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Speaker 1: This says, Wins and Losses with Clay Trevis play talks

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Speaker 1: with the most entertaining people in sports, entertainment and business.

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Speaker 1: Now here's Clay Trevis. Welcome in Wins and Losses podcast. Here,

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Speaker 1: I am your fearless host, Clay Travis. Well, you're gonna

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Speaker 1: be joined here momentarily by Joel Clatt. I want to

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Speaker 1: tell you, guys, I want you to leave me the

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Speaker 1: best possible five star reviews that you can on the

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Speaker 1: Wins and Losses podcast. I'll shout out some of the

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Speaker 1: best as we continue to have more and more of

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Speaker 1: these weekly episodes. We need more reviews. Helps the rating

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Speaker 1: helps bump us up in the podcast rankings. I'm told also,

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Speaker 1: I want to be entertained by reading these things. Special

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Speaker 1: bonus if you can make fun of Joel Clatt while

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Speaker 1: talking about how awesome I am in that review, will

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Speaker 1: continue to share those going forward. Uh and we are

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Speaker 1: joined today by at Joel Clatt, one of the most

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Speaker 1: awful people on the Internet. He is the lead college

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Speaker 1: football analyst for uh Fox Sports, and he has the

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Speaker 1: the unfortunate unfortunate, I would say, notoriety for being among

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Speaker 1: my biggest hitters in all the world, Joel, thanks for

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Speaker 1: joining us. I'm just a truth teller. So you know,

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Speaker 1: when you're a massive hypocrite, I just call it out

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Speaker 1: right on that space, all right. So speaking of being

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Speaker 1: a massive hypocrite, um, you, of course are one of

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Speaker 1: the greatest hypocrites in all of the land. But what

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Speaker 1: we do, what we do on the Wins and Losses

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Speaker 1: podcast is, uh, we try to get from how you

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Speaker 1: got so and I just introduced you as the lead

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Speaker 1: voice for Fox College Football. You travel around the best

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Speaker 1: game Fox has in the Big Twelve, the Pack twelve,

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Speaker 1: and the Big Ten every week and get to call

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Speaker 1: college football games. But you're a relatively young guy. How

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Speaker 1: old are you like, as we speak today in twenty nineteen,

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Speaker 1: thirty seven years old, So you're a young guy to

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Speaker 1: have the job that you have. So let's go back

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Speaker 1: in time. Let's go back in time. Will will eventually

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Speaker 1: work our way back up to the nineteen college football

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Speaker 1: season that's about to start. But when did the question

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Speaker 1: I would like to ask people who become pretty good athletes,

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Speaker 1: and people may not even realize that you were a

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Speaker 1: pretty good athlete, is when did you realize for the

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Speaker 1: first time, Hey, I'm pretty good at playing sports. Um,

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Speaker 1: I mean I always love sports, and I would say

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Speaker 1: as a kid, I was always I would say, you know,

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Speaker 1: one of the you know, top two or three players

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Speaker 1: on whatever team I was on, kind of regardless of sport. Now,

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Speaker 1: my dad was a high school of football coach. I

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Speaker 1: was the youngest of four. I was the accident actually play,

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Speaker 1: so I was way behind my brothers and sisters. So

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Speaker 1: my whole childhood was basically just a big tag along

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Speaker 1: to their sporting events. And you know, my brother was

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Speaker 1: a really good player, um in football, basketball, and baseball,

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Speaker 1: and I would be the ball boy on the sideline

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Speaker 1: for my dad's teams, and so I was always around it.

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Speaker 1: I always loved competing, whether it was whookeleball in the

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Speaker 1: backyard or actually playing on team sports on my own.

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Speaker 1: But I would say that I I think I knew

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Speaker 1: from a pretty young age that I was always one

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Speaker 1: of the better players on whatever team I was on.

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Speaker 1: But I didn't really know that that I was good

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Speaker 1: enough to play past high school until I would say

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Speaker 1: I was a junior in high school. Um, that might

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Speaker 1: be late, but but for whatever reason, I just always

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Speaker 1: thought that that was for other people, you know, that

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Speaker 1: was for like the greatest players. And then all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden, specifically baseball, I started playing really well. I

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Speaker 1: started hitting a lot of home runs as a junior

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Speaker 1: in high school and started getting attention from not only colleges,

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Speaker 1: but from also Major league teams. And that was the

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Speaker 1: first kind of whiff I got of, like, oh man,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna be able to play past high school. Where

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Speaker 1: did you grow up? Denver, Colorado? Just outside it's actually

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Speaker 1: a town called our Vada, and our Vada is actually

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Speaker 1: directly between Boulder and Denver, so I grew up very

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Speaker 1: close to the University of Colorado. I grew up a

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Speaker 1: huge Denver Bronco fan, and um right during the John

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Speaker 1: Elway era. You know, I was born in n and

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Speaker 1: he got there. So my formative years were watching the Broncos,

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Speaker 1: you know, go to the Super Bowl and lose it

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Speaker 1: three times. And I was a couple of Super Bowls.

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Speaker 1: So uh, certainly sports shaped my entire life growing up,

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Speaker 1: and in particular I was able to as a kid

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Speaker 1: watch the University of Colorado win a national championship, so

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Speaker 1: you know, for me, you know, that was kind of life.

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Speaker 1: Be sure to catch live editions about kicked the coverage

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Speaker 1: with Clay Travis week days at six am Eastern three

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Speaker 1: am Pacific. We're talking to Joel Clapp, Fox College Football

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Speaker 1: lead analysts, does a lot of different things for Fox. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And so you you said your dad was a high

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Speaker 1: school coach. What did you coach? He was a football coach.

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Speaker 1: So he he was at that school, Pomona High School

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Speaker 1: in our Vauta, Colorado, for over thirty years from the

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Speaker 1: day it opened, and he was the head coach for

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Speaker 1: a while. He was a defensive coordinator for a while.

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Speaker 1: But um, yeah he was. He was always there and

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Speaker 1: that was always kind of my favorite thing to do

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Speaker 1: as a kid was go to the high school football

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Speaker 1: games and be a ball boy on the sideline. Did

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Speaker 1: you play high school football for your dad? I did, Um,

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Speaker 1: but he it wasn't you know that that brings up

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Speaker 1: I'm sure that everyone listening will have a very specific

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Speaker 1: picture in their mind of what that means. Right. Oh,

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Speaker 1: of course this guy was a coach's son. And I

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Speaker 1: always pushed back on that a little bit because my

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Speaker 1: experience was actually very different than what I think people

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Speaker 1: predict it would have been. For instance, my dad, um

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Speaker 1: was kind of a gruff guy a disciplinarian. He was

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Speaker 1: a marine um. He he fought in Vietnam. He was

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Speaker 1: the first lieutenant in an artillery division in the Vietnam War.

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Speaker 1: And so you know, he ran our football team accordingly.

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Speaker 1: You know, we had to have our uniforms washed and pressed,

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Speaker 1: and our helmet shined and our shoes shine just in

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Speaker 1: order to get on the bus. Um. And we were,

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Speaker 1: you know, we were a very much a disciplined football team. Well,

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Speaker 1: he told me, you know, when I was a junior

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Speaker 1: that well, first of all, he would took on the

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Speaker 1: varsity until I was a junior. And then once I

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Speaker 1: was a junior, he said, you're not playing quarterback for

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Speaker 1: me if there's an older kid that can that is willing,

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Speaker 1: you know, to play quarterback or or can play quarterback.

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Speaker 1: And so I didn't even get to play the position

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Speaker 1: at quarterback until I was a senior for my dad.

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Speaker 1: Which if anyone knows anything about recruiting in in high

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Speaker 1: school football and college football knows that that's like, that's

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Speaker 1: like two years too late. So I wasn't recruited basically

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Speaker 1: at all, certainly by the big schools around. Uh. But

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Speaker 1: you know, I was just a late addition to some

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Speaker 1: Division two recruiting classes and got to take trips to

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Speaker 1: place like South Dakota State, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado.

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Speaker 1: But in large part because I only played, I only

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Speaker 1: started ten games as a quarterback for my high school

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Speaker 1: football team in my career. That's And what kind of

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Speaker 1: office did you guys run? Did you wing it around

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Speaker 1: at all? Or was it more of a kind of

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Speaker 1: a tradition. No, it was not even traditional clay. It

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Speaker 1: was old school. It was like do you know the

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Speaker 1: old robust two tight ends, three backs in the backfield.

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Speaker 1: We would run the option, we would run the ball.

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Speaker 1: Of the time they had won. My dad had a

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Speaker 1: tremendous amount of success. They won I think something like

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Speaker 1: twelve straight league titles. You want a state championship in

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Speaker 1: the eighties. Who was constantly up there in the state

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Speaker 1: playoffs and and they believed in this very simple system.

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Speaker 1: And so there I was not very fast, six two

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Speaker 1: good arms, UM slow kid trying to run the option,

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Speaker 1: and I could go up for my dad's team. And

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Speaker 1: at the end of the year, this is this is

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Speaker 1: the only time that I feel like he budged, only

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Speaker 1: because he was my father. Um, we weren't a great team.

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Speaker 1: We were about a five hundred football team. And at

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Speaker 1: the end of the year, he finally, for the first

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Speaker 1: time in the history of the school, put a quarterback

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Speaker 1: in shot gun for the last two games. And I

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Speaker 1: actually sat in the shot gun and we threw the

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Speaker 1: ball around a little bit my last two games of

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Speaker 1: high school. But other than that, I was doing the

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Speaker 1: robust like you know, reverse out thinking to the full back,

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Speaker 1: run the option down the line, and I was not

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Speaker 1: very good at it. So do you think that if

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Speaker 1: you had been in a pro style offense in in

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Speaker 1: you know, or it's certainly a spread, but there probably

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Speaker 1: weren't a lot of spread offensive attacks, then if you

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Speaker 1: had had that opportunity to kind of wing the football around,

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Speaker 1: do you think you would have gone to play college football?

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Speaker 1: I don't know. Um, yeah, that people have asked me

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Speaker 1: that before, but I I really don't know. My path

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Speaker 1: was so unique, lay and there was there were so

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Speaker 1: many things that had to happen for me to have

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Speaker 1: the journey that I did. It was it was you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm so thankful that it happened the way that it did,

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Speaker 1: because as we'll get into and in a moment I'm sure,

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Speaker 1: as we're talking about kind of my path, I wasn't

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Speaker 1: ready for that opportunity out of high school, you know,

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Speaker 1: as part of the reason why I failed in my

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Speaker 1: endeavor right after high school. Um, and so I'm I

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Speaker 1: am eternally grateful that I didn't have the opportunity to

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Speaker 1: play football right out of out of high school, and

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Speaker 1: that I had an opportunity to go and be a

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Speaker 1: professional and different sport, to grow up and learn an

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Speaker 1: immense amount of lessons in order to put those into

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Speaker 1: practice once I came back and actually went to college. So, UM,

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Speaker 1: I don't I have no idea I might have had

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Speaker 1: an opportunity to play, you know, but definitely not at

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Speaker 1: the University of Colorado. All right, so let's go to

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Speaker 1: what happens instead. You're gret your your You said, in

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Speaker 1: a junior year of high school, you start to hit

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Speaker 1: some home runs, you start to have some good success

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Speaker 1: in high school baseball. What position are you playing and

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Speaker 1: when did you start thinking, oh, man, I might get drafted.

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Speaker 1: You said it was that junior year. What then happens

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Speaker 1: that you move into your senior year? Okay, so I

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Speaker 1: was a short stop and you know that was right

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Speaker 1: in the kind of the a Ron era where the

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Speaker 1: shortstop was no longer just the small middle infielder that

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Speaker 1: hit for average, but you could be a power player

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Speaker 1: and play shortstop. So I would play shortstop. My brother

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Speaker 1: was playing college baseball at the time, and um, I

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Speaker 1: started hitting a lot of home runs. Now, granted, this

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Speaker 1: is in Colorado with thin air, and this is you know,

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Speaker 1: with the aluminum bat, and the pitching wasn't great. But

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Speaker 1: when I was hitting, you know, a home run every

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Speaker 1: you know, six or seven at bats in high school.

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Speaker 1: And so that's when I started to realize, like, my

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Speaker 1: future is going to be in baseball? How many home

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Speaker 1: runs did you hit in a season? Then in high

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Speaker 1: school baseball? So so like, for instance, the summer before

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Speaker 1: my senior year, I think we played games forty eight

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Speaker 1: or fifty games, and I hit twenty six home runs

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Speaker 1: and I had about I think hundred RBI right in there,

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Speaker 1: and so so you know, I was I was hitting

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Speaker 1: the ball really well, I was decent defensively, and I

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Speaker 1: and then once I got into the spring of my

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Speaker 1: senior year, that has kind of kept up. I think

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Speaker 1: we played only eighteen or nineteen games and I hit

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Speaker 1: ten home runs. So I started getting some looks, and

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Speaker 1: I started getting a lot of looks from junior colleges.

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Speaker 1: I started getting some looks from professional scouts and I

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Speaker 1: and I thought I was going to have an opportunity

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Speaker 1: to play, certainly in college, but maybe, you know, I'd

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Speaker 1: get lucky and get drafted. In the meantime played. My

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Speaker 1: brother actually graduated from college and signed a free agent

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Speaker 1: deal with the San Diego Padres. And so he went

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Speaker 1: to the San Diego Padres and was with their rookie

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Speaker 1: ball team when I was the summer before my senior

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Speaker 1: year and he was with the Padres. Well, because of that,

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Speaker 1: they're scouts started to realize about me. Started you know, hey,

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Speaker 1: this kid that Jason, my brother, was playing very well

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Speaker 1: for their rookie ball team. And they were like, oh,

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Speaker 1: he's he's got a younger brother who's basically a clone

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Speaker 1: of him. And I was a little bit more powerful

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Speaker 1: than Jason at the time, you know, he was a

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Speaker 1: little smaller than I was. And so they're scouts specifically

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Speaker 1: started really watching me a lot. And and because of that,

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Speaker 1: because I was fortunate to have my brother in a

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Speaker 1: professional organization, they knew about me. You know that started

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Speaker 1: to garner a lot of interest. So the Rockies, who

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Speaker 1: are the local team, and the Padres were very interested.

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Speaker 1: I believe the Giants were the other team that were

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Speaker 1: very interested. I worked out at Coors Fields for the

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Speaker 1: Rockies before the draft and after my senior year. In

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Speaker 1: that June draft, I was drafted in the eleventh round

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Speaker 1: and it was higher than I could have possibly imagined.

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Speaker 1: I was over the moon. I couldn't believe that I

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Speaker 1: was taking that high. Um, it was, you know, kind

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Speaker 1: of a dream come true. And then I had to

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Speaker 1: decide whether I was going to go play junior college

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Speaker 1: baseball or signed with Padres and playing the minor leagues.

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Speaker 1: And that was a really difficult decision for me, to

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Speaker 1: be quite honest with you, because, um, I knew that

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Speaker 1: an education was going to be important. My dad was

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Speaker 1: a teacher, my mom was a kindergarten teacher. They always

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Speaker 1: stressed the importance of an education in and I I

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Speaker 1: say to everybody, the decision that I made to sign

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Speaker 1: with the San Diego Padres out of high school was

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Speaker 1: the best worst decision that I ever made in my life.

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Speaker 1: What kind of signing bonus do you get? Back then,

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Speaker 1: as an eleventh round pick. So I signed for basically

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Speaker 1: the equivalent of about a hundred thousand dollars, which seems

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Speaker 1: like like you might as well have been ten million.

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Speaker 1: Do you write a hundred thousand dollars to an eighteen

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Speaker 1: year old? Is it? Yeah? So you get my dad,

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Speaker 1: I mean, my dad never made at that point. This

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Speaker 1: is nineteen, this is two thousand. It had been a

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Speaker 1: teacher's whole life. I think he was making I mean

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Speaker 1: he was at the end, and I think he was

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Speaker 1: making like fifty thousand dollars a year, you know. So

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Speaker 1: when they said now, part of that it wasn't all

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Speaker 1: in cash. It was the equivalent of about a hundred grand,

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Speaker 1: and part of that was designated towards my college education.

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Speaker 1: I think it was I want to say it was

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Speaker 1: forty grand or thirty five thousand of the hundred was

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Speaker 1: designated just for college reimbursement. So you get that offer, like,

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Speaker 1: and how long does it take you to decide I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna take the you know, like I'm gonna go try

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Speaker 1: my luck at major League baseball. The way I remember it,

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Speaker 1: it took me a couple of days. You know. My

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Speaker 1: brother was stressing to me. He had been released in

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Speaker 1: the meantime, um and and so he was done with

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Speaker 1: the Padres, and he was stressing to me to go

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Speaker 1: to college. He was like, listen, my oor league baseball

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Speaker 1: is not what it's cracked up to be. You know.

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Speaker 1: You know, I know that it's more beneficial to go

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Speaker 1: in as a high school draft pick rather than a

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Speaker 1: college player, just because of the age. But you was

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Speaker 1: stressing to me not to go. My dad was probably

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Speaker 1: stressing to me at the time not to to sign,

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Speaker 1: and I just I couldn't resist way. I mean, as

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Speaker 1: you can imagine, right, I mean, you dream your whole

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Speaker 1: life of being a professional athlete, and then all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden someone says, here's the opportunity, here's you know,

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Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars to do it. Um and So,

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Speaker 1: against the advice of my family, I actually decided to

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Speaker 1: sign and signed with the Padres and went down and

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Speaker 1: played in the rookie Ball in Peoria, Arizona. Uh that summer.

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Speaker 1: So you said you're gonna go to junior college, Why

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Speaker 1: not like a bigger college. What was the decision for

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Speaker 1: junior college for you? Yeah? For me, it was really easy,

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Speaker 1: and it's it all had to do with retaining your

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Speaker 1: draft status and your own rights, because if you signed

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Speaker 1: with a four year school and went there, then it's

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Speaker 1: just like football, you had to be there for three

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Speaker 1: years before you can go back into the draft versus

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Speaker 1: you know. That's why a lot of great players actually

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Speaker 1: go to junior college route because they'll get drafted out

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Speaker 1: of high school. They say, you know what, I can

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Speaker 1: improve that by a by a few rounds. They don't

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Speaker 1: get the bonus that they want. They go to junior college,

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Speaker 1: then they can be drafted the very next year. So

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Speaker 1: that was the reason that I decided that junior college

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Speaker 1: is going to be my route, is because I wanted

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Speaker 1: to retain my ability to be drafted the very next year.

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Speaker 1: All right, so you immediately go to rookie ball. I mean,

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Speaker 1: so you're eighteen years old. You know, you spent your

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Speaker 1: whole life in Colorado, you signed this deal, uh, and

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Speaker 1: you go on and go to rookie ball. What was

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Speaker 1: that like? Um? It was the most interesting thing I

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Speaker 1: can possibly imagine at the time. You know, here I

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Speaker 1: am from a suburban town in Denver, Colorado, and all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden, I walk into a locker room and

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Speaker 1: there was probably forty five guys, and only thirteen to

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Speaker 1: fifteen of them spoke English as a native language. You know,

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Speaker 1: there were a lot of Dominican players in the Padre

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Speaker 1: organization at the time. There were some guys from Panama,

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Speaker 1: there was I mean, there were some guys from Mexico.

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Speaker 1: There was Venezuela. There was a good continent gent from Venezuela.

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Speaker 1: And and dude, like, I can't even tell you what

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Speaker 1: a shock to the system that is, you know, to

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00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:58,320
Speaker 1: all of a sudden be thrown into that. Um, I

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Speaker 1: got a great story, and I think, I think you'll

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Speaker 1: love this. So this is just like some comedic relief

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Speaker 1: my very first days down there. First of all, listen,

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Speaker 1: I was a little nervous for whatever reason. In our

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Speaker 1: high school, we didn't take showers. It just wasn't a thing, right,

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Speaker 1: Like we would go home to shower after baseball games

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Speaker 1: or even after football games and football practice. You just

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Speaker 1: kept your your pads and your locker and you just

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Speaker 1: change and you went home and shower. And so we

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Speaker 1: didn't do like the big like you know what I

339
00:17:29,720 --> 00:17:33,679
Speaker 1: would call the gang showers. And so that was one

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Speaker 1: of the things that I like I knew it was coming,

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Speaker 1: and and candidly, I was you're a little nervous about it, right,

342
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Speaker 1: I means like the first it's like a moment of truth.

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Speaker 1: And in a young man's why the first time he's

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Speaker 1: gonna stroll into a gang shower And one of the

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Speaker 1: first times that I ever did it. And and and

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Speaker 1: this is in the spring training complex and Peoria or

347
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Speaker 1: Arizona with the padres. I I walk in and I'm

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Speaker 1: like all right, like you know, like chest up, shoulders back,

349
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Speaker 1: you know, I'm telling myself all this stuff, like hanging

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Speaker 1: the towel on the outside, walk in like you own

351
00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:11,720
Speaker 1: the joint, like this is it. Here we go. So

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Speaker 1: birthday suit rocking, got my shower shoes on, I'm ready

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Speaker 1: to go. So I walk into the shower. And if

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Speaker 1: you've ever been in one of those types of showers,

355
00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:23,119
Speaker 1: it's loud, right because they're there are a bunch of

356
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Speaker 1: other guys in there, and if they're talking or shouting

357
00:18:25,440 --> 00:18:28,080
Speaker 1: or laughing or whatever, and all just kind of like

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00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:33,080
Speaker 1: reverberates because it's just like a big like cement block room,

359
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Speaker 1: and so it's loud, it's echoing, the showers are going,

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Speaker 1: there's like steam coming up you know, so it's it's

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Speaker 1: like this weird scene where you can't really see what's

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Speaker 1: going on, but there's a lot going on because you

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Speaker 1: can hear it. And so I just started showering as

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Speaker 1: quickly as I can. And and at one point, you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm like washing off, and I'm and I'm rinsing off.

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Speaker 1: At this point, I'm rinsing off, and so the water

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Speaker 1: is kind of going over my eyes, so my eyes

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Speaker 1: are closed at the time, and I just here this

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Speaker 1: loud laughter coming from across the shower, and I swear

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Speaker 1: it sounded like the Cookie Monster, right, and and one

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Speaker 1: of the Dominicans was just laughing as loud as he

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Speaker 1: possibly could. And so I quickly kind of like rubbed

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Speaker 1: my eyes and opened my eyes, and I'm kind of

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Speaker 1: like squinting through the steam that's still in the shower.

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Speaker 1: And he's standing there with his hands on his hips,

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Speaker 1: turned to his neighbor, the shower neighbor, and his neighbor

377
00:19:30,800 --> 00:19:34,879
Speaker 1: is also rinting off, and he's just with his both

378
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Speaker 1: hands on his hips, not holding anything, king on the

379
00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:43,400
Speaker 1: guy next to him and laughing hysterically, a big Cookie

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Speaker 1: Monster laugh. So at this time, like the guy can't

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Speaker 1: feel it. I can't remember his name, but the guy

382
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Speaker 1: can't feel it because he's in a warm shower. So

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Speaker 1: finally he does the same thing I do, like rinses,

384
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Speaker 1: you know, he kind of rubs his eyes and opens

385
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Speaker 1: his eyes and realized that he's getting the golden shower.

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Speaker 1: Neighbor and Clay all hell break loose in the shower.

387
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Speaker 1: They start growing blows in the shower. I mean everything

388
00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:21,359
Speaker 1: is swinging around and they're slippery there slipping. Like I said,

389
00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:25,360
Speaker 1: things are really swinging around and there swing. Oh bro.

390
00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:29,520
Speaker 1: So I immediately just like walked out and grabbed my

391
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Speaker 1: tael and went back to my locker. And I can

392
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Speaker 1: remember sitting at my locker and I was staring back

393
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Speaker 1: into my locker and I was like, oh my god,

394
00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:38,600
Speaker 1: that was the craziest thing I've ever witnessed in my life.

395
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:41,639
Speaker 1: So wait, the guys. That's always one of the great dilemmas.

396
00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:44,840
Speaker 1: I think, do you break up a naked shower fight?

397
00:20:44,960 --> 00:20:46,840
Speaker 1: Like the guys, like, do you step in there and

398
00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:48,720
Speaker 1: try to like get between them and break the fight up?

399
00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:52,200
Speaker 1: How did the fight in do you remember? And to

400
00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:55,679
Speaker 1: go to the ground and in short order, so everyone

401
00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:57,480
Speaker 1: just stands there until it goes to the ground and

402
00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:01,639
Speaker 1: then it's over. It's like a hockey fight. Yeah. Uh.

403
00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:04,360
Speaker 1: And so that was your introduction to uh, to minor

404
00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:07,320
Speaker 1: league baseball, to rookie ball. Yeah. So so there you go.

405
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Speaker 1: Here I am. I'm eight teen years old, and that's

406
00:21:10,359 --> 00:21:12,920
Speaker 1: my new world. I lived in a hotel that summer

407
00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:16,639
Speaker 1: and experienced massive failure for the first time in my

408
00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:19,840
Speaker 1: life by politically. I think I hit like to twenty

409
00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:22,080
Speaker 1: that year. I can't remember the specific number because I'm

410
00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:24,520
Speaker 1: tryed to It's like PTSD. I've tried to block it

411
00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:28,080
Speaker 1: out of my memory. Um let the team in doubles

412
00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:31,960
Speaker 1: that year, but man, it was. It was. It was

413
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:34,320
Speaker 1: a tough year. But that was my first introduction into

414
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Speaker 1: minor league baseball. Okay, so you think though as a

415
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Speaker 1: young kid. The one thing you have as a young

416
00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:40,840
Speaker 1: kid is you think, okay, I'm just gonna get a

417
00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:43,720
Speaker 1: lot better. So you finished rookie baseball. Did you ever

418
00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:45,439
Speaker 1: get pete on in the shower? By the way, anybody

419
00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:49,760
Speaker 1: ever do that to you? No? I did not get

420
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Speaker 1: pete on, but rest assured like my hand was on

421
00:21:53,240 --> 00:21:57,560
Speaker 1: a swivel. Yeah, not never stayed shut for long for

422
00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:00,880
Speaker 1: from that time on and my entire career. Dang showers

423
00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:07,280
Speaker 1: in the gang shower. Alright, So uh so you go

424
00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:09,280
Speaker 1: back like and eventually you start, I mean, you get

425
00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:11,280
Speaker 1: assigned to a team. Right, how many years did you

426
00:22:11,320 --> 00:22:14,600
Speaker 1: play minor league baseball? And was there a moment where

427
00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:16,800
Speaker 1: you were like, I just I'm never gonna be good

428
00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:19,840
Speaker 1: enough at this. Because that's a tough moment for anybody

429
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:22,119
Speaker 1: to have that dream. Because when you get drafted your eighteen,

430
00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:25,479
Speaker 1: you're in the eleventh round, A hundred billion percent you think, oh,

431
00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:27,520
Speaker 1: I'm gonna play major league baseball, right, I mean, there's

432
00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:30,680
Speaker 1: just no doubt. I'm sure in your mind, yes, because

433
00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:34,880
Speaker 1: it's a small number. Yeah, there's that great story. There's

434
00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:37,040
Speaker 1: a great story, by the way, about how when you're young,

435
00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:40,000
Speaker 1: like you just don't really understand probability. And they were

436
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:42,200
Speaker 1: talking about the guys who stormed the beaches of Normandy

437
00:22:42,359 --> 00:22:44,399
Speaker 1: on D Day and they were like, I want you

438
00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:46,720
Speaker 1: guys to look to your left and to your right,

439
00:22:47,119 --> 00:22:49,199
Speaker 1: you know, like one of these guys is gonna end

440
00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:52,240
Speaker 1: up dead when they storm the beaches. And every guy

441
00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:53,840
Speaker 1: like looks to his left or right and he's like, oh,

442
00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:55,840
Speaker 1: those poor bat you know, that poor bastard, Like you

443
00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:58,720
Speaker 1: never think it's gonna be you that something bad happens.

444
00:22:58,760 --> 00:23:00,920
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna beat the odds, right, And when

445
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:03,440
Speaker 1: you're young, that's what you always think. So then you're

446
00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:06,680
Speaker 1: in minor league baseball, you're eleventh round pick uh, and

447
00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:09,320
Speaker 1: you start to have doubts win and how long do

448
00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:12,639
Speaker 1: you stay? Like what cities do you play in? Okay?

449
00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:15,200
Speaker 1: So that first year, I was just in rookie ball

450
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:19,520
Speaker 1: in Phoenix. So um, I was just in the Arizona League.

451
00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:23,200
Speaker 1: And that entire summer, regardless of when, what what went

452
00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:25,240
Speaker 1: on because of this thought in my head of like

453
00:23:25,359 --> 00:23:27,720
Speaker 1: I'm so young, I'm gonna get so much better. I

454
00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:30,240
Speaker 1: led the team in doubles. You know, I'm just gonna

455
00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:34,760
Speaker 1: get stronger. I'm gonna lift hard this offseason, like I.

456
00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:37,920
Speaker 1: I was all in and I came back to the

457
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:41,000
Speaker 1: to the next spring training and I was really strong

458
00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:43,280
Speaker 1: and I was really looking forward to a big year.

459
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:47,600
Speaker 1: Um I I had lifted with an Olympic power lifter

460
00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:50,159
Speaker 1: in the off season, got my legs much stronger. I

461
00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 1: came back with a lot more power, and you know,

462
00:23:53,359 --> 00:23:56,600
Speaker 1: my VPS showed it. I was I was excited for

463
00:23:56,640 --> 00:24:00,119
Speaker 1: that second year, and that second year, I thought that

464
00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:04,160
Speaker 1: I was going to go to the Eugene team. Eugene, Oregon.

465
00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:06,560
Speaker 1: What the Padres were doing that second years they were

466
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:09,679
Speaker 1: moving the rookie ball team from Arizona to Idaho Falls,

467
00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:13,320
Speaker 1: and then they were moving the two short season teams.

468
00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:15,840
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be Ido Falls and Eugene. Eugene would

469
00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:18,480
Speaker 1: be kind of the higher A of the two short

470
00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:20,560
Speaker 1: season teams, and I thought, Okay, I'm gonna progress to

471
00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:23,560
Speaker 1: the Eugene team. I had a pretty good spring training

472
00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:27,600
Speaker 1: and and they kept us in extended spring, which I

473
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:30,399
Speaker 1: was expecting. And extended spring was going to be the

474
00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:32,800
Speaker 1: two teams that you know, we're going to be the

475
00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:36,520
Speaker 1: short season single A teams. UM at the time, now

476
00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:39,720
Speaker 1: I'm nineteen years old. And in that extended spring it

477
00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:46,080
Speaker 1: started to go south. I started really struggling, UM, And

478
00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:49,159
Speaker 1: because my identity was totally wrapped up and being a

479
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:51,880
Speaker 1: good player, I didn't know how to deal with that.

480
00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:54,480
Speaker 1: And also for the first time, you know, this is

481
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:56,920
Speaker 1: a year and a half into having kind of my independence,

482
00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:58,760
Speaker 1: and I also didn't know how to deal with that.

483
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:01,720
Speaker 1: So and I've been very open about this like I

484
00:25:01,720 --> 00:25:04,879
Speaker 1: started really struggling with alcoholism at a at a young age,

485
00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:07,760
Speaker 1: and that started directly impacting my ability to play well

486
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:11,400
Speaker 1: and and my overall psyche. And you didn't have did

487
00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:13,920
Speaker 1: you haven't? You didn't have a drinking issue, you thought

488
00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:17,320
Speaker 1: until you got into minor league baseball. Like I'm sure

489
00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:19,199
Speaker 1: you probably drank a little bit in high school, but

490
00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:21,480
Speaker 1: that's where you suddenly had the freedom and the ability

491
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:24,960
Speaker 1: to control your schedule in some way. That's right, that's right.

492
00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:26,639
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, and in particular in the

493
00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:29,480
Speaker 1: offseason leading into that, you know, like it became more

494
00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:32,320
Speaker 1: a part of what we were doing and what I

495
00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:35,080
Speaker 1: was doing. And I wouldn't say I had a problem

496
00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:37,399
Speaker 1: before then, and then all of a sudden, then you

497
00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:41,639
Speaker 1: start to throw in a lack of belief in yourself, um,

498
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:44,520
Speaker 1: a little bit of loss of identity, and then it

499
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:49,720
Speaker 1: became a huge issue. And I didn't have the the wherewithal,

500
00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:53,639
Speaker 1: you know, as a man, to deal with that. And

501
00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:56,480
Speaker 1: and so that extended spring us started going wrong and

502
00:25:56,600 --> 00:26:00,840
Speaker 1: I got sent to Idaho Falls instead of Eugene, and

503
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:03,639
Speaker 1: it went on even more of a downward spiral. I

504
00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:06,600
Speaker 1: had a terrible season. Um, I can just I'll tell

505
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:08,080
Speaker 1: you a quick story and I don't tell I mean,

506
00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:10,960
Speaker 1: it's a funny story, but it's it's actually, in hindsight,

507
00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:14,800
Speaker 1: incredibly sad that the only time I ever went for

508
00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:19,960
Speaker 1: before at Idaho Falls with the Padres was because I

509
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:23,880
Speaker 1: had stayed up all night drinking rum and smoking Nicaraguan

510
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:27,200
Speaker 1: cigars with a couple of the guys on the team.

511
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:29,399
Speaker 1: And we did it just outside of the clubhouse and

512
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:31,320
Speaker 1: we just stayed there, and you know, you get done

513
00:26:31,359 --> 00:26:33,480
Speaker 1: with the game late, so we did it until the

514
00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:36,080
Speaker 1: sun came up. And I thought for sure I wouldn't

515
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:38,080
Speaker 1: be in the lineup the next day, Clay, And sure enough,

516
00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:41,040
Speaker 1: I walked into the clubhouse at you know, two o'clock

517
00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:43,800
Speaker 1: the next afternoon, and I was in the lineup at

518
00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:46,879
Speaker 1: third base. I had moved to third base, and and

519
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:51,840
Speaker 1: I was so sick, like you can imagine, right you

520
00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:56,399
Speaker 1: drink rum and smoked Nicaraguan cigars all night. I was

521
00:26:57,160 --> 00:27:01,120
Speaker 1: so sick. And I didn't say VP because I thought

522
00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:02,919
Speaker 1: if I swung the bat hard enough, I would just

523
00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:06,399
Speaker 1: throw up. You were that hungover? Is that why he

524
00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:10,000
Speaker 1: puts you? No? No, no, no, he I mean he

525
00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:11,879
Speaker 1: didn't have any idea. And again, this is not like

526
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:15,479
Speaker 1: college or high school or anything, Like your manager doesn't

527
00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:18,440
Speaker 1: care about you. That's another thing about the professional game.

528
00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:20,520
Speaker 1: Like he's just putting the line up. He doesn't come

529
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:24,239
Speaker 1: say hello, he doesn't check on you, none of those things, right,

530
00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:27,800
Speaker 1: Like you're just expected to be ready to play. And

531
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:32,720
Speaker 1: so that night comes around and I'm still as sick

532
00:27:32,760 --> 00:27:36,199
Speaker 1: as you can possibly be, and I went up to

533
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:41,159
Speaker 1: the plate and play. God is my witness. In the

534
00:27:41,200 --> 00:27:43,480
Speaker 1: back of my head. I looked at my bat before

535
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:45,760
Speaker 1: I stepped into the box, and I thought to myself,

536
00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:48,720
Speaker 1: if you swing and miss, you're gonna throw up on

537
00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 1: the plate in front of everybody. That's how I mean.

538
00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:57,320
Speaker 1: You've been there, right, Yeah, I've seen her against before

539
00:27:57,320 --> 00:27:59,879
Speaker 1: and slept in a gutter like and again this is

540
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:05,280
Speaker 1: not This is funny, but it's also incredibly sad um.

541
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:08,320
Speaker 1: And so I took a couple of pitches until I

542
00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:10,399
Speaker 1: had two strikes, hoping that you would just walk me.

543
00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:13,439
Speaker 1: And then finally I'm like, I'm I've got to at

544
00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:16,960
Speaker 1: least truck, I said, I'm I'm swinging. I can't just

545
00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:21,280
Speaker 1: go down looking. And so I took the shortest, quickest

546
00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:24,400
Speaker 1: swing I've ever taken in my entire career. Damn, it's

547
00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:28,159
Speaker 1: just a single right up the middle, and it's one

548
00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:30,240
Speaker 1: of those balls that you know it clears the picture

549
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:32,640
Speaker 1: because I hit it pretty well and I know it's

550
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 1: gonna be a single. I swear I basically walked the

551
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:41,040
Speaker 1: first like it was the slowest job the first day.

552
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:43,000
Speaker 1: I know it's not a double. I get the first

553
00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:46,600
Speaker 1: base for the ending ends, next step back, similar type

554
00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:49,720
Speaker 1: of thing. I know I've got a swing bam line drive.

555
00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:52,360
Speaker 1: Now it's to the left fielder. Kind of walked the

556
00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:57,160
Speaker 1: first this whole time, I'm still sick as a dog.

557
00:28:57,400 --> 00:29:00,320
Speaker 1: And finally my third at bat, I hit the ball

558
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:02,720
Speaker 1: over the second baseman's head and it's going to the

559
00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:05,760
Speaker 1: right center gap, and I realized I might have to

560
00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:08,400
Speaker 1: try to lay out a double. And I'm like, and

561
00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:12,080
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, I took a big, deep breath coming

562
00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:14,760
Speaker 1: out of the box, and I was like, do not

563
00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:17,640
Speaker 1: breathe until you slide in the second. And I held

564
00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:20,640
Speaker 1: that breath the entire time. Slide in the second, and

565
00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:23,920
Speaker 1: I'm like, don't don't you, don't you, don't you? And

566
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:31,560
Speaker 1: I just I stood up, dusted myself off, and You're like, Okay,

567
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:34,400
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna throw up on second base. But anyways,

568
00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:36,560
Speaker 1: I ended up getting another hit that last at that

569
00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:38,000
Speaker 1: That was the only time I went for for four

570
00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:41,000
Speaker 1: and it was because I was so scared to swing

571
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:43,960
Speaker 1: and miss because I was gonna throw up. That's a

572
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:46,720
Speaker 1: night I went. I went back to my room that night,

573
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:52,480
Speaker 1: and I realized, like, this isn't for me. Um, something

574
00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 1: needs to change. And and the something that needed to

575
00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:57,520
Speaker 1: change wasn't because I wasn't gonna make it to the

576
00:29:57,560 --> 00:30:01,200
Speaker 1: big Leaves. It was because my life was spiraling out

577
00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:05,239
Speaker 1: of control. And I was only nineteen years old. And

578
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:09,840
Speaker 1: so you're nineteen at that point, when do you actually

579
00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:14,080
Speaker 1: throw in the towel on the minor league baseball career? Okay,

580
00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:20,240
Speaker 1: so um um, I start talking to my parents about, Hey,

581
00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:21,640
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know if this is for me.

582
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:25,280
Speaker 1: I think I want to go to school. So so

583
00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:28,320
Speaker 1: I actually applied at the University of Colorado just to

584
00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:31,920
Speaker 1: get into school in that off season, and and my

585
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:35,240
Speaker 1: dad encouraged me. He was like, give one more spring

586
00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:37,880
Speaker 1: training a try, you know, and if it doesn't go well,

587
00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:40,320
Speaker 1: then you can come back and go to school. Keep

588
00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:43,640
Speaker 1: in mind, play None of this conversation had to do

589
00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:48,360
Speaker 1: with football. It was literally just like, you know, try

590
00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:50,680
Speaker 1: it out. You know that I worked on my life

591
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:54,200
Speaker 1: a little bit during that time. Colorado had had in

592
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:57,280
Speaker 1: that off season. Um I came home and that's when

593
00:30:57,280 --> 00:30:59,720
Speaker 1: they won the Big twelve beat Texas and went and

594
00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:02,320
Speaker 1: play in Oregon and the Fiesta Bowls, so they were,

595
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:04,440
Speaker 1: you know, ranked in the top ten in the country.

596
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:05,959
Speaker 1: I would go to the games. I was having so

597
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:07,520
Speaker 1: much fun. I was like, man, it would be an

598
00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:09,920
Speaker 1: amazing just to be a student, you know, and all

599
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:12,640
Speaker 1: my friends from high school, we're just students and having

600
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:15,760
Speaker 1: a great time in college. And I missed that, and

601
00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:18,040
Speaker 1: and so I thought to myself, Okay, I'm gonna go

602
00:31:18,200 --> 00:31:20,760
Speaker 1: to Colorado, but I'm gonna give this one more try.

603
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:23,200
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna give one more spring training and try.

604
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:24,960
Speaker 1: And I went down there and it didn't work out.

605
00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:27,239
Speaker 1: You know, my head was just not in it at

606
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:30,080
Speaker 1: that point. I was pretty checked out, and so I

607
00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:32,800
Speaker 1: made the decision after that spring training. So I was

608
00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:36,080
Speaker 1: there for two full seasons and then a little into

609
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:39,280
Speaker 1: the next spring training before I decided to quit in May.

610
00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:42,440
Speaker 1: So after spring training and extended spring training, I decided

611
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:44,080
Speaker 1: to quit, and I drove home and decided to go

612
00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:47,960
Speaker 1: back to school. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports

613
00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:50,760
Speaker 1: talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows

614
00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:54,040
Speaker 1: at Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I

615
00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:57,080
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app. Search f s R to listen live.

616
00:31:57,640 --> 00:31:59,640
Speaker 1: So you go back to school, We're talking to Joel

617
00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:03,040
Speaker 1: clad Clay Travis is the Winds and Losses podcast. Encourage

618
00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:05,400
Speaker 1: you too. If you're enjoying this conversation, check out many

619
00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:08,000
Speaker 1: of the other conversations we've had as well. One a week.

620
00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:11,680
Speaker 1: You can subscribe at the Winds and Losses tab in iTunes.

621
00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:15,960
Speaker 1: So you are, um, you are going back to college, thinking, okay,

622
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 1: I'll go back to college. Does Colorado have any idea

623
00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:22,200
Speaker 1: about you at all? Like, how do you go about deciding, Hey,

624
00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:23,880
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe I'll try and see if I

625
00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:25,680
Speaker 1: can play college football. And for people out there who

626
00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:29,200
Speaker 1: may not be aware, you had exhausted your eligibility to

627
00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:33,560
Speaker 1: play college baseball, but you're still eligible to play college

628
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:35,880
Speaker 1: football if you so desire, And there's quite a few

629
00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:38,880
Speaker 1: guys who have done this over the years. You're talented baseball,

630
00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:41,240
Speaker 1: you sign it doesn't work out that well for you,

631
00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:43,000
Speaker 1: and you decide, you know what, I'll go back to

632
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:46,080
Speaker 1: college and I'll play college football. How do you so

633
00:32:46,120 --> 00:32:48,960
Speaker 1: you're admitted to Colorado as a regular student. I'm assuming

634
00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:53,920
Speaker 1: uh yes, And and then your school is paid for

635
00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:58,640
Speaker 1: by the by the major league team under your contract. Yeah,

636
00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:00,880
Speaker 1: but it's it's a reimbursement deal. So I would have

637
00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:02,880
Speaker 1: to pay per school and then hand in my receipts

638
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:06,080
Speaker 1: and ramburst up to like four grand a semester or something.

639
00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:08,600
Speaker 1: I can't remember the exact thing, but that's kind of

640
00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:11,239
Speaker 1: how it was working. And so in the meantime, I

641
00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:15,040
Speaker 1: decided like, hey, you know, like why don't why don't

642
00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:17,520
Speaker 1: I try to like walk on? You know, this is

643
00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:19,680
Speaker 1: this is gonna be a fun deal. And so I

644
00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:22,680
Speaker 1: went and I met with the coach who recruited from

645
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:25,080
Speaker 1: the area where my dad was a head coach. So

646
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:27,400
Speaker 1: he had been there. I had been to their football camp,

647
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:30,640
Speaker 1: you know, just as a a high school kid, just

648
00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:33,680
Speaker 1: to be you know, out there and throw the football around.

649
00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:36,280
Speaker 1: So I met, I went and met with him. His

650
00:33:36,360 --> 00:33:40,400
Speaker 1: name was Shawn Watson, and he said, you know, he said,

651
00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:43,600
Speaker 1: well this is great. You know if you're if you're coming,

652
00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 1: then you're gonna be preferred walk on and it shocked

653
00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:50,840
Speaker 1: me his kind of like excitement about me coming and

654
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:53,560
Speaker 1: it didn't really register, and I was like, you know, okay.

655
00:33:53,600 --> 00:33:56,080
Speaker 1: So I started working out with the team in that summer,

656
00:33:56,320 --> 00:34:00,080
Speaker 1: and um, I started throwing in seven on seven and

657
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:02,160
Speaker 1: then things like that. And there were some guys, there

658
00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:04,400
Speaker 1: were some older guys that were really good players at

659
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:06,840
Speaker 1: the time, you know, all big twelve type players, and

660
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:09,000
Speaker 1: they would come up to me and they were like, hey,

661
00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:11,680
Speaker 1: you know, like where are you from, you know where

662
00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:13,560
Speaker 1: you were, you were you recruited this and that, and

663
00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:14,960
Speaker 1: I would tell them my story and they were all

664
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:17,520
Speaker 1: kind of shocked. They were like, what, like, you haven't

665
00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:20,239
Speaker 1: played football in three years? And I'm like no, you know.

666
00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:21,799
Speaker 1: And and the last time I did it ran the

667
00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:26,320
Speaker 1: option and and it was like this this eye opening

668
00:34:26,360 --> 00:34:29,840
Speaker 1: thing of like oh my gosh, like I'm decent at this.

669
00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:33,840
Speaker 1: I didn't play. I had no idea I ran the option.

670
00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:36,640
Speaker 1: We were in the shotgun two games in my high

671
00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:38,359
Speaker 1: school where I had no idea that I would have

672
00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:41,839
Speaker 1: the ability to even be on the depth chart at Colorado.

673
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:45,120
Speaker 1: It wasn't until I was there and practicing in that

674
00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:47,480
Speaker 1: summer that I thought to myself, Oh, this is you know,

675
00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:50,719
Speaker 1: this is gonna be interesting, this is gonna be really fun. Um.

676
00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:53,960
Speaker 1: And then as I got into that season and I

677
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:57,560
Speaker 1: got into college and started being a student, I loved it.

678
00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:02,720
Speaker 1: Like everything I hated about being a minor league baseball

679
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 1: player was the exact opposite about being in college and

680
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:11,080
Speaker 1: playing for the University of Colorado. Like it was amazing.

681
00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:14,200
Speaker 1: You know. Instead of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for

682
00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:17,360
Speaker 1: dinner every night and top ramen and cup of noodles,

683
00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:21,200
Speaker 1: we were getting like full training table, Like they gave

684
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:23,200
Speaker 1: us a steak. Like one of my first nights. I

685
00:35:23,239 --> 00:35:27,880
Speaker 1: was like, oh my gosh, this is this is incredible, guys.

686
00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:32,279
Speaker 1: The salad dressing is real. Like this is insane, you know,

687
00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:36,920
Speaker 1: Like it was that type of euphoria. I loved it, Clay.

688
00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:41,759
Speaker 1: And then as the season started to get under way,

689
00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:45,120
Speaker 1: I you know, I didn't realize I was a decent player,

690
00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:47,960
Speaker 1: but I was a decent player, and and I gravitated

691
00:35:47,960 --> 00:35:49,880
Speaker 1: towards the schematics of the game. We ran a pro

692
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:52,960
Speaker 1: style offense. It's something that was kind of right up

693
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:55,160
Speaker 1: my alley, and so all of a sudden, by the

694
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:57,400
Speaker 1: time the second or third game rolled around, I was

695
00:35:57,440 --> 00:35:59,880
Speaker 1: on the travel squad as a true freshman walk on,

696
00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:03,879
Speaker 1: and I'll always be grateful to to Gary Barnett, who

697
00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:07,200
Speaker 1: was the head coach at the time, because he really

698
00:36:07,239 --> 00:36:10,480
Speaker 1: didn't care how you got there. He only cared if

699
00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:13,760
Speaker 1: you played well, and so there was no politics involved.

700
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:16,640
Speaker 1: There was other true freshman quarterbacks that were recruited. They

701
00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:18,719
Speaker 1: would probably I don't know what they had promised or

702
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:21,719
Speaker 1: if they had promised anything to these guys, and it

703
00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:24,040
Speaker 1: didn't matter. Like I made the travel squad, and then

704
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:25,759
Speaker 1: by the end of the year, I was the third

705
00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:28,200
Speaker 1: string quarterback and the two guys ahead of me were

706
00:36:28,239 --> 00:36:31,040
Speaker 1: both seniors. And so during the middle of that true

707
00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:35,600
Speaker 1: freshman year, um, I started to realize like, I'm I'm

708
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:38,759
Speaker 1: gonna have a chance to play and so to go

709
00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:43,240
Speaker 1: from I'm quitting baseball for because I'm ruining my life

710
00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:46,880
Speaker 1: and I need my degree to you know, less than

711
00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:50,319
Speaker 1: a year later this epiphany of I'm gonna have a

712
00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:53,480
Speaker 1: great chance to be the starting quarterback at Colorado. It

713
00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:57,000
Speaker 1: was like the the most drastic switch. And I think

714
00:36:57,040 --> 00:36:59,800
Speaker 1: it's something that gets lost when people just hear my story.

715
00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:02,360
Speaker 1: They just think, oh, equip baseball to go back and

716
00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:05,040
Speaker 1: play football, but that really wasn't the case. So my

717
00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:10,480
Speaker 1: life was changed in a massive way in the positive direction. Um,

718
00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:12,600
Speaker 1: you know when I made that decision to quit baseball

719
00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:14,759
Speaker 1: and go back to Colorado, and it started setting me

720
00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:17,200
Speaker 1: up for the rest of of what has happened since.

721
00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:20,120
Speaker 1: So I want to hit on this because I think

722
00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:22,160
Speaker 1: people probably find it fascinating. You were talking about how

723
00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:25,960
Speaker 1: much better you were treated as a Colorado football player

724
00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:29,000
Speaker 1: than as a minor league baseball player. How much better

725
00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:30,960
Speaker 1: did you guys travel? You said you got on the

726
00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:34,920
Speaker 1: travel squad. How much better was travel for college football

727
00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:40,600
Speaker 1: compared to travel for minor league baseball. It's not even close.

728
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:43,959
Speaker 1: It's not even close. I'll just give you a couple

729
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:47,439
Speaker 1: of quick stories. Okay. So first of all, Um, when

730
00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:50,360
Speaker 1: I was in Idaho Falls, we had this bus and

731
00:37:50,360 --> 00:37:52,040
Speaker 1: it was straight out of Bull Durham. It was like

732
00:37:52,040 --> 00:37:56,719
Speaker 1: a nineteen sixties manual transmission bus with a round and

733
00:37:56,840 --> 00:38:04,640
Speaker 1: silver back and I'm talking like trade manual like and

734
00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:07,880
Speaker 1: you guys would have some long ass rides, right, Yeah,

735
00:38:08,080 --> 00:38:12,720
Speaker 1: six seven, eight, twelve to twelve hours to medicine hat Canada.

736
00:38:13,440 --> 00:38:15,200
Speaker 1: So just to give you a quick story. We're driving

737
00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:18,400
Speaker 1: from Casper, Wyoming back to I to Hope Falls, and Casper, Wyoming,

738
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:21,279
Speaker 1: you've got to drive right over the Titan Mountains over

739
00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:24,279
Speaker 1: these really kind of scary mountain passes to get back

740
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:27,560
Speaker 1: die to Hope Falls. And the bus driver would always

741
00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:30,399
Speaker 1: on our getaway day he would get one hotel room

742
00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:33,040
Speaker 1: that we would you know, retain for the day so

743
00:38:33,080 --> 00:38:34,719
Speaker 1: he could sleep all day so he could drive us

744
00:38:34,719 --> 00:38:36,920
Speaker 1: back all night because we didn't play day games, so

745
00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:39,040
Speaker 1: we play at seven pm and then at you know, ten,

746
00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:41,600
Speaker 1: ten thirty, eleven o'clock we would get in the bus

747
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:45,160
Speaker 1: in order to go back home and it was gonna

748
00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:47,400
Speaker 1: be like a five or six hour ride, so he

749
00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:49,359
Speaker 1: would always sleep all day in order to drive us

750
00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:52,560
Speaker 1: all night. Well, this night in Casper, Wyoming, I tapped

751
00:38:52,560 --> 00:38:54,200
Speaker 1: my buddy on the shoulder and I'm like, hey, isn't

752
00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:57,560
Speaker 1: that our bus driver? And sure enough, our bus driver is.

753
00:38:57,560 --> 00:39:01,000
Speaker 1: They're having a Michaelo Ultra and like the second oh,

754
00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:04,200
Speaker 1: like just having a bere like and a dog like, hey,

755
00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:10,080
Speaker 1: joining the game of baseball because that's time everybody. And

756
00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:12,680
Speaker 1: I'm like, what in the world. Well, later that night,

757
00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:16,040
Speaker 1: we're driving over the titons and we're, you know, winding

758
00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:19,520
Speaker 1: back forth. We couldn't be going more than fifteen on

759
00:39:19,560 --> 00:39:21,960
Speaker 1: some of these switchbacks up these mountains with this big

760
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:25,879
Speaker 1: manual transmission bus. And he pulls over and you can

761
00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:28,880
Speaker 1: hear kind of the gravel of the shoulder and he

762
00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:31,719
Speaker 1: pulls over. I'm like, great, this bus just broke down.

763
00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:36,320
Speaker 1: And no, no, our bus driver decided he was tired

764
00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:39,040
Speaker 1: from his mic Ultra and his and his Dodger dog

765
00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:41,920
Speaker 1: and the third inning at the cass Barakis game. And

766
00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:44,799
Speaker 1: he pulled a pillow down from from above him and

767
00:39:44,920 --> 00:39:47,239
Speaker 1: took a nap for two hours from the side of

768
00:39:47,239 --> 00:39:53,040
Speaker 1: the road, just laying on the ground. No, no, no,

769
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:55,759
Speaker 1: in his seat. So he's in the driver's lays the

770
00:39:55,800 --> 00:39:58,560
Speaker 1: pillow against the window and just like leans against the window.

771
00:39:58,960 --> 00:40:02,160
Speaker 1: Guys were yelling like you in Spanish. We had a

772
00:40:02,239 --> 00:40:05,000
Speaker 1: Korean guy named Young jing Jung. He's yelling in Korean.

773
00:40:05,120 --> 00:40:08,880
Speaker 1: We're yelling in English like come on, let's go. Dude,

774
00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:11,640
Speaker 1: just slept zonked out for two hours and we sat

775
00:40:11,680 --> 00:40:16,239
Speaker 1: there motionless in this manual transmission nine you know, bull

776
00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:19,200
Speaker 1: Durham bus. Then you fast forward and now I'm going

777
00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:22,440
Speaker 1: to Colorado, And the first road trip that we took

778
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:25,000
Speaker 1: was out to play U. C. L A At the

779
00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:28,080
Speaker 1: Rose Bowl in September. That was the very first trip

780
00:40:28,120 --> 00:40:31,200
Speaker 1: that we took. Well, we drive, you know, four of

781
00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:34,200
Speaker 1: the most beautiful buses you can possibly take, from Boulder

782
00:40:34,280 --> 00:40:37,120
Speaker 1: down to the airport in Denver. We go right onto

783
00:40:37,120 --> 00:40:40,120
Speaker 1: the tarmac. There's no security. We rock. We walk right

784
00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:43,200
Speaker 1: up onto the plane while all our seats are assigned.

785
00:40:43,239 --> 00:40:45,239
Speaker 1: We get there are seat in our seats, there's two

786
00:40:45,239 --> 00:40:48,799
Speaker 1: foot long sub sandwiches, there's gator read, there's cookies. We fly.

787
00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:51,879
Speaker 1: We land in l A. There is a motor kaide

788
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:54,040
Speaker 1: for us to go to our hotel so we can

789
00:40:54,080 --> 00:40:58,560
Speaker 1: beat traffic. So there's six you know, motorcycle cops traveling around.

790
00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:00,399
Speaker 1: We get to the hotel. We just had two foot

791
00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:03,040
Speaker 1: long sandwiches in the in the plane, but now we've

792
00:41:03,040 --> 00:41:06,280
Speaker 1: got a full face spread that includes lasagna and prime

793
00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:10,080
Speaker 1: rib and ice cream snicker bars for dessert. Like it

794
00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:14,440
Speaker 1: doesn't even compare. I thought I had made it man

795
00:41:14,520 --> 00:41:16,960
Speaker 1: when I got to that that first road trip. I

796
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:19,719
Speaker 1: remember calling my dad and I was like that, you'll

797
00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:22,960
Speaker 1: never believe it. They serve gravy for the Prime Rib,

798
00:41:23,239 --> 00:41:25,400
Speaker 1: you know, like that had blown my mind. I had

799
00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:29,160
Speaker 1: had Mannaise sandwiches before for a spread in minor league baseball,

800
00:41:29,719 --> 00:41:32,759
Speaker 1: and and here we are having prime rib for dinner. What,

801
00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:36,080
Speaker 1: by the way, did you remember getting taunted in minor

802
00:41:36,120 --> 00:41:38,080
Speaker 1: league baseball? Like, do you ever remember a time when

803
00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:40,160
Speaker 1: you're like, I don't want to kill some guy? I

804
00:41:40,200 --> 00:41:43,400
Speaker 1: always always think about low level minor league. There's always hecklers,

805
00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:45,960
Speaker 1: and there had to be sometimes where you're like, because

806
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:48,040
Speaker 1: the stadiums aren't that big, where you're standing there in

807
00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:50,880
Speaker 1: the on deck circle or whatever, and you really legitimately

808
00:41:50,920 --> 00:41:53,600
Speaker 1: just want to turn around and murder somebody in the stands.

809
00:41:53,600 --> 00:41:57,000
Speaker 1: Do you remember that feeling, Clay, You're gonna need two

810
00:41:57,000 --> 00:41:59,439
Speaker 1: hours to get through all of it, because I've got

811
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:03,399
Speaker 1: story for days about minor league baseball, from the from

812
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:06,760
Speaker 1: the golden shower to the nap of the bus driver

813
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:09,160
Speaker 1: to the beer batter. Let me just tell you about

814
00:42:09,160 --> 00:42:14,239
Speaker 1: the beer batter. Excuse me? So, I, um, well, first

815
00:42:14,239 --> 00:42:19,560
Speaker 1: of all, we were playing in Ogden, Utah, and then Ogden, Utah.

816
00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:23,480
Speaker 1: The opposing like you know, field operations team, they're like

817
00:42:23,600 --> 00:42:27,200
Speaker 1: whole deal. They would choose an opposing player to be

818
00:42:27,280 --> 00:42:29,839
Speaker 1: the beer batter, and if the beer batter struck out,

819
00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:34,480
Speaker 1: it was ten cent beers for that happening. And you're wondering, like, wait,

820
00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:37,680
Speaker 1: didn't you say Utah. That's right, Ogden, Utah the most

821
00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:41,439
Speaker 1: progressive city in Utah. And and they actually did sell beer,

822
00:42:41,640 --> 00:42:44,439
Speaker 1: very different than Provo, which is the most conservative place

823
00:42:44,480 --> 00:42:47,480
Speaker 1: in Utah. So they did serve beer at the Ogden

824
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:51,799
Speaker 1: Osprey game. Okay, they were Ogden Osprey Nice Park, and

825
00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:54,120
Speaker 1: it was always pretty full because like they did a

826
00:42:54,200 --> 00:42:57,360
Speaker 1: nice job. And so there's probably, shoot, I don't know,

827
00:42:58,360 --> 00:43:02,920
Speaker 1: three thousand people um at this game and they choose

828
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:06,319
Speaker 1: me as the beer batter. So I'm designated as the

829
00:43:06,320 --> 00:43:09,200
Speaker 1: beer batter, and you know it right, like it comes

830
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:12,480
Speaker 1: up on the scoreboard and like people are like clapping

831
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:14,520
Speaker 1: for you. You know, you walk up there as a

832
00:43:14,600 --> 00:43:17,239
Speaker 1: road player and they're like, all right, but you can

833
00:43:17,280 --> 00:43:20,080
Speaker 1: do it. You can do it ten sents. You know,

834
00:43:20,360 --> 00:43:22,799
Speaker 1: people are yellow like I'll share with you, I'll buy

835
00:43:25,160 --> 00:43:28,120
Speaker 1: things like that. And before you go up. It's kind

836
00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:29,879
Speaker 1: of funny, you know when you think like I'm gonna

837
00:43:29,880 --> 00:43:31,840
Speaker 1: show these guys, I'm gonna hit a jack or something

838
00:43:31,880 --> 00:43:37,480
Speaker 1: like that. Well, my first a bat like take strike one,

839
00:43:37,719 --> 00:43:41,400
Speaker 1: foul ball off, good swing. Then I connect on on

840
00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:44,440
Speaker 1: just like bam, and I hit it really good, and

841
00:43:44,440 --> 00:43:46,520
Speaker 1: it's kind of pulled, this line drive right over the

842
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:50,320
Speaker 1: third baseman's head and it's curling. It's curling, it's curling,

843
00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:53,680
Speaker 1: and it's like, is it fair? Is it foul? It's foul,

844
00:43:54,360 --> 00:43:57,319
Speaker 1: but man like like I ripped it. So I'm like,

845
00:43:57,400 --> 00:43:59,880
Speaker 1: I'm thinking to myself, Okay, I put two good swings

846
00:43:59,880 --> 00:44:02,239
Speaker 1: on it. I'm good to go. I'm not going to

847
00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:07,000
Speaker 1: strike out. I go back into the into the batter's box,

848
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:11,200
Speaker 1: and this dude throws me a slider on the outside

849
00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:14,560
Speaker 1: and I swing and miss and the place erupts right,

850
00:44:14,640 --> 00:44:21,120
Speaker 1: so like boom, strike three, Yeah, way to go. You know,

851
00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:24,880
Speaker 1: like place erupts ten cent beers. Everybody hits the concourse.

852
00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:27,040
Speaker 1: So now there's like from three thousand people in the stands.

853
00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:31,720
Speaker 1: Now there'scause everybody hits the concourse. So now my second

854
00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:33,480
Speaker 1: at bad, I go up there and now there's a

855
00:44:33,480 --> 00:44:35,560
Speaker 1: little bit more buzz. You know, not only are they

856
00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:38,160
Speaker 1: a little lubricated, but now they're like, oh, you know,

857
00:44:38,239 --> 00:44:42,000
Speaker 1: here's our guy. Come on, do it again. You can

858
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:45,480
Speaker 1: do it. Dug me a show with you, and I'm

859
00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:47,560
Speaker 1: a little missed. You know, I'm a little piste off

860
00:44:47,600 --> 00:44:49,719
Speaker 1: about it. And I'm like, no, you know, now, now

861
00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:52,920
Speaker 1: I'm gonna hit a jack. I found a couple more

862
00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:57,880
Speaker 1: balls off, sure enough, swinging miss strike three. The place

863
00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:02,440
Speaker 1: goes bizonkers. I'm just like God, like, damn it, what

864
00:45:02,719 --> 00:45:05,960
Speaker 1: in the world. I'm like walking back to the dugout

865
00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:08,600
Speaker 1: and there was this one guy and he was standing

866
00:45:09,200 --> 00:45:11,320
Speaker 1: right by the on deck circles. I'm walking back to

867
00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:16,440
Speaker 1: the dugout and he was like before he runs up

868
00:45:16,440 --> 00:45:20,239
Speaker 1: the stairs, and I was so piste off. Little did

869
00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:23,080
Speaker 1: I know that there's a rule for the beer batter.

870
00:45:23,560 --> 00:45:27,520
Speaker 1: If the beer batter takes the sombrero three strikeouts in

871
00:45:27,600 --> 00:45:31,240
Speaker 1: the game as the beer batter, they give away a

872
00:45:31,280 --> 00:45:34,440
Speaker 1: free beer to whoever wants it. Now it's like the

873
00:45:34,560 --> 00:45:38,840
Speaker 1: sixth inning and I'm on deck and the places already

874
00:45:39,040 --> 00:45:43,200
Speaker 1: on their feet like clapping in unison while I'm on

875
00:45:43,520 --> 00:45:50,160
Speaker 1: freaking a day mortified. Way, I'm freaking mortified, and so

876
00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:53,799
Speaker 1: I'm doing everything I can not to strike out, everything

877
00:45:53,840 --> 00:46:00,760
Speaker 1: I can not to strike did you absolutely? I even

878
00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:03,720
Speaker 1: before I went up, I asked my buddy, David Georgia's

879
00:46:03,800 --> 00:46:07,279
Speaker 1: who was my roommate, gorgeous Georgians. And I was like, hey, dude,

880
00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:08,759
Speaker 1: do you think I should fund? And he looked at

881
00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:11,640
Speaker 1: me and he was like, bro, you cannot bund. He

882
00:46:11,719 --> 00:46:15,879
Speaker 1: was like man, and he was like they they will

883
00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:20,400
Speaker 1: burn the plate down if you fund. So I'm like,

884
00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:23,600
Speaker 1: thinks a lot, you know, like here, and so I

885
00:46:23,719 --> 00:46:28,600
Speaker 1: go up there play, I struck out for a third time,

886
00:46:29,080 --> 00:46:32,760
Speaker 1: took the sombrero as the beer batter and the place

887
00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:38,160
Speaker 1: erupted and started throwing their empty beer of plastic beer

888
00:46:38,239 --> 00:46:41,239
Speaker 1: mugs on to the field. As I walked back to

889
00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:45,600
Speaker 1: the home uh into the dugout, I was so mad.

890
00:46:45,840 --> 00:46:49,200
Speaker 1: I was so mad, meles to say, anytime like we

891
00:46:49,239 --> 00:46:52,360
Speaker 1: went and played a road game in college football, nothing

892
00:46:52,480 --> 00:46:54,759
Speaker 1: was as bad as taking the sombrero as the beer

893
00:46:54,800 --> 00:46:57,560
Speaker 1: battery bogged in Utah. So I didn't care what people

894
00:46:57,600 --> 00:47:00,239
Speaker 1: said to me in football. And I'm oh, man, least

895
00:47:00,239 --> 00:47:04,040
Speaker 1: I didn't take the sombrero. Brought that stadium to its

896
00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:07,640
Speaker 1: knees and they were throwing their empty beer mugs out

897
00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:09,799
Speaker 1: onto the field. Was it the same picture who got

898
00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:13,239
Speaker 1: you all three times? No? It wasn't. It was a

899
00:47:13,280 --> 00:47:16,360
Speaker 1: reliever by the time they I mean, I'm surprised they didn't.

900
00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:17,879
Speaker 1: If it was, they would have run out and put

901
00:47:17,960 --> 00:47:20,319
Speaker 1: him on his shoulders. But I mean he would have

902
00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:23,080
Speaker 1: been the hero. Did you like when you come back

903
00:47:23,120 --> 00:47:25,719
Speaker 1: into the dugout and like, I mean, it's mind like

904
00:47:25,800 --> 00:47:28,160
Speaker 1: I would just find it impossible not to be laughing,

905
00:47:28,280 --> 00:47:32,239
Speaker 1: Like how are your teammates reacting? Like they all loved?

906
00:47:33,600 --> 00:47:35,799
Speaker 1: That was part of the thing that pissed me off

907
00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:38,680
Speaker 1: the most. As I came in and I wasn't super

908
00:47:38,719 --> 00:47:44,040
Speaker 1: fond of my manager, and this jerk said to me,

909
00:47:44,200 --> 00:47:46,880
Speaker 1: he was like, well, at least somebody's happy, And I

910
00:47:46,960 --> 00:47:52,239
Speaker 1: was like, hey, like, screw you. You know again, this

911
00:47:52,320 --> 00:47:55,440
Speaker 1: is not like high school coach player relationship. There was

912
00:47:55,480 --> 00:48:01,520
Speaker 1: no pats on the back. It was basically just like happy, okay,

913
00:48:01,560 --> 00:48:05,680
Speaker 1: you know, don't screw yourself. Oh my god. So the

914
00:48:05,239 --> 00:48:07,839
Speaker 1: the that that is pretty awesome, Like the beers, I mean,

915
00:48:07,880 --> 00:48:09,680
Speaker 1: that is amazing. Do you think they're still allowed to

916
00:48:09,680 --> 00:48:13,000
Speaker 1: do that. I don't know. I'm sure that they do.

917
00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:16,240
Speaker 1: Minor league baseball games are amazing. Um. I would highly

918
00:48:16,280 --> 00:48:18,359
Speaker 1: suggest that for anybody out there that has a minor

919
00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:21,600
Speaker 1: league team close. Things like that gone all the time.

920
00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:24,839
Speaker 1: It's it's good. I mean, that doesn't sound like good

921
00:48:24,880 --> 00:48:27,279
Speaker 1: family fun, but trust me, it's good family fun. But

922
00:48:27,880 --> 00:48:31,560
Speaker 1: needless to stay that season, being the beer batter and

923
00:48:31,719 --> 00:48:36,000
Speaker 1: taking the sombrero, uh, led to my belief that I

924
00:48:36,200 --> 00:48:40,600
Speaker 1: was not a professional baseball player any longer. Fox Sports

925
00:48:40,680 --> 00:48:43,280
Speaker 1: Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.

926
00:48:43,640 --> 00:48:46,560
Speaker 1: Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot

927
00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:49,600
Speaker 1: com and within the I Heart Radio app search f

928
00:48:49,920 --> 00:48:53,040
Speaker 1: s R to listen live. Alright, so back to that's

929
00:48:53,040 --> 00:48:55,080
Speaker 1: amazing story. By the way, we're talking to Joel clad

930
00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:57,560
Speaker 1: I'm Clay Travis. This is Wins and Losses. Back to Colorado.

931
00:48:57,640 --> 00:49:01,279
Speaker 1: You come back. You're the two seniors you said are graduating.

932
00:49:01,320 --> 00:49:04,040
Speaker 1: You come back as a sophomore. Do you start? When

933
00:49:04,040 --> 00:49:07,759
Speaker 1: do you start your first game for Colorado? Yeah? That

934
00:49:07,840 --> 00:49:09,880
Speaker 1: was and I was still a walk on at the time.

935
00:49:09,920 --> 00:49:12,959
Speaker 1: You know, Gary Barnett said, hey, you know, I've got

936
00:49:13,040 --> 00:49:15,520
Speaker 1: older guys that have earned a scholarship, and I know

937
00:49:15,560 --> 00:49:17,320
Speaker 1: you're gonna be our starter, but you're still gonna be

938
00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:20,719
Speaker 1: a walk on. So I started that season as a

939
00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:24,040
Speaker 1: sophomore um as a walk on in fact, my very

940
00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:26,960
Speaker 1: first game. It just goes to show you that I

941
00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:29,319
Speaker 1: I started out really good and then maybe never quite

942
00:49:29,320 --> 00:49:31,239
Speaker 1: equal to my first game, but my very first game

943
00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:35,240
Speaker 1: as a starter, Um, we played Colorado State. They were ranked,

944
00:49:35,280 --> 00:49:38,360
Speaker 1: they were favored. It was that mile high, you know,

945
00:49:38,440 --> 00:49:41,200
Speaker 1: seventy six thousand people. It was a great environment. We

946
00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:44,560
Speaker 1: ended up winning the game like forty two thirty five

947
00:49:44,680 --> 00:49:46,560
Speaker 1: or something like that. I threw for over four hundred

948
00:49:46,600 --> 00:49:49,240
Speaker 1: yards and my very first start, and I was actually

949
00:49:49,400 --> 00:49:53,680
Speaker 1: named the National Player of the week. So on Monday morning,

950
00:49:53,760 --> 00:49:57,120
Speaker 1: after the game, um, we're in our team meeting and

951
00:49:57,160 --> 00:49:59,359
Speaker 1: that's when coach announced it to the team that like, hey,

952
00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:01,879
Speaker 1: Joel won the or you know, yesterday he was named

953
00:50:01,920 --> 00:50:03,719
Speaker 1: the national Player of the week. And you know, the

954
00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:06,919
Speaker 1: team kind of does the whole you know, and they're

955
00:50:06,920 --> 00:50:10,040
Speaker 1: giving me, you know, no guys and whatever. And right

956
00:50:10,080 --> 00:50:12,239
Speaker 1: after that meeting, I actually had to walk to the

957
00:50:12,280 --> 00:50:17,320
Speaker 1: bursar's office and hand them my personal check for my tuition. Wow.

958
00:50:18,680 --> 00:50:20,799
Speaker 1: I always I always loved that. Now I was gonna

959
00:50:20,840 --> 00:50:22,719
Speaker 1: get reimbursed. I don't want to make it sound like,

960
00:50:22,840 --> 00:50:25,040
Speaker 1: oh I was paying for my own school. I was

961
00:50:25,080 --> 00:50:28,520
Speaker 1: gonna get reimbursed. But at the same time, like it was,

962
00:50:28,960 --> 00:50:31,680
Speaker 1: it was just one of those things that you would

963
00:50:31,719 --> 00:50:35,200
Speaker 1: never think would happen, and so that happened. So anyways,

964
00:50:35,200 --> 00:50:37,920
Speaker 1: I started that year, and then I ended up starting

965
00:50:37,960 --> 00:50:41,279
Speaker 1: for three seasons and had the time of my life.

966
00:50:41,360 --> 00:50:43,799
Speaker 1: I absolutely loved it. What does it feel like to

967
00:50:43,880 --> 00:50:46,680
Speaker 1: run out onto the field? As like you talked about

968
00:50:46,680 --> 00:50:49,319
Speaker 1: how you didn't really ever anticipate that when you quit

969
00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:52,759
Speaker 1: baseball you would be a starting quarterback for Colorado. You're

970
00:50:52,760 --> 00:50:55,040
Speaker 1: playing at Mile High. You grew up as a Denver

971
00:50:55,080 --> 00:50:58,280
Speaker 1: Bronco fan, you grew up watching the University of Colorado

972
00:50:58,360 --> 00:51:00,799
Speaker 1: not far away in Boulder. What's feel like to run

973
00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:03,360
Speaker 1: out in front of seventy thousand people as the starting

974
00:51:03,400 --> 00:51:07,279
Speaker 1: quarterback for the first time? Oh? Man, it was like,

975
00:51:07,280 --> 00:51:09,919
Speaker 1: how nervous were you? What did it feel like? Oh?

976
00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:13,960
Speaker 1: I can't even explain how nervous I was. You know,

977
00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:16,120
Speaker 1: I can't. You know, you can't feel your feet, you

978
00:51:16,200 --> 00:51:21,239
Speaker 1: can't really feel your hands. Um, I can remember, you know.

979
00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:24,320
Speaker 1: I walked up to the center for my first snap

980
00:51:24,360 --> 00:51:27,040
Speaker 1: and when I looked up, the JumboTron was right above me,

981
00:51:27,080 --> 00:51:29,080
Speaker 1: and it was just my face and I was in

982
00:51:29,160 --> 00:51:31,280
Speaker 1: my heart kind of sunk. I was like, Oh my gosh,

983
00:51:31,280 --> 00:51:35,160
Speaker 1: I'm like, am I really doing this? Um? But as

984
00:51:35,239 --> 00:51:39,440
Speaker 1: time went on, you know it, it changed and Clay,

985
00:51:39,560 --> 00:51:43,520
Speaker 1: you know, one of the interesting parts was I started

986
00:51:43,560 --> 00:51:47,400
Speaker 1: to be one of those guys that was like ultra prepared.

987
00:51:48,120 --> 00:51:50,120
Speaker 1: So I would watch a ton of film, take a

988
00:51:50,120 --> 00:51:53,960
Speaker 1: ton of notes, and I was most comfortable on the

989
00:51:53,960 --> 00:51:56,919
Speaker 1: field during the game. And so all week I would

990
00:51:57,000 --> 00:51:58,960
Speaker 1: be nervous, and I would be, you know, kind of

991
00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:03,000
Speaker 1: like wanting to prepare more and wondering, LA, what's going

992
00:52:03,160 --> 00:52:05,000
Speaker 1: on there. I would have to talk to the media

993
00:52:05,040 --> 00:52:08,520
Speaker 1: all day and it was candidly kind of a high

994
00:52:08,560 --> 00:52:11,640
Speaker 1: anxiety time for me during the weeks of preparation. But

995
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:17,600
Speaker 1: then what I always found so fascinating is that the

996
00:52:17,760 --> 00:52:21,759
Speaker 1: one time that I would relax all week was when

997
00:52:21,760 --> 00:52:24,680
Speaker 1: I got to run out and get into the huddle

998
00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:28,040
Speaker 1: for the first snap. It was like all the pressure

999
00:52:28,160 --> 00:52:30,920
Speaker 1: and preparation were gone and you just got to go

1000
00:52:31,080 --> 00:52:34,759
Speaker 1: play finally. And it was that way for the rest

1001
00:52:34,840 --> 00:52:37,560
Speaker 1: of my career. After that first game of those nerves,

1002
00:52:38,640 --> 00:52:41,680
Speaker 1: every time I would walk out there, it would just

1003
00:52:41,719 --> 00:52:45,480
Speaker 1: be like a big sigh of relief, and it was

1004
00:52:45,520 --> 00:52:50,200
Speaker 1: always one of those feelings that I'll never forget, and

1005
00:52:50,239 --> 00:52:53,120
Speaker 1: it was one of the best feelings that I've ever had.

1006
00:52:54,480 --> 00:52:57,520
Speaker 1: What does it feel like? Because most people are never

1007
00:52:57,560 --> 00:53:00,960
Speaker 1: going to know the feeling to win in a huge

1008
00:53:01,480 --> 00:53:06,080
Speaker 1: rivalry game as a starting quarterback in college football and

1009
00:53:06,160 --> 00:53:09,360
Speaker 1: come back to the campus after the game, Like, is

1010
00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:12,480
Speaker 1: there inner any better? Is there any better feeling in

1011
00:53:12,520 --> 00:53:16,520
Speaker 1: life than having just won a huge college football game

1012
00:53:16,840 --> 00:53:19,960
Speaker 1: and you walk into like a party and I mean

1013
00:53:20,040 --> 00:53:23,000
Speaker 1: you literally are the biggest man on campus, Like, like,

1014
00:53:23,320 --> 00:53:26,200
Speaker 1: there's I can't imagine there's a better feeling than being

1015
00:53:26,640 --> 00:53:29,600
Speaker 1: the star quarterback on a team that just won a game.

1016
00:53:29,600 --> 00:53:31,279
Speaker 1: But we're just the quarterback, period. You don't have to

1017
00:53:31,320 --> 00:53:33,800
Speaker 1: be a star, just the guy who's on the team.

1018
00:53:33,920 --> 00:53:36,399
Speaker 1: Like you're the starting quarterback and you win. What does

1019
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:38,640
Speaker 1: that feel like? Too? Is I mean, like I can't

1020
00:53:38,680 --> 00:53:40,719
Speaker 1: even imagine. I can certainly imagine, but it had to

1021
00:53:40,760 --> 00:53:43,239
Speaker 1: be I mean had to be like like feeling like

1022
00:53:43,320 --> 00:53:47,440
Speaker 1: you were your mythical feet figure almost right, Yeah, I

1023
00:53:47,440 --> 00:53:51,040
Speaker 1: mean it's it's definitely surreal and you start to and

1024
00:53:51,080 --> 00:53:53,360
Speaker 1: that's why I try to give these kids the benefit

1025
00:53:53,400 --> 00:53:56,320
Speaker 1: of the doubt when they kind of when they active

1026
00:53:56,520 --> 00:53:59,840
Speaker 1: full of themselves, or when they misstep on social media's

1027
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:03,400
Speaker 1: because their their frame of reference of reality is so skewed.

1028
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:06,200
Speaker 1: Because exactly of what you said, UM, I'm not going

1029
00:54:06,239 --> 00:54:10,200
Speaker 1: to get into every story because you know I'm happily married. UM,

1030
00:54:10,239 --> 00:54:17,360
Speaker 1: but I will say um that after the my first

1031
00:54:17,440 --> 00:54:21,880
Speaker 1: year starting as a sophomore, I was actually not dating

1032
00:54:22,080 --> 00:54:25,040
Speaker 1: my now wife. We ended up dating in college, but

1033
00:54:25,120 --> 00:54:28,719
Speaker 1: we were not together at the time, and so we

1034
00:54:28,719 --> 00:54:33,279
Speaker 1: were I was living in this house and it was

1035
00:54:33,360 --> 00:54:36,120
Speaker 1: me and one other of my teammates that actually went

1036
00:54:36,120 --> 00:54:39,640
Speaker 1: to a neighboring high school of mine, and then it

1037
00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:41,680
Speaker 1: was three guys that he went to high school with

1038
00:54:41,719 --> 00:54:46,320
Speaker 1: that I knew from childhood that didn't play so Clay,

1039
00:54:46,560 --> 00:54:48,680
Speaker 1: you talked about guys who hit the jackpot. They got

1040
00:54:48,680 --> 00:54:51,040
Speaker 1: to live with the starting quarterback, and they were just

1041
00:54:51,120 --> 00:54:54,319
Speaker 1: like normal college dudes. And so we were in this

1042
00:54:54,480 --> 00:54:58,040
Speaker 1: five bedroom house like on the Hill and Boulder, which

1043
00:54:58,080 --> 00:55:00,520
Speaker 1: is like a new notorious kind of part the spot,

1044
00:55:01,520 --> 00:55:04,759
Speaker 1: and not only would they come to the games, but

1045
00:55:06,200 --> 00:55:09,759
Speaker 1: they would all like this is so stupid. We went

1046
00:55:09,800 --> 00:55:11,640
Speaker 1: to a ball game my true freshman year, and so

1047
00:55:11,719 --> 00:55:14,239
Speaker 1: we had like our jerseys given to us if you

1048
00:55:14,320 --> 00:55:16,200
Speaker 1: go to a ball game. So I had the white

1049
00:55:16,280 --> 00:55:18,960
Speaker 1: jersey that that I wore as a true freshman with

1050
00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:22,480
Speaker 1: the Alamobile patch. My roommate used to steal it out

1051
00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:25,480
Speaker 1: of my closet and wear it to the game. And

1052
00:55:25,520 --> 00:55:29,720
Speaker 1: he would his name was his name was Brett Banks,

1053
00:55:29,800 --> 00:55:32,239
Speaker 1: and then he called himself Brett the Jet, and he

1054
00:55:32,320 --> 00:55:34,759
Speaker 1: had this blue but he had this blue blazer that

1055
00:55:34,880 --> 00:55:37,360
Speaker 1: with the gold buttons, like an old school blue blazer

1056
00:55:37,440 --> 00:55:40,279
Speaker 1: with the gold buttons, that he called the Porsche. And

1057
00:55:40,320 --> 00:55:44,160
Speaker 1: so he and he would introduce himself to like all

1058
00:55:44,200 --> 00:55:46,680
Speaker 1: the co eds as Brett the Jet, and did they

1059
00:55:46,719 --> 00:55:49,200
Speaker 1: want to take a ride in the Porsche? I mean,

1060
00:55:49,239 --> 00:55:51,960
Speaker 1: it's just the worst, right, It's just the worst. And

1061
00:55:52,000 --> 00:55:56,399
Speaker 1: so anyways, Brett would recruit a party always, and when

1062
00:55:56,440 --> 00:55:59,560
Speaker 1: we would show back up after games, our house would

1063
00:55:59,560 --> 00:56:04,040
Speaker 1: be like shoulder to shoulder packed, like I could barely

1064
00:56:04,080 --> 00:56:07,240
Speaker 1: get down My room was downstairs, and I could barely

1065
00:56:07,280 --> 00:56:09,560
Speaker 1: get downstairs to my room to like dump my bag

1066
00:56:09,640 --> 00:56:11,360
Speaker 1: off because we would have been in the hotel the

1067
00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:15,440
Speaker 1: night before. So it was it was certainly a weird

1068
00:56:15,440 --> 00:56:17,480
Speaker 1: and wild time. One of the kids that we lived

1069
00:56:17,480 --> 00:56:20,560
Speaker 1: with it was his parents owned the house, and so

1070
00:56:20,600 --> 00:56:23,240
Speaker 1: he was technically the landlord, and he had his parents

1071
00:56:23,320 --> 00:56:29,120
Speaker 1: put a hot tub in in the living room, and

1072
00:56:29,160 --> 00:56:31,279
Speaker 1: so we used to come We used to come home

1073
00:56:31,960 --> 00:56:35,320
Speaker 1: and Brett would be in my jersey in the hot time,

1074
00:56:36,920 --> 00:56:40,320
Speaker 1: surrounded by a bunch of girls. I mean, because I

1075
00:56:40,360 --> 00:56:42,640
Speaker 1: mean a massive amount of people. Yes, they would just

1076
00:56:42,680 --> 00:56:45,440
Speaker 1: be I mean there was probably hundreds and hundreds, maybe

1077
00:56:45,480 --> 00:56:48,200
Speaker 1: thousands people at this five bedroom house. It was it

1078
00:56:48,280 --> 00:56:50,680
Speaker 1: was wild, but that was always the case. That is

1079
00:56:50,719 --> 00:56:53,000
Speaker 1: absolutely amazing. Now I've heard you tell the story for

1080
00:56:53,160 --> 00:56:55,600
Speaker 1: but certainly other people haven't. So you end up dating

1081
00:56:55,640 --> 00:56:59,839
Speaker 1: your now wife and you're playing Texas. This is one

1082
00:56:59,880 --> 00:57:02,560
Speaker 1: of the great stories, and like you're all hyped up.

1083
00:57:02,880 --> 00:57:05,600
Speaker 1: You go out to the coin flip at the middle

1084
00:57:05,719 --> 00:57:07,880
Speaker 1: of the field. You're about to play Texas. And is

1085
00:57:07,920 --> 00:57:10,680
Speaker 1: it a big twelve title game or like a huge game? No,

1086
00:57:11,280 --> 00:57:13,880
Speaker 1: this one, it was a pretty big game. Um, but

1087
00:57:13,960 --> 00:57:16,040
Speaker 1: this one was when I was a junior. So that

1088
00:57:16,400 --> 00:57:19,640
Speaker 1: Vince Young's first year, first year starting, So they're not

1089
00:57:19,640 --> 00:57:22,040
Speaker 1: gonna win the national titles this year. That that's gonna

1090
00:57:22,080 --> 00:57:24,640
Speaker 1: be the next year. This is two thousand and four,

1091
00:57:24,640 --> 00:57:26,920
Speaker 1: and they came to Boulder to play us in Boulder,

1092
00:57:27,640 --> 00:57:31,600
Speaker 1: and Mac Brown used to rotate captains, so he would

1093
00:57:31,640 --> 00:57:34,320
Speaker 1: have four new captains every week, whereas we were always

1094
00:57:34,360 --> 00:57:36,880
Speaker 1: the same for for our team. So we would always

1095
00:57:36,880 --> 00:57:40,160
Speaker 1: go out for the coin flips. And I never paid

1096
00:57:40,280 --> 00:57:42,680
Speaker 1: much attention to the opposing offense at all. I didn't

1097
00:57:42,760 --> 00:57:46,240
Speaker 1: I didn't have had no idea who the other players were.

1098
00:57:46,280 --> 00:57:49,760
Speaker 1: I mean maybe the star quarterback or whatever, but I

1099
00:57:49,760 --> 00:57:52,240
Speaker 1: didn't really know or care. So I went out to

1100
00:57:52,240 --> 00:57:54,720
Speaker 1: the coin flip and Sarah and I were dating at

1101
00:57:54,720 --> 00:57:58,120
Speaker 1: the time and and and pretty serious um at the time.

1102
00:57:58,240 --> 00:58:00,720
Speaker 1: And she was from Highlands Ranch Call, Colorado, and went

1103
00:58:00,760 --> 00:58:03,080
Speaker 1: to high school and Highlands Ranch, Colorado. And so we

1104
00:58:03,120 --> 00:58:06,440
Speaker 1: go out to the coin flip, and since the game

1105
00:58:06,640 --> 00:58:09,720
Speaker 1: is in Boulder, Mac made one of the kids from

1106
00:58:10,040 --> 00:58:13,080
Speaker 1: Colorado who was on Texas a captain. Well he had

1107
00:58:13,120 --> 00:58:15,880
Speaker 1: also gone to Highlands Ranch High School. And so we

1108
00:58:15,960 --> 00:58:18,160
Speaker 1: get out there for the coin flip, and this guy

1109
00:58:18,160 --> 00:58:22,080
Speaker 1: who was an offensive lineman named Casey stuttered, and I

1110
00:58:22,160 --> 00:58:24,960
Speaker 1: had no idea who he was, and so he says

1111
00:58:25,000 --> 00:58:26,720
Speaker 1: to me. The first thing he says is we're shaking

1112
00:58:26,720 --> 00:58:29,840
Speaker 1: hands even before the coin is flipped. And he was like, hey,

1113
00:58:29,880 --> 00:58:32,240
Speaker 1: how's Sarah? And I thought that he may be like

1114
00:58:32,280 --> 00:58:34,880
Speaker 1: read an article or something of that talking about, you know,

1115
00:58:34,920 --> 00:58:38,280
Speaker 1: because it was publicized that I was, you know, I

1116
00:58:38,320 --> 00:58:41,520
Speaker 1: had this girlfriend or whatever. People can find that sort

1117
00:58:41,520 --> 00:58:43,600
Speaker 1: of stuff, and I thought he had found it and

1118
00:58:43,760 --> 00:58:47,480
Speaker 1: was like talking trash, and so I lost it on him,

1119
00:58:47,680 --> 00:58:51,240
Speaker 1: like midfield before the game, I was like, you, son

1120
00:58:51,280 --> 00:58:55,640
Speaker 1: of the I started laying into him. I was like you,

1121
00:58:55,640 --> 00:58:58,000
Speaker 1: you know, like you're a piece of crap. This and

1122
00:58:58,120 --> 00:59:00,880
Speaker 1: that and the and the official who I always had

1123
00:59:00,920 --> 00:59:03,240
Speaker 1: good relationship with because the white hat and the quarterback

1124
00:59:03,280 --> 00:59:05,160
Speaker 1: always have to know each other and we're always talking

1125
00:59:05,160 --> 00:59:07,439
Speaker 1: with each other. He was like Joel, Joel, like calm,

1126
00:59:07,720 --> 00:59:09,440
Speaker 1: calm down, what are you doing. I'm like, there's so

1127
00:59:10,040 --> 00:59:13,280
Speaker 1: you know the my my teammates are like, what's happening

1128
00:59:13,360 --> 00:59:16,800
Speaker 1: right now? And he he looked shocked. I was like,

1129
00:59:16,840 --> 00:59:18,720
Speaker 1: why does this guy look like a deer in the

1130
00:59:18,720 --> 00:59:21,040
Speaker 1: headlights right now? He's gonna talk crap? And then he's

1131
00:59:21,160 --> 00:59:24,360
Speaker 1: you know, he's all upset that that I'm going off

1132
00:59:24,400 --> 00:59:25,920
Speaker 1: on him. And so we go and get through with

1133
00:59:25,960 --> 00:59:29,439
Speaker 1: the coin flip and everything go through the game. We

1134
00:59:29,440 --> 00:59:31,600
Speaker 1: we get the there are a great team. Obviously we

1135
00:59:31,680 --> 00:59:35,520
Speaker 1: get the I'm super piste and later that night I'm

1136
00:59:35,560 --> 00:59:38,720
Speaker 1: sitting there with with my now wife Sarah and I

1137
00:59:38,960 --> 00:59:41,560
Speaker 1: and I remember this story and I was like, oh, yeah,

1138
00:59:41,560 --> 00:59:43,960
Speaker 1: how about this? And I would always like rant to

1139
00:59:44,000 --> 00:59:45,400
Speaker 1: her about the games, and I was like, oh, and

1140
00:59:45,400 --> 00:59:48,160
Speaker 1: how about this. Some idiot on the other team named

1141
00:59:48,240 --> 00:59:51,400
Speaker 1: Casey Stuttered asked about you at the coin flip and

1142
00:59:51,440 --> 00:59:53,240
Speaker 1: I was like, I was so piste off I went,

1143
00:59:53,280 --> 00:59:59,160
Speaker 1: and she goes, oh, how is Kathy. I felt like

1144
00:59:59,240 --> 01:00:03,760
Speaker 1: such an idiot. They were high school friends. That is amazing.

1145
01:00:03,800 --> 01:00:07,280
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen that guy since? Yeah, I've seen him.

1146
01:00:07,280 --> 01:00:09,520
Speaker 1: His dad played for the Broncos at one point, so

1147
01:00:09,600 --> 01:00:12,000
Speaker 1: he's been back in Colorado since so when I still

1148
01:00:12,040 --> 01:00:14,520
Speaker 1: lived there, and I remember the first time I saw him.

1149
01:00:14,560 --> 01:00:17,320
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, man, I need to apologize about

1150
01:00:17,360 --> 01:00:20,360
Speaker 1: that coin flip. And he starts howling, laughing, and he

1151
01:00:20,520 --> 01:00:23,120
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I realized something was off when you

1152
01:00:23,200 --> 01:00:27,600
Speaker 1: got so piste and oh but just hit her reaction.

1153
01:00:27,680 --> 01:00:30,520
Speaker 1: I wish you could have seen her reaction because I'm

1154
01:00:30,560 --> 01:00:33,440
Speaker 1: gruff and mad and telling, you know. And then this

1155
01:00:33,640 --> 01:00:36,680
Speaker 1: kid in the offensive line name Casey Stuttered. She just

1156
01:00:36,760 --> 01:00:40,320
Speaker 1: interrupted me right away, house Casey like as soft and

1157
01:00:40,360 --> 01:00:43,680
Speaker 1: sweet as she possibly can. I was so pissed. Uh.

1158
01:00:43,800 --> 01:00:47,920
Speaker 1: Speaking of which, so you continue there. I want to like,

1159
01:00:48,000 --> 01:00:51,240
Speaker 1: you took some amazing hits and I see them all

1160
01:00:51,240 --> 01:00:54,280
Speaker 1: the time because you know, we'll end up tagged on

1161
01:00:54,320 --> 01:00:56,440
Speaker 1: each other when we're going back and forth on Twitter

1162
01:00:56,800 --> 01:00:59,320
Speaker 1: and there's a there's a lot of gifts out there

1163
01:00:59,640 --> 01:01:02,560
Speaker 1: of you just getting lit up. What is the most

1164
01:01:02,560 --> 01:01:04,840
Speaker 1: common one that you get sent and what was the

1165
01:01:04,880 --> 01:01:07,200
Speaker 1: worst hit you ever took while you were playing quarterback

1166
01:01:07,240 --> 01:01:11,760
Speaker 1: at Colorado? The worst one, um is actually one that's

1167
01:01:11,840 --> 01:01:14,000
Speaker 1: not a yet, But the one I get sent the

1168
01:01:14,000 --> 01:01:16,600
Speaker 1: most is the one from the Big twelve championship game

1169
01:01:16,600 --> 01:01:18,720
Speaker 1: at oh five Texas is undefeated on the way to

1170
01:01:18,760 --> 01:01:20,840
Speaker 1: the national championship game. That was my last game at

1171
01:01:20,880 --> 01:01:23,760
Speaker 1: the University of Colorado. My last play knocked me out,

1172
01:01:23,840 --> 01:01:26,120
Speaker 1: put me into hospital. I think his name is Drew Kelson,

1173
01:01:26,680 --> 01:01:31,800
Speaker 1: and that son of a be personally sends it to

1174
01:01:31,880 --> 01:01:35,680
Speaker 1: me on Twitter. Drew Kelson actually from his account, always

1175
01:01:35,720 --> 01:01:37,840
Speaker 1: sends me the video and he and he just says

1176
01:01:37,880 --> 01:01:40,160
Speaker 1: like what up, bro, And I'm just like, you know,

1177
01:01:41,120 --> 01:01:43,600
Speaker 1: like get over it. So that one gets sent to

1178
01:01:43,640 --> 01:01:46,480
Speaker 1: me a lot that John Beason hit from Miami in

1179
01:01:46,520 --> 01:01:50,520
Speaker 1: which John Beeson collected a bounty from Nevin Shapiro in that,

1180
01:01:51,320 --> 01:01:55,320
Speaker 1: and that's why he goes He goes completely after you.

1181
01:01:55,440 --> 01:01:57,840
Speaker 1: Like it. You're trying to like you're totally out of

1182
01:01:57,840 --> 01:01:59,920
Speaker 1: the play, and he just goes after you to hit you,

1183
01:02:00,000 --> 01:02:03,360
Speaker 1: which later makes sense because he's getting a bounty. Oh yeah,

1184
01:02:04,120 --> 01:02:06,840
Speaker 1: five yards behind a guy. It was like a fumble

1185
01:02:06,920 --> 01:02:09,000
Speaker 1: and it was a fumble return. I'm chasing after the guy.

1186
01:02:09,240 --> 01:02:11,600
Speaker 1: He's five yards ahead of me, and clearly I'm not

1187
01:02:11,640 --> 01:02:15,040
Speaker 1: gonna catch him and beaton. He basically supplexed to me

1188
01:02:15,080 --> 01:02:17,520
Speaker 1: on the like lifts me up over his shoulder and

1189
01:02:17,600 --> 01:02:20,320
Speaker 1: like slams me on the ground. Then he starts going crazy,

1190
01:02:20,440 --> 01:02:24,959
Speaker 1: jumping up and down. It's like h Richer. And later

1191
01:02:25,040 --> 01:02:26,840
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, that makes sense. You were one of

1192
01:02:26,840 --> 01:02:29,960
Speaker 1: the bounties in the Nevin Shapiro case. That's right. The

1193
01:02:29,960 --> 01:02:31,880
Speaker 1: only thing that pisses me off is that Chris Ricks

1194
01:02:31,880 --> 01:02:35,000
Speaker 1: had a higher bounty than I did. Oh that's pretty funny. Uh.

1195
01:02:35,000 --> 01:02:38,520
Speaker 1: And so you finish your career all right, and did

1196
01:02:38,520 --> 01:02:40,560
Speaker 1: you think you had any chance at the NFL at all?

1197
01:02:40,560 --> 01:02:44,520
Speaker 1: By the time you're done. Um, yeah, you know, an

1198
01:02:44,520 --> 01:02:48,520
Speaker 1: outside shot at it. Um. Obviously, my concussion history did

1199
01:02:48,560 --> 01:02:50,440
Speaker 1: not help, so I was I was pulled from the

1200
01:02:50,480 --> 01:02:52,439
Speaker 1: Senior Bowl and I was pulled from the Combine, which

1201
01:02:52,440 --> 01:02:55,640
Speaker 1: didn't help my my chances. But I went undrafted to Detroit,

1202
01:02:55,800 --> 01:02:59,200
Speaker 1: New Orleans, earned contracts in both of those places, went

1203
01:02:59,240 --> 01:03:01,960
Speaker 1: to training camp with Detroit. My heart was just never

1204
01:03:02,040 --> 01:03:04,760
Speaker 1: quite in it because of the head injury deal and

1205
01:03:04,880 --> 01:03:08,120
Speaker 1: the way that everything ended in Colorado. And so that

1206
01:03:08,200 --> 01:03:12,520
Speaker 1: kind of ended, and that was all right with me. Um.

1207
01:03:12,560 --> 01:03:14,880
Speaker 1: You know, I had a great time in those training camps,

1208
01:03:14,920 --> 01:03:18,000
Speaker 1: and I was probably the type of guy that could

1209
01:03:18,040 --> 01:03:19,720
Speaker 1: have been a backup for a while. I don't think

1210
01:03:19,720 --> 01:03:21,680
Speaker 1: I would have ever been a starting quarterback by any means,

1211
01:03:21,680 --> 01:03:23,040
Speaker 1: but I could have been a backup, one of those

1212
01:03:23,080 --> 01:03:25,960
Speaker 1: guys that knows the playbook doesn't threaten the starter. It's

1213
01:03:25,960 --> 01:03:28,640
Speaker 1: been a backup for you know, any number of years.

1214
01:03:28,640 --> 01:03:31,160
Speaker 1: But it just wasn't. It wasn't in the carts for me,

1215
01:03:31,280 --> 01:03:35,640
Speaker 1: and that's fine, um, And and candidly it's it worked

1216
01:03:35,640 --> 01:03:37,960
Speaker 1: out for the better because once I got out of

1217
01:03:37,960 --> 01:03:41,400
Speaker 1: football and came back to Colorado, I was able to

1218
01:03:41,480 --> 01:03:43,840
Speaker 1: kind of move forward in my career. And at first

1219
01:03:43,880 --> 01:03:45,840
Speaker 1: I thought that was going to be an investment banking.

1220
01:03:45,840 --> 01:03:49,400
Speaker 1: I was an economics major Clay and I got a

1221
01:03:49,560 --> 01:03:51,840
Speaker 1: job with a small read in Denver, and I would

1222
01:03:51,880 --> 01:03:55,120
Speaker 1: raise the equity sections of speculative real estate projects. And

1223
01:03:55,160 --> 01:03:57,960
Speaker 1: this is like in two thousands, six and seven, right

1224
01:03:58,040 --> 01:04:01,760
Speaker 1: before the market crashed. And so needless to say, we

1225
01:04:01,880 --> 01:04:05,600
Speaker 1: raised some money for some spec homes that totally folded,

1226
01:04:05,640 --> 01:04:08,840
Speaker 1: and that company totally folded. And so here i am,

1227
01:04:08,920 --> 01:04:13,880
Speaker 1: like two years out of college and I'm jobless. I'm married,

1228
01:04:13,960 --> 01:04:17,880
Speaker 1: I'm jobless. I no way, And and in the meantime,

1229
01:04:18,520 --> 01:04:21,200
Speaker 1: I had been asked by Fox Sports Rocky Mountain, the

1230
01:04:21,240 --> 01:04:24,160
Speaker 1: local regional sports network, to fill in on some high

1231
01:04:24,160 --> 01:04:26,400
Speaker 1: school football games because they knew I was in town

1232
01:04:26,840 --> 01:04:29,000
Speaker 1: and they had done the magazine show for the University

1233
01:04:29,040 --> 01:04:31,400
Speaker 1: of Colorado, and I had done the magazine show obviously

1234
01:04:31,440 --> 01:04:34,440
Speaker 1: several times, being the quarterback there, and so once they

1235
01:04:34,520 --> 01:04:37,480
Speaker 1: realized I was in town, they were like, hey, you know,

1236
01:04:37,840 --> 01:04:41,040
Speaker 1: we need to fill in for this high school football game.

1237
01:04:41,040 --> 01:04:43,680
Speaker 1: And so I did that a couple of times, and

1238
01:04:43,960 --> 01:04:45,920
Speaker 1: they always encouraged me, like, hey, you should do that

1239
01:04:46,000 --> 01:04:49,280
Speaker 1: more So while I had this job in investment banking,

1240
01:04:50,080 --> 01:04:52,880
Speaker 1: I was also on the side doing these small broadcasting

1241
01:04:52,960 --> 01:04:56,920
Speaker 1: gigs and didn't have a broadcasting background or anything. Well,

1242
01:04:56,920 --> 01:04:59,080
Speaker 1: in the meantime that started to kind of grow to

1243
01:04:59,160 --> 01:05:02,800
Speaker 1: the point that once I lost that job in the

1244
01:05:02,840 --> 01:05:06,560
Speaker 1: real estate company and that company folded, my wife and

1245
01:05:06,560 --> 01:05:10,800
Speaker 1: I decided like, hey, let's give broadcasting a shot and

1246
01:05:11,080 --> 01:05:14,160
Speaker 1: maybe you could make this an actual living And that

1247
01:05:14,400 --> 01:05:18,000
Speaker 1: was in two thousand and eight, and um, you know,

1248
01:05:18,160 --> 01:05:20,720
Speaker 1: here here we are eleven years later. All right, so

1249
01:05:20,960 --> 01:05:23,200
Speaker 1: you decided to take and make an actual shot of

1250
01:05:23,240 --> 01:05:25,880
Speaker 1: it in two thousand eight, what do you do from there?

1251
01:05:25,920 --> 01:05:28,080
Speaker 1: Like you call these high school games. I'm assuming you

1252
01:05:28,160 --> 01:05:30,480
Speaker 1: do a pretty good job calling my school games, But

1253
01:05:30,560 --> 01:05:33,920
Speaker 1: then how do you advance that beyond doing an occasional

1254
01:05:34,360 --> 01:05:38,520
Speaker 1: football game. So and this is maybe you know, we've

1255
01:05:38,520 --> 01:05:41,000
Speaker 1: told some funny stories and everything, and I'm hopefully people

1256
01:05:41,040 --> 01:05:43,320
Speaker 1: are entertained, but if they wanted to get anything from

1257
01:05:43,360 --> 01:05:47,440
Speaker 1: actual wins and losses perspective about you know, career management

1258
01:05:47,800 --> 01:05:50,760
Speaker 1: or or career arc one of the things that my

1259
01:05:50,840 --> 01:05:55,240
Speaker 1: wife really encouraged me to do was two things. Network

1260
01:05:55,320 --> 01:05:59,320
Speaker 1: really well and also make your intentions known to your bosses.

1261
01:06:00,040 --> 01:06:01,680
Speaker 1: So the first guy that ever hired me for those

1262
01:06:01,760 --> 01:06:03,880
Speaker 1: high school football games, he used to ask me like, well,

1263
01:06:03,880 --> 01:06:05,440
Speaker 1: what do you want to do, And I was like, well,

1264
01:06:05,440 --> 01:06:07,320
Speaker 1: I'd love to do college football, you know, And I

1265
01:06:07,320 --> 01:06:09,360
Speaker 1: always tell him flat out that's what I wanted to do.

1266
01:06:09,440 --> 01:06:12,200
Speaker 1: That was the job I was trying to get. So

1267
01:06:12,240 --> 01:06:14,560
Speaker 1: when things came up that I didn't know about, but

1268
01:06:14,680 --> 01:06:17,920
Speaker 1: that he did, he actually put me up for those jobs.

1269
01:06:18,120 --> 01:06:20,000
Speaker 1: And one of those jobs was that he sent a

1270
01:06:20,080 --> 01:06:23,480
Speaker 1: tape unbeknownst to me, down to Dallas to Fox Sports

1271
01:06:23,480 --> 01:06:26,760
Speaker 1: Southwest for me to be on their studio show for

1272
01:06:26,840 --> 01:06:32,280
Speaker 1: the Big twelve package of FS and Southwest games. And

1273
01:06:32,320 --> 01:06:34,960
Speaker 1: they called me and said, hey, Ken Miller. Ken Miller

1274
01:06:35,040 --> 01:06:37,240
Speaker 1: was his name, This executive in Denver, and Ken Miller

1275
01:06:37,280 --> 01:06:39,440
Speaker 1: sent us your tape. We want you to be on

1276
01:06:39,480 --> 01:06:43,760
Speaker 1: our studio. And so the fact that that Sarah encouraged

1277
01:06:43,800 --> 01:06:47,360
Speaker 1: me to be honest about my intentions and to also

1278
01:06:47,840 --> 01:06:52,320
Speaker 1: you know, network well throughout my time with those executives

1279
01:06:52,680 --> 01:06:56,680
Speaker 1: paid off in a huge way because Ken on my behalf,

1280
01:06:57,360 --> 01:07:00,280
Speaker 1: got me another gig without me even knowing it. And

1281
01:07:00,320 --> 01:07:03,160
Speaker 1: he did that because he wanted to see you know

1282
01:07:03,280 --> 01:07:05,800
Speaker 1: me kind of grow and flourish and and FUS in

1283
01:07:05,880 --> 01:07:07,880
Speaker 1: Rocky Mountain didn't have high school football game. So I

1284
01:07:07,920 --> 01:07:10,080
Speaker 1: go down there and I do the studio show, you know,

1285
01:07:10,120 --> 01:07:13,120
Speaker 1: Halftimes pre games for FS in Southwest and this is

1286
01:07:13,160 --> 01:07:15,200
Speaker 1: in now two thousand and nine. Well, I did the

1287
01:07:15,240 --> 01:07:17,200
Speaker 1: same thing with their executives. They would say like, well,

1288
01:07:17,240 --> 01:07:18,400
Speaker 1: what do you want to do, and I would say,

1289
01:07:18,400 --> 01:07:20,960
Speaker 1: I want to call college football games. And so when

1290
01:07:20,960 --> 01:07:24,160
Speaker 1: the opportunity came up, there was a pay per view

1291
01:07:24,200 --> 01:07:28,160
Speaker 1: game that Fox Sports was going to produce, but there

1292
01:07:28,240 --> 01:07:31,200
Speaker 1: was gonna be between Nebraska and Kansas State and this

1293
01:07:31,280 --> 01:07:33,640
Speaker 1: is in the Ron Prince area era with Josh Freeman

1294
01:07:33,640 --> 01:07:35,720
Speaker 1: at quarterback and then domin Kin Sue was a tackle

1295
01:07:35,800 --> 01:07:38,440
Speaker 1: for the Cornhuskers. And so they let me go and

1296
01:07:38,480 --> 01:07:42,120
Speaker 1: call that game. Well, as I started getting more experienced,

1297
01:07:42,160 --> 01:07:45,600
Speaker 1: they said they thought, well, you're probably you know, I

1298
01:07:45,720 --> 01:07:48,160
Speaker 1: want to do these games. You're really good at these games.

1299
01:07:48,720 --> 01:07:51,240
Speaker 1: And that's what they told me, and we're gonna give

1300
01:07:51,280 --> 01:07:53,439
Speaker 1: you a package of games. So by two thousand and ten,

1301
01:07:54,000 --> 01:07:56,600
Speaker 1: I had a package of college football games on FS

1302
01:07:56,640 --> 01:08:02,280
Speaker 1: and Southwest. And that's when Clay Eric Shanks saw a

1303
01:08:02,320 --> 01:08:06,600
Speaker 1: game that I was that I was on and it

1304
01:08:06,720 --> 01:08:10,280
Speaker 1: was a Texas Tech versus Kansas State game, nondescript game,

1305
01:08:11,760 --> 01:08:14,760
Speaker 1: and there was a kickoff return by Tyler Lockett. If

1306
01:08:14,800 --> 01:08:18,519
Speaker 1: you remember this, I believe it was Tyler Lockett. It

1307
01:08:18,640 --> 01:08:20,800
Speaker 1: was a Kansas State player, one of their good returners.

1308
01:08:21,439 --> 01:08:24,400
Speaker 1: And and I made the comment because I had always

1309
01:08:24,400 --> 01:08:27,240
Speaker 1: heard this in special teams meetings and just growing up,

1310
01:08:27,320 --> 01:08:29,880
Speaker 1: you know, being around football, is that one of the

1311
01:08:29,880 --> 01:08:32,519
Speaker 1: things that you have to have as a returner is

1312
01:08:32,520 --> 01:08:36,320
Speaker 1: that you've got to be decisive. Right. You can't, as

1313
01:08:36,320 --> 01:08:39,120
Speaker 1: they would say, you can't wonder where you're going, like

1314
01:08:39,240 --> 01:08:42,120
Speaker 1: you've got to pick a whole direction and go. You

1315
01:08:42,200 --> 01:08:46,000
Speaker 1: gotta be decisive with where you're headed. And I said

1316
01:08:46,040 --> 01:08:49,840
Speaker 1: that on the air, and for whatever reason, you know,

1317
01:08:50,040 --> 01:08:52,960
Speaker 1: Eric Shanks, who's the president now and and CEO of

1318
01:08:53,040 --> 01:08:55,960
Speaker 1: Fox Sports, he heard that and he thought, boy, I've

1319
01:08:56,000 --> 01:08:57,920
Speaker 1: never heard that before. And he had been around sports

1320
01:08:57,920 --> 01:08:59,600
Speaker 1: television for a long time and he thought it was

1321
01:08:59,680 --> 01:09:02,280
Speaker 1: unique and he thought it was interesting, and that put

1322
01:09:02,439 --> 01:09:05,479
Speaker 1: me on his radar. And once I was on his radar,

1323
01:09:05,640 --> 01:09:07,960
Speaker 1: everything else started to fall into place, and I started

1324
01:09:08,000 --> 01:09:11,400
Speaker 1: getting bigger packages within Fox. They moved me out to

1325
01:09:11,680 --> 01:09:14,600
Speaker 1: l a once FS one started, and and that was

1326
01:09:14,640 --> 01:09:17,559
Speaker 1: that natural progression, and that's kind of how it happened.

1327
01:09:17,600 --> 01:09:21,400
Speaker 1: But by no means that I set out in this

1328
01:09:21,880 --> 01:09:25,000
Speaker 1: you know business and and sat and I never sat

1329
01:09:25,080 --> 01:09:27,360
Speaker 1: in a in a college classroom and thought I want

1330
01:09:27,400 --> 01:09:31,120
Speaker 1: to be a broadcaster. It was literally born out of necessity.

1331
01:09:31,200 --> 01:09:33,400
Speaker 1: I didn't have a job. It was the only thing

1332
01:09:33,400 --> 01:09:35,639
Speaker 1: that I could earn a few dollars at at the time,

1333
01:09:35,840 --> 01:09:38,720
Speaker 1: as I was unemployed. And then it's worked out from there.

1334
01:09:39,080 --> 01:09:42,760
Speaker 1: What were you making doing those high school games? I

1335
01:09:42,800 --> 01:09:45,120
Speaker 1: think I think they paid me a hundred and twenty

1336
01:09:45,200 --> 01:09:47,280
Speaker 1: five dollars or maybe it was two hundreds too, know,

1337
01:09:47,320 --> 01:09:48,880
Speaker 1: it wasn't two hundred, it was a hundred and twenty

1338
01:09:48,880 --> 01:09:51,719
Speaker 1: five dollars. And then even when you're doing I bet

1339
01:09:51,720 --> 01:09:54,240
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Southwest, you're not making very much money doing

1340
01:09:54,280 --> 01:09:57,200
Speaker 1: those either, right, No, So I would go down for

1341
01:09:57,240 --> 01:09:59,439
Speaker 1: the weekend and for all day Saturday. I think they

1342
01:09:59,479 --> 01:10:03,960
Speaker 1: gave me. I think it was for the for a Saturday,

1343
01:10:04,600 --> 01:10:06,640
Speaker 1: and it was just a day rate, and it was

1344
01:10:06,720 --> 01:10:12,479
Speaker 1: just the you know, twelve Saturdays a year. In the meantime, Yeah,

1345
01:10:12,520 --> 01:10:15,439
Speaker 1: and in the meantime I had actually gotten a local

1346
01:10:15,560 --> 01:10:20,120
Speaker 1: radio show, and and that radio show was on like

1347
01:10:21,880 --> 01:10:24,479
Speaker 1: the worst station that you could possibly be on. No

1348
01:10:24,520 --> 01:10:27,280
Speaker 1: one listened to it, you know, the finances were all bad,

1349
01:10:27,360 --> 01:10:30,360
Speaker 1: and and so they agreed to have me a part

1350
01:10:30,360 --> 01:10:34,560
Speaker 1: of their afternoon drive show. And we agreed on sixteen

1351
01:10:34,600 --> 01:10:37,760
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year, and I was like, okay, you know,

1352
01:10:37,880 --> 01:10:40,280
Speaker 1: and you couple that was the big twelve Saturdays and

1353
01:10:40,280 --> 01:10:42,760
Speaker 1: maybe some games here and there, and you know, maybe

1354
01:10:42,800 --> 01:10:46,640
Speaker 1: I could make thirty grand this year. That's not all right,

1355
01:10:46,720 --> 01:10:52,360
Speaker 1: this is gonna be great. And so the problem was

1356
01:10:52,520 --> 01:10:56,120
Speaker 1: is that they wouldn't go after their vendors well enough,

1357
01:10:56,280 --> 01:10:58,919
Speaker 1: and they weren't making any money, so they never actually

1358
01:10:58,960 --> 01:11:02,320
Speaker 1: paid me that sixteen dollars or whatever we agrede to.

1359
01:11:02,760 --> 01:11:05,320
Speaker 1: So I would get checks every two weeks, just personal

1360
01:11:05,400 --> 01:11:10,000
Speaker 1: checks for like two or the next week would be

1361
01:11:10,040 --> 01:11:12,920
Speaker 1: like three and fifty dollars, and I would bring him

1362
01:11:12,960 --> 01:11:16,000
Speaker 1: home and look at Sarah and she'd be like, is

1363
01:11:16,000 --> 01:11:18,400
Speaker 1: this it? And I'd be like, yeah, I mean, like

1364
01:11:18,479 --> 01:11:24,320
Speaker 1: this is it? And play So much credit for everything

1365
01:11:24,360 --> 01:11:26,639
Speaker 1: that I've been able to accomplish goes to my wife,

1366
01:11:27,280 --> 01:11:31,000
Speaker 1: because I asked her so many times babe, I can

1367
01:11:31,040 --> 01:11:34,320
Speaker 1: be a coach tomorrow in college football, and she would

1368
01:11:34,400 --> 01:11:38,360
Speaker 1: always say, no, you're really good at this. This is

1369
01:11:38,400 --> 01:11:42,360
Speaker 1: gonna work out. And if it wasn't for her and

1370
01:11:42,479 --> 01:11:45,559
Speaker 1: her confidence in me during those times when I was

1371
01:11:45,600 --> 01:11:49,240
Speaker 1: making three every two weeks, there's no way I'd be

1372
01:11:49,280 --> 01:11:53,479
Speaker 1: in this business. I also think of one picking the

1373
01:11:53,560 --> 01:11:56,880
Speaker 1: right spouse is incredibly important. You gotta win there and

1374
01:11:57,080 --> 01:11:59,640
Speaker 1: no matter what you do. But I always like to

1375
01:11:59,680 --> 01:12:02,320
Speaker 1: ask a money question because I feel like, and I'm

1376
01:12:02,320 --> 01:12:05,880
Speaker 1: sure you see this now too, so many people expect

1377
01:12:06,040 --> 01:12:10,839
Speaker 1: immediate returns, and in order to be successful in most things,

1378
01:12:11,240 --> 01:12:13,800
Speaker 1: you have to grind. For a long time, I've talked

1379
01:12:13,840 --> 01:12:16,720
Speaker 1: about how much I wrote before I made anything for

1380
01:12:16,760 --> 01:12:19,479
Speaker 1: what I was writing, and before that led into radio

1381
01:12:19,600 --> 01:12:22,120
Speaker 1: or TV. And I feel like there's so many people

1382
01:12:22,120 --> 01:12:24,000
Speaker 1: out there, a lot of young who are listening right now,

1383
01:12:24,160 --> 01:12:28,519
Speaker 1: that expect that instant gratification, and our industry doesn't really

1384
01:12:28,600 --> 01:12:33,240
Speaker 1: provide it. No, it doesn't. And and I completely agree

1385
01:12:33,280 --> 01:12:35,840
Speaker 1: with you, I think, and I'm gonna relate it to

1386
01:12:36,080 --> 01:12:39,800
Speaker 1: not only people in general, but more specifically ex athletes.

1387
01:12:40,120 --> 01:12:42,920
Speaker 1: Um and I find this every time I talk with

1388
01:12:43,000 --> 01:12:45,599
Speaker 1: former teammates or guys that get done playing whether it's

1389
01:12:45,640 --> 01:12:48,400
Speaker 1: college or in the NFL, They've excelled at such a

1390
01:12:48,479 --> 01:12:52,200
Speaker 1: high level and for them, you know, toiling in the

1391
01:12:52,240 --> 01:12:55,479
Speaker 1: bottom of an industry right now would feel like going

1392
01:12:55,520 --> 01:12:58,599
Speaker 1: back to little league football. And and in their mind,

1393
01:12:58,640 --> 01:13:00,800
Speaker 1: they're like, I'm not gonna do that. I'm above that.

1394
01:13:01,520 --> 01:13:04,160
Speaker 1: And I think that we have way too much entitlement

1395
01:13:05,040 --> 01:13:09,400
Speaker 1: going on in in the professional landscape of our country.

1396
01:13:09,600 --> 01:13:15,880
Speaker 1: You are not entitled to anything anything. You have to

1397
01:13:16,120 --> 01:13:21,960
Speaker 1: work diligently for next to nothing early in order to

1398
01:13:22,040 --> 01:13:26,599
Speaker 1: get to where you're going. Because this is the dirty

1399
01:13:26,680 --> 01:13:29,400
Speaker 1: secret that no one wants to tell those people. And

1400
01:13:29,400 --> 01:13:31,000
Speaker 1: and they tend to be young, and I don't want

1401
01:13:31,000 --> 01:13:33,000
Speaker 1: to group them just as young people. But though that

1402
01:13:33,120 --> 01:13:36,479
Speaker 1: group of people that is entitled and refuses to do

1403
01:13:36,600 --> 01:13:42,400
Speaker 1: that toil Clay, no one tells them You're not worth

1404
01:13:42,479 --> 01:13:46,559
Speaker 1: anything yet, your work is not worth anything yet I

1405
01:13:46,640 --> 01:13:49,400
Speaker 1: wasn't good enough to make more money at that point.

1406
01:13:49,880 --> 01:13:54,760
Speaker 1: You know why, because advertisers or because people, you know,

1407
01:13:54,800 --> 01:13:58,200
Speaker 1: people weren't watching enough of it, so advertisers wouldn't pay

1408
01:13:58,640 --> 01:14:01,920
Speaker 1: an x amount of dollars. I couldn't command more money

1409
01:14:02,000 --> 01:14:04,360
Speaker 1: than the company was bringing in based on my show.

1410
01:14:05,320 --> 01:14:10,160
Speaker 1: You know, that's just that's just a preposterous sentiment to

1411
01:14:10,280 --> 01:14:13,479
Speaker 1: think that you are worth something that you are not.

1412
01:14:14,160 --> 01:14:18,120
Speaker 1: You know, you you've got to be realistic about what

1413
01:14:18,280 --> 01:14:22,360
Speaker 1: your value is and how to build that value. That

1414
01:14:22,479 --> 01:14:25,000
Speaker 1: sounded doomsday. I'm not. I'm not trying to throw anybody

1415
01:14:25,080 --> 01:14:27,599
Speaker 1: under the bus. I'm just saying like, at times, you've

1416
01:14:27,640 --> 01:14:31,920
Speaker 1: got to understand that in order to get where you're going,

1417
01:14:32,000 --> 01:14:35,479
Speaker 1: you gotta grind. You have to grind. I just you know,

1418
01:14:35,479 --> 01:14:37,559
Speaker 1: when I started out kick as a website, first of all,

1419
01:14:37,600 --> 01:14:40,400
Speaker 1: I wrote for years and years making virtually nothing, practicing

1420
01:14:40,520 --> 01:14:43,880
Speaker 1: law full time, grinding away on articles, whether people like

1421
01:14:43,960 --> 01:14:46,680
Speaker 1: them or not. I started a website thinking, hey, I'm

1422
01:14:46,720 --> 01:14:48,240
Speaker 1: going to be able to bring in a lot of

1423
01:14:48,240 --> 01:14:50,640
Speaker 1: other people who want to do what I do. It

1424
01:14:50,760 --> 01:14:53,439
Speaker 1: was amazing to me how few people would write even

1425
01:14:53,600 --> 01:14:57,240
Speaker 1: one article for free, or who would put in the

1426
01:14:57,280 --> 01:14:59,880
Speaker 1: time to write. Nobody was virtually willing to put in

1427
01:15:00,080 --> 01:15:03,400
Speaker 1: time to write five or ten or a hundred like

1428
01:15:03,560 --> 01:15:06,080
Speaker 1: I did. Before. I worried about any kind of compensation,

1429
01:15:06,200 --> 01:15:09,000
Speaker 1: just worried about getting better. Um And I think that's

1430
01:15:09,040 --> 01:15:12,560
Speaker 1: the story certainly of the sports media industry is you

1431
01:15:12,640 --> 01:15:14,320
Speaker 1: gotta be able to put your head down and not

1432
01:15:14,400 --> 01:15:17,320
Speaker 1: really focus on what you're getting right now. And I'll

1433
01:15:17,320 --> 01:15:19,240
Speaker 1: give my wife credit the same kind of credit that

1434
01:15:19,280 --> 01:15:23,000
Speaker 1: you gave your wife. Like she recognized the talent and said,

1435
01:15:23,120 --> 01:15:26,599
Speaker 1: keep doing this, you know, even while I'm practicing lawfull time.

1436
01:15:26,640 --> 01:15:28,920
Speaker 1: And so when I decided to take off and write

1437
01:15:28,960 --> 01:15:31,679
Speaker 1: a book about going around to all twelve SEC football

1438
01:15:31,680 --> 01:15:34,840
Speaker 1: stadiums because I love college football, she encouraged it. I

1439
01:15:34,840 --> 01:15:36,479
Speaker 1: feel like there are a lot of people out there

1440
01:15:36,640 --> 01:15:40,080
Speaker 1: that will discourage their services who are talented in something

1441
01:15:40,400 --> 01:15:43,960
Speaker 1: because they're so worried about the right now as opposed

1442
01:15:43,960 --> 01:15:47,040
Speaker 1: to the what could be and believing in the future

1443
01:15:47,120 --> 01:15:49,320
Speaker 1: is a big part of any kind of success, I think,

1444
01:15:49,600 --> 01:15:51,559
Speaker 1: and I think that that's that's really kind of the

1445
01:15:51,600 --> 01:15:55,479
Speaker 1: story of this Wins and Losses podcast. Well, not only that,

1446
01:15:55,560 --> 01:15:58,000
Speaker 1: but but you can go back to the Gladwellian theory

1447
01:15:58,080 --> 01:16:01,479
Speaker 1: of the ten thousand hours. Yeah, no, no one, No

1448
01:16:01,520 --> 01:16:04,120
Speaker 1: one is great at what they do just because they

1449
01:16:04,160 --> 01:16:06,760
Speaker 1: tell you they are. You know, you're you're great at

1450
01:16:06,760 --> 01:16:09,599
Speaker 1: what you do because you practiced it thousands and thousands

1451
01:16:09,640 --> 01:16:13,240
Speaker 1: of times. She always knew my wife and I always

1452
01:16:13,360 --> 01:16:17,200
Speaker 1: knew that that radio show that that paid me basically

1453
01:16:17,320 --> 01:16:22,280
Speaker 1: zero dollars was instrumental in helping me learn how to

1454
01:16:22,479 --> 01:16:26,200
Speaker 1: develop arguments talk for three hours at a time. You know,

1455
01:16:26,360 --> 01:16:29,320
Speaker 1: I I used to stumble on my words quite a

1456
01:16:29,320 --> 01:16:32,160
Speaker 1: bit when I first started doing high school of football games,

1457
01:16:32,200 --> 01:16:35,400
Speaker 1: and I wasn't as clean on camera that radio show

1458
01:16:35,479 --> 01:16:38,320
Speaker 1: that nobody listened to that I made no money for

1459
01:16:38,600 --> 01:16:42,280
Speaker 1: every single day for three hours, That's what got me

1460
01:16:42,400 --> 01:16:46,960
Speaker 1: my jobs afterwards. I was so much better after that.

1461
01:16:47,080 --> 01:16:49,559
Speaker 1: If I would have said, no way, I'm not gonna

1462
01:16:49,640 --> 01:16:53,479
Speaker 1: do that because you aren't paying me, I would never

1463
01:16:53,880 --> 01:16:55,960
Speaker 1: be where I'm at right now because I wouldn't have

1464
01:16:56,000 --> 01:16:58,840
Speaker 1: developed the skills necessary in order to be where I'm

1465
01:16:58,840 --> 01:17:02,040
Speaker 1: at right now. SOX Sports Radio has the best sports

1466
01:17:02,040 --> 01:17:04,840
Speaker 1: talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows

1467
01:17:04,880 --> 01:17:08,120
Speaker 1: at Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I

1468
01:17:08,200 --> 01:17:11,160
Speaker 1: Heart Radio apps search f s R to listen live.

1469
01:17:12,000 --> 01:17:14,840
Speaker 1: You also don't know another big lesson here, and we're

1470
01:17:14,840 --> 01:17:17,120
Speaker 1: talking to Joel Klatt Wins and Lost his podcast. You

1471
01:17:17,160 --> 01:17:19,680
Speaker 1: can follow him on Twitter at Joel Klatt. Subscribe if

1472
01:17:19,680 --> 01:17:22,000
Speaker 1: you're enjoying these conversations. If you like this one, you'll

1473
01:17:22,040 --> 01:17:25,599
Speaker 1: probably like others as well. You also never know when

1474
01:17:25,600 --> 01:17:28,760
Speaker 1: somebody's watching because you're calling the game. That is, It's

1475
01:17:28,760 --> 01:17:31,679
Speaker 1: not like you were calling Michigan, Ohio State at the time,

1476
01:17:31,720 --> 01:17:34,040
Speaker 1: where there's ten million people watching it or whatever the

1477
01:17:34,160 --> 01:17:37,880
Speaker 1: number is. You're calling a relatively anonymous Big twelve game

1478
01:17:38,240 --> 01:17:40,759
Speaker 1: and Eric Shanks, who's the president of Fox Sports, happens

1479
01:17:40,800 --> 01:17:43,800
Speaker 1: to be watching and he's got his antenna up trying

1480
01:17:43,800 --> 01:17:46,320
Speaker 1: to find young talent all the time because of the

1481
01:17:46,360 --> 01:17:50,000
Speaker 1: industry that we're in. Boom. He suddenly recognizes that you

1482
01:17:50,000 --> 01:17:52,280
Speaker 1: you're on his radar, and that leads to you have

1483
01:17:52,320 --> 01:17:54,639
Speaker 1: an opportunities which is where we met for the first time,

1484
01:17:54,880 --> 01:17:57,160
Speaker 1: which is in two thousand thirteen when they were doing

1485
01:17:57,200 --> 01:18:00,800
Speaker 1: all the auditions for FS one. I was one of

1486
01:18:00,800 --> 01:18:02,920
Speaker 1: the panelists. You were one of the host and this

1487
01:18:03,000 --> 01:18:05,680
Speaker 1: is credit to you. I thought you were a professional

1488
01:18:05,800 --> 01:18:09,120
Speaker 1: TV guy by that point, as opposed to a former athlete,

1489
01:18:09,400 --> 01:18:12,200
Speaker 1: which I think is the best thing you can honestly

1490
01:18:12,280 --> 01:18:15,519
Speaker 1: tell someone who has a background in athletics is you're

1491
01:18:15,600 --> 01:18:18,400
Speaker 1: good enough at what you're doing that the background in

1492
01:18:18,479 --> 01:18:22,840
Speaker 1: athletics almost doesn't even factor in well. And that was

1493
01:18:22,880 --> 01:18:25,160
Speaker 1: another thing that I feel like I would be remiss

1494
01:18:25,160 --> 01:18:27,519
Speaker 1: if I didn't at least touch on quickly in in

1495
01:18:27,600 --> 01:18:30,599
Speaker 1: this podcast, which was the fact that um, I did

1496
01:18:30,600 --> 01:18:33,800
Speaker 1: not pigeonhole myself into a corner. You know, I could

1497
01:18:33,800 --> 01:18:35,960
Speaker 1: have said, I'm just a football analyst. That's all I'm

1498
01:18:35,960 --> 01:18:38,640
Speaker 1: gonna do. Don't ask me to do other things, you know.

1499
01:18:38,720 --> 01:18:41,559
Speaker 1: The Fox Sports Rockey Mountain people asked me to be

1500
01:18:41,600 --> 01:18:44,120
Speaker 1: an analyst for the Colorado Rockies on their pre and

1501
01:18:44,160 --> 01:18:46,559
Speaker 1: post game show because of my minor league baseball background,

1502
01:18:46,640 --> 01:18:48,720
Speaker 1: and I did that even though it was somewhat uncomfortable

1503
01:18:48,720 --> 01:18:51,400
Speaker 1: because I had never played major league baseball. They asked

1504
01:18:51,400 --> 01:18:53,760
Speaker 1: me then to be the host of that same baseball

1505
01:18:54,200 --> 01:18:56,919
Speaker 1: pre and post game show. I had never hosted anything

1506
01:18:57,000 --> 01:18:59,680
Speaker 1: a day in my life, but I did it, you know,

1507
01:18:59,760 --> 01:19:02,600
Speaker 1: because because I knew that being versatile was going to

1508
01:19:02,720 --> 01:19:05,719
Speaker 1: pay off in the end. The only reason that FS

1509
01:19:05,800 --> 01:19:08,960
Speaker 1: one asked me to come out to l A and

1510
01:19:09,040 --> 01:19:11,360
Speaker 1: be a part of the launch of FS one was

1511
01:19:11,439 --> 01:19:13,920
Speaker 1: because I had that background as a host for fs

1512
01:19:14,000 --> 01:19:16,720
Speaker 1: N Rocky Mountain, which was then Roots Sports, hosting the

1513
01:19:16,800 --> 01:19:19,719
Speaker 1: Rockies pre and postgame shows, which Clay I had never

1514
01:19:19,760 --> 01:19:24,479
Speaker 1: done before before that season. So all of these doors

1515
01:19:24,520 --> 01:19:28,920
Speaker 1: opened up because I didn't pigeonhole myself. I networked well

1516
01:19:28,960 --> 01:19:31,559
Speaker 1: and I was willing to make three every two weeks

1517
01:19:31,600 --> 01:19:35,120
Speaker 1: doing a radio show. No one ever listened to those.

1518
01:19:35,840 --> 01:19:38,160
Speaker 1: Those are the winds. You know. The wind is not

1519
01:19:38,280 --> 01:19:40,000
Speaker 1: when Fox says, hey, we want you to be our

1520
01:19:40,080 --> 01:19:43,920
Speaker 1: lead announcer with with Gus Johnson for Michigan Ohio State.

1521
01:19:44,040 --> 01:19:46,280
Speaker 1: That's great. You know, that's the gravy, and that's the

1522
01:19:46,320 --> 01:19:50,240
Speaker 1: frosting of and and the reward of all the hard work.

1523
01:19:50,720 --> 01:19:54,599
Speaker 1: The winds came far before that, when you were willing

1524
01:19:54,680 --> 01:19:57,120
Speaker 1: to do the work necessary in order to get better,

1525
01:19:57,120 --> 01:19:59,559
Speaker 1: in order to get more opportunities, in order to be

1526
01:19:59,640 --> 01:20:02,720
Speaker 1: seen more people, in order to have more opportunities than

1527
01:20:02,800 --> 01:20:05,120
Speaker 1: even after that. In order to take advantage of those

1528
01:20:05,120 --> 01:20:09,080
Speaker 1: opportunities to get the jobs that we want, you also

1529
01:20:09,120 --> 01:20:10,800
Speaker 1: have to be willing to do things that make you

1530
01:20:10,880 --> 01:20:13,960
Speaker 1: uncomfortable and that you're not really prepared for. I'll give

1531
01:20:14,000 --> 01:20:16,479
Speaker 1: you an example. I had never done a highlight on

1532
01:20:16,560 --> 01:20:19,639
Speaker 1: television in my life. I had never even set at

1533
01:20:19,640 --> 01:20:22,120
Speaker 1: the desk before. And then in the first year of

1534
01:20:22,200 --> 01:20:24,080
Speaker 1: FS one, they set me down at the table and

1535
01:20:24,080 --> 01:20:27,320
Speaker 1: they said during a halftime show. Hey, you've got this highlight.

1536
01:20:27,400 --> 01:20:29,200
Speaker 1: I didn't even know there was a television screen in

1537
01:20:29,240 --> 01:20:32,120
Speaker 1: the desk, Like, I had never even set at the

1538
01:20:32,160 --> 01:20:35,519
Speaker 1: desk before. We're on live television doing a highlight. We

1539
01:20:35,560 --> 01:20:38,519
Speaker 1: did the Fox College Football Kickoff Show. I had never

1540
01:20:38,600 --> 01:20:42,599
Speaker 1: been in a television studio before we started that first

1541
01:20:42,680 --> 01:20:46,240
Speaker 1: year on the Fox College Football Kickoff Show. That's a

1542
01:20:46,240 --> 01:20:48,280
Speaker 1: great point, you know, that's a that's a great point.

1543
01:20:48,280 --> 01:20:50,360
Speaker 1: I had never read a teleprompter before I came out

1544
01:20:50,360 --> 01:20:52,960
Speaker 1: to l A. Yeah, you know, there's there's things like

1545
01:20:53,000 --> 01:20:55,080
Speaker 1: that are literally In fact, this last year, they asked

1546
01:20:55,120 --> 01:21:00,000
Speaker 1: me to do golf. Yeah, and you've done mentioned that. Yeah,

1547
01:20:59,840 --> 01:21:02,800
Speaker 1: I jumped at the opportunity. And the reason is is

1548
01:21:02,880 --> 01:21:06,840
Speaker 1: because I know that versatility is valuable, and the more

1549
01:21:06,960 --> 01:21:09,920
Speaker 1: things that I can do, the more valuable I am

1550
01:21:09,960 --> 01:21:13,280
Speaker 1: the Fox Sports and and I could have said no, no,

1551
01:21:13,439 --> 01:21:16,639
Speaker 1: I've made it. You know, I've got my lead college

1552
01:21:16,640 --> 01:21:21,160
Speaker 1: football gig. But I was anxious and nervous about going

1553
01:21:21,200 --> 01:21:24,360
Speaker 1: and interviewing these golfers, you know. And and I had

1554
01:21:24,400 --> 01:21:28,000
Speaker 1: never asked people questions on TV before. I'm not a journalist.

1555
01:21:28,200 --> 01:21:31,000
Speaker 1: I'm not a reporter. And and here I am at

1556
01:21:31,040 --> 01:21:33,320
Speaker 1: the US Open, you know, sitting there in my suit

1557
01:21:33,479 --> 01:21:35,880
Speaker 1: with brooks Kepka and Tiger Woods and and the like

1558
01:21:36,479 --> 01:21:40,840
Speaker 1: and Justin Rose asking them about their round. Certainly uncomfortable,

1559
01:21:40,960 --> 01:21:43,519
Speaker 1: but something that I was prepared for by all the

1560
01:21:43,600 --> 01:21:46,360
Speaker 1: times in the past when I had put myself in

1561
01:21:46,479 --> 01:21:49,040
Speaker 1: those uncomfortable situations and learned how to do it on

1562
01:21:49,080 --> 01:21:54,040
Speaker 1: the fly. Um, what's next? So college football season? Now

1563
01:21:54,160 --> 01:21:56,200
Speaker 1: we're getting close by the time a lot of people

1564
01:21:56,240 --> 01:22:00,559
Speaker 1: listen to this, I got you on because officially kicks off.

1565
01:22:01,200 --> 01:22:04,200
Speaker 1: How much do you still get excited for the start

1566
01:22:04,240 --> 01:22:07,960
Speaker 1: of college football seven season? Even now at thirty seven

1567
01:22:08,000 --> 01:22:09,800
Speaker 1: and now that you've called a lot of games and

1568
01:22:09,920 --> 01:22:12,439
Speaker 1: been to a lot of places, how much does it

1569
01:22:12,520 --> 01:22:16,000
Speaker 1: still for you when you're in a stadium and kickoff

1570
01:22:16,080 --> 01:22:20,120
Speaker 1: is nearing? How exciting is that still for you? Like,

1571
01:22:20,400 --> 01:22:23,200
Speaker 1: I can't I can't even tell you how exciting it is.

1572
01:22:23,360 --> 01:22:27,519
Speaker 1: It's it's it's similar to a kid at Christmas Clay,

1573
01:22:27,560 --> 01:22:30,280
Speaker 1: And I know that's cliche, but it's absolutely true. I

1574
01:22:30,360 --> 01:22:34,680
Speaker 1: love it. I absolutely love it. I am you know.

1575
01:22:34,760 --> 01:22:36,840
Speaker 1: I hope that this is not because I'm getting a

1576
01:22:36,880 --> 01:22:38,920
Speaker 1: little older, and I know I'm still somewhat young. But

1577
01:22:40,080 --> 01:22:43,160
Speaker 1: I don't want to be a cromudgeon. But I also

1578
01:22:43,520 --> 01:22:46,400
Speaker 1: I fear where we're at in the sport. You know,

1579
01:22:46,439 --> 01:22:49,600
Speaker 1: if we continue to just have Clemson and Alabama be

1580
01:22:49,640 --> 01:22:52,599
Speaker 1: the only two factors in the sport, I don't think

1581
01:22:52,600 --> 01:22:55,280
Speaker 1: that that's good for us long term. I don't want

1582
01:22:55,280 --> 01:22:57,479
Speaker 1: to hate on greatness, but I do think that we

1583
01:22:57,560 --> 01:23:01,240
Speaker 1: need some others, and more importantly, the start coaches like

1584
01:23:01,320 --> 01:23:04,439
Speaker 1: Lincoln Riley, maybe Ryan Day, Maybe it's Jim arbas Here,

1585
01:23:04,479 --> 01:23:07,040
Speaker 1: I'm not sure, you know, maybe it's Kirby Smart. We

1586
01:23:07,080 --> 01:23:10,200
Speaker 1: need some of these guys to rise up and rival

1587
01:23:10,320 --> 01:23:14,080
Speaker 1: Dabbo and Um and Nick Saban, and I think that

1588
01:23:14,160 --> 01:23:16,960
Speaker 1: we need that this year. So I not only get

1589
01:23:16,960 --> 01:23:19,439
Speaker 1: excited just for the start because it's like Christmas, but

1590
01:23:19,520 --> 01:23:22,200
Speaker 1: I also get excited and anxious because I think that

1591
01:23:22,240 --> 01:23:24,479
Speaker 1: there are really important storylines for the help of the

1592
01:23:24,479 --> 01:23:28,120
Speaker 1: sport long term. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports

1593
01:23:28,120 --> 01:23:30,920
Speaker 1: talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows

1594
01:23:30,960 --> 01:23:34,200
Speaker 1: at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I

1595
01:23:34,280 --> 01:23:37,280
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live.

1596
01:23:38,040 --> 01:23:40,280
Speaker 1: Now it's pretty fascinating. Well, you're gonna be on with

1597
01:23:40,360 --> 01:23:43,519
Speaker 1: us weekly during college football season for people who listen

1598
01:23:43,560 --> 01:23:46,120
Speaker 1: to the out Kick the Coverage show. I'll close with

1599
01:23:46,200 --> 01:23:48,000
Speaker 1: this and we're talking to Joel Clad. You can follow

1600
01:23:48,040 --> 01:23:50,080
Speaker 1: him on Twitter at Joel Clad. This is the Wins

1601
01:23:50,080 --> 01:23:55,120
Speaker 1: and Losses podcast. How much do you hate me? Um?

1602
01:23:55,240 --> 01:23:58,519
Speaker 1: Words can't describe how much hey, I have for you.

1603
01:23:58,720 --> 01:24:03,479
Speaker 1: And and as Dave Chappelle Apthlete says, if you have

1604
01:24:03,560 --> 01:24:06,960
Speaker 1: hate your heart, let it out. There you go. That

1605
01:24:07,080 --> 01:24:09,800
Speaker 1: is Joel Klatt letting his hate out for me. And

1606
01:24:09,840 --> 01:24:11,640
Speaker 1: by the way, I got an idea for you. And

1607
01:24:11,720 --> 01:24:13,960
Speaker 1: Dub is taping this right now. Dub is on the show,

1608
01:24:14,280 --> 01:24:17,280
Speaker 1: the radio show we need to have every week. I

1609
01:24:17,320 --> 01:24:20,880
Speaker 1: don't understand. Here's what I don't understand. I basically I

1610
01:24:21,040 --> 01:24:24,120
Speaker 1: mainly hate you for one subject. And I feel like

1611
01:24:24,160 --> 01:24:27,200
Speaker 1: you you know why, and you deep down you agree

1612
01:24:27,240 --> 01:24:31,120
Speaker 1: with me. The Greg Ciano not being the head coach

1613
01:24:31,120 --> 01:24:35,599
Speaker 1: of Tennessee debate right right? What what you did was wrong?

1614
01:24:35,640 --> 01:24:38,320
Speaker 1: Now you can you cannot want him as the coach,

1615
01:24:38,479 --> 01:24:40,280
Speaker 1: just like I'm sure there are a lot of people

1616
01:24:40,280 --> 01:24:42,799
Speaker 1: that didn't want Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court justice,

1617
01:24:43,080 --> 01:24:45,559
Speaker 1: but that doesn't justify the way that they tried to

1618
01:24:45,560 --> 01:24:51,560
Speaker 1: go about it. Um. I wish that Tennessee had been

1619
01:24:53,720 --> 01:24:57,160
Speaker 1: I knew the analogy. I wish that Tennessee had been

1620
01:24:57,200 --> 01:25:00,320
Speaker 1: smart enough not to draw somebody in that This stinction

1621
01:25:00,400 --> 01:25:01,720
Speaker 1: that I would make, This is the distinction that I

1622
01:25:01,720 --> 01:25:05,960
Speaker 1: would make between Brett Kavanaugh and Greg Ciano. Unless you're

1623
01:25:06,120 --> 01:25:10,280
Speaker 1: a died in the wool hardcore Penn State conspiracy theorist.

1624
01:25:10,680 --> 01:25:14,719
Speaker 1: I think most people believe that what Jerry Sandusky did

1625
01:25:15,360 --> 01:25:18,000
Speaker 1: was a crime, right, That's why he was in prison.

1626
01:25:18,080 --> 01:25:21,160
Speaker 1: The jury convicted, right, there's no doubt. I mean, there

1627
01:25:21,200 --> 01:25:24,439
Speaker 1: there's a tiny segment of like Penn State truthers that

1628
01:25:24,600 --> 01:25:26,559
Speaker 1: is like, oh, there's nothing to this, this is all

1629
01:25:26,600 --> 01:25:28,200
Speaker 1: made up, Like because I hear from him all the

1630
01:25:28,240 --> 01:25:30,760
Speaker 1: time on Twitter, right, And there's a tiny subset of

1631
01:25:30,760 --> 01:25:35,120
Speaker 1: the population nine nine percent whatever you want to say

1632
01:25:35,160 --> 01:25:38,479
Speaker 1: of people is aware that something awful went on at

1633
01:25:38,479 --> 01:25:43,280
Speaker 1: Penn State and Jerry Sandusky's no. The distinction I would

1634
01:25:43,320 --> 01:25:47,440
Speaker 1: make with Brett Kavanaugh is, we don't know that anything

1635
01:25:47,640 --> 01:25:51,280
Speaker 1: ever improper happened in his life at all. In fact,

1636
01:25:51,360 --> 01:25:54,920
Speaker 1: all of the evidence would suggest that nothing happened at all.

1637
01:25:55,160 --> 01:25:58,320
Speaker 1: So the distinction that I would draw, Yeah, the distinction

1638
01:25:58,360 --> 01:26:01,640
Speaker 1: that I would draw is no that but we just

1639
01:26:01,760 --> 01:26:04,479
Speaker 1: let me just finish the distinction. The distinction is we

1640
01:26:04,600 --> 01:26:08,559
Speaker 1: know something awful happened at Penn State, So not wanting

1641
01:26:08,680 --> 01:26:11,639
Speaker 1: somebody who was connected to it in any way, even

1642
01:26:11,680 --> 01:26:14,519
Speaker 1: if he didn't do anything wrong, and there's disputes about

1643
01:26:14,560 --> 01:26:18,280
Speaker 1: all these things and all of those associational values, not

1644
01:26:18,479 --> 01:26:21,800
Speaker 1: wanting somebody connected to something that we know happened that

1645
01:26:21,920 --> 01:26:26,240
Speaker 1: was awful is different than somebody's saying making an allegation

1646
01:26:26,360 --> 01:26:29,360
Speaker 1: in the Brett Kavanaugh case, which it appears like never

1647
01:26:29,439 --> 01:26:31,559
Speaker 1: really happened if you really look at all the evidence,

1648
01:26:31,600 --> 01:26:34,719
Speaker 1: and certainly nobody would convict that there was a crime

1649
01:26:34,760 --> 01:26:38,080
Speaker 1: that occurred. So there's a distinction there. Um. So that's

1650
01:26:38,120 --> 01:26:41,040
Speaker 1: that's like if Brett if Brett Kavanaugh, let me just

1651
01:26:41,040 --> 01:26:43,560
Speaker 1: say this, if Brett Kavanaugh had been a student manager

1652
01:26:43,600 --> 01:26:47,960
Speaker 1: on Penn State's football program, and somebody in court testimony

1653
01:26:48,120 --> 01:26:51,920
Speaker 1: had said, hey, he went he heard about something awful

1654
01:26:51,920 --> 01:26:54,360
Speaker 1: that happened, he witnessed something, and even if he was

1655
01:26:54,400 --> 01:26:56,400
Speaker 1: never charged with it, I think a lot of people

1656
01:26:56,439 --> 01:26:57,920
Speaker 1: would say, I don't know if I want that guy

1657
01:26:57,960 --> 01:27:00,280
Speaker 1: sitting on the Supreme Court doesn't mean that he doesn't

1658
01:27:00,280 --> 01:27:01,960
Speaker 1: deserve to have a job, doesn't mean that he can

1659
01:27:02,040 --> 01:27:04,320
Speaker 1: deserve to have all sorts of things in his life.

1660
01:27:04,439 --> 01:27:06,880
Speaker 1: Clearly has not committed a crime or been charged with one,

1661
01:27:07,120 --> 01:27:10,320
Speaker 1: but just the connection itself is so bad you don't

1662
01:27:10,360 --> 01:27:15,040
Speaker 1: want to have it associated with the program. However, however,

1663
01:27:16,080 --> 01:27:21,799
Speaker 1: you made that connection way way too closely than just like, oh,

1664
01:27:21,840 --> 01:27:27,599
Speaker 1: he was somehow some way related in the outside way

1665
01:27:30,240 --> 01:27:33,080
Speaker 1: story to it. And that's the problem then, And because

1666
01:27:33,200 --> 01:27:36,519
Speaker 1: here's here's the problem. The only link is actually an

1667
01:27:36,560 --> 01:27:41,559
Speaker 1: incredible and incredibly discredited witness that mentions it only in

1668
01:27:41,600 --> 01:27:45,200
Speaker 1: the civil suit, not in the actual uh not in

1669
01:27:45,200 --> 01:27:47,760
Speaker 1: the actual court case, but in the civil suit. And

1670
01:27:47,800 --> 01:27:52,080
Speaker 1: it's actually been discredited by two or three different eyewitnesses.

1671
01:27:52,560 --> 01:27:55,280
Speaker 1: So that's that was My problem is that you kind

1672
01:27:55,280 --> 01:27:59,560
Speaker 1: of the submarine de man's character, which now has affected

1673
01:27:59,600 --> 01:28:02,599
Speaker 1: his live blihood moving forward because you didn't want him

1674
01:28:02,600 --> 01:28:05,000
Speaker 1: as the head coach. My whole position is fine, you

1675
01:28:05,000 --> 01:28:06,800
Speaker 1: don't want him as the head coach, that's fine, but

1676
01:28:06,920 --> 01:28:10,479
Speaker 1: you don't tie him to that in a roundabout way,

1677
01:28:10,560 --> 01:28:13,360
Speaker 1: even though there's direct evidence to the contrary. I would

1678
01:28:13,400 --> 01:28:18,080
Speaker 1: say this Tennessee Blew that because they should have. Look,

1679
01:28:18,080 --> 01:28:20,839
Speaker 1: if I am involved in the vetting of a candidate

1680
01:28:20,880 --> 01:28:23,679
Speaker 1: at all, if they had called me and they had said,

1681
01:28:23,720 --> 01:28:25,800
Speaker 1: how do we roll this out? I could have walked

1682
01:28:25,840 --> 01:28:28,160
Speaker 1: him through it. Right. I'm pretty good at pr I'm

1683
01:28:28,160 --> 01:28:31,680
Speaker 1: pretty good at figuring things out. That Greg Siano was

1684
01:28:31,800 --> 01:28:37,080
Speaker 1: the target for a total distrust that existed and and

1685
01:28:37,120 --> 01:28:40,040
Speaker 1: I think has kind of dissipated now that Phil Fulmer

1686
01:28:40,200 --> 01:28:44,120
Speaker 1: is in charge between the management of the Tennessee Athletic

1687
01:28:44,160 --> 01:28:46,880
Speaker 1: Department and the university as a whole and its fan

1688
01:28:46,960 --> 01:28:51,080
Speaker 1: base that led to Butch Jones, that led to former

1689
01:28:51,160 --> 01:28:54,280
Speaker 1: being fired, Lane Kiff and Derek Dooley. It was an

1690
01:28:54,320 --> 01:28:57,960
Speaker 1: incompetent regime. And if the regime had been competent, people

1691
01:28:58,000 --> 01:29:00,280
Speaker 1: would have been more inclined to give them the innefit

1692
01:29:00,320 --> 01:29:01,800
Speaker 1: of the doubt and the real story here. And you know,

1693
01:29:01,920 --> 01:29:05,880
Speaker 1: this is everything blew up on Tennessee's face because Dan

1694
01:29:05,960 --> 01:29:10,320
Speaker 1: Mullin got the Florida job, because suddenly Chip Kelly walked

1695
01:29:10,360 --> 01:29:12,320
Speaker 1: away from Florida, because you see l A made the

1696
01:29:12,320 --> 01:29:14,280
Speaker 1: play to get him. Right, Dan Mullin would be the

1697
01:29:14,320 --> 01:29:16,120
Speaker 1: coach at Tennessee right now. And I think they were

1698
01:29:16,160 --> 01:29:19,200
Speaker 1: totally anticipating that and suddenly they had to swivel to

1699
01:29:19,240 --> 01:29:23,240
Speaker 1: Siano and I just don't think they were prepared. Now,

1700
01:29:23,000 --> 01:29:25,920
Speaker 1: and all of that can be true, Here's here's the difference,

1701
01:29:25,920 --> 01:29:29,519
Speaker 1: and I'll make another distinction. Every word of what you

1702
01:29:29,600 --> 01:29:33,000
Speaker 1: just said can be true. But that still doesn't give

1703
01:29:33,600 --> 01:29:40,160
Speaker 1: anybody grounds to submarine a man's character falsely. I think

1704
01:29:40,320 --> 01:29:42,679
Speaker 1: that Tennessee should have never hired Greg Ciano. I maintained

1705
01:29:42,720 --> 01:29:45,000
Speaker 1: I did nothing wrong. Joe Clatt hates me forever for

1706
01:29:45,080 --> 01:29:48,320
Speaker 1: doing it. Joel, I will talk to you again soon.

1707
01:29:48,400 --> 01:29:51,760
Speaker 1: This has been the Wins and Losses podcast, and you

1708
01:29:51,840 --> 01:29:55,160
Speaker 1: just took an el and big win. Big win for

1709
01:29:55,240 --> 01:29:59,400
Speaker 1: me there, Uh, I appreciate Uh. That is Joel clad

1710
01:29:59,560 --> 01:30:02,640
Speaker 1: Go fall on Twitter and tell him how awful of

1711
01:30:02,640 --> 01:30:09,200
Speaker 1: a human being he is. At your like at Joel

1712
01:30:09,280 --> 01:30:12,200
Speaker 1: Clatt on Twitter. We'll be talking a lot during the

1713
01:30:12,200 --> 01:30:14,600
Speaker 1: college football season. I hope people enjoyed it. Thanks for

1714
01:30:14,640 --> 01:30:17,800
Speaker 1: the time, my man. We'll talk to you again soon. Absolutely,

1715
01:30:18,600 --> 01:30:20,600
Speaker 1: this has been Wins and Losses. Clay Travis. If you

1716
01:30:20,680 --> 01:30:23,280
Speaker 1: enjoy this, go give us five stars. Rate us. Tell

1717
01:30:23,400 --> 01:30:26,320
Speaker 1: Joel Klatt he took the l that he's the beer batter,

1718
01:30:26,400 --> 01:30:29,160
Speaker 1: tag him on Twitter and also, by the way, uh,

1719
01:30:29,200 --> 01:30:32,519
Speaker 1: we do want you guys to rate this podcast five stars.

1720
01:30:32,560 --> 01:30:34,880
Speaker 1: I'll read some funny ones as we continue. If you

1721
01:30:34,960 --> 01:30:36,800
Speaker 1: enjoyed this, you'll probably enjoy some of the other ones

1722
01:30:36,840 --> 01:30:39,400
Speaker 1: as well. Appreciate y'all, thanks for hanging. This has been

1723
01:30:39,400 --> 01:30:42,160
Speaker 1: Wins and Losses. I'm Clay Travis, He's Joel Clatt, and

1724
01:30:42,240 --> 01:30:44,639
Speaker 1: this is the Wins and Losses Podcast.