The following is an excerpt from the new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/American-Playbook-Winning-Country-Democrats/dp/1668022346/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2EIWGD6O73X26&amp;keywords=clay+travis&amp;qid=1691529618&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=clay+travis%2Cstripbooks%2C105&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Playbook: A Guide to Winning Back the Country from the Democrats</a> by Clay Travis (Threshold Books/Simon &amp; Schuster).
In the summer of 2020, I had to fight one of the biggest battles of my career.
The Big Ten and Pac 12 were close to deciding it was too dangerous to play college football, and if they canceled their seasons it was believed the SEC, Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), and Big 12 would soon follow suit. And if college football wasn’t played, no other college sport would be played, either.
I decided right then and there I would fight harder for the playing of college football than I’d ever fought for anything in sports. Over the next several months, Outkick, both my radio show and the website, became the most aggressive media outlet in the country to support playing college football. Why was playing college football so important in my opinion?
First, the data was overwhelming that there was no substantial risk to young, healthy players. That was despite the fact that news outlets like CBSSports.com were running hyperventilating pieces claiming that if college football was played at least eight players would die because of Covid. (The actual number of athletes who died from contracting Covid because of sports? Zero.) But the most important data here was that if college football was shut down, many high schools wouldn’t play fall sports and many wouldn’t open at all.
I had regular conversations with Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey during this time. He told me that one of the biggest challenges he faced was how many southern high schools would shut down their seasons if college football wasn’t played. As a public school kid who knew the importance of high school sports to so many in the country, especially to many kids who would otherwise just vanish when it came to schooling, I couldn’t let that happen.
I made the calculated decision to go all in fighting for college football to be played. I was a maniac about it, pulling every political lever I could to influence governors on the issue, and I aggressively used my two biggest platforms, Outkick and my national sports radio morning show, to that end. I got every governor with an SEC, ACC, or Big 12 school in his state I could on the air. We’d never had governors on the radio show before, but I had our staff reach out to all of them in an effort to get them on to publicly support the return of sports.
We had Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on several times. DeSantis was important because he said that not only did the SEC and ACC schools in his state need to play football, but so did every high school. We also hosted Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt. We put together an entire coalition of red state governors who would all come out in favor of college football being played in their states.
Each of these governors — all with ACC, SEC, and Big 12 schools in their states — came on and endorsed the idea of playing college football in the fall. Each time I would get a governor to publicly endorse playing, I would text Greg Sankey, the SEC’s commissioner, and let him know we had another political supporter keeping the dream of playing the season alive.
I can’t impress upon you enough, by the way, how much I came to respect Sankey. Under immense pressure from the sports media — almost all of whom were convinced the season had to be canceled because it wasn’t safe to play — he stayed calm and reasonable.
Early on in the Covid era, I even called Sankey and told him that he was used to sports media being in favor of sports, but that wasn’t going to be the case now. “You need to tell every president and school athletic director what’s coming. They’re going to get ripped to the high heavens for even considering playing. Get them ready.”
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-601387 size-medium" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/American-Playbook-cover_hr-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/American-Playbook-cover_hr-199x300.jpg 199w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/American-Playbook-cover_hr-382x576.jpg 382w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/American-Playbook-cover_hr-768x1159.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/American-Playbook-cover_hr-1018x1536.jpg 1018w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/American-Playbook-cover_hr-1357x2048.jpg 1357w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/American-Playbook-cover_hr-1360x2040.jpg 1360w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/American-Playbook-cover_hr.jpg 1400w" sizes="(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" /></div>
I wasn’t just lobbying to get governors on to endorse playing college football. I also worked as hard as I could to get the biggest asset of all, President Donald Trump, on my radio show to call for sports to be played, too. Years ago, when Trump was elected, I told my wife that one day we’d get him on my sports radio show. I even predicted it on the air. Everyone laughed. 
It didn’t seem crazy at all to me, though. After all, Trump was a monster sports fan and we agreed on many overlapping issues of sports and politics, particularly as they pertained to getting sports back under way, which was an important signpost of a return to normalcy in the country.
Then, one day, it happened. After months of lobbying, the time was right for Trump to come on the show and endorse the importance of playing college football.
The night before the interview, when I told my kids the president was coming on the radio show, my middle son said, “That’s awesome. He knows Vince McMahon!” (My boys are big WWE fans.)
I couldn’t sleep the night before the interview. For regular listeners of my sports talk radio show, they all know our phones never worked. I mean, just complete and total tech failure all the time. My biggest fear was that we’d get Trump on the air and then we’d accidentally drop him. Or he wouldn’t be able to hear us. In radio, the tease is what you say as you go to break to try to encourage people to keep listening. That morning my radio tease was “Up next, the president of the United States.”
That’s probably the best radio tease imaginable. 
Trump came on the show and said he 100% supported college football being played. But that barely moved the needle. Later that very same day, the Pac 12 officially announced they were canceling their fall season. Shortly thereafter the Big Ten did the same. My stomach sank. After months of fighting, it appeared we were close to losing the battle for college football.
Late in that summer of 2020, after the Big Ten and the Pac 12 had canceled their seasons, SEC commissioner Sankey called me. “I think I’m going to have to cancel the season,” he said. “The only reason I haven’t done it yet is because I just can’t figure out how to do it.”
I encouraged him to hang out for as long as he could and keep up the fight. We just needed, I thought, to get the players to report to campus. Once they got to campus and started practice, and in the South in particular, where college football is religion, it would be nearly impossible to stop the games.
On Outkick and on the radio show we redoubled our efforts. I worked like a maniac, enlisting support wherever I could, fighting harder for college football to be played than I’d ever fought for anything in my professional career. Slowly, we gained allies. The parents of Big Ten football players, it turned out, were furious they weren’t being allowed to play and filed lawsuits challenging the Big Ten’s arbitrary decision to cancel the season.
For most of my career, I’d been an SEC guy, but suddenly I was the most popular media figure in the Big Ten, one of the only media members with a large audience who was willing to fight for football. Our crew was small, but committed. As the football season inched closer, I began to work with the Trump White House, Tim Pataki in particular, to reverse the decision to end the Big Ten football season. We gained momentum, with Trump even getting on the phone with Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren to try to get that conference to reverse its decision.
Heck, I was even involved in strategy sessions with the White House to figure out how to save college football. 
But we still needed more allies. 
That’s when the players themselves, who had mostly been quiet, suddenly spoke out on social media. Clemson’s star quarterback, Trevor Lawrence; Ohio State’s star quarterback, Justin Fields; and many more players started a let-us-play hashtag on Twitter that went viral.
For months I’d been hearing from players, coaches, and administrators behind the scenes about how badly they all wanted to play, but they’d been afraid of being ripped to shreds by the sports media, who overwhelmingly had opposed a return to play for all sports and spread rampant fear-porn about the deaths that would ensue if sports returned.
Indeed, Mike Gundy, the Oklahoma State football coach, had faced significant censure in May 2020 when he’d suggested his players should return to campus and resume regular workouts. He’d been so vociferously attacked for sharing this opinion that many coaches stayed quiet, afraid of being swarmed by a mob on social media.
Finally, Outkick had public allies.
Slowly, thanks to steadfast leadership from SEC Commissioner Sankey and the players speaking out so loudly, the SEC, the Big 12, and the ACC began to hold the wall. We just needed to reach kickoff and have the games start. Because once the games started I was confident the parents of players in the Big Ten and the Pac 12 would force those conferences back to the football fields, too.
During this time, despite being the most likable and humble person in sports media, I made a lot of enemies in the sports media industry. People who had previously been my friends ripped me in public on social media, and in their articles they wrote about the impossibility of playing football during Covid. Negative articles about me and Outkick piled up. I’ve never been more attacked in my entire career.
But as I said when I started the book, my idol as a kid was Davy Crockett — be sure you’re right and go ahead. 
I knew I was right. 
And if I’m confident that I’m right, nothing is going to stop me.
I worked hard, harder than I’d ever worked before. I drove the people around me, those working at Outkick, very hard, too, the radio show, everyone. I wasn’t always the nicest version of myself. Sometimes I lost my temper with our workers and lashed out when I thought we weren’t making smart decisions or things weren’t being implemented rapidly enough. I was impatient. There was so much to make happen and it felt like everyone was against us and we didn’t have enough time to do everything we needed to do to make the season happen.
In the late summer of 2020, every day felt like a whirlwind. I barely slept. I was on my phone constantly, running Outkick and all my shows and fighting to save the college football season with every ounce of energy I had.
The players reported to fall camp in the SEC, the Big 12, and the ACC. Kickoff inched closer and closer. In private conversations, Sankey held out hope with me that if smaller college games could kick off and then the NFL kicked off, momentum would carry through and everyone would play.
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On August 30, 2020, the first college football game of 2020 kicked off. It was Austin Peay at Central Arkansas. 
I watched every minute of the game, luxuriating in the return of football to television.
A month later, on September 26, the SEC kicked off a full slate of conference games. It was nearly a month later than normal, but finally, at long last, the season was under way. The ACC and the Big 12 also kicked off their games.
On opening day, I poured myself a tall glass of whiskey. I’m not ashamed to admit that when kickoff happened in the SEC, I cried. “We did it,” I told my wife. “We really did it.” 
Not only did the SEC, the ACC, and the Big 12 play nearly complete seasons, but the Pac 12 and the Big Ten, under immense pressure from their own players, parents, and fan bases as the other conferences were playing, came rushing back to the field, too, even though their teams were only able to play shortened seasons.
And not only was college football played, but not one player or coach suffered serious Covid illness or death as a result. In fact, it didn’t happen anywhere in college athletics. As I’d been arguing all along, football itself was far more dangerous to players than Covid.
Just about every high school in the entire South played football as well. We’ll never know how many kids stayed in school because of those games, but I’m convinced we used sports to help ensure that millions of kids had as close to a normal 2020 school year as possible.
College football being played in 2020 remains my proudest moment in professional life. If Outkick and our radio show hadn’t existed, I’m not sure it would have happened. When there were almost no voices in the entire country advocating for college football, we helped give the necessary space to commissioners, school presidents, athletic directors, coaches, and players to make the season happen.
There are many people all over the country who deserve credit for college sports being played in the fall of 2020, but I’m confident no one in sports media did more than Outkick.
So, again, I will always be immensely proud of what we accomplished.
* * *
Clay Travis is the cohost of <a href="https://www.clayandbuck.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show</a>. He is the founder and president of OutKick, and is also a podcast host, TV anchor, columnist, editor, and the author of &#8220;Republicans Buy Sneakers Too,&#8221; &#8220;On Rocky Top,&#8221; and &#8220;Dixieland Delight.&#8221; Follow him on Twitter @ClayTravis.
This excerpt is taken from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/American-Playbook-Winning-Country-Democrats/dp/1668022346/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2EIWGD6O73X26&amp;keywords=clay+travis&amp;qid=1691529618&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=clay+travis%2Cstripbooks%2C105&amp;sr=1-1">American Playbook: A Guide to Winning Back the Country from the Democrats</a> by Travis Clay. Copyright 2023 by Clay Travis. Reprinted by permission of Threshold Books, An Imprint of Simon &amp; Schuster, Inc. 
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Kentucky v Tennessee

How Fighting For College Football Became The Biggest Battle Of My Career

Books

Clay Travis

College Football

NCAA

Readers Pass

Conservative commentators like Meghan McCain, Clay Travis, and others dragged CBS News for taking a &#8220;victory lap&#8221; on the authenticity of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/collections/the-hunter-biden-files">Hunter Biden&#8217;s</a> laptop years after most outlets had already confirmed it was real.
A tweet from the outlet on Monday read, &#8220;CBS News has obtained data from a laptop purported to have belonged to Hunter Biden. The data came directly from the source who said they provided it to the FBI under subpoena. @CBS_Herridge shares what was found during an independent forensic review.&#8221;
&#8220;My employer @DailyMail had a forensics team confirm the authenticity of the laptop YEARS ago &#8211; anyone with five braincells has known Hunter Biden&#8217;s laptop is real,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/meghan-mccain">McCain</a> tweeted to her 800,000 followers.
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My employer <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyMail?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DailyMail</a> had a forensics team confirm the authenticity of the laptop YEARS ago &#8211; anyone with five braincells has known Hunter Biden&#39;s laptop is real. 
I&#39;m extremely confused why CBS is taking a victory lap or taking any kind of credit on this today &#8211; years late? <a href="https://t.co/UgKWTMXpDA">https://t.co/UgKWTMXpDA</a>
&mdash; Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) <a href="https://twitter.com/MeghanMcCain/status/1594700645054955521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2022</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;I&#8217;m extremely confused why CBS is taking a victory lap or taking any kind of credit on this today &#8211; years late?&#8221; she added.
OutKick&#8217;s Clay Travis tweeted to his one million followers, &#8220;Two years ago Donald Trump told CBS&#8217;s Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes the Hunter Biden laptop was real and should be covered by the media.&#8221;
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Two years ago Donald Trump told CBS’s Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes the Hunter Biden laptop was real and should be covered by the media. Stahl said it couldn’t be verified. Two years later <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cbsnews</a> has finally verified it. Trump was right. Again. <a href="https://t.co/o7a3cMQ4Jn">pic.twitter.com/o7a3cMQ4Jn</a>
&mdash; Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1594739678426587136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2022</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Stahl said it couldn&#8217;t be verified,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Two years later [CBS News] has finally verified it. Trump was right. Again.&#8221;
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Two years after anyone with a functional brain realized the Hunter Biden laptop was 100% real <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CBSNews</a> has finally gotten around to reporting the Hunter Biden laptop is 100% real. <a href="https://t.co/zbOnJaaiEi">pic.twitter.com/zbOnJaaiEi</a>
&mdash; Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1594701364969590785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2022</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Two years after anyone with a functional brain realized the Hunter Biden laptop was 100% real @CBSNews has finally gotten around to reporting the Hunter Biden laptop is 100% real,&#8221; Travis continued in another tweet.
Conservative commentator Dan Bongino&#8217;s &#8220;Bongino Report&#8221; tweeted,  &#8220;CBS FINALLY Admits Hunter Biden Laptop Is Real.&#8221;
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CBS FINALLY Admits Hunter Biden Laptop Is Real<a href="https://t.co/LUu9CwCa3a">https://t.co/LUu9CwCa3a</a>
&mdash; Bongino Report (@BonginoReport) <a href="https://twitter.com/BonginoReport/status/1594734865156829185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Journalist and podcaster Matt Taibbi wrote to his hundreds of thousands of followers, &#8220;CBS News today came out with a story about how Hunter Biden&#8217;s laptop &#8216;appears genuine&#8217; &#8211; confirming what they ridiculed when the story first broke.&#8221;
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CBS News today came out with a story about how Hunter Biden’s laptop “appears genuine” &#8211; confirming what they ridiculed when the story first broke. Check out the video by <a href="https://twitter.com/0rf?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@0rf</a> below. <a href="https://t.co/gtl0KzDV9P">https://t.co/gtl0KzDV9P</a> <a href="https://t.co/gE90lAdp1A">https://t.co/gE90lAdp1A</a>
&mdash; Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1594728816924041220?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Politicians even weighed in, with lawmakers like Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) tweeting, &#8220;@CBSNews is finally able to report Hunter Biden&#8217;s laptop and its content is 100% real. After laughing off reports for two years, the mainstream media wants to claim a victory lap over their &#8216;independent review.&#8217; You cannot make this up.&#8221;
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CBSNews</a> is finally able to report Hunter Biden&#39;s laptop and its content is 100% real. 
After laughing off reports for two years, the mainstream media wants to claim a victory lap over their “independent review.”
You cannot make this up.
&mdash; Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1594726840601829378?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2022</a></blockquote>
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CBS News is now reporting on what Democrats told you for two years was a, “conspiracy theory.” The Hunter Biden laptop is not Russian disinformation, it’s a real and very uncomfortable truth for the Biden White House.” <a href="https://t.co/JLD2XZPJMI">pic.twitter.com/JLD2XZPJMI</a>
&mdash; Wesley Hunt (@WesleyHuntTX) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesleyHuntTX/status/1594711990504947712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2022</a></blockquote>
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RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-bidens-laptop-documents-at-least-459-legal-violations-watchdog-group-says">Hunter Biden&#8217;s Laptop Documents At Least 459 Legal Violations, Watchdog Group Says</a>

Meghan McCain 4-5-2

‘Anyone With Five Braincells’: Conservative Commentators Drag CBS For Taking A ‘Victory Lap’ On Hunter Biden Laptop Authenticity

Conservative Commentators Drag CBS For Taking A 'Victory Lap' On Hunter Biden Laptop Authenticity

Hunter Biden

laptop computer

Media

Meghan McCain

Politics

Conservatives reacted with joy after news broke Monday of Elon Musk&#8217;s dramatic, $44 billion takeover of Twitter, the powerful social media platform they have long accused of systematically silencing their voices.
The tech maven and world&#8217;s wealthiest man sealed the deal after an 11-day whirlwind that first saw resistance, then resignation from the San Francisco-based platform&#8217;s board of directors. Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said all along he wanted to take Twitter, where he has 80 million followers, private so he could ensure it operates as a free-speech forum for all.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) tweeted simply, “Free speech is making a comeback.”
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Free speech is making a comeback. <a href="https://t.co/WMWZ4A4yHd">https://t.co/WMWZ4A4yHd</a>
&mdash; Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1518674710028034051?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 25, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Actor James Woods enthused, “I’ve never been a proponent of electric cars, nor do I ever wish to fly into space. That said, @elonmusk  is a hero. He proved that capitalism will crush socialism every time. #BravoElonMusk.”
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I’ve never been a proponent of electric cars, nor do I ever wish to fly into space. 
That said, <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@elonmusk</a> is a hero. He proved that capitalism will crush socialism every time. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BravoElonMusk?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BravoElonMusk</a>
&mdash; James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealJamesWoods/status/1518781596127555585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 26, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Sports maven Clay Travis chimed in, “Elon Musk has officially purchased Twitter for $54.20 a share. Absolutely monstrous win for free speech on social media. Feast on the left wing blue check tears as they realize their rigged marketplace of ideas is dying. Glorious.”
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Elon Musk has officially purchased Twitter for $54.20 a share. Absolutely monstrous win for free speech on social media. Feast on the left wing blue check tears as they realize their rigged marketplace of ideas is dying. Glorious.
&mdash; Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1518667446516916224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 25, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Mathematics whiz and Thiel Capital exec Eric Weinstein cheered while pointing out, “I’m excited to see what happens next. Here’s to the future! But one request for @elonmusk: can you use Twitter Logs to show us how our communications were manipulated? Who was shaddowbanned or targeted by bots? How algorithms limited our reach? Why we were throttled?”
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I’m excited to see what happens next. Here’s to the future!
But one request for <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@elonmusk</a>: can you use Twitter Logs to show us how our communications were manipulated? Who was shaddowbanned or targeted by bots? How algorithms limited our reach? Why we were throttled? Etc. 🙏 <a href="https://t.co/XWBN42JIHG">https://t.co/XWBN42JIHG</a>
&mdash; Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1518680900573138944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 25, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Rep. Dan Crenshaw succinctly predicted the leftist hysteria that would follow the news of Musk’s purchase: “Cue the meltdowns.”
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Cue the meltdowns
&mdash; Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanCrenshawTX/status/1518666082562813957?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 25, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) issued a shot series of tweets celebrating the day: “This is a great day to be conservative on Twitter. &#8230; Free speech is a foundation of American democracy. &#8230; Elon Musk buying Twitter terrifies the left because they don’t want their power to censor conservatives threatened.”
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This is a great day to be conservative on Twitter.
&mdash; Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1518700148494323713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 25, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Free speech is a foundation of American democracy.
&mdash; Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1518713378906198017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 25, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Elon Musk buying Twitter terrifies the left because they don’t want their power to censor conservatives threatened.
&mdash; Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1518731602058264577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 25, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Mocking the leftist tilt at Twitter before Musk’s takeover, Hillel Neuer of UN Watch remarked sardonically, “I fear Elon Musk could undermine the ideological diversity, equity and inclusion at Twitter which currently maintains a careful balance of 98.7% for one side.”
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Source: Data from Open Secrets, a nonprofit political spending database by the Center for Responsive Politics, published in Vox, October 31, 2018. <a href="https://t.co/MCWTLCJJeC">https://t.co/MCWTLCJJeC</a>
&mdash; Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) <a href="https://twitter.com/HillelNeuer/status/1518736589349916672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 25, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Twitter <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-releases-statement-after-taking-over-twitter/">acknowledged</a> Musk’s purchase by announcing, “&#8221;Under the terms of the agreement, Twitter stockholders will receive $54.20 in cash for each share of Twitter common stock that they own upon closing of the proposed transaction. The purchase price represents a 38% premium to Twitter&#8217;s closing stock price on April 1, 2022, which was the last trading day before Mr. Musk disclosed his approximately 9% stake in Twitter.”
Musk himself issued a statement after the news broke of his purchase, saying, “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

Elongraphic

‘Absolutely Monstrous Win For Free Speech’: Conservatives Cheer Musk Buying Twitter

Conservatives

Dan Crenshaw

Elon Musk

James Woods

Jim Jordan

Twitter

On Friday, sports commentator Clay Travis, who was banned from CNN after he said he “believed in the First Amendment and boobs,” roasted CNN for bringing back legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin after he had been caught masturbating on a Zoom call with colleagues from The New Yorker.
Travis tweeted, “CNN banned me from their network for saying I believed in the first amendment and boobs, but they just rehired a guy caught masturbating on a Zoom call and had him discuss it live on air.”
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CNN banned me from their network for saying I believed in the first amendment and boobs, but they just rehired a guy caught masturbating on a Zoom call and had him discuss it live on air. <a href="https://t.co/RqRVNjPu1o">pic.twitter.com/RqRVNjPu1o</a>
&mdash; Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1403336482627239937?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 11, 2021</a></blockquote>
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On Thursday, Toobin, who took a leave of absence from CNN after the incident, which was first <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/epdgm4/new-yorker-suspends-jeffrey-toobin-for-zoom-dick-incident">reported</a> by Vice, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnn-welcomes-back-legal-analyst-who-left-after-masturbating-on-zoom-call">began his resurrection on CNN</a> by saying his actions were &#8220;inexplicable&#8221; to him, then admitted he &#8220;didn&#8217;t think people could see&#8221; him, saying: &#8220;Well, obviously, I wasn’t thinking very well or very much. And it was something that was inexplicable to me. I think, one point, I wouldn’t exactly say in my defense, because nothing is really in my defense; I didn’t think I was on the call. I didn’t think other people could see me.”
On September 15, 2017, Travis appeared on CNN with host Brooke Baldwin, where they discussed former President Trump targeting ESPN personality Jemele Hill, who had called Trump a white supremacist.
Baldwin stated, “Of all the different columnists or even magazines, in the wake of Charlottesville, specifically, that have called out the president as racist, why do you think he really took this particular target on, ESPN, and Jemele?”
“Well, I think because ESPN’s not really in the business of commenting randomly on political-related issues, Travis replied. “If you look at their history, they established about 18 months ago that they don’t believe their people should be involved in non-sports-related political controversies. They suspended and then fired Curt Schilling for saying that he disagreed with the North Carolina bathroom bill. And that had absolutely nothing to do with sports. And they said, “Look, you can’t have this opinion; it’s too conservative. We’re not going to allow it. I think that’s a bad move; I’m a first amendment absolutist. I believe in only two things completely: the First Amendment and boobs.”
He continued, “And so once they made the decision that they were not going to allow a conservative non-sports-related commentary, they couldn’t —
“Wait, did you just say you believe in the First Amendment and — Clay, hold on, hold on, hold on,” Baldwin interjected. “I just want to make sure I heard you correctly as a woman anchoring this show. Did you just say, what did you say? You said you believe in the First Amendment and b-double-o-bs?&#8221;
“Boobs. Two things that have only never let me down in this entire country’s history,” Travis reiterated. “The First Amendment and boobs. So those are the only two things I believe in absolutely in the country. So I don’t think Jemele Hill should be fired, but I do think straight up that once you make the decision that you were going to let Curt Schilling go that you have to also make the decision that you’re going to let Jemele Hill go. I think that’s a bad decision; I think that ESPN has made bad decisions that have led to 13 million subscribers bailing on the network. They’ve made bad decisions that have led to ratings collapsing; Jemele Hill’s television show is collapsing. Ratings were down 20% last week over last year; that’s why she’s angry. That’s why she went after Donald Trump. She’s begging for ESPN to fire her so she can work somewhere else.”
Later in the interview, Baldwin burst out, “Why would you even say that on national television and with a female host?”
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The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/09/15/clay-travis-used-his-first-amendment-and-boobs-line-long-before-he-shocked-cnn/">reported</a> the same day, “A CNN spokeswoman said Travis would not be invited back on the network&#8217;s air,” adding that Travis had used the line well before his CNN interview: “Travis <a href="https://www.outkickthecoverage.com/all-that-and-a-bag-of-mail-062615/">wrote</a> in June 2015 that ‘absolutism on either the right or the left is scary to me — which is why I’m a radical moderate — who believes in only two things absolutely: the First Amendment and boobs.’&#8221;

Politicon 2019 – Day 1

Clay Travis Rips CNN: Banned Me For Saying ‘Boobs’ But Welcomed Back ‘Guy Caught Masturbating On A Zoom Call’

ESPN

Jeffrey Toobin

As the Deshaun Watson saga continues, a strange phenomenon is being played out — the story isn&#8217;t getting the coverage it deserves.  
Watson is accused of sexual assault or harassment by 22 separate women who&#8217;d allegedly been solicited for massages by the Houston Texans quarterback over the last two years. Two of the women, and there may soon be more, have identified themselves publicly and filed criminal charges against the NFL star. 
With such a high profile case, and with an athlete as famous as Watson, one would expect the media to be in a feeding frenzy. Morning shows and sports radio stations around the country should be leading with the story, right? Well, not really.
Apart from perfunctory updates when new details emerge, most major outlets have offered scant coverage, focusing their attention on other stories, despite the relative lack of news, with the NFL in the middle of their offseason.
Not only is the conversation surrounding the case muted, the NFL has also held off on disciplining the franchise quarterback. Watson has yet to be placed on the NFL’s commissioner&#8217;s exempt list, but based on past decisions handed down by the NFL, he should land on it soon. 
Clay Travis, founder of Outkick The Coverage and Fox Sports Radio Host, told The Daily Wire he believes there&#8217;s a deeper reason the Watson story has been covered the way it has, and that the quarterback won&#8217;t be playing anytime soon.
“I think the probability of him playing in 2021 is low,” Travis told The Daily Wire.  “It&#8217;s possible that he’s the NFL’s version of Bill Cosby or Jeffrey Epstein before all is said and done. The next shoe to drop, proverbially, is whether or not there’s going to be criminal charges brought. And there are now criminal investigations, potentially in multiple states, looking into whether Deshaun Watson can be potentially liable from a criminal perspective for sexual assault.”
&#8220;Right now, it’s all civil related but Nike, Beats By Dre, ATB Department stores… all of them have backed away from Deshaun Watson,&#8221; Travis continued. “I would be very surprised if he plays in 2021 and I think he’s approaching severe criminal legal peril as well which could throw into question whether he’s able to ever play football again. That’s what is at stake right now.”
Travis elaborated, saying he thinks identity politics has played an integral role in shaping coverage of the story.
“What I love, in terms of difficulty for those in sports media, is you have two different identity politics colliding which is why I think you have people not picking sides,” Travis told The Daily Wire. “You’ve got &#8216;Me Too,&#8217; with 22 different women. The majority of whom are minorities who are alleging this powerful, rich, fortunate quarterback took advantage of them.”
“And then you have the black quarterback who stands at the pyramid of victimization culture in the NFL and in college football in general, so you’re going to alienate one side of the identity politics equation. You go against the black quarterback or you go against the 22 women, the majority who are minority women, alleging sexual assault. So as a result, there’s an inability to discuss this case in a reasonable fashion.”
The NFL, and the media, seem hesitant to rush to judgment. The American justice system allows for those accused of crimes to have their day in court. “Innocent before proven guilty’ is one of the key pillars of our democracy after all. But in recent years, this pillar has been toppled. 
The “Me Too” movement changed everything. In many ways, it changed things for the better. It brought more awareness to sexual assault and the power that men of influence hold. 
However, it&#8217;s also blurred the lines between innocent and guilty. ‘Believe All Women” was a common phrase that came out of the movement. It immediately assumed men accused of sexual assault as guilty without giving them their day in court. The same cannot be said about the Watson case.  
The media and the NFL have painted themselves into a corner. In handing down a definitive judgment on Watson, they risk appearing to damage the image of &#8220;marginalized groups&#8221; in the context of sports. In refusing to condemn Watson, they&#8217;ll be going against all that the “Believe All Women” crowd stands for. 
“Which is why, under American justice, we need to treat everybody the same regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or politics,” Travis said. “And unfortunately we are not in that universe right now.”
The views expressed in this piece are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Houston Texans v New Orleans Saints

EXCLUSIVE: Clay Travis Says Identity Politics Is Reason For Lack Of Coverage In Deshaun Watson Sexual Assault Story

Sports

During her show this week, Candace Owens, host of Daily Wire’s “Candace,” talked with Outkick founder Clay Travis about the sports industry’s self-inflicted wounds from embracing the divisive “cancel America” sentiment.
After taking aim earlier in the show at the corrosive effects of the “cancel” mentality in American culture more generally, Owens kicked off her conversation with Travis by pointing to the sports figure who helped “mainstream” the idea of “the canceling of America.” Anyone trying to trace the current wave of anti-American sentiment in the sports industry, said the host, would inevitably point to former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
“I think you&#8217;re right,” Travis replied. “In 2016, Colin Kaepernick took a knee. A lot of people forget Barack Obama was president of the United States at the time because people want to conflate it with Donald Trump. But in the pre-season game, after he had lost his starting job to Blaine Gabbert — San Francisco 49ers — he decided not to stand for the national anthem. And from there, it became in vogue to do that, and now it&#8217;s almost braver to stand for the national anthem than it is to kneel.”
The Kaepernick-sparked movement, Owens maintained, is increasingly robbing Americans of a crucial means of unplugging from the exhausting political sphere. “You just want to turn off politics. You want to turn off the weekly stress, and they can no longer do that,” she said of sports fans. 
Along with Kaepernick, the two talked about former New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees, playing clips of his initial strong stand against the anthem protests, in which he cited his grandfather’s role in fighting for freedom in World War II, followed by his “hostage video” apology in which he asked for forgiveness for criticizing the protests of the flag.
Partial transcript of the discussion below:  
TRAVIS: [W]hat I&#8217;ve always said is we need places in America where we&#8217;re all united and you don&#8217;t think about what might differentiate us, right? So if you&#8217;re in a stadium or you&#8217;re in an arena, if your team wins or your team scores, you turn around and high-five somebody. You don&#8217;t think about their race, their ethnicity, their religion, their sexuality, any of these identity politics buzzwords, you think about the fact that you share a team, you cut across tribal differences, and it brings you all together.
I heard you talking about Michael Jordan and the way that you felt in 1998, when he hit the jumper against the Utah Jazz — for Utah fans out there, he definitely pushed off by the way, before he hit the jumper — but he got away with it. But a good stat for you: In the most recent NBA finals, they averaged a little over 7 million people watching each of the games — LeBron James’ LA Lakers going up against the Miami Heat. When Jordan made that jumper, 37 million people were watching. 
Some people will say if people simply say, “Well, people won&#8217;t watch sports the same way.” No, no, no. Since 1998, when Jordan made that jumper, the NFL’s audience has gotten a lot bigger. The NBA&#8217;s has gone from nearly 37 million people to 7 million people. Where did those 30 million people go? Particularly when you consider the United States population has increased by 50 million since then. It’s crazy. 
OWENS: And you know, they were called racist and they were called white supremacists, and a lot of people just got sick of it and said, “You know what? This no longer makes me feel good. So why am I giving my money?” &#8230; You just want to turn off politics. You want to turn off the weekly stress, and they can no longer do that. And the argument that you hear on the Left, is that, “Okay, Well, you know what, Colin Kaepernick is just expressing himself and this is how the flag makes him feel and that should be okay.” But you realize that that argument kind of falls flat, because when people express themselves in the opposite direction. Case in point: Drew Brees. 
TRAVIS: Yes.
OWENS: When he made a very sound argument for standing for the national anthem, it didn&#8217;t garner the same reaction… [plays clip of Brees statement]
[BREES: I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/drew-brees-addresses-nfl-players-kneeling-in-2020-i-will-never-agree-with-anybody-disrespecting-the-flag-164423496.html">United States of America or our country</a>. Let me just tell you what I see or what I feel when the national anthem is played, and when I look at the flag of the United States. I envision my two grandfathers, who fought for this country during World War II, one in the Army and one in the Marine Corp. Both risking their lives to protect our country and to try to make our country and this world a better place. Every time I stand with my hand over my heart, looking at that flag, and singing the national anthem, that&#8217;s what I think about, and in many cases, it brings me to tears, thinking about all that has been sacrificed. Not just those in the military, but for that matter, those throughout the civil rights movements of the &#8217;60s, and everyone, and all that has been endured by so many people up until this point. And is everything right with our country right now? No, it&#8217;s not. We still have a long way to go, but I think what you do by standing there and showing respect to the flag with your hand over your heart, is it shows unity. It shows that we are all in this together, we can all do better and that we are all part of the solution.]
TRAVIS: For an athlete, let’s be honest — he’s not a professional politician, he doesn&#8217;t speak for a living — that is as flawless, to me, of an answer about why you stand for the national Anthem as could be given. He got killed for it. 
OWENS: Yeah, why did he get killed for this? This actually sounded like a uniting message. He brought up the civil rights movement, he brought up his grandfather, he said “This is what the flag means to me,” and he was representative of how so many people in America feel because, don&#8217;t forget, their sons come back home overseas under that flag in coffins. You know, when we have the military men that are going overseas and actually sacrificing their lives so that we can enjoy these games, right? And yet they said, “No, this is not okay.”
TRAVIS: He had teammates, Candace, who posted videos on social media crying because of what you just heard Drew Brees say. 
OWENS: Oh with friends like that, who needs enemies? 
TRAVIS: That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m saying! I mean, because his own teammates threw him under the bus. And you were talking, I think so perceptively, about Colin Kaepernick. The question that I&#8217;ve asked, and I think is a fantastic one, and I think people will enjoy as well: If Colin Kaepernick had taken a knee while playing for the San Francisco 49ers to protest gay marriage being legal, they would have demanded that he not be able to play for the San Francisco 49ers anymore. So when people say they&#8217;re supporting his First Amendment rights — that&#8217;s not true. They are supporting First Amendment rights of someone saying something they agree with, right? 
Because regardless of what you think — I don&#8217;t care what you think about gay marriage or abortion or guns or any other hot button issue. If the National Anthem is playing and you take a stand because you disagree with something about America, during the Anthem, then you are distracting from the reason why people are there, which is to celebrate the sport. And the reason the Anthem plays, in my mind, is to make us all recognize and understand the perspective of how fortunate we all are to be able to show up and care so deeply about something that, in the grand scheme of things, doesn&#8217;t really matter that much, right? Like who wins a game? I want my team to win. You, when you play sports, you want your team to win. But at the end of the day, the freedoms that we all share is the reason why we get to care about things like this.
OWENS: Yeah, and so the NFL was happy to have Colin Kaepernick have his freedom of speech. They were not happy for Drew Brees to have his freedom of speech. 
TRAVIS: Think about how crazy that is! That’s as flawless as you can be!
OWENS: He had to come back and he had to apologize. [Plays clip.]
[BREES: I would like to apologize to my friends, teammates, the City of New Orleans, the black community, NFL community and anyone I hurt with my comments yesterday. In speaking with some of you, it breaks my heart to know the pain I have caused. In an attempt to talk about respect, unity, and solidarity centered around the American flag and the national anthem, I made comments that were insensitive and completely missed the mark on the issues we are facing right now as a country. They lacked awareness and any type of compassion or empathy.]
OWENS: I picture somebody, like his PR agent just being like, “Read this script real quick.”
TRAVIS: It looks like a hostage video. 
OWENS: It is a hostage video. We are like a hostage. 
TRAVIS: We’re all hostage by the way, particularly in sports, right? &#8230;
OWENS: You know, it also sucks because you see him talking about the sacrifice that his grandparents made. 
TRAVIS: They fought Nazis, Candace! Not like people you call Nazis. Actual Nazis! 
OWENS: It would have been nice to see Drew Brees, you know, fight the actual fascists in this country who don&#8217;t want him to have freedom of speech. But he didn&#8217;t do that…

The Canceling Of America: Candace Owens, Clay Travis Go Off On Woke Sports 

Cancel Culture

Candace Owens

Clay Travis, a sports journalist who founded the popular website Outkick, said Friday that Facebook severely restricted traffic to his website last year after posting several articles positive of then-President Donald Trump.
Travis said the traffic throttling cost the website “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Travis said the ordeal began following an August 11, 2020 interview on his morning radio show “Outkick the Coverage” with Trump. The former president, Travis said, spent 25 minutes on the show and discussed a desire for college sports to return in the fall. After the interview, Outkick published several articles based on the comments from Trump, which painted the then-president in a positive light.
“Our site traffic soared that Tuesday, setting new records as our news-breaking interview with the president of the United States reverberated across the media world,” Travis <a href="https://www.outkick.com/clays-house-judiciary-testimony-on-big-tech-and-cancel-culture/">wrote</a> on Outkick. “But the next day — and for the next week — our site traffic crashed.”
Travis said Facebook “killed” the website’s traffic, removing 68% of its Facebook users and 76% of its new users. The loss of traffic at first cost tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue, but over the next month, that amount ballooned to hundreds of thousands of dollars, he wrote.
“According to our tech team, nothing in our posting schedule or article topics had changed at all. The only plausible explanation for Facebook’s sudden decision to restrict our traffic was the Trump interview. Because we’d featured favorable coverage of President Trump and his opinions on college football, Facebook punished us,” Travis wrote.
Travis further said he and the rest of Outkick haven’t discussed the issue previously because they worried Facebook would punish them for doing so, a fear common among websites that don’t adhere to progressive ideology.
Travis dismissed suggestions that the traffic loss was due to anything other then censorship. When the website tested a theory by posting articles with Joe Biden’s name in the headline, they witnessed no adverse change to Facebook traffic. Further, the idea that readers simply weren’t interested in the Trump stories is belied by the fact that internal metrics “proved that readers arriving from outside Facebook’s walls consumed these articles even more than they did other articles on the site.” The argument Facebook might make about its algorithms was also discounted by Travis, who reminded readers that those algorithms “are designed by humans, and the results are monitored.”
“If we wrote too often and too favorably about the president, Facebook punished our site. If we didn’t mention Trump very much, our site traffic grew. The power of Facebook was clear and their message was too: if you post content we don’t like, your audience will vanish,” Travis wrote.
He added that Outkick had to make a decision about whether to suppress stories to avoid losing money on Facebook.
“But it’s not just Facebook. This is the power of Big Tech writ large. We are living in a new gilded age, where tech billionaires — maybe soon to be trillionaires — have more power than any elected official in the land. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, Apple’s Tim Cook, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have more power today than Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford ever did in the earliest days of the 20th century. These modern-day tech monopolists can pick presidential election winners, control our national debates, and decide whose voice is heard and whose voice is not heard. The Supreme Court no longer decides what the law of the First Amendment is in this country, these tech executives do. In practice, Big Tech controls the country,” Travis wrote. “And they control the country by deciding what you see.”
Travis on Friday testified before congress about Big Tech censorship, listing all the tech companies that booted Trump from their platforms. Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who also testified, followed up Travis’ remarks by added that Big Tech and mainstream media outlets regularly label the truth as “misinformation,” as they did with the New York Post’s story about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Clay Travis Says Facebook Crushed Traffic To His Website, OutKick, After Writing About Trump

Big Tech

Donald Trump

Social Media Censorship

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what a cesspit Twitter has become. What was once a promising platform for the immediate dissemination of information has devolved into the preferred hangout for bullies, bots, trolls and mean girls. And if you’re conservative? Twitter boss Jack Dorsey has higher regard for the debris in his quarantine beard than he does for you. Instead of offering a free and open forum for varying opinions, he’s more than happy to de-platform or shadow ban those with whom he and his henchmen disagree. 
Twitter is still where news breaks — but it’s usually broken beyond recognition, irretrievably tainted by the bias of the messenger. Sports Twitter is no different. It’s where you’ll find the pro-China, anti-Trump musings of LeBron James, or the anti-cop, pro-cop killer ruminations of Colin Kaepernick — not to mention the historically illiterate reflections of sportswriters for whom leftism is truth and history began yesterday.
All that said, I haven’t given up on Twitter quite yet. There are pockets of sanity, decency, cleverness and common sense that are worth seeking out. There are still those using it for good rather than evil. 
So, now that I’ve thoroughly denounced and discredited the forum, let me present 10 sports figures who are worth following on the world’s worst social media platform (except for all the others). 
Jay Bilas (<a href="https://twitter.com/JayBilas">@JayBilas</a>)
Yes, he’s opinionated, but college basketball’s most intelligent analyst backs up his opinions in a reasoned, coherent fashion — not much flamethrowing, but a lot of common sense. Gets extra points for his frequent beclowning of the NCAA. His signature “I gotta go to work” tweets showcasing rapper and urban philosopher Young Jeezy are a morning source of inspiration. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Prеacher told me I need to live my lifе with grace. Lawyer wanted twenty before he even touched the case. I gotta go to work.
&mdash; Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) <a href="https://twitter.com/JayBilas/status/1330466135154810881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 22, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
David Feherty (<a href="https://twitter.com/Fehertwit">@Fehertwit</a>)
Golf’s wittiest analyst has provided much of the soundtrack to the Tiger Woods era. His compelling personal story — he’s overcome addiction and mental illness — adds to his Twitter appeal. He’s also a tireless supporter of the troops defending his adopted home country. 
Kirk Herbstreit (<a href="https://twitter.com/KirkHerbstreit">@KirkHerbstreit</a>)
College football’s top analyst was basically run out of Columbus for not being an Ohio State homer, while simultaneously being accused of Buckeye homerism by OSU haters. A tough spot to be in, but one that Herbie has handled with aplomb by deftly refuting both sides. Plus, the guy just knows and loves college football.  
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Such a GREAT message for people to hear. Especially hope kids see this-feel like many kids feel such pressure to be perfect in all as aspects of their lives. It’s not realistic-being frustrated and more determined after a failure is a huge life lesson. Have a great weekend. <a href="https://t.co/N59VuXQqGv">https://t.co/N59VuXQqGv</a>
&mdash; Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) <a href="https://twitter.com/KirkHerbstreit/status/1324701722133045254?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Chad Johnson (<a href="https://twitter.com/ochocinco">@ochocinco</a>)
His career as a social media influencer may have eclipsed his former career as a highly productive, if eccentric, wide receiver. That eccentricity only adds to his Twitter appeal, and he knows it. The erstwhile Chad Ochocinco may be the funniest athlete on Twitter.
Lane Kiffin (<a href="https://twitter.com/Lane_Kiffin">@Lane_Kiffin</a>)
The well-traveled, oft-reviled college football coach has used humor to ingratiate himself with college football fans, who are now more apt to forgive his professional and personal shortcomings thanks to his amusing Twitter presence, which proves that he’s in on the joke. Example: Fined $25,000 for criticizing the refs, Kiffin took to Twitter to try to figure out how many pennies it would take to pay the fine.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Where can I find 25,000 pennies??
&mdash; Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) <a href="https://twitter.com/Lane_Kiffin/status/1320904303838699520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Phil Mickelson (<a href="https://twitter.com/PhilMickelson">@PhilMIckelson</a>)
Lefty has the hang of this Twitter thing, using his 280 characters for humorous self-deprecation and witty observations. His posts far outshine the sanitized, sterile, corporate output of his rival, Tiger Woods.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Just when I think I’ve arrived ( I was the answer to tonight’s final Jeopardy question) I realize I still have a ways to go (they all got it wrong ):
&mdash; Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) <a href="https://twitter.com/PhilMickelson/status/1309674188534210560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 26, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Shaquille O’Neal (<a href="https://twitter.com/SHAQ">@SHAQ)</a>
Folk hero, pitchman nonpareil, and, as he puts it in his Twitter tagline, very quotatious. Shaq uses the platform to promote causes he supports and companies he does business with, but he does it with a light touch that belies his Paul Bunyan frame. 
Tim Tebow (<a href="https://twitter.com/TimTebow">@TimTebow</a>)
Decency hasn’t been entirely eradicated from Twitter. Exhibit A is Tim Tebow, who might just be the most encouraging presence on the internet. Just don’t dig through his mentions and replies, where the haters reveal themselves. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Sometimes it seems easier to just give up on people, or to shut down emotionally ourselves. This is just fear talking. 
God is bigger than our greatest fears.
&mdash; Tim Tebow (@TimTebow) <a href="https://twitter.com/TimTebow/status/1330640839605882889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 22, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Clay Travis (<a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis">@ClayTravis</a>)
Whoever thought that a lawyer who voted twice for Obama could become the face of the counterculture center/right? With his partner Jason Whitlock, the “Outkick the Coverage” founder is a lonely but essential voice of reason in the monolithically leftist world of sports journalism. Travis’ stubborn pushback against the COVID fearmongers, whom he has dubbed “coronabros”, earns him extra points.
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There hasn’t been a single case of covid spreading from one team to another during a game in the entire world. Not one. Wearing masks during games is absolute idiocy. <a href="https://t.co/oqa7c4dAiS">https://t.co/oqa7c4dAiS</a>
&mdash; Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1329894178076168198?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Jose Canseco (<a href="https://twitter.com/JoseCanseco">@JoseCanseco</a>)
There’s a place for the insane in this world, and it’s on Twitter. Canseco is the entertaining kind of insane, covering topics ranging from vampirism to Bigfoot to aliens to steroids in sports. He’s a leftist of sorts, but he has enough disdain for both sides that we’ll allow it. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
all we need is a dollar from everyone in this country who wants change to finance my running for president
&mdash; Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoseCanseco/status/1269025007797071874?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Reebok Classic Breakout

10 Sports Figures You Should Be Following On Twitter

Chad Ochocinco

Jay Bilas

Jose Canseco

Kirk Herbstreit

Phil Mickelson

Shaq

Tim Tebow

Famed sports analyst Clay Travis said on Monday evening that he has heard from a &#8220;staggering&#8221; number of people in sports media who are voting for President Donald Trump but are afraid to voice their support on social media because they fear the online mob.
&#8220;The number of men &amp; women in sports media, of all races, who reached out to say they are voting for @realDonaldTrump , but are afraid to say so on social media because of the Twitter blue checkmark brigade in sports is staggering,&#8221; Travis wrote on Twitter. &#8220;How many people in all industries are like this?&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The number of men &amp; women in sports media, of all races, who reached out to say they are voting for <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>, but are afraid to say so on social media because of the Twitter blue checkmark brigade in sports is staggering. How many people in all industries are like this?
&mdash; Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1323424184941322240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;That’s the most fascinating thing about this election to me, the quiet number of supporters. The most rebellious thing you can do is vote Trump because Trump has made the Republican Party the counter culture this election. It’s wild,&#8221; Travis continued. &#8220;Is it enough to win the election? I don’t know. But I think it’s going to be close and Pennsylvania is likely to decide it all. See you at the polls tomorrow!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Is it enough to win the election? I don’t know. But I think it’s going to be close and Pennsylvania is likely to decide it all. See you at the polls tomorrow!
&mdash; Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1323425231910936580?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Late last week, Travis announced that he was voting for Trump in a column posted on his website, saying that he has considered himself to be a Democrat for much of his adult life.
&#8220;I want the government telling me less, not more, about what I can and can’t do every single day. My political beliefs are not new — if anything I believe the exact same things now for the most part that I did when I began voting for president in 2000 — it’s that the world around me has changed,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.outkick.com/why-im-voting-for-donald-trump/">wrote</a>. &#8220;The Democratic party has moved in a massive way towards the far left wing over the past decade. They’ve embraced the idea of reparations, defunding the police, and of labeling our country systemically racist and unfair. I think all of these ideas, frankly, are madness.&#8221;
Travis listed the following five reasons that he is voting for Trump:
<ol>
<li>We need to end cancel culture and allow a robust marketplace of ideas to flourish on our social media platforms.</li>
<li>We can’t shut down the country’s economy again because of COVID.</li>
<li>I believe in confronting China as aggressively as possible.</li>
<li>I believe in keeping nine justices on the Supreme Court.</li>
<li>I believe in American exceptionalism and a capitalistic democracy, and I support our police and our military absolutely.</li>
</ol>
Robert Cahaly, head of Trafalgar Group, a polling firm that accurately predicted the outcome of the 2016 election and numerous other elections that mainstream polling firms got wrong, says that he believes that Trump will win again in 2020 because he believes conservatives are not comfortable telling pollsters who they are going to vote for.
“I just think people are not what they say they are, ever,” Cahaly said. “We cannot eliminate the social desirability bias, we can only minimize it.”
“There’s a lot of hidden Trump votes out there,” Cahaly said. “Will Biden win the popular vote? Probably. I’m not even debating that. But I think Trump is likely to have an Electoral College victory.”

Clay Travis: ‘Staggering’ Number Of People In Sports Media Are Voting Trump, Afraid To Say It Online

Fox News’ viewership rocketed above the NBA’s earlier this week, sparking debate over whether the sports league’s increasing embrace of social justice messaging is turning off fans.
Outkick founder Clay Travis pointed out the stark difference between the number of people who tuned in to Fox News to watch hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham on Tuesday instead of the NBA.
“Head to head on Monday night on cable: Tucker Carlson viewership: 4.5 million. Lakers-Nuggets viewership: 1.5 million. Head-to-head on Tuesday night: Sean Hannity: 4.6 million, Blazers-Mavs: 930k. Yikes, NBA,” Travis tweeted, citing data from <a href="http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-top-150-tuesday-cable-originals-network-finals-8-11-2020.html">Show Buzz Daily</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Head to head on Monday night on cable: Tucker Carlson viewership: 4.5 million. Lakers-Nuggets viewership: 1.5 million. Head-to-head on Tuesday night: Sean Hannity: 4.6 million, Blazers-Mavs: 930k. Yikes, NBA.
&mdash; Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1293907337002901506?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Mark Cuban, who owns the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, took offense at Travis pointing out the numbers. Cuban claimed that Fox’s viewership spiked on Tuesday because presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden announced his vice-presidential pick, Sen. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/3-things-you-need-to-know-about-kamala-harris-bidens-vp-pick">Kamala Harris</a> (D-CA), earlier in the day.
“Lol. You do realize that was the day @JoeBiden picked @KamalaHarris? Nothing makes a Fox News viewer want to get lied to more. And while we are at it, explain why advertisers pay 3x or more for a prime time @Nba spot over a Fox News Spot? And who has had advertiser boycotts?” Cuban tweeted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Lol. You do realize that was the day <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JoeBiden</a> picked <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KamalaHarris</a> ? Nothing makes a Fox News viewer want to get lied to more. And while we are at it, explain why advertisers pay 3x or more for a prime time <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Nba</a> spot over a Fox News Spot? And who has had advertiser boycotts ? <a href="https://t.co/Z5og6iPNuv">https://t.co/Z5og6iPNuv</a>
&mdash; Mark Cuban (@mcuban) <a href="https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/1293949836123766784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Cuban also said that “conservative media,” of which he suggested Travis is a part, obsessively covers the NBA while at the same time claiming that nobody cares about the league.
“Mark, I’m not ‘conservative media’ I’m ‘call out blatant hypocrisies when a league claims to care about human rights, but takes billions of dollars from modern day Nazis’ media. You just can’t tell the difference because NBA media is filled with far left wing ballwashers,” Travis responded.
“Unlike the NBA &amp; China, however, the first amendment is alive and well on @outkick. So @mcuban has an open invite to come on my show and explain how he reconciles protesting for human rights while taking money from modern day Nazis. I’d love to hear him explain it,” Travis said.
Travis also delved into why he thinks the NBA is losing viewership in a video posted to Twitter on Wednesday. Travis said that the league’s embrace of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nba-to-paint-black-lives-matter-on-sides-of-disney-courts-allow-players-to-put-social-justice-messages-on-jerseys">social justice</a> messaging while seemingly ignoring widespread human rights abuses by the Chinese government has turned off much of the NBA’s fan base.
“The NBA ratings, they’re tanking, alright? The NBA can try to argue that they aren’t, but if you compare the NBA ratings with every other sport that has come back, they have collapsed. And it’s because they’ve gone full-bore political,” Travis said. “The hypocrisies are mind-blowing, okay? And the NBA is the most hypocritical league probably in the history of American sports in the 21st century and the reason why people are tuning out is because the American public in general is not stupid. They see this hypocrisy and they’ve peaced out on the NBA.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Iowa parents blast Big Ten, Dame, Washington Post story, coronavirus positivity, SEC coaches feuding, top PG to Vols <a href="https://t.co/t7k5eJZcdL">https://t.co/t7k5eJZcdL</a>
&mdash; Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1294350277726806016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lebron-on-trump-rejecting-watching-nba-were-not-sad-about-losing-his-viewership">LeBron On Trump Rejecting Watching NBA: We’re Not ‘Sad About Losing His Viewership’</a>

Fox News Smashes NBA Ratings ‘Because They’ve Gone Full-Bore Political,’ Sportscaster Says

Fox News

Mark Cuban

Ratings

ESPN continues to hemorrhage viewers, not due to a lack of sports amid the coronavirus pandemic, but because the network has become almost entirely political over the past few weeks.
Sports journalist and Fox Sports Radio host Clay Travis recently <a href="https://outkick.com/espn-hits-all-time-41-year-ratings-low-as-wokecenter-on-steroids-takes-over/">wrote</a> that the network’s 41-year ratings low was not due to the coronavirus lockdown, but the network’s pivot to “24/7” politics. Writing as his website Outkick the Coverage, Travis explained that in the past several weeks, ESPN has become “more left wing than MSNBC and CNN combined” and “completely abandoned sports coverage.” He wrote that the network’s studio programming, which he called “WokeCenter on steroids 24/7,” reached “full on crisis mode level awfulness”:
<blockquote>“First Take” was the highest rated ESPN studio show all day, posting just 211,000 viewers. That was the 93rd highest rated program on all of cable. <a href="http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-top-150-wednesday-cable-originals-network-finals-6-10-2020.html">Putting those numbers into context compared to other shows airing the same day on cable</a>: “Nick Cannon Wild and Out 15” on VH1 had 50% more viewers than ESPN’s top show. “Smuggler: Secret Stash” on National Geographic doubled First Take. Not to be outdone, “Craig of the Creek” on the Cartoon Network posted 200,000 more viewers.
Hell, even “Jay Leno’s Garage” on CNBC soundly defeated First Take.
Jay. Leno’s. Garage.
So did something called “Ant Anstead Master Mechanic” on a channel called Motor Trend, which I didn’t even know was a cable channel, much less a show.</blockquote>
In addition to “First Take,” other shows appeared to hit lows last Wednesday. “Get Up” had 136,000 viewers on June 10. Travis explained that the show has had terrible ratings days in the past, but that was the lowest he could find in the program’s history. Even SportsCenter viewership cratered last week, the highest rated show all day had 168,000 viewers. Travis wrote this was the lowest rating he had ever seen for that program as well.
Even “The Jump” suffered last week, with only 112,000 viewers despite the announcement that the NBA was returning. “Highly Questionable” brought in just 151,000 viewers, while “Around the Horn” had just 175,000 viewers, both of which were the lowest ratings Travis had seen.
As Travis explained, even though sports viewing is down all around from a lack of sports, ESPN’s ratings lows are something worse.
“There are many serious things going on in our country right now and the vast majority of sports fans know where to find news about serious things going on in the world. That’s why cable news ratings have skyrocketed. But sports fans don’t want their sports commentators to be weighing in on non-sports news on sports networks,” Travis wrote. “The ratings are clear about that. And the ratings are clear that sports fans just want to watch games as well. Twitter gets happy when athletes and sports commentators weigh in on non-sports topics, but Twitter, as always, isn’t the real world. It’s a distorted funhouse mirror carnival version of the real world. The data is clear: sports fans want sports.”
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

ESPN Hits Ratings Low, Sports Journalist Blames ‘Wokecenter On Steroids’ Not Coronavirus

Wokeness

On Tuesday, NBA All-Star LeBron James weighed in on the major league baseball cheating scandal involving the Houston Astros, who have been accused of stealing the 2017 World Series title because they used electronic communications to steal signs. James lectured MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred for not doing more to address the situation, prompting sports commentator Clay Travis to remind James that James had no moral high ground to stand on after he had defended the brutally repressive government of Communist China when Houston Rockets&#8217; General Manager Daryl Morey stood up for Hong Kong&#8217;s democracy against Communist China.
James tweeted:
<blockquote>Listen I know I don’t play baseball but I am in Sports and I know if someone cheated me out of winning the title and I found out about it I would be F*^king irate! I mean like uncontrollable about what I would/could do! Listen here baseball commissioner listen to your players speaking today about how disgusted, mad, hurt, broken, etc etc about this. Literally the ball is in your court (or should I say field) and you need to fix this for the sake of Sports!</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Listen I know I don’t play baseball but I am in Sports and I know if someone cheated me out of winning the title and I found out about it I would be F*^king irate! I mean like uncontrollable about what I would/could do! Listen here baseball commissioner listen to your&#8230;..
&mdash; LeBron James (@KingJames) <a href="https://twitter.com/KingJames/status/1229894652234321920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2020</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
players speaking today about how disgusted, mad, hurt, broken, etc etc about this. Literally the ball(⚾️) is in your court(or should I say field) and you need to fix this for the sake of Sports! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JustMyThoughtsComingFromASportsJunkieRegardlessMyOwnSportIPlay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JustMyThoughtsComingFromASportsJunkieRegardlessMyOwnSportIPlay</a>
&mdash; LeBron James (@KingJames) <a href="https://twitter.com/KingJames/status/1229895410426118144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Travis blasted:
<blockquote>LeBron, as someone who is in sports what do you think about a league, players and coaches that refuse to endorse democracy and the first amendment because it’s bad for business, yet constantly lecture us about politics here in America. Thanks, bud.
I find it wildly hypocritical how LeBron is outspoken on sports issues that don’t impact his bottom line at all. Yet totally silent when his bottom line is threatened in any way. Says nothing on China. Weighs in to try and make the NFL and MLB look bad when he can.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
LeBron, as someone who is in sports what do you think about a league, players and coaches that refuse to endorse democracy and the first amendment because it’s bad for business, yet constantly lecture us about politics here in America. Thanks, bud. <a href="https://t.co/CemDzXEFQB">https://t.co/CemDzXEFQB</a>
&mdash; Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1229906244611256320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2020</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I find it wildly hypocritical how LeBron is outspoken on sports issues that don’t impact his bottom line at all. Yet totally silent when his bottom line is threatened in any way. Says nothing on China. Weighs in to try and make the NFL and MLB look bad when he can.
&mdash; Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1229908011151437825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Morey had tweeted, “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.” The Chinese consulate in Houston <a href="http://houston.china-consulate.org/eng/sgxw/t1705494.htm">snapped,</a> “We are deeply shocked by the erroneous comments on Hong Kong made by Mr. Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets. We have lodged representations and expressed strong dissatisfaction with the Houston Rockets, and urged the latter to correct the error and take immediate concrete measures to eliminate the adverse impact.”
Though Morey deleted the tweet after the blowback, the Chinese Basketball Association said they would <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/10/6/20901828/daryl-morey-hong-kong-china-houston-rockets-tweet-controversy">sever ties</a> with the Rockets.
NBA chief communications officer Mike Bass stated:
<blockquote>We recognize that the views expressed by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable. While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA, the values of the league support individuals’ educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them. We have great respect for the history and culture of China and hope that sports and the NBA can be used as a unifying force to bridge cultural divides and bring people together.</blockquote>
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lebron-bows-to-communist-china-pro-hong-kong-advocates-not-educated-negative-things-come-with-free-speech">The Daily Wire</a> reported, James echoed the NBA, saying:
<blockquote>We all talk about this freedom of speech, yes, we all do have freedom of speech but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you&#8217;re not thinking about others and you&#8217;re only thinking about yourself. I don&#8217;t want to get into a &#8230; feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn&#8217;t educated on the situation at hand and he spoke. So many people could have been harmed, not only financially, but physically, emotionally, and spiritually. So, just be careful what we tweet and say and what we do even though, yes, we do have freedom of speech there can be a lot of negatives that comes with that too.</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hong-kong-protestors-lebron-james-he-supports-totalitarianism-1247621">The Hollywood Reporter</a> noted the backlash to James’ statements from the protestors in Hong Kong who were putting their lives on the line for democracy:
<blockquote>The online platform LIHKG, the forum favored by Hong Kong&#8217;s protestors, was awash with criticism and handwringing Tuesday. &#8220;Has he been brainwashed by the Chinese Communist Party&#8217;s fake news or has he been bought?&#8221; wrote one user. &#8220;I really cannot believe that someone from the U.S. would not cherish the precious freedom of speech they have,&#8221; added another.</blockquote>
James’ <a href="https://twitter.com/KingJames/status/952902403422150657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E952902403422150657&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodreporter.com%2Fnews%2Fhong-kong-protestors-lebron-james-he-supports-totalitarianism-">tweet</a> from Martin Luther King Day in 2018 honoring King was mocked by another LIHKG user, who wrote, &#8220;Martin Luther King Jr. fought for civil rights, but LeBron James supports totalitarianism?&#8221;

Los Angeles Lakers v Denver Nuggets

LeBron James Lectures MLB Commissioner About Ethics. Clay Travis Blasts Back On James, The NBA, And China

LeBron James

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