Speaker 1: Welcome in Clay Travis Wins and Losses. We are back
Speaker 1: up and running with some of our long form podcast
Speaker 1: now that the Clay and Buck Show is is rolling.
Speaker 1: I'm not on the road for the entire fall, not
Speaker 1: to complain, but fifteen or sixteen straight weekends in a
Speaker 1: row and a college football venue, it's it's a lot
Speaker 1: of days in a row to work. We bring in now,
Speaker 1: Senator Marco Rubio. I know he is one of the
Speaker 1: foremost fans of college and pro football, if I'm not
Speaker 1: mistaken in the world of politics in general, Senator from Florida. Now,
Speaker 1: actually start here because there's a fantastic article that one
Speaker 1: of our writers, I believe, Armando Sugaro did an out
Speaker 1: kick about your son and his high school football career.
Speaker 1: And I know you're a diehard Dolphins fan, so I
Speaker 1: want to start here and just get your read on this.
Speaker 1: I am a diehard Tennessee Titans fan, and after the
Speaker 1: loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the playoffs, Senator, I'm
Speaker 1: over forty years old and I could sleep that night
Speaker 1: because I was so upset over the performance over the
Speaker 1: three interceptions. I know you're a diehard Dolphins fan. What's
Speaker 1: the worst loss that you can remember where you thought
Speaker 1: to yourself, I'm way too old to care as much
Speaker 1: as I do about something that I don't have any
Speaker 1: direct impact on. Does that still get you in the gut?
Speaker 1: Sometimes Dolphins losses, do you remember one where you're like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is unbelievable. Well, you know, I
Speaker 1: think what happens is like anything else, you build immunity
Speaker 1: of these things, just like you build this immunity. So
Speaker 1: I want to say it was after the four season
Speaker 1: the Dolphins lost is very close playoff games to the
Speaker 1: San Diego Chargers, which which I thought was probably the
Speaker 1: last time that had a legitimate chance you had a
Speaker 1: team that could have made a run. I mean that
Speaker 1: was the year. If you remember Marino Um toward his
Speaker 1: achilles tendons for and they have this team, and this
Speaker 1: team can win some games. I mean, you've got and
Speaker 1: they lose a game on the road to San Diego.
Speaker 1: At least Pizza Tayanovitch misses this last second field goal.
Speaker 1: You know they win that game. I think they win
Speaker 1: the following week, uh and go to the to the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. I think the I really think I think
Speaker 1: was Steelers who ended up going that year and um,
Speaker 1: but nonetheless, I UM, I can remember that vividly and
Speaker 1: that really haunted me. That the following season, they just
Speaker 1: got rocked by the Bills in the playoffs, and that
Speaker 1: was the end of Don Shula's the tenure here with
Speaker 1: the Dolphins. Was his last game. So that was a
Speaker 1: bad one. And that was way back obviously, So I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean in the two thousands and the two thousand tens, um,
Speaker 1: they really haven't had any singular game like that. They
Speaker 1: really haven't been I mean, they went to the playoffs
Speaker 1: twice since the last time the Dolphins won a playoff
Speaker 1: game was in two thousand, yeah, for two thousand seasons,
Speaker 1: so maybe two thousand and one, and they haven't won
Speaker 1: a playoff games since then. It's been twenty three years
Speaker 1: and they've been to the playoffs twice since then. I
Speaker 1: can't recall a game. And and that's a sad thing
Speaker 1: to say, you know, because I mean usually it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you got a team that you can't have a chance,
Speaker 1: but like right now where you know, like when you're
Speaker 1: like rooting to be like the seventh seed in the
Speaker 1: road wild card team, I mean, it just tells you
Speaker 1: how far, how toughest franchise has had it for twenty years.
Speaker 1: The Titans, you know, they've been in the mix. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know it's frustrating to see what happened this season,
Speaker 1: how they came out at the end, but they're in
Speaker 1: the mix. You know, they got a single on there
Speaker 1: where they got some players and a core that they've
Speaker 1: built around, and and and so you know. Uh, but
Speaker 1: the Dolphins, I mean, it's been a while since they
Speaker 1: since it mattered, and I hope that changes now. Are
Speaker 1: you a believer into a I'm a believable Look, I
Speaker 1: have no ways And I always tell people this, Like
Speaker 1: my assessment on to is based on sixty minutes of
Speaker 1: football seventeen weeks a year, right. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: get to see him in practice. I don't get to
Speaker 1: It's not what I do every day. So but I
Speaker 1: can tell you there are things he does that I
Speaker 1: think are unique. I think he has an elite accuracy.
Speaker 1: I think he's a quick rhythm passor a great, very
Speaker 1: good rhythm pass. I think he's a guy that can
Speaker 1: put the ball in the hands of guys who can
Speaker 1: make yards after catch. And there's a lot of guys
Speaker 1: who made their living in the NFL with that, you know,
Speaker 1: And I think the question is he has to be
Speaker 1: in the right system, you know, the surrounded by the
Speaker 1: right talent, with a coach that believes in him, and
Speaker 1: that's structured to make it work that way. So they
Speaker 1: spent the fifth pick in the draft on him, So
Speaker 1: they got to try to make it work, you know,
Speaker 1: with him and see what they can maximize from them.
Speaker 1: So I think that there are some things. Look, the
Speaker 1: one thing I mere about too, he was a freshman,
Speaker 1: and do you remembers as well, was eighteen, nineteen years old.
Speaker 1: They put him in at halftime. This kid takes where
Speaker 1: I believe it was like a twentysomething art stack. It
Speaker 1: was like an overtime against Georgia. It was like a
Speaker 1: wipeout sack, you know, like the craziest thing you ever saw.
Speaker 1: And then the next play he comes in, he looks
Speaker 1: off the safety I think hit Smith down the left
Speaker 1: sideline for a down the championship. I mean, that was
Speaker 1: ice blood in his things. I remember thinking, I mean,
Speaker 1: this kid's nineteen years old and he's delivering, you know,
Speaker 1: and what's happened with quarterbacks? And you're seeing it now,
Speaker 1: you're seeing the fruits of it is and I'm seeing it.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it for years. Now. These kids are
Speaker 1: throwing into complex schemes that are working on I mean
Speaker 1: they're nine, ten of eleven years old these seven on
Speaker 1: seven tournaments. So by the time these guys make it
Speaker 1: to the NFL, these guys, some of them have had
Speaker 1: ten to twelve years of elite quarterback training and they
Speaker 1: thrown thousands and thousands of passes um in seven on
Speaker 1: seven in high school football where everybody's throwing the ball around.
Speaker 1: And I think that's part of what happened with two
Speaker 1: of coming in as you mean, there's a guy had
Speaker 1: grown up in that sort of system and so maybe
Speaker 1: that moment wasn't too big for him. So I remember
Speaker 1: that day thinking, you know, there's something unique about this guy.
Speaker 1: You know that he's able to do that, But I
Speaker 1: think he's got to be in the right place to
Speaker 1: make that work. You guys ever have any cross politics
Speaker 1: meeting Democrat Republican sports conversations on Capitol Hill? Like is
Speaker 1: there a Democrat that you may not have much in
Speaker 1: common with politically, but you guys are both huge sports
Speaker 1: fans and you end up in convergence. I'm always just
Speaker 1: kind of curious. You're obviously in the world of politics,
Speaker 1: but is there any sort of approachment or come together
Speaker 1: conversations surrounding what might have happened in the world of
Speaker 1: sports over the weekend, if you've got a hearing on Monday,
Speaker 1: like it would in a lot of other businesses, or
Speaker 1: you know what they used to call water cooler conversation
Speaker 1: back in the day when people were actually in offices.
Speaker 1: I'm curious how much how much discussion of sports there
Speaker 1: is on Capitol Hill in your experience. Yeah, yeah, there is,
Speaker 1: and I'll tell you, I mean, obviously some people more
Speaker 1: than others than you're always pretty busy when you're up there.
Speaker 1: But look, the Senate is different than the House. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying better, I'm the saying different. It's smaller. It's
Speaker 1: only a hundred people, so everybody knows everybody, and eventually
Speaker 1: you end up working with everybody there on something. The
Speaker 1: other thing is any one senator can blow up the
Speaker 1: whole place, like you know, really slow down everything and
Speaker 1: slow down your stuff. So you really there's just this
Speaker 1: built an incentive to like, you know, fight with someone
Speaker 1: on one issue. But not make a permanent enemy out
Speaker 1: of them, because like next week they may be working
Speaker 1: with you on something else and eventually that's what happens
Speaker 1: in the Senate is you know, you can't get any
Speaker 1: passed unless somebody from the other side it's with you
Speaker 1: it so you've got to maintain these relationships. I think
Speaker 1: there are people that are more more sports centric than now.
Speaker 1: There's obviously um you know uh So for example, and
Speaker 1: then the Cory Booker played as you know, and at Stanford,
Speaker 1: so that's someone I've talked to a few times about
Speaker 1: the recruiting process and then just college football at large,
Speaker 1: and you know, we'll talk about that especially, you know,
Speaker 1: I think about him and those guys. There's those West
Speaker 1: Coast games. Man, you gotta stay up till like three
Speaker 1: in the morning right to see usually I mean Stanford
Speaker 1: comes across a couple of other times, come across time zones,
Speaker 1: or you come across and play on the East. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're like a b y U fan, I mean,
Speaker 1: you've gotta be up until three in the morning in
Speaker 1: East Coast time on a Saturday night, you know, to
Speaker 1: to see them play and all that. So I think
Speaker 1: that's where you lose some of it if these guys
Speaker 1: are And then we had some conversations about name, image
Speaker 1: and likeness with the SEE people. But I wouldn't say
Speaker 1: I don't think it's maybe it's just unique to me.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say that anybody that's follows that, um, you know,
Speaker 1: as closely. Now, obviously with Tubberville there sort everybody gravitates
Speaker 1: to him. I feel bad but all the time because
Speaker 1: like ais a u S senator, everybody always wants to
Speaker 1: talking about what do you think about this, you know,
Speaker 1: college football related and he's a very joyful guy and
Speaker 1: very happy to oblige everybody. But I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: you guys asking about Ukraine or something, you know. But
Speaker 1: but but having him there has kind of made him
Speaker 1: the magnet for both sides to kind of gratitude towards
Speaker 1: and talk about this stuff. Fox Sports Radio has the
Speaker 1: best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of
Speaker 1: our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app search f s R to
Speaker 1: listen live. We're talking to Senator Marco Rubio your own
Speaker 1: football career. I know you grew up in Miami, if
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, and obviously, Miami is a hotbed. I
Speaker 1: grew up in Vegas. You know, I grew up in
Speaker 1: moved to Miami, So I was born in Miami. When
Speaker 1: I was seven, we moved to Las Vegas and then uh,
Speaker 1: and then we came back when I was going into
Speaker 1: ninth grade. So it was kind of that deal. So
Speaker 1: what was it like growing up in Vegas? So, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody has the glitz and glamour. I'm going
Speaker 1: out there, I think for the n C Double a
Speaker 1: basketball tournament. That's one of the things that is one
Speaker 1: of the great times to be in Vegas. But around
Speaker 1: the time that you were there, that had to be
Speaker 1: an an interesting dynamic. I think your is it your
Speaker 1: dad who worked in a casino. Yeah, both of my
Speaker 1: parents worked in the end and my my mom was
Speaker 1: made at a hotel called the Imperial Palace, which um
Speaker 1: and then my dad was a bartender at a place
Speaker 1: called Sam's Town. And uh, look, it was first of all,
Speaker 1: Vegas was not what it is now. How did how
Speaker 1: by the way, how did they make the move from
Speaker 1: Miami to Vegas? What was the I mean, obviously, I'm
Speaker 1: assuming maybe there was the idea that they were gonna jobs,
Speaker 1: but they didn't mean the opportunities in Miami. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a cheaper to live there, and there were
Speaker 1: a lot of jobs that there. Um uh, we had
Speaker 1: three aunts, three of my mom's sisters already lived there,
Speaker 1: and so they're like, yeah, you know, and it's true.
Speaker 1: I mean, you get there and my dad found a
Speaker 1: job pretty quickly. My mom as well, just wasn't hard
Speaker 1: to find service sector jobs that paid enough for them
Speaker 1: to own a home. And uh and and that's kind
Speaker 1: of what happened, you know. And I do remember growing up,
Speaker 1: like my mom telling people like, oh, I want to move.
Speaker 1: And I look back now at Iron if she start,
Speaker 1: I want to move to a place that's a little
Speaker 1: bit you know, more family translate, you know, than Miami.
Speaker 1: And I look back and I'm saying, so that Vegas,
Speaker 1: you know, that's uh, that's that's what. But but from
Speaker 1: from their perspective, you could that she had family there,
Speaker 1: so she had that support network. I think that's the
Speaker 1: big thing that people forget about working class family. It's
Speaker 1: not just about moving. You're very rarely going to pick
Speaker 1: up and move somewhere that you don't have, you know,
Speaker 1: your cousins your your sisters, your brothers, your aunts, your
Speaker 1: uncle's you're not gonna do it because that's your support network.
Speaker 1: I mean, if if you've got to go pick up
Speaker 1: a couch, you know, from the refrigerator, from from the store,
Speaker 1: it's your cousin's pickup you're gonna use. I mean, you
Speaker 1: got to go somewhere, it's you're you're going to leave
Speaker 1: your kids with your relative. So we always had to
Speaker 1: be around family. Maybe that was our entire support network.
Speaker 1: And so Vegas was the only other city in the
Speaker 1: country where we had family or they could find a job,
Speaker 1: So it wasn't unique time to grow up there. You know,
Speaker 1: the city was smaller than it is now now. A
Speaker 1: fair fourth space used to fly the planes right over
Speaker 1: the city. Uh so I remember seeing all the Air
Speaker 1: Force planes constantly flying over us. I went to a
Speaker 1: very mixed school, racially mixed school. UM it was I
Speaker 1: don't know what the statistics were, but it was a
Speaker 1: substantially you know, uh minority African American and Mexican American
Speaker 1: UM school that a substantial majority of that. So it
Speaker 1: was just it was I mean, I look back fondly
Speaker 1: at my my memories of Las Vegas. Did you see
Speaker 1: the video that went viral of the kids in Las
Speaker 1: Vegas having it announced that they no longer had to
Speaker 1: wear masks? Did you say, did it? Did it make
Speaker 1: you think back to when you were a public school
Speaker 1: kid in Las Vegas? A little bit? Yeah? Except probably.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guaranteed the school that go to didn't
Speaker 1: even exist while I was there. And that's just gets
Speaker 1: grown stuff. But but it does it. It makes you
Speaker 1: look back to that entire time. And so this whole
Speaker 1: generation rights of people that kids in particular that have
Speaker 1: come of age, I mean, they don't have any memory
Speaker 1: of not having to wear a mask all the time,
Speaker 1: and and I and I just think that there comes
Speaker 1: to this point, right, but the becomes this almost I mean,
Speaker 1: what's happened in American life today is the stuff that
Speaker 1: you used to read in the Onion or Babylon be
Speaker 1: you know, what was satire or satire and ironic and
Speaker 1: and things that you can make fun of. This stuff
Speaker 1: like that actually happening in the real world. And so
Speaker 1: you tune into a Super Bowl game where you're watching
Speaker 1: this thing and I mean it's like eight thousand people
Speaker 1: in the stadium and no one's wearing a mask. The
Speaker 1: more famous you more are, the less masculer. And and
Speaker 1: then thinking on Monday morning, a bunch of kids in
Speaker 1: that city and across the country're gonna have to go
Speaker 1: to school and wear a mask. Even the State of
Speaker 1: the Union. I don't know if you saw these rules
Speaker 1: they came up with to attend the State of the Union. Um,
Speaker 1: I saw that they were going to let people go,
Speaker 1: But what are the rules. I haven't heard them specifically.
Speaker 1: For first, when Biden speaks, Yeah, so a negative COVID
Speaker 1: test twenty four hours before you got to wear a mask.
Speaker 1: You've got a socially distance where they're gonna put members
Speaker 1: in the calorie and babers on the floor. But it's
Speaker 1: all theater. It's all complete theater. Okay. Look, I can
Speaker 1: tell you now for a fact, and I'm not going
Speaker 1: to call him out because I don't want to. You know,
Speaker 1: in the Senate Democrats, you know, when the cameras are on,
Speaker 1: most all of the most of them wearing a mask.
Speaker 1: But there are plenty instances in which there are no
Speaker 1: cameras around where those masks in the where to be found.
Speaker 1: They don't have them on, And you know, it's just
Speaker 1: it's it's a theater. At this point, It's almost like
Speaker 1: these are the rituals that you have to perform in
Speaker 1: this theater in order to prove you know that that
Speaker 1: you're you know that you're in the on the right
Speaker 1: side of it. And that's what that State of Union
Speaker 1: thing is. It's theater. That's all it is. Uh, there's
Speaker 1: nothing more about it. I wish the super Bowl was
Speaker 1: in California and so far so I'm sorry, I wish
Speaker 1: the State of the Union wasn't so far stould have
Speaker 1: to wear else. What did you think? But I know
Speaker 1: you watched the super Bowl, and that was one of
Speaker 1: the things that jumped out to me. Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: you're around my age, so I bet you grew up
Speaker 1: listening to Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre and and Eminem
Speaker 1: and all those guys. And so I loved the halftime
Speaker 1: show because to my mind, the nineties and the early
Speaker 1: two thousand's are like the greatest moments in American history, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like everybody got along. I feel like,
Speaker 1: by and large, you know, we didn't have this cancel culture,
Speaker 1: this identity politics. It was everybody thought, everybody agreed that
Speaker 1: we all had way more in common than we don't.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I still believe that. But I
Speaker 1: think there's this whole thesis about social media and what
Speaker 1: it's done in terms of dividing us. And certainly I
Speaker 1: woke up this morning and I'm reading Axios's Morning Digest
Speaker 1: and it's like, Hey, the squad has got Democrats terrified
Speaker 1: because it's led him into such a far left a world.
Speaker 1: But were you like me? Did you grow up a
Speaker 1: fan of all those guys that were performing at halftime? Yeah? Look,
Speaker 1: I mean I'll tell you something like I came. I didn't.
Speaker 1: I landed at the airport in d C on Monday,
Speaker 1: and this guy from TMZ who's always there, a nice guy,
Speaker 1: talked to him all the time, and I saw him
Speaker 1: coming for me, and I took a vase of because
Speaker 1: I didn't want to answer this question about the halftime show,
Speaker 1: because it's just, look, I think it's time to be Look. Look,
Speaker 1: I did I like the halftime show? Mean? Look, do
Speaker 1: I like the kneeling thing with Eminem? Did I like?
Speaker 1: You know? Do I think? And you know what, By
Speaker 1: the way, I don't know that Eminem has has commented,
Speaker 1: But when I noticed was Dr Dre was playing on
Speaker 1: the piano a few bars of Tupac, right of one
Speaker 1: of Tupac's most famous songs. So I understand that the
Speaker 1: but when I saw him and m kneeling there, I
Speaker 1: took it as he's paying homage to Tupac. Now there's
Speaker 1: also the overlap with Kaepernick, but that's the way that
Speaker 1: I took it watching it live, because you know, a
Speaker 1: part of me was like, man, I wish they would
Speaker 1: come out to California, Love and they would have the
Speaker 1: Tupac hologram and really that video right back in the day.
Speaker 1: When then there, That's exactly what I was thinking. I
Speaker 1: was the whole time. I was sitting there thinking that
Speaker 1: the problem with the hologram, okay, and they did it
Speaker 1: at Coachella. It was a stark problem with the hologram
Speaker 1: is I don't know if you can pull that off
Speaker 1: in daylight. Oh that's a good point. Problem. But if
Speaker 1: they had done the hologram, they might have they might
Speaker 1: not have been able to play the second half, but
Speaker 1: they might have had to delay it like forty or
Speaker 1: five minutes because it would have just taken everybody out,
Speaker 1: you know, in terms of I also think that the
Speaker 1: mentally it would have just shook everybody up, I think.
Speaker 1: And the hologram problem too is I think it's harder
Speaker 1: to edit the hologram, you know, I ever film it
Speaker 1: is to have of it. I mean it's hard to
Speaker 1: sort of the censor out. You know, you're you're around
Speaker 1: my like we're around the same age. Like that to
Speaker 1: you took you back to the nineties of the early track. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the soundtrack of that era, absolutely, and I was like, look,
Speaker 1: I don't think those guys are upstanding models for everybody.
Speaker 1: I don't think they claimed to be that. Like I
Speaker 1: don't think snowpart goes around saying I want want people
Speaker 1: to be like me, and I think people should live
Speaker 1: like me. I do think that these guys were pioneers
Speaker 1: in a genre that that that gave birth to sort
Speaker 1: of what we have today and something that struck me
Speaker 1: right my kids generation. I have kids nineteen whatever, and
Speaker 1: they're sitting there laughing at us, like, who are these
Speaker 1: old guys? You know that they don't know much about it.
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking back to the year that Paul McCartney
Speaker 1: would did the halftime show was in the Jacksonville super Bowl,
Speaker 1: and I was there thinking like, why Paul mccartey, who's
Speaker 1: this guy? I mean, I knew who he was, but
Speaker 1: I'm saying, like, why Paul McCartney so and all these
Speaker 1: people are around me going crazy Paul McCartney performing. Now
Speaker 1: I've become those people, you know, because for them that's
Speaker 1: were the old guys. Now, yeah, I had did. I
Speaker 1: thought it was a logical choice simply because of the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles connection, you know, the death Row connection, to
Speaker 1: the to the entire West coast of a rap and
Speaker 1: the like. And at the end of the day, look, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, I'm not saying these are
Speaker 1: people that I think we should be nominating for, you know,
Speaker 1: presidential metal freedom or something. I'm not. I'm not. That's
Speaker 1: not what I'm saying. I am saying that that music
Speaker 1: is reflective of things that are happening in this country,
Speaker 1: particularly during that period of time, and you see it.
Speaker 1: It's reflected in their lyrics, but it's also reflected and
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, this guy's made a career. It's
Speaker 1: not just the music anymore, it's the I don't know
Speaker 1: if you ever got to watch this commentary with Kevin
Speaker 1: Hart during the Super Bowl that would do the side
Speaker 1: commentary things during the during the Olympics. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: pretty good during the Olympics on my poem, Yeah, they
Speaker 1: were really good. I mean, this guy's made up the
Speaker 1: other people. You know. I people don't talk about him.
Speaker 1: I keep created a career as an actor, and this
Speaker 1: guy got a gentleman acting career that's built on uh,
Speaker 1: everything he's done, and so um yeah, look out of you.
Speaker 1: That's a long answer to your question. Yes, I think
Speaker 1: we've lost the capacity right to say, Okay, I like,
Speaker 1: I like something, you know, and I don't get caught
Speaker 1: up in all the other things that are around it,
Speaker 1: like the complificated two things say just that they lost
Speaker 1: the music, or I like performatively should hear about I
Speaker 1: can separate those two things. Yeah. My argument has been
Speaker 1: I wish that everybody had the freedom that rappers do
Speaker 1: in their creative space because I'm so fired up. And
Speaker 1: we talked a lot about on the show at the
Speaker 1: idea that artists would be trying to censor other artists.
Speaker 1: So Joe Rogan is an artist of sorts with his
Speaker 1: show the idea that Neil Young would somehow find it
Speaker 1: to be valedictory for him to say you shouldn't be
Speaker 1: able to say what you're saying. It used to be
Speaker 1: artists would protect other artists, even going back and wrap,
Speaker 1: you know, in the Two Live Crew, uh, Supreme Court
Speaker 1: case and all those things. And it's it's wild where
Speaker 1: we've ended up. Where I feel like every day is
Speaker 1: basically the Internet of blame factory. And I see who's trending,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, what did they say now? Because
Speaker 1: I feel like everybody's trying to get canceled. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you saw Michelle Tafoya stepped right off the sideline,
Speaker 1: went on Tucker Carlson, actually shared her political opinions, and
Speaker 1: almost immediately she was trending all over Twitter. She's not
Speaker 1: even on Twitter, uh and uh, and people were going
Speaker 1: after her because she didn't have the expected or appropriate
Speaker 1: opinions for somebody who was in sports media. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I think that's the problem. That's the thing we've lost
Speaker 1: in this country is the understanding that the free speech,
Speaker 1: you know, your free speech as the price and the
Speaker 1: price of it is other people's free speech, okay and
Speaker 1: so um, And that's what's happened now, right, So so
Speaker 1: I think what it's done is it has a bunch
Speaker 1: of people sort of feeling boxed in, like you are afraid.
Speaker 1: I mean you are terrified. Most people are terrified on
Speaker 1: depending on what your profession is on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: that you are one sentence, you know, one old comment
Speaker 1: made a long time ago in a different context, away
Speaker 1: from ruining your life. I mean, I know a lot
Speaker 1: of parents that live terrified. You know, they have some
Speaker 1: fifteen year old has multiple social media accounts. You shut
Speaker 1: them down, they open up any one, and you're just
Speaker 1: terrified that one day somewhere the link like say something
Speaker 1: that a fifteen year old might say, and that's it.
Speaker 1: I mean, at fourteen or fifteen years of age, they're
Speaker 1: going to get some college is gonna say I won't
Speaker 1: admit you, and they're gonna get ruined and things of
Speaker 1: this nature. So I think that's part of it, and
Speaker 1: it's gotten to the point of hysteria. Right. It's so
Speaker 1: I think of all the things in the world that
Speaker 1: people should not be offended by as a podcast, because
Speaker 1: the podcast is not like it's like a radio broadcast,
Speaker 1: you know, and even that shouldn't terrify people. You just
Speaker 1: change the station or whatever. With a podcast, you have
Speaker 1: to take active steps to like find it, turn it on,
Speaker 1: and listen to it. Right, So, if there's a podcast
Speaker 1: that offends you, it's very easy to avoid it. In fact,
Speaker 1: you've got to really work hard not to to actually
Speaker 1: interact with it. So I don't understand that, and and
Speaker 1: and but that's what we've gotten to. And it's funny
Speaker 1: you mentioned UM to Life crew. Luther Campbell is actually
Speaker 1: a high school football coach in South Florida, and I've
Speaker 1: interacted and I've interacted them quite a bit over time,
Speaker 1: and you know, and I've actually joked to them about
Speaker 1: it because I don't know. It was about a month ago.
Speaker 1: We had a group of people here and I don't
Speaker 1: know what I was asking something about. UM. I forgot
Speaker 1: what it was. But the Alexa was on and it
Speaker 1: heard lyrics came on and I'm sprinting to the alexa
Speaker 1: unplugged it from the power so that UM, so that
Speaker 1: you know, these lyrics started playing, and I've joked with
Speaker 1: them about it. And you talk about his case. His
Speaker 1: case was a sheriff and broward that didn't want him
Speaker 1: to perform, and he took it all the way to
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court and one and on that front. So look,
Speaker 1: I think there is a huge amount of building resentment
Speaker 1: towards all this Canada count account cancel culture and things
Speaker 1: of this nature. How it manifests itself over the next
Speaker 1: few years, I don't know, but I think people are
Speaker 1: starting to see that. I mean, you're running out of
Speaker 1: people to cancel and things to get outraged by. And
Speaker 1: it's really I think there's gonna be a real snap
Speaker 1: back against it. How do we get out of it?
Speaker 1: That's the question that I get asked so often by
Speaker 1: so many different people, by the way of all different
Speaker 1: political stripes and circumstances. Because one of the things that
Speaker 1: I think is becoming quite clear is you mentioned the
Speaker 1: idea of a fifteen year old. Right, I've got a
Speaker 1: fourteen year old and eleven year old in the seven
Speaker 1: year old and you well remember and everybody out there
Speaker 1: listening who has ever been a fourteen or fifteen year old,
Speaker 1: you do a lot of stupid things. Whether you're a Democrat, Republican, independent, black, white, Asian, Hispanic.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of parents out there terrified that their
Speaker 1: kids gonna do something on social media that's going to
Speaker 1: cause a major uproar and turn into a freaking national story.
Speaker 1: I mean, you saw what happened to the Covington Catholic
Speaker 1: kid for just going to Washington, d C. On a
Speaker 1: school field trip and standing on the steps. How do
Speaker 1: we get out of it? How how do we come
Speaker 1: through and and emerge saying on the other side from
Speaker 1: what feels like a a true moment of insanity in
Speaker 1: the country. Well, I don't think there's a political answer
Speaker 1: to it. I think there's much of what we're seeing
Speaker 1: in these country's as a cultural problem, um and and
Speaker 1: social problems, social cultural problem. And I always tell people
Speaker 1: that like politics reflects our culture, it's not the other
Speaker 1: way around, you know, and so that that that's the
Speaker 1: first point we have to understand it. So not some
Speaker 1: law you're going to pass that fixes is. I think
Speaker 1: it has to be the growing awareness of people that
Speaker 1: this is just too much already. Like I'm done with it,
Speaker 1: I'm tired of it, I don't want to hear about it.
Speaker 1: Don't ask me to be outraged by so and so. UM.
Speaker 1: I think it has to start with people just sort
Speaker 1: of refusing to play along with this stuff, just refusing
Speaker 1: to play along with it the return of common sense,
Speaker 1: you know, explaining to people, look, you have you we
Speaker 1: have to stop judging twelve, thirteen, and fourteen year olds
Speaker 1: like they're forty year olds. And also I think a
Speaker 1: little bit of the acceptance. I always tell people that, like,
Speaker 1: you have to let your kids make mistakes and fail. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, am I going to let them run a
Speaker 1: car over the side of of of a cliff for something? No,
Speaker 1: You're not gonna let them do terrible mistakes that are
Speaker 1: life altering. But if people are not allowed, you can't
Speaker 1: build resiliency. If you don't if you don't interact with
Speaker 1: you know, uh, the challenges and adversity and mistakes, you're
Speaker 1: just not And I mean part of growing up is
Speaker 1: making mistakes. And I'm not encouraging mistakes, but those are
Speaker 1: teaching lessons and things you have to go through in
Speaker 1: order to become And don't see what happens is if
Speaker 1: you don't let kids make mistakes, if you don't have
Speaker 1: if you don't let them lose, if you don't let
Speaker 1: them fail, if you don't let them have adversity, then
Speaker 1: what you end up with is a year old person
Speaker 1: that's incredibly fragile, that at any time they interact with
Speaker 1: anything that's challenging, they can't they can't confront it. That
Speaker 1: they they're not resilient, they can't deal with it. And
Speaker 1: then they turn around and want people are coming and
Speaker 1: take care of it for him. Right, So I really
Speaker 1: don't like what this person saying. Please silence them for me,
Speaker 1: as opposed to this person is an idiot, that's his opinion.
Speaker 1: I don't care to impact my life, and you move on,
Speaker 1: but let'm say whatever he wants. And that that that
Speaker 1: I think is part of a broader problem we're having,
Speaker 1: and that is we spend and it's natural, right, but
Speaker 1: we spend so much time sheltering people from the uncomfortable
Speaker 1: that when they have to finally interact with it as
Speaker 1: an adult, um that they have built a capacity to
Speaker 1: do it. And and uh and and so they're demanding
Speaker 1: the authority step in and just silence it and crushes.
Speaker 1: That's also important, I think for why sports matters to
Speaker 1: so many kids out there is it helps you develop
Speaker 1: that ability to lose and work hard and keep coming back.
Speaker 1: Where do you think you would be if you hadn't
Speaker 1: ever played football? How would it? How it has changed
Speaker 1: your life? Look, that's a really good question, and that's
Speaker 1: a great question the reason why I care about and
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be sports. I honestly believe that
Speaker 1: kids have to be good at something or try to
Speaker 1: be work to be good at something at a very
Speaker 1: young age. And it's not just at school. All these lessons,
Speaker 1: all these virtues that people want to teach, you've got
Speaker 1: to apply them or you're not developing them. And sports,
Speaker 1: to me, is a great teacher of that. It doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be sports. It could be imagine any this thing,
Speaker 1: but but it has to be something that teaches you.
Speaker 1: One of the most important things in life. Number one
Speaker 1: is do you have to show up on time? That's
Speaker 1: the harder to get up in the morning and go
Speaker 1: somewhere and be there on time. If you if you
Speaker 1: fake it that part out, you know, that's of life
Speaker 1: right there. Number two is I want to achieve something
Speaker 1: like I want to get from here to there. That's
Speaker 1: my goal. Because there's a difference between you know, people,
Speaker 1: there are people who have ambitions and then there are
Speaker 1: people that have a drive to fulfill that ambition. You
Speaker 1: can have ambition, but if you don't have the drive,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna happen. So you have a goal in mind,
Speaker 1: whatever that goal might be, and that has a price.
Speaker 1: Just like going to the store, you have a pay
Speaker 1: a price to get something. If you want to get that,
Speaker 1: it has a price and you have to pay that
Speaker 1: price to even have a chance to get it right.
Speaker 1: So if your goal, and athletic is a great place
Speaker 1: to learn it. I want to be the best football
Speaker 1: player I can be or then and I want to
Speaker 1: be the best or whatever I can be now. I
Speaker 1: have to apply myself and do the things I have
Speaker 1: to do and give up something in order to achieve that.
Speaker 1: And learning that model, it's what you're going to use
Speaker 1: for the rest of your life. And I think that
Speaker 1: you asked me how sports impacted me. It wasn't athletic success.
Speaker 1: I was not a successful athlete. I was not someone
Speaker 1: that was going to ever play at another level and
Speaker 1: anything of that nature. But I learned that if I
Speaker 1: wanted to achieve something or I wanted to be a
Speaker 1: part of something, there are things I couldn't do, and
Speaker 1: there are things I had to give up, and there
Speaker 1: are things I had to do that I may not
Speaker 1: have wanted to do in order to be a part
Speaker 1: of it and to achieve it, and and learning that
Speaker 1: when I was sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, fourteen, fifteen, you know,
Speaker 1: for that matter, is what I think I took away
Speaker 1: from sports, and it's helped me every step of the way.
Speaker 1: So you know, that's why for me, it's like when
Speaker 1: when I lose, whether it's running for president or something
Speaker 1: I couldn't get past, or you know, some disappointment in life.
Speaker 1: The way I view it is all right, I gotta
Speaker 1: go back on Monday and study the film and see
Speaker 1: what we went wrong and improve from it and get
Speaker 1: better and apply it the next time I faced a
Speaker 1: situation like this. I think that's the lesson I taken
Speaker 1: from sports, and and that I hope, you know, my
Speaker 1: kids will take away from from sports. What's that like
Speaker 1: to run for as it it and not win? Well,
Speaker 1: that's interesting. I mean I had a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: I mean the campaign, I met a lot of great people.
Speaker 1: I made friends all across the country. I learned a
Speaker 1: lot about America. I was exposed to parts of America
Speaker 1: and things about America. You know, I'm an enormous believer
Speaker 1: in the American dream, and so for me, it was
Speaker 1: shocking to go out and talk to people that weren't
Speaker 1: nearly as optimistic because they didn't love the country, but
Speaker 1: because you know, their dad and their grandfather had both
Speaker 1: worked at some factory somewhere, but that factory left and
Speaker 1: now there's no jobs in that community, and everyone's telling
Speaker 1: them to go, you know, to college and become a
Speaker 1: software engineer, and that's not what they want to do.
Speaker 1: So there's no job for them. So there's real anger
Speaker 1: about why that's happening. Um. You learn about the fact
Speaker 1: that oftentimes in life you know things you know, they're
Speaker 1: just like in sports, you know one or two things
Speaker 1: outside of your control. In some cases, UM determine the outcome.
Speaker 1: And that's just the way it is. UM. So I
Speaker 1: was a lot of fun. It wasn't fun not to win,
Speaker 1: but but but I enjoyed every second of it. And
Speaker 1: other than obviously the you know, the outcome. And but
Speaker 1: I learned a lot from that process. I think I'm
Speaker 1: a better senator because I ran for president, because I
Speaker 1: was exposed to issues, ideas and parts of the country
Speaker 1: and issues across the country that I really could never
Speaker 1: have known about had I not been their visitors and
Speaker 1: had to interact with people, and so you know, it's
Speaker 1: a lot of work. Like I said, it's a unique process. Um,
Speaker 1: I think I actually I ran in a very unique
Speaker 1: electoral environment with the Trump running and it was kind
Speaker 1: of this privot moment in American political history is and um,
Speaker 1: you know, but but I don't regret it for one second.
Speaker 1: I think it made me. You know, it's a lot
Speaker 1: of hard work, but it made me know better all
Speaker 1: the way around. I know, you're running for the Senate
Speaker 1: now is going to be its own animal, But is
Speaker 1: there a part of you down the road that would
Speaker 1: be interested in running for president again? Yeah. Look, once
Speaker 1: you've run for president, you obviously have an interest. And
Speaker 1: for me, the interest was if I can do things
Speaker 1: and senate, those same things I could probably do that
Speaker 1: I can do as a president even more right because
Speaker 1: president of the ability to influence them even more than
Speaker 1: a sen senator can on most issues. I think the
Speaker 1: one thing I appreciate now a lot more than I
Speaker 1: did maybe in fifteen or sixteen, is it's not just
Speaker 1: about wanting to do it. It's about an environment. So
Speaker 1: I always say to people like, if you're imagining you're
Speaker 1: the world's greatest surfer, with the most advanced surfboard possible,
Speaker 1: and you've practice really hard. But if there aren't ways,
Speaker 1: I don't care how good a surfer you are, you
Speaker 1: can't surfer. There's no ways you could you have to,
Speaker 1: and you don't control whether those waves or not. And
Speaker 1: I think it's the same when it comes to politics.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's not just that you want to run or
Speaker 1: that you'd be a good president, but is that the
Speaker 1: right time for someone like you? Um, And what you're
Speaker 1: about is the timing of the environment, right. And so
Speaker 1: that's the one thing I think I've come to appreciate
Speaker 1: more about politics than you know. I think I can
Speaker 1: point to a lot of people that have won presidential
Speaker 1: elections and say they wouldn't have won either one had
Speaker 1: they ran four years earlier, eight years earlier. So and
Speaker 1: I think that's the part. I just don't know if
Speaker 1: that environment is ever going to be there for someone
Speaker 1: who And in addition to that, whether that aligns with
Speaker 1: whatever is going on in my personal life at that moment,
Speaker 1: you know, my family or health, whatever things you don't
Speaker 1: control and can't predict. You were talking earlier about working
Speaker 1: on n I L I know you are. I believe
Speaker 1: a Florida Gator fan. Um. In terms of of college football? Um,
Speaker 1: and uh, how do you see this playing out? Because
Speaker 1: I'll give you a story. I had a conversation recently
Speaker 1: with some guys who are raising money. I grew up
Speaker 1: a big University of Tennessee fan, and they said, for instance,
Speaker 1: Arch Manning. Um, and I'm Cooper. Well, he's an awesome
Speaker 1: guy who is arch his dad? And Arch is a
Speaker 1: five star quarterback recruit. For people who might be listening
Speaker 1: to us not familiar, the nephew of Eli and Peyton Manning.
Speaker 1: Cooper is the oldest brother of of Archie sons. Um.
Speaker 1: They said he could get ten million dollars in n
Speaker 1: I L. That's how much demand there is for him.
Speaker 1: The Texas is, the Alabama's, the Georgia's, I think maybe
Speaker 1: L s U. There's a bunch of different teams that
Speaker 1: are fighting as hard as they can to try to
Speaker 1: sign Arch Manning. Is a quarterback getting millions of dollars
Speaker 1: going to fundamentally change the fabric of college football. Should
Speaker 1: there be a universal rule? Um, how would you if
Speaker 1: you had a magic wand deal with the impact of
Speaker 1: N I L as it spreads across the college football landscape. Well,
Speaker 1: I think a couple of things that are inevitable. The
Speaker 1: first is I think that genie cannot be put back
Speaker 1: into the bottom. Okay, so that that there's is no
Speaker 1: way to put that back. And at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, that's just gonna You can't have an industry
Speaker 1: that's generating billions of dollars and tens of millions of
Speaker 1: dollars for for an organization and yet the people around
Speaker 1: it not demand. Hey, you know, at some point I
Speaker 1: want a piece so that we are a capitalist, free
Speaker 1: enterprise society. So there comes a point where that's just
Speaker 1: a fact and you can't put that genie back. So yes,
Speaker 1: I think it's going to fundamentally all alter football. I
Speaker 1: think there are some athletes that are going to garner
Speaker 1: that type of attention of overwhelming majority of athletes playing
Speaker 1: at that level are not going to qualify for that.
Speaker 1: Then maybe they'll all get a two thousand dollars or
Speaker 1: one thousand dollar a month, you know, and I l deal,
Speaker 1: but really not that level. And I think they're fine
Speaker 1: with Everybody understands there at a different point. Here's what
Speaker 1: I think ultimately happens, and I think it happens before
Speaker 1: maybe before the end of this decade. I think the
Speaker 1: big the five major conferences are going to finally wake
Speaker 1: up and realize we don't need the n C Double A.
Speaker 1: Where do we need the n C Double A for
Speaker 1: I mean, they're not We have our own TV contracts.
Speaker 1: The only thing in the n C Double A is
Speaker 1: for us is a pain. All they do is come
Speaker 1: up with rules and try to enforce them and try
Speaker 1: to govern us and so forth. And I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna break away, and I think they're going to create
Speaker 1: their own league separate from the n C Double A
Speaker 1: at least the five major conferences. Is why. I think
Speaker 1: you're seeing them all trying to expand and grow and
Speaker 1: geographically and I think once that happens, what you're gonna
Speaker 1: be left with is that whatever that entity is, the
Speaker 1: Big five conferences, that level of college football, and then
Speaker 1: the rest of it are just going to be like,
Speaker 1: you know, normal regular college football. And I think that's
Speaker 1: what that's where we're headed, and I think that's what
Speaker 1: the conferences are positioning and posturing towards. And I think
Speaker 1: at that point that n I l deal. The one
Speaker 1: thing I would do immediately is I would allow, you know,
Speaker 1: the schools to be involved in this process, because right
Speaker 1: now it is the wild West. Schools and most many
Speaker 1: states can't be involved at all. And so I've got
Speaker 1: these athletes in the hands of these street agents or
Speaker 1: even agents, but the schools can't be. Look, and all
Speaker 1: these schools have community outreach. They're the program offices there are.
Speaker 1: These are the offices that help these kids do community service,
Speaker 1: you know, do the turkey giveaway, you know, whatever it
Speaker 1: is they're doing in a community, and that they should
Speaker 1: be allowed to also work with these kids to identify
Speaker 1: an I L deals and to make you know, to
Speaker 1: be involved in which ones are good, which ones are not,
Speaker 1: and so forth. But that's my view of it. I
Speaker 1: don't know how you put this genie back in the
Speaker 1: bottle at this point. And um, and I ultimately think
Speaker 1: the one one point I would make is there's gonna
Speaker 1: company if you if you have you know, a million
Speaker 1: dollars or let's say half a million dollars and name
Speaker 1: image and likeness deals, I could see where school assess
Speaker 1: to them. Look, you don't need the scholarship. Let me
Speaker 1: use the scholarship on a kid that doesn't have those deals,
Speaker 1: and you know, use your N I L scholarship to
Speaker 1: pay for part of your tuition. You still have another
Speaker 1: half a million dollars of pocket change, and that way,
Speaker 1: I can use that scholarship on a kid that may
Speaker 1: not have those deals to bring him into the the program.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna have a lot of what would traditionally
Speaker 1: be known as walk on but with a one million
Speaker 1: dollars in an image and likeness deal, they don't need
Speaker 1: a scholarship, and that's alsop can then go to someone
Speaker 1: that they're trying to recruit or bring in. And UM,
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of where we're headed now. Um
Speaker 1: you know, I think you'll see that here in the
Speaker 1: next four or five years. Fox Sports Radio has the
Speaker 1: best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of
Speaker 1: our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app search f s R to
Speaker 1: listen live. We're talking to Marco Rubio, senator from Florida.
Speaker 1: UM I mentioned earlier what your high school football career
Speaker 1: was like. Everybody, this this is to the point earlier
Speaker 1: about sports and instilling some measure of character by by
Speaker 1: challenging yourself. Everybody, he has a moment where they recognize, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm probably not going to be a pro athlete. I
Speaker 1: say everybody. There's a tiny pinprick of people that actually
Speaker 1: end up being pro athletes, and everybody has that realization
Speaker 1: at different ages. If you don't go on to being pro. Right,
Speaker 1: some of us are out there and you're like, you know,
Speaker 1: eleven or twelve years old, and you look around and
Speaker 1: you think, boy, I'm the twelfth best player on my
Speaker 1: little league team. The odds of me being a major
Speaker 1: league baseball player are low, but you can still love
Speaker 1: the game. Did you have a moment of realization when
Speaker 1: as a football player you were like, boy, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to be able to play in the NFL. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna necessarily be able to go to a high level,
Speaker 1: high level school. I was having this conversation with my
Speaker 1: wife the other day because she was like, man, all
Speaker 1: these kids, because you do different levels, you travel whatever.
Speaker 1: The kids all have this dream and then slowly they
Speaker 1: all become aware of it and you end up going
Speaker 1: pro in something other than sports, which is the good
Speaker 1: tagline I think for the n C double A. That
Speaker 1: is true for most people, even in college athletics. Was
Speaker 1: there moment in time where you thought, hey, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to be an NFL player, I better find something
Speaker 1: else that I can be good at. Do you remember
Speaker 1: having that moment of realization? Yeah, I do, and I
Speaker 1: mean before I dressed that point, and I want to
Speaker 1: forget it. I want to make one point because related
Speaker 1: to what you're saying, and that is I'm I'm involved
Speaker 1: a lot like I have been for a long time,
Speaker 1: with a lot of young people recently graduated from high school,
Speaker 1: some already in college, some playing with my son, and others,
Speaker 1: you know, a little bit younger than him. And the
Speaker 1: one thing I tell him about sports is everybody you're
Speaker 1: playing a game. This is a kids game, and there
Speaker 1: comes a point and everyone that's playing where someone comes
Speaker 1: to you and says you can't play anymore. For some people,
Speaker 1: like Tom Brady, that happens, you know, later they get
Speaker 1: to decide when that moment is. For other people, it
Speaker 1: happens at sixteen, seventeen, eighteen nineteen. So some people it
Speaker 1: happens after three or four years in the league. Someone's
Speaker 1: gonna come to you and say you can't play anymore.
Speaker 1: We're not You're done. So it's decided for you. So
Speaker 1: at that moment what happens. So you've got to be
Speaker 1: prepared for that moment what you do next. Now, that
Speaker 1: moment for me, you know, came basically. I went to
Speaker 1: play football at a small school in Missouri called Tarkyo
Speaker 1: College isn't even open anymore. And I'm sitting there and
Speaker 1: it's cold, and there's like less people in the stands
Speaker 1: at our games and there our high school games, and frankly,
Speaker 1: I think high school. My high school team, which is
Speaker 1: a pretty good high school team, especially in my junior year,
Speaker 1: might have even been about the deepest college team. And
Speaker 1: I'm sort of there thinking to myself, Um, I'm here
Speaker 1: halfway across the country, gonna graduate or get a bunch
Speaker 1: of credits that may not even transfer when the time
Speaker 1: comes to leave this place, that it goes under. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, five nine d seventy pounds. I run a
Speaker 1: you know, four seven maybe four six five on a
Speaker 1: good day in the forty There's just not a lot
Speaker 1: of people with those measurable measurables, uh playing in the
Speaker 1: National Football League and uh much less you know, at
Speaker 1: any program of much larger than this one. And it's time,
Speaker 1: you know, you gott the fork in the road is
Speaker 1: and you've gotta make a decision. So for me, it
Speaker 1: was kind of a gradual realization. I've looked, it's just
Speaker 1: think gonna happen, like it I need to start like
Speaker 1: life is real now it needs to happen. So I
Speaker 1: was it was there in Missouri, probably in December or January,
Speaker 1: my first year in college, that I sort of realized,
Speaker 1: like I need to get back to Florida and go
Speaker 1: to school and get a degree because I mean, number
Speaker 1: the numbers just don't lie. I mean, if you're five
Speaker 1: nine one seventy year, you better be running a four
Speaker 1: three or four to nine. I mean, I think I
Speaker 1: don't forgot. One of my coaches told me, like the
Speaker 1: smaller you are, the faster you better be. There has
Speaker 1: to be something just to have a chance to play
Speaker 1: at a bigger college, not to mention at a higher level.
Speaker 1: So but that moment came then, and it will come
Speaker 1: for everybody at some point. And some of it is
Speaker 1: by choice, and some of it, you know, is a choice.
Speaker 1: Some of it is imposed on you by reality. And
Speaker 1: and that's fine, that's okay. I mean, at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, I've always do this is always told
Speaker 1: my son and our kids. Is if playing football teaches
Speaker 1: you all these lessons and allows you to get into
Speaker 1: a school that you might not have been able to
Speaker 1: get to on your grades alone, and for free. I mean,
Speaker 1: we just won the lottery. You get to play a game,
Speaker 1: and that that game has allowed you to learn these
Speaker 1: lessons and go to a school you can't otherwise get into.
Speaker 1: Perhaps and and and they're going to pay for it.
Speaker 1: I mean, what more can you ask for at that point?
Speaker 1: You know? And and obviously that's not true for everybody.
Speaker 1: Some kids I do think have the ability. But it's
Speaker 1: going back to the presidential talk that's not just on them.
Speaker 1: For a lot of these people, is are you drafted
Speaker 1: by the right team and the right circumstances and do
Speaker 1: you not start suffering injuries because and what position are
Speaker 1: you playing? Because I think it looks if you're a
Speaker 1: quarterback that has some attributes, they're going to give you
Speaker 1: a little longer to develop. If you're a running back
Speaker 1: that's disposable man running backs, I mean, I mean these guys,
Speaker 1: I mean they're they're they've become disposable. I mean they're
Speaker 1: going through them. They're not even drafting them high anymore.
Speaker 1: So a lot of it depends on that too. There's
Speaker 1: just a lot of factors you don't control that determine
Speaker 1: how far and how long you can play. If you
Speaker 1: weren't a senator, if you hadn't gone into politics, what
Speaker 1: do you think you would do? That's a great question.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think there's a couple of things that
Speaker 1: probably would have wanted. I mean, I've always you know,
Speaker 1: I always would like to say, if I could live
Speaker 1: in some alternate universe and have to be two people, right,
Speaker 1: I would love to have been in the front office
Speaker 1: of because I love the process of sort of identifying
Speaker 1: talent and putting the right talent next to each other.
Speaker 1: It's not just about building people that are you can
Speaker 1: put in time of putting as all star teams, but
Speaker 1: putting together the right mix of players who complement one
Speaker 1: another and allow you to win games as a team.
Speaker 1: I love all of that, and so that's what that's
Speaker 1: what I think. Maybe I would be doing it. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I'm being good at it, but that's
Speaker 1: certainly something I think I would have wanted to been
Speaker 1: a part of if I wasn't doing this. But you know,
Speaker 1: I guess I'll just focus on Ukraine and stuff like
Speaker 1: that at this well, I the people will be listening
Speaker 1: to this. One of the things I like doing for
Speaker 1: conversations like this is people can listen to them. You know,
Speaker 1: it can be hopefully just as enjoyable a year from
Speaker 1: now as it is right now. But as we're discussing
Speaker 1: what's going on, the situation in Ukraine literally hour by
Speaker 1: hour feels like it can be constantly shifting. You've obviously
Speaker 1: been briefed and and updated on so many different things
Speaker 1: involving the Ukraine situation. What do you anticipate happening if
Speaker 1: you were sort of game theory wise playing out what
Speaker 1: Vladimir Putin's goals are here. His goal is to take
Speaker 1: back parts of all of you, and probably not all Ukraine,
Speaker 1: but parts of it. And the isn't a simple I mean,
Speaker 1: if blab and Putin was on your podcast right now,
Speaker 1: number one, I think a lot of you know, people
Speaker 1: are returning into I would be a treat to talk
Speaker 1: with him there. Yeah, yeah, I see how good as
Speaker 1: English is and all that, because I know he's, uh,
Speaker 1: he works on his English and so forth. But but
Speaker 1: the other thing you would see, he would basically say
Speaker 1: it this way to you, and that is Look, uh,
Speaker 1: he's presented these guys are Russian. He's not American. He
Speaker 1: wasn't raised in the US. I mean his view of
Speaker 1: life in general, and the Russian view of things in
Speaker 1: general is very different than the American viewpoint as a
Speaker 1: country that's been invaded multiple times throughout its history, and
Speaker 1: you know that just impacts the culture and how it
Speaker 1: used things. In his mindset is power. We Russia should
Speaker 1: be a powerful country, should be one of the world's
Speaker 1: most powerful country. As a powerful countries have the right
Speaker 1: to have a sphere of influence, to basically have some
Speaker 1: area of the world where they dominate, not necessarily govern
Speaker 1: those countries directly, but at least have leaders and societies
Speaker 1: that are loyal to them. And he believed that Eastern
Speaker 1: Europe should be part of there. There should be a
Speaker 1: sphere influence for Eastern Europe. Response to Russia, I know
Speaker 1: would argue that they want that in the Pacific. I
Speaker 1: think Iran believe that they should be that in the
Speaker 1: Middle East to some extent. And then you know, the
Speaker 1: United States can have the Western hymns or he wouldn't care. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, because he's so you guys have the facto
Speaker 1: have that now with Canada and Mexico and Caribbean so forth,
Speaker 1: with some exception. That's what he would argue. So Ukraine's
Speaker 1: a part of it. It's the largest countries in Europe.
Speaker 1: It was a key part of the Soviet Union. A
Speaker 1: lot of Soviet leaders came from Ukraine. And so this
Speaker 1: whole notion that Ukraine is a separate country or separate people,
Speaker 1: to him, it's not. It would be in his mindset.
Speaker 1: It would be like saying, hey, you know, Texas is
Speaker 1: its home country and Texans should be allowed to break
Speaker 1: away from the United States and do whatever they want.
Speaker 1: That's what he would say to us. So that's why
Speaker 1: I believe he will go in, and maybe by the
Speaker 1: time this thing air is he will have gone in.
Speaker 1: At some level, they'll find some excuse for having done it,
Speaker 1: and he's going to install some puppet government that's loyal
Speaker 1: to him and make sure that Ukraine never is a
Speaker 1: part of the European Union, NATO. And that's it's pretty straightforward.
Speaker 1: That's kind of like the direction he's headed. So I
Speaker 1: think he'll stop there. No, I think his next move
Speaker 1: is to try to force NATO to remove troops from
Speaker 1: every country, and it's thirteen countries that have been added.
Speaker 1: Um and and then I think he'll have felt like,
Speaker 1: you know, he'll go down in history as the guy
Speaker 1: that restored great Russia's a great global to a great
Speaker 1: global power status. I know that you spend a lot
Speaker 1: of time and have over your life in South Florida
Speaker 1: with a variety of different people who have come to
Speaker 1: the United States to escape socialism, to escape oppression, and
Speaker 1: I think that in many ways kind of ties in
Speaker 1: with the question we just asked about Ukraine. We saw
Speaker 1: in those people overwhelmingly break in the direction of Donald
Speaker 1: Trump and in the direction of the Republican Party. Do
Speaker 1: you expect for that to continue to accelerate? We uh,
Speaker 1: We mentioned axios and the problems that the Democratic Party
Speaker 1: has with for lack of a better term, to catch
Speaker 1: all of woke politics that have kind of infected and
Speaker 1: taken over that party. What are the people in South
Speaker 1: Florida who have come to America because of America's excellence
Speaker 1: and opportunity say to you when you're out on the
Speaker 1: campaign trail, and do you think that acceleration of the
Speaker 1: Hispanic vote certainly in South Florida, but maybe even around
Speaker 1: the country is going to continue to move in the
Speaker 1: direction of the Republican Party. Yeah, as long as the
Speaker 1: Republican Party's responsive to the things that people like that
Speaker 1: are thinking about. Because the two things. The first thing
Speaker 1: I know, we have wading we're going to learn here
Speaker 1: at some point that ethnicity or even the color of
Speaker 1: your skin is not what determines how people vote. Right,
Speaker 1: So when you when people say, oh, look at the
Speaker 1: Hispanics that have flipped over, Yeah, there's some aspect of
Speaker 1: their experience, right. They came from or their parents came
Speaker 1: from a country that went far left, and you're trying
Speaker 1: to convince them that America sort of this terrible place,
Speaker 1: and they're like, no, no, no, I know what a
Speaker 1: terrible place looks like, this is not a terrible place,
Speaker 1: and why would you screw this up? You guys have
Speaker 1: a great place. So there's no doubt that there's that aspect.
Speaker 1: But the one that I think people don't really entirely
Speaker 1: embraces the Hispanic community. Their primary identity on an hourly
Speaker 1: and daily basis, and certainly on a political basis, is
Speaker 1: that they're working class small business owner. That's their identity.
Speaker 1: And so, you know, people working class people that didn't
Speaker 1: go to Harvard or Yale and don't listen to CNN
Speaker 1: or follow Twitter on a daily basis, they think some
Speaker 1: of the such as insanity. They think it's insanity and
Speaker 1: and they rebel against it. But it's not because they're Hispanic.
Speaker 1: It's because they're working class or small business owners and
Speaker 1: and and that's their identity. And so I think what
Speaker 1: you're going to continue to see here is that that
Speaker 1: vote is going to increasingly resemble the vote of working
Speaker 1: class people across the country, of every ethnicity, of every race,
Speaker 1: of every background, because the primary identity is not their ethnicity,
Speaker 1: it's the fact to get up in the morning and
Speaker 1: go to work somewhere, either in their own small business
Speaker 1: or to provide for their families. And some of the
Speaker 1: people that are in charge seem to live on another planet.
Speaker 1: And and and I think that that's what you're seeing
Speaker 1: evidence of. And I think that trend is going to
Speaker 1: continue as long as the Democratic parties held hostage by
Speaker 1: a group of committed revolutionary Marxists who want to fundamentally,
Speaker 1: you know, tear down the country and rebuild it into
Speaker 1: something very different. Well, last question for you last night.
Speaker 1: I know I said I want this to be timeless
Speaker 1: in some ways, but I do think this question is
Speaker 1: kind of timeless. We talked a lot about sports with you. Uh.
Speaker 1: The transgender issue is something that OutKick has been covering,
Speaker 1: and we've certainly been talking about a lot on Clay
Speaker 1: and Buck. And right now there is a University of
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania men's swimmer who decided to become a woman that
Speaker 1: is poised to set all time records for women's swimmer
Speaker 1: again biological male swimming as a as a woman. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's as if the world of sports is afraid to
Speaker 1: even touch it. You know, the ESPN, which covers the
Speaker 1: intersection of sports and politics all the time. I can't
Speaker 1: tell you the number of times I heard, Hey, so
Speaker 1: and so athlete is not going to go to the
Speaker 1: Trump White House, as if it were a lead sports story.
Speaker 1: They basically ignored it. Um, what should happen in the
Speaker 1: world of of sports? And I think this could be
Speaker 1: an interesting, you know, sort of breaking point because what
Speaker 1: it represents, Senator to me is you have to choose
Speaker 1: a side. Right, You're either in favor of Title nine
Speaker 1: and women's athletics and and and and women being able
Speaker 1: to achieve the highest level in their sport, or you
Speaker 1: are going to allow a biological man to potentially come
Speaker 1: in and set all time records. And we talked earlier
Speaker 1: about how many people feel like they can't speak out.
Speaker 1: We talked to a lot of the girls on this team.
Speaker 1: We did a story for them at out Kick and Senator.
Speaker 1: They said, Hey, we're not even willing to use our
Speaker 1: own names here because we want to go to grad school,
Speaker 1: because we want to go get jobs, and we're afraid
Speaker 1: of the top Google result for our name being so
Speaker 1: and so is transphobic. They that's not what this is about.
Speaker 1: But we've spent our entire lives trying to compete to
Speaker 1: win championships, and now this biological and is coming in
Speaker 1: and he's dominating in women's sports. How crazy is it
Speaker 1: that we've reached this point in athletics. Well, I think
Speaker 1: the crazier part is not that we've reached the sport
Speaker 1: and athletics, is that we've reached a point in our
Speaker 1: culture where simple physiological and biological facts we're being asked
Speaker 1: to ignore them. Okay, one thing is a difference of
Speaker 1: opinion and the other thing is that it's just absolutely
Speaker 1: insisting that everybody must ignore physiological and biological facts established
Speaker 1: in science, you know, and we've got to believe in
Speaker 1: science or some things and not another's. Men and women
Speaker 1: are different. One is not better than the other. They're
Speaker 1: equal in the eyes of God, they're equal in the
Speaker 1: eyes of the law. They have the same rights, but
Speaker 1: they are there's differences. There are things that physiologically most
Speaker 1: women can do better than most men, and vice versa.
Speaker 1: And you see it time and again in the athletics.
Speaker 1: Clearly a man is is if you look at the
Speaker 1: one times of men versus women in track, men's times
Speaker 1: are really faster than women. Is there a really fast
Speaker 1: woman that's faster than the lowest man's. Yeah, I'm sure
Speaker 1: there is. But we're talking about buy and large, the
Speaker 1: rules of the road and the engagement. So what we
Speaker 1: set up a situation now where if someone says, I
Speaker 1: identify as a woman, even though you're a man in
Speaker 1: every way, I mean, according to the rules these people
Speaker 1: have created. And you know, if Lebron James says I
Speaker 1: want to play in the w n b A, They're
Speaker 1: gonna have to let him play in the w N
Speaker 1: b A. And I assure you if he played in
Speaker 1: the w n b A, he would quickly, you know,
Speaker 1: hold every record that league has ever said, and he
Speaker 1: would dominate those games, not because he's a better human
Speaker 1: being or a more important than being, because he has
Speaker 1: physiological advantages over the people he's playing against. By the way,
Speaker 1: those things extend even even within the gender. So there's
Speaker 1: a reason why we break up boxing and mixed martial
Speaker 1: arts into into weight classes, because you know, Floyd Mayweather
Speaker 1: may be a great fighter, but you know, if you
Speaker 1: put him in a ring with Mike Tyson and his prime,
Speaker 1: it's not going to be a very good fight because
Speaker 1: the heavier guy has some physiological advantages. And I don't
Speaker 1: care if Mike Tyson identified as a middleweight, Were're gonna
Speaker 1: letim fight in the middle way because he would hurt
Speaker 1: the middle way because he was bigger, stronger, and was
Speaker 1: able to impose himself. And so I just think we've
Speaker 1: got to get back to that realization. And and and
Speaker 1: I think what the one thing we've lost the capacity
Speaker 1: is to say one thing is to say, look, okay,
Speaker 1: I get it, you identify as a woman, you want
Speaker 1: to you're in the process of same shape, changing your gender,
Speaker 1: to all kinds of treatment. I don't know anything about
Speaker 1: that stuff, man, but I'm gonna treat you with dignity
Speaker 1: and respect because you're a human being and you deserve that,
Speaker 1: and you know, and the laws should protect you as
Speaker 1: much as anybody else. But what you can't do is
Speaker 1: you can't impose that on everybody else. This is not
Speaker 1: This is no longer about just respecting the individuals. It's
Speaker 1: now about imposing the views of one group on everybody
Speaker 1: else and force and telling everybody else everybody must now
Speaker 1: change the way you live, work and do sports because
Speaker 1: some people feel this way. That's that's that's the point
Speaker 1: where you get that right now, And that's where the
Speaker 1: point we're at right now. And um, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't think I don't know how this thing works itself through,
Speaker 1: but but it starts getting absurd. I think that's what's
Speaker 1: gonna happen. And if you're gonna start to see absurdity,
Speaker 1: that that will be impossible to ignore or you're going
Speaker 1: to destroy women athletics. Senator Marco Rubio, I've really enjoyed
Speaker 1: the chat. We'll have to get together at some point
Speaker 1: in the future. Maybe when we're in d C. But
Speaker 1: in the meantime, I hope your Gators have some good luck,
Speaker 1: but not too much good luck, because at some point
Speaker 1: I'd like for Tennessee to beat Florida once every Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you if he's watching now, I mean
Speaker 1: he's listening, he's listening to somebody's I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: even know. I I don't want to violate the answer
Speaker 1: double A rules or whatever. So um, because I'm an
Speaker 1: alumni of the school and all that. But but Florida's
Speaker 1: now in the running. I hadn't even seen that the
Speaker 1: most recent update. Have you met Billy Napier yet, by
Speaker 1: the way, I have not. I have not, but I
Speaker 1: hear great things about him, and um and I think
Speaker 1: you know, Florida in our facilities, Uh, I mean are
Speaker 1: gonna be second to none. So um uh look, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're listening now, March, I mean, I just think
Speaker 1: Florid us a good choice. I mean, just check it out. Man. Uh,
Speaker 1: that is Marco Rubio making his play for arch Manning.
Speaker 1: I appreciate the time of a man. Have a good
Speaker 1: weekend him and uh and a good time figuring out
Speaker 1: what's going to happen here as we roll towards the midterms.
Speaker 1: Thanks Ma, Man, thank you. I'm Clay Travis. This has
Speaker 1: been wins and losses.