here in
(01:44:32):
del Mar, Uh. I think fourteen jockeys tested positive and
they shut down del Mar Racetrack because I don't think
in the previous track, not at del Mar, that there
was enough social distancing in the locker room at Los
Alamitos for the jockeys. So it was the locker room
that that that caused it there. Yeah, And that's just
(01:44:52):
another significant part about this. It's not necessarily playing the
sport itself. And you could make this analogy as you
have before. Nobody who played against Rudy Gobert tested positive,
even though in the NBA they're leaning against each other,
sweating all those things. It's more likely to be the
prolonged exposure, certainly in football getting ready, right, so you're
(01:45:13):
in the meeting rooms Uh, you're with your position group
all those things. That's where the NFL probably should in
college football as well, be focusing the majority of their attention. Right. Well,
you know, on game day, the risk isn't when the
linebacker tackles the running back instantaneously. The bigger risk is, uh,
(01:45:33):
you know, the bus ride over, the hotel the night before,
the locker room situation, the training room situation, the warm
up situation, the sideline situation. Quite honestly, potentially the offensive
huddle is a point of danger because you know, across
the three our game, you probably are in somewhat pro
close proximity for fifteen minutes and we may see some
(01:45:56):
changes there as well. And so those are the points
of continuous contact that make it dangerous, not the instantaneous
ones that people seem to focus on. What do you
think is going to You've said it before, and I
think it's an important message because it sets expectations. It
will get a lot of attention when eventually NFL players
(01:46:17):
come back and they start testing, because they will find
You've said, every team will have some people who test positive. Uh,
why is that significant? And why is that not necessarily
also a bad thing? Even though the media may cover
it as such. I mean, players and coaches are human,
so it's a reflection of society, and those numbers so
(01:46:38):
far depending on where you are, about five. So if
you gather three thousand players and coaches and test them all,
I'd be shocked if you didn't have triple digits at
least one hundred players flash coaches reporting testing positive. And
then the statistics will say it's, you know, about a
(01:47:00):
hundred and fifty, which is about five per team. That's
not shocking, Unfortunately, it's a reflection of where we're at.
But the hope is that they're mostly asymptomatic, and the
hope is that with appropriate quarantining UH, that they don't
infect people when they gather at the facility. That's the
(01:47:22):
key issue. The issue isn't how many people test positive
when you report. It's how you deal with that, how
quickly you react, how you separate people and to prevent
further spread. We had the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference,
Greg Sanky, on the show yesterday and he said, across
the entirety of the SEC among their athletes, their number
(01:47:44):
of people that are testing positive was rapidly approaching zero.
They've been back on campus for a month. Is that
pretty impressive to you? It sounded pretty impressive to me
that initially they had a lot of people test positive,
but to sign like we saw with the mL lesson
like we've seen with other sports leagues, certainly in Europe
with soccer, is they've done a pretty good job once
(01:48:06):
they kind of get a handle on who's got it
to limit the spread inside of those leagues. Yeah, you know,
I had to take my hat off to the SEC
if they're able to continue to keep it down very low,
because it's not so much when you're working out and
getting controlled environments. You know, you can control the locker
room and make sure people are away and how you
(01:48:26):
practice and where you stand and what you do. But
you know, when you're dealing with twenty year old kids,
you know, be it back at the dorms or the
cafeteria or on weekends or evenings. Look, I got to
be honest, I mean, when when I was in college,
if coronavirus are out there, I'm not sure if I
would have been, you know, mature enough to always social
(01:48:47):
distance and and and keep away from from other friends
and so forth. And so if the SEC can do
that that's my hat is off to them, and it's
showing a lot of discipline from the players as well
as a job from the schools. One of the things
that's frustrating to me, and I'm sure frustrates a lot
of the listeners, is the idea that science can become political.
(01:49:08):
You are a doctor, when you look at the data,
do you believe that your kids should be back in
school and or would you be comfortable sending your kids
back to school? Yeah, I personally would be comfortable sending
the kids back to school, not only for the kids,
but just for my wife's sanity and going on. But
(01:49:31):
you know, it's interesting, and here's the thing about politics,
and uh, you know, I'm not trying to play politics
or pointing out. I hate it when I get okay doked.
And this week major media, the New York Times okay
doking me. The headline came out l A and San
Diego schools will not reopen this fall, and I was
(01:49:52):
at work. I didn't have the time to read it.
I awarded to my wife, say no, shoot, bad news.
And then an hour later we all got the parents
got an e know from the Sanity Unified School District superintendent.
And I'm paraphrasing now, but the email said the district
has decided to start the first week of the false
semester with only online distance learning and then go from there,
(01:50:16):
and that's that's not the same message. Now. Meanwhile, pal
Waits will disc out here says they're going to continue
to go to school. Rancho Santa Fe says they're going
to continue to go to school. So there's a tremendous
amount of mixed messaging. So maybe that's kind of what
my goal is to try and get the facts out
there related to what's going on through out Kicking. Man,
(01:50:39):
this is Outkicked. The coverage with play Traffics, we're growing
a lot at out Kick, and obviously a big part
of that has been Jason Whitlock. We've got a lot
of great writers. But Dr David Chow, I think is
going to be an incredible addition. And for those of
you out there who listened UH to this program regularly,
(01:51:02):
you know how much he adds to it in terms
of his depth of knowledge. Former UH team physician for
at the time, the San Diego Chargers, and so I
think when we actually get back into football being officially underway, Uh,
it is just gonna be incredible to see what he's
capable of, because, in addition to all of the injury
(01:51:22):
related issues, the coronavirus is going to be the number
one story for the fall and as it pertains to
very many teams and their overall health. So we're gonna
have an expert at OutKick regularly analyzing and writing and
talking about all of the health related concerns. And you
guys know, I'm on a sports gambling TV show, lock
(01:51:44):
It In, and a huge part of gambling is knowing
what the health is going to be of your respective players,
and Dr Chow already does an incredible job of that
with his injury index. I just I can't tell you
how excited I am about everything that we're building and
the soon to be launched Outkicked podcast network. Encourage you
(01:52:05):
in the meantime, UH to go sign up for our
OutKick podcast. Make sure you don't miss anything. We had
Frank I Sola an our one, We talked with Chris
Mannix inside of the Bubble, UH in our two, and
right now I got a challenge for you. All right, UM,
I want all of you out there. We're testing how
many people we can handle on the site right now,
(01:52:25):
I want all of you to go, who are listening
to me right now to OutKick dot com. All right,
I want you to go to OutKick dot com and
see if we can handle We now have new servers.
I crashed the website last time. Last time OutKick listeners
went and they crashed the website. But I want all
(01:52:46):
of you, including Danny g and Dub and Eddie and Roberto,
I want everybody to go right now to the website
in the final couple of minutes of the show, and
I want to see and make sure that we can
handle the OutKick audience. As we announced Dr David Chow,
there's lots of good articles there. You can go check
(01:53:06):
it out. But all I need you to do is
just go to the front page, check it with me,
pull out your phones as we finish off the show
today and go to OutKick dot com and let's see
whether or not we can manage all of the rush.
There are a lot of you listening right now. We
know how massive the live audience is, uh, but we
want to see whether or not we can manage the crowd.
(01:53:29):
And I can already see thousands of you starting to
roll into the website, So go check it out OutKick
dot com. Let us know whether we are capable of
handling this. Encourage you to sign up for the v
I P. Thank you for all the support you've shown us.
Go read the articles smart ones that are gonna be
up from Dr David Chow today as well as Jason
(01:53:49):
Whitlock and more. I appreciate all of you. Will be
back tomorrow, same bad time, same bad channel again. As
I sign off, pull out your phones and go to
OutKick dot com and see whether or not we can
handle all of the traffic from you guys. The numbers
I can already see popping in a really big way.
Keep it up again. We'll be back tomorrow. Go download
(01:54:11):
the podcast, check out our site, OutKick dot com, and
congratulate Dr David Chow on joining us. This has been
outkicked on Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch live
editions of OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at
six am Eastern three am Pacific