Clay Travis political commentator

[OrangeBeachVol]

Just logged in and have Fox News on and there was Clay giving political commentary on the mid-term elections. WTF. How did this happen? Last I saw of him he was on SECNW talking sports.

 

[EasternVol]

Just logged in and have Fox News on and there was Clay giving political commentary on the mid-term elections. WTF. How did this happen? Last I saw of him he was on SECNW talking sports.

He gives every indication of wanting a political career. I'd say he expects to be Governor before long.

 

[TheDeeble]

Just logged in and have Fox News on and there was Clay giving political commentary on the mid-term elections. WTF. How did this happen? Last I saw of him he was on SECNW talking sports.

He and Buck Sexton filled in the Limbaugh slot after he died. He's been active in politics for a while now.

 

[volbound1700]

Yeah, he got really into politics when COVID-19 broke out in 2020 because he was against the lockdowns. His shows slowly morphed (along with Outkick the Coverage) into talking 90% sports to 90% politics.

He then jumped in to take over the Limbaugh spot. He is Pro-Trump and seems to be heavy on Libertarian side.

 

[hog88]

He gives every indication of wanting a political career. I'd say he expects to be Governor before long.

Travis is too smart to actually run for office.

 

[EasternVol]

Travis is too smart to actually run for office.

Maybe, but he's never struck me as all that smart. Smarter than his target audience, sure.

 

[volbound1700]

Travis is too smart to actually run for office.

He plans on running at some point based on communications. It isn't about being "smart" it is about "hubris" that drives most of these people to run. They think they can change the world only to find out that our system is too complex to make much of a difference.

 

[EasternVol]

He plans on running at some point based on communications. It isn't about being "smart" it is about "hubris" that drives most of these people to run. They think they can change the world only to find out that our system is too complex to make much of a difference.

Or they see the profit potential in political office

 

[05_never_again]

Just logged in and have Fox News on and there was Clay giving political commentary on the mid-term elections. WTF. How did this happen? Last I saw of him he was on SECNW talking sports.

He's long known that there was a market for a right-wing sports commentator and he filled it, especially starting a few years ago. Then ever since he and Buck Sexton took Rush's time slot, his commentary is now 99% politics. He doesn't talk about anything sports-related anymore that doesn't have an obvious political bent.

In other words, he's become what he claimed to dislike when left-wingers did it.

 

[volbound1700]

Or they see the profit potential in political office

True but profit is always tied to benefits they can give to another business. In the case of Clay Travis, his best benefit would be boost for his company (Outkick the Coverage) due to publicity. However, it is probably minimal. Trust me, it is ego that drives him.

However, there are politicians that get benefit to their business. One group that I am always skeptical of that tends to make up a lot of local office candidates are Real Estate Agents. They definitely leverage their political position to support Real Estate purchases.

 

[BreatheUT]

Just logged in and have Fox News on and there was Clay giving political commentary on the mid-term elections. WTF. How did this happen? Last I saw of him he was on SECNW talking sports.

There is a relationship between Fox and Outkick. Clay has always chimed in on a variety of topics.

 

[BreatheUT]

Maybe, but he's never struck me as all that smart. Smarter than his target audience, sure.

Maybe that's why he's a self made millionaire. Just a guess.

 

[05_never_again]

True but profit is always tied to benefits they can give to another business. In the case of Clay Travis, his best benefit would be boost for his company (Outkick the Coverage) due to publicity. However, it is probably minimal. Trust me, it is ego that drives him.

However, there are politicians that get benefit to their business. One group that I am always skeptical of that tends to make up a lot of local office candidates are Real Estate Agents. They definitely leverage their political position to support Real Estate purchases.

Yep. Agents and developers.

In small and large cities alike, if you take a look at who the mayor is, city council members, etc., almost all of them have real estate ties personally or close affiliations with people who do. Most of it boils down to zoning; that's something local governments have direct control over.

 

[volbound1700]

There is a relationship between Fox and Outkick. Clay has always chimed in on a variety of topics.

Clay moved to Fox back in 2019 or so for Sports and then switched to Politics with time. I definitely keep up somewhat. He has grown his career from being local sports talk in Nashville to a National Brand. Give him kudos for that.

He also fills in that niche of Anti-ESPN commentators. Along with his COVID-19 discussions, he also made a name for attacking ESPN's woke articles.

 

[n_huffhines]

Just logged in and have Fox News on and there was Clay giving political commentary on the mid-term elections. WTF. How did this happen? Last I saw of him he was on SECNW talking sports.

It's because he billed himself as the no-politics-in-sports guy until he found out his audience doesn't actually want politics out of sports, they just want left politics out of sports. So then he became the identity politics sports guy. Now his transition is fully complete into politics guy.

 

[volbound1700]

Yep. Agents and developers.

In small and large cities alike, if you take a look at who the mayor is, city council members, etc., almost all of them have real estate ties personally or close affiliations with people who do. Most of it boils down to zoning; that's something local governments have direct control over.

Exactly!!! To win a National position, you really need to have money to start with so a lot of the members of Congress are already loaded. They definitely get some advantages with their knowledge of the SEC/Stock Market situation as well as sometimes getting bribes or donations.

The key thing that hurts politics is Politicians require money to win which opens the door to appealing to big interest to get these donations. I have worked on campaigns in the past as Treasurer so I see the challenges in the space.

I will say that most Politicians typically enter the space with "good intentions" and get more corrupted by the space. That is far more common than a politician entering it to make it rich. It is very hard to win elections and takes a lot of time (door knocking, going to functions) and money. It is actually a miserable life style. It is also winner take all so if you lose, you are screwed and come out with nothing.

 

[BreatheUT]

Clay moved to Fox back in 2019 or so for Sports and then switched to Politics with time. I definitely keep up somewhat. He has grown his career from being local sports talk in Nashville to a National Brand. Give him kudos for that.

He also fills in that niche of Anti-ESPN commentators. Along with his COVID-19 discussions, he also made a name for attacking ESPN's woke articles.

Clay has always been somewhat cringeworthy with some of his comments dating back to 104.5 the zone. Then when he left you realized how much he was missed. It has not been the same. Personally, I don't even listen anymore eventhough they added pro UT hosts. It became boring.

 

[05_never_again]

It's because he billed himself as the no-politics-in-sports guy until he found out his audience doesn't actually want politics out of sports, they just want left politics out of sports. So then he became the identity politics sports guy. Now his transition is fully complete into politics guy.

99% of people who say "Keep politics out of sports" actually mean "Keep politics I disagree with out of sports."

 

[n_huffhines]

99% of people who say "Keep politics out of _______" actually mean "Keep politics I disagree with out of _______."

fyp

 

[05_never_again]

Clay has always been somewhat cringeworthy with some of his comments dating back to 104.5 the zone. Then when he left you realized how much he was missed. It has not been the same. Personally, I don't even listen anymore eventhough they added pro UT hosts. It became boring.

You could always tell he was ultimately meant for a bigger stage than 104.5 The Zone, and I don't necessarily mean that as a compliment. He had too much of an interest in things that occurred outside of Nashville/the State of Tennessee. I think Clay is actually very smart, but you don't necessarily pick that up by listening to him because he's great at the lowest common denominator-type stuff that riles people up.

 

[BreatheUT]

You could always tell he was ultimately meant for a bigger stage than 104.5 The Zone, and I don't necessarily mean that as a compliment. He had too much of an interest in things that occurred outside of Nashville/the State of Tennessee. I think Clay is actually very smart, but you don't necessarily pick that up by listening to him because he's great at the lowest common denominator-type stuff that riles people up.

I just think he had that extra something that big time hosts all have.

 

[volbound1700]

Clay has always been somewhat cringeworthy with some of his comments dating back to 104.5 the zone. Then when he left you realized how much he was missed. It has not been the same. Personally, I don't even listen anymore eventhough they added pro UT hosts. It became boring.

I agree. I always thought he was a "Troll" when it came to sports. He has changed since he got into politics and his topics are always more serious now, even when he discusses sports. I think he has a chip on his shoulder with ESPN as his political attacks tend to revolve around COVID-19 (Corona Bros as he calls them) or Woke (specially focused more on ESPN's wokeness).

I do find his appearance on CNN with the "Boobs and First Amendment" comment to be hilarious. That was trolling at its finest.

I actually have kept up with him less since he got into Politics. He always hinted at it in the past with his comments about being a "Gay Muslim" and initially seemed to be more liberal but now he is a massive Trump supporter.

 

[n_huffhines]

I'm pretty sure he didn't even have a top 50 sports podcast when he got the latest Fox deal. Not being a very popular sports personality is a weird way to advance your career, but politics isn't a normal career, so it was a smart pivot.

 

[volbound1700]

I'm pretty sure he didn't even have a top 50 sports podcast when he got the latest Fox deal. Not being a very popular sports personality is a weird way to advance your career, but politics isn't a normal career, so it was a smart pivot.

He was more popular than you think because he was showing the numbers all of the time and bragging about it when comparing to ESPN when it came to growth. Fox knew what they were doing. When it came to the SEC region, the only show that was stronger was likely Finebaum.

 

[DonjoVol]

I used to follow his show but the majority of his content does seem political. He is very knowledgeable when it comes to sports though but he's decided politics is more his focus.

Whitlock is almost the same way. However he talks about sports and more cultural issues on his show and not really political issues as much. Whitlock has some great guests on his show and I prefer his show over Clay's show.