American sports journalist
Richard Clay Travis
(born April 6, 1979) is an American
writer
,
lawyer
, radio host and television analyst, and founder of
OutKick
.
As a political commentator, he and
Buck Sexton
host
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
, a three-hour weekday
conservative talk
show which debuted on June 21, 2021 as the replacement of
The Rush Limbaugh Show
on many
radio stations
.
[1]
Travis describes himself as a "radical
moderate
" and claims to have been a lifelong
Democratic voter
before the
election of Donald Trump
in 2016.
[2]
Early life
[
edit
]
In 1997, Travis graduated from
Martin Luther King Magnet at Pearl High School
in
Nashville
.
[
citation needed
]
He graduated from
George Washington University
in
Washington, D.C.
, followed by
Vanderbilt University Law School
in Nashville.
[
citation needed
]
Career
[
edit
]
Travis originally worked as a lawyer in the
U.S. Virgin Islands
and Tennessee.
[3]
He attracted media attention in late 2004 with his personal blog written while he was living in the U.S. Virgin Islands and working for Dudley, Topper and Feuerzeig.
[4]
A
Tennessee Titans
fan, Travis was unable to get
NFL Sunday Ticket
, the satellite TV package to watch
NFL
games in the islands, and went on a "pudding strike", eating only pudding every day for 50 days, with the goal of forcing
DirecTV
to carry the package in the Virgin Islands.
[5]
The effort failed, but he blogged about the experience and received media attention.
[6]
Travis began writing online for
CBS Sports
in September 2005, which for the first year was not paid.
[7]
In 2006, Travis gave up his law practice for good.
[8]
Later, while writing for CBS, Travis began working on a book,
Dixieland Delight
, where he visited the
football
stadiums of the 12 then-current members of the
Southeastern Conference
.
[3]
[a]
After leaving CBS, Travis became a writer and editor at
Deadspin
, and then a columnist at
FanHouse
.
[7]
Outkick the coverage
[
edit
]
After FanHouse was merged into
Sporting News
in 2011, Travis founded Outkickthecoverage.com.
[7]
The website later became one of the most visited
college football
sites on the web.
[8]
While there, he continued developing his reputation for occasionally "contrarian" opinions.
[9]
In 2008, Travis worked out at D1 Sports Training with
NFL
prospects preparing for the
NFL Draft
. He later wrote a ten-part serial about the experience which he titled
Rough Draft
.
[10]
In 2010, The
Nashville Scene
named Travis "Best Sports Radio Host We Love To Hate" in the publication's "Best of Nashville" issue.
[
citation needed
]
He later became a co-host of a sports radio talk show,
3HL,
on
Nashville
's
104.5 The Zone
with Brent Dougherty and
Blaine Bishop
.
[11]
He also hosted a national sports radio show on
NBC Sports
.
[7]
In 2023, the
YouTube
channel for
OutKick
hit 1,000,000 subscribers.
Fox Sports
[
edit
]
In 2014, Travis resigned from his role on
3HL
[11]
and was hired by Fox Sports for its weekly
college football
Saturday pre-game show.
[8]
In 2015, he signed a deal with Fox Sports to license his entire sports media brand under Fox Sports, including
Outkick
the Coverage, which was folded into Fox Sports' website.
[12]
He also started a national weekly television show, started a daily
Outkick the Show
broadcast on Periscope and Facebook, and began a national radio show with
Fox Sports Radio
in 2016.
[13]
In 2018 Travis began a daily sports gambling TV show for
Fox Sports
on
Fox Sports 1
. The show aired for four seasons before ending in 2022. Since 2021 he has also been on Fox Sports’s
Big Noon Kickoff
college football pregame show.
Travis was called out by
DeMarcus Cousins
for a 2010 prediction he had made that Cousins would be arrested within the next five years.
[14]
[15]
In response, Travis offered to donate to a charity of Cousins' choosing.
[14]
[15]
Radio
[
edit
]
Travis began a daily sports radio show on Nashville’s
104.5 The Zone
, 3HL, in 2010. After leaving 3HL, in 2016 he began the “Outkick the Coverage” radio show for
Fox Sports Radio
nationwide mornings from 6-9 am et. Travis left that show in May 2021, when it was announced Travis and
Buck Sexton
would be taking over
Rush Limbaugh
's time slot on
Premiere Networks
.
[16]
That show debuted on June 21, 2021.
Political views
[
edit
]
A self-described "radical moderate" who is
pro-choice
and against the
death penalty
, Travis said he voted for former
President
Barack Obama
twice and previously never voted
Republican
. In 2016, Travis voted for
Gary Johnson
of the
Libertarian Party
.
[2]
As an undergrad, Travis interned for
U.S. Representative
Bob Clement
for four years while in college at George Washington University.
[17]
In 2000, he worked on
Al Gore's presidential campaign
.
[2]
Travis was hired to work on
U.S. Representative Jim Cooper's
2002 congressional campaign but was fired for wrecking Cooper's wife's car.
[17]
In August 2016, Travis criticized his alma mater, Vanderbilt University, for planning to remove the word "Confederate" from its historic
Confederate Memorial Hall
, comparing the move to actions taken by "Middle Eastern terrorists."
[18]
Consequently, Travis lost a $3,000 promotion deal he had with
Jack Daniel's
.
[18]
Travis said online that a Jack Daniel's representative decided that his Twitter commentary on the statue "brings (the company) into public disrepute."
[19]
On September 15, 2017, Travis appeared as a guest on
CNN
, with anchor
Brooke Baldwin
, to discuss free speech, specifically whether ESPN personality
Jemele Hill
should be fired for calling Donald Trump a "white supremacist" and stating that police officers are "modern-day slave catchers" on her personal Twitter page. Travis stated that it would be bad policy on ESPN's part to fire Hill for her private comments, just as it was bad policy when ESPN fired
Curt Schilling
for comments he made regarding transgender bathrooms on his personal Facebook page. Travis received criticism for using a phrase he commonly used on his radio show when he said "...I'm a First Amendment absolutist – the only two things I 100 percent believe in are the First Amendment and boobs..."
[20]
Baldwin cut the interview short and later responded, "when I first heard 'boobs' from a grown man on national television (in 2017!!!), my initial thought bubble was: 'Did I hear that correctly??..."
[21]
On September 20, 2017, Travis announced he was considering running as an
Independent
for
U.S. Senator
of
Tennessee
in the
2018 election
if incumbent
Bob Corker
decided not to run. Travis also stated that he believed with his name recognition he "could beat anyone in the state" and would make both major parties "incredibly nervous."
[22]
The following week, Senator Corker announced he would not be running for re-election,
[23]
but Travis did not enter the race.
During the early months of the
COVID-19 pandemic
, Travis repeatedly downplayed the severity of the disease,
[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
calling it "overrated",
[28]
claiming that it is less severe than the
seasonal flu
,
[28]
projecting that fewer than several hundred would die of the disease in the US,
[24]
that victims of the disease probably have been "killed a month or two earlier" than they would have been otherwise,
[29]
and stated that the mortality rate for those under 80 and without pre-existing conditions is "virtually zero".
[24]
He suggested that some advocates for mitigation measures to slow the spread were "rooting for the virus to triumph".
[30]
[31]
On October 30, 2020, Travis said that he would be voting for
Donald Trump
in the
2020 United States presidential election
. He said it would be the first time he had ever voted for a Republican for
president
.
[32]
On April 15, 2024, Travis suggested via
Twitter
that New Yorkers sympathetic to
Donald Trump
try to be selected for jury service and hide their sympathies during the selection process for the former president's "Hush Money" trial to ensure that he is not convicted; it was pointed out by media observers and others, including Representative
Eric Swalwell
, that this post could be considered
jury tampering
.
[33]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Travis' wife, Lara, is a fellow
Vanderbilt Law School
graduate and a former
Tennessee Titans
cheerleader. They have three sons together.
[6]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Dixieland Delight: A Football Season on the Road in the Southeastern Conference
. HarperCollins, Inc. 2007.
ISBN
978-0-06-143124-1
.
- Man: The Book
. Citadel. 2008.
ISBN
978-0-8065-2871-7
.
- On Rocky Top: A Front-Row Seat to the End of an Era
. HarperCollins, Inc. 2009.
ISBN
978-0-06-171926-4
.
- Republicans Buy Sneakers Too: How the Left Is Ruining Sports with Politics
. Broadside Books. 2018.
ISBN
978-0062878533
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Clay Travis & Buck Sexton To Take Over Rush Limbuagh Show"
.
RadioInsight
. May 27, 2021
. Retrieved
May 28,
2021
.
- ^
a
b
c
Travis, Clay (August 14, 2017).
"Yes, I've Turned Down TV Show(s)"
.
Outkick the Coverage
. Archived from
the original
on September 29, 2017
. Retrieved
September 29,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
"Clay Travis goes from couch crasher to sports media celeb"
.
USA TODAY
. Retrieved
October 15,
2015
.
- ^
"Transcript of Clay Travis interview"
.
The Tennessean
.
- ^
"Give Him Tv Football Or Give Him Pudding!"
.
tribunedigital-orlandosentinel
. Retrieved
October 15,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
Bliss, Jessica.
"10/10/2004: Clay Travis protests lack of Titans on TV a spoonful at a time"
.
The Tennessean
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"FOX Sports 1 Takes On ESPN With Unique Talent That Includes Clay Travis"
.
Forbes
. Retrieved
October 15,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Sports Media Personality Clay Travis Creates Multi-Million Dollar Brand"
.
Forbes
. Retrieved
October 15,
2015
.
- ^
"Clay Travis re-signs with Fox Sports to expand his "sports media brand"
"
.
Awful Announcing
. June 25, 2015
. Retrieved
October 15,
2015
.
- ^
AOL.
"Sports News & latest headlines from AOL"
.
- ^
a
b
Travis, Clay.
"Signing off 3HL tomorrow, and radio ... for now"
.
- ^
"Clay Travis finds new home with Fox Sports megadeal"
.
The Tennessean
. Retrieved
October 15,
2015
.
- ^
"Clay Travis to launch national college football TV show"
.
The Tennessean
. Retrieved
October 15,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
"DeMarcus Cousins trolls writer who said he would be arrested"
.
SI.com
. January 30, 2015
. Retrieved
October 15,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
"NBA player destroys writer who 5 years ago said there was a 100% chance he would be arrested within 5 years"
.
Business Insider
. Retrieved
October 15,
2015
.
- ^
Steele, Anne (May 27, 2021).
"WSJ News Exclusive | Rush Limbaugh's Radio Show to Be Taken Over by Clay Travis and Buck Sexton"
.
Wall Street Journal
.
ISSN
0099-9660
. Retrieved
May 27,
2021
.
- ^
a
b
Rau, Nate (July 1, 2014).
"Clay Travis: couch crasher to sports media celebrity"
.
The Tennessean
. Retrieved
September 29,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
Tamburin, Adam (August 17, 2016).
"Jack Daniel's nixes Clay Travis deal over 'Confederate' controversy"
.
The Tennessean
. Retrieved
August 18,
2016
.
- ^
"Jack Daniel's nixes Clay Travis deal over 'Confederate' controversy"
.
The Tennessean
.
- ^
Concha, Joe. "
Radio host on CNN: I believe in 'the First Amendment and boobs'
".
The Hill
. September 15, 2017.
- ^
"Brooke Baldwin: Speaking like this to women in 2017? No way"
. September 16, 2017.
- ^
Conradis, Brandon (September 20, 2017).
"Sports radio host and ESPN critic mulls Senate run in Tennessee"
.
The Hill
. Retrieved
September 29,
2017
.
- ^
Collins, Michael (September 26, 2017).
"Sen. Bob Corker will not seek re-election next year"
.
The Tennessean
. Retrieved
September 29,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
c
"The Ballad of Clay Travis"
.
The Bulwark
. April 10, 2020
. Retrieved
December 14,
2020
.
- ^
Kalaf, Samer.
"Fox Sports pundit Clay Travis is spreading the worst possible coronavirus advice"
.
The Outline
. Retrieved
December 14,
2020
.
- ^
Strauss, Ben (September 3, 2020).
"Trump and the right loved Clay Travis. The fight over college football sealed their bond"
.
The Washington Post
. Retrieved
December 13,
2020
.
- ^
Silverman, Robert (July 26, 2020).
"Inside the Right-Wing Sports Site Pushing COVID Trutherism"
.
The Daily Beast
. Retrieved
December 14,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
OutKick [@Outkick] (February 25, 2020).
"
"I believe the coronavirus is overrated and we are overreacting to it because it is a new and novel fear. The flu happens every year and affects far more people than the coronavirus does." -- @ClayTravis https://t.co/T8fpehP91A"
(
Tweet
)
. Retrieved
January 9,
2021
– via
Twitter
.
- ^
Travis, Clay [@ClayTravis]
(June 8, 2020).
"I suspect data at end of the year will reflect the coronavirus killed people a month or two earlier than they otherwise might have died in spring. But death rates for rest of summer will be lower than normal. And that total deaths in 2020 will be very similar to past five years"
(
Tweet
)
. Retrieved
January 9,
2021
– via
Twitter
.
- ^
Travis, Clay [@ClayTravis]
(March 28, 2020).
"It's truly astounding how many coronavirus bros there are on social media who are rooting for the virus to triumph and refuse to accept any positive numbers at all. I've never seen anything like it. It's wild"
(
Tweet
)
. Retrieved
January 9,
2021
– via
Twitter
.
- ^
"Clay Vs. Karen Rovell Boils Over After Karen Starts Rooting For Corona ? Again"
.
OutKick
. July 13, 2020
. Retrieved
December 14,
2020
.
- ^
"Clay: Why I'm Voting For Donald Trump"
.
OutKick
. October 30, 2020
. Retrieved
October 31,
2020
.
- ^
"Swalwell accuses Clay Travis of jury tampering in Trump Trial"
.
The Hill
. April 15, 2024
. Retrieved
April 15,
2024
.
External links
[
edit
]