Clay Travis: An Idea Turned Reality
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$45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes. See details. Welcome to the Jason and the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz, and thanks for joining us because this week we're going to give some thoughts on the news. We're going to highlight the stupid because, you know, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere.

And then we're going to phone a friend. I'm really excited to talk to this guy and get to know him even a little bit better. I've talked to him on TV. I've certainly heard his voice along the way. But Clay Travis is going to join us. Clay is a really fun voice in American politics and sports and sports.

He's just great. He's just a fun, happy guy. I love being around happy people and look forward to having a discussion with Clay Travis. But first, let's talk about a little bit of stuff in the news. You know, there was that seismic shift that happened a little while ago when Kyrsten Sinema decided to say, no, I'm not going to be a Democrat. I'm going to be an independent.

And I got to tell you, for her, that's the perfect fit. First of all, I think that's exactly who she is. I think it also fits well with the state of Arizona. Arizona is one of the few states where she can probably get away with that and probably increase her popularity. She's shown that she's an independent mind. She will come around and stay firm for what she believes in.

I think she's going to be exceptionally difficult to beat because she just kind of lays it all out there. There's nothing really hidden in where Kirsten Sinema is. I disagree with her on a lot of things. She is fun to debate. I did serve with her in the United States Congress.

and enjoyed that time and that interaction with her. But boy, that was really a seismic shift that happened along the way. The other thing that's obvious, although part of the reason I bring this up is if you don't watch Fox News, if you're oblivious to Fox and you're paying no attention to Fox News,

You're not going to know that there's this explosion in social media. What's going on with Elon Musk? Elon Musk goes out and spends $44 billion to acquire Twitter. Now, Twitter...

We talk about a lot, but they get something like 90 billion impressions a day coming out of Twitter. So in terms of a media outlet, a social media outlet, albeit, they're a very important player in terms of forming opinion and impressions and communication and everything else.

I think there needs to be a balance. I think Twitter can be entertaining. It can be informative, but it's just like one of the things I look at. I don't know how much time you maybe spend there or Facebook or Instagram or whatever your Snapchat, whatever your fancy is, or maybe you don't do any of them at all, but they are an important outlet. Well, what's so critical here is that Elon Musk, who is by no means a conservative Republican, uh,

has gone in and exposed what is going on and went on with Twitter and the political bias, the suppression, the outright manipulation of data that is intended to achieve a political means for the far left is absolutely stunning.

And, you know, you have Elizabeth Warren, Senator Elizabeth Warren. You have Representative Adam Schiff. You have all these people out there railing on Elon Musk as if he's some sort of threat to democracy. What do you mean threat to democracy? The guy is opening up the books.

releasing algorithms, showing what's going on behind the scenes and exposing the suppression and the shadow banning and the political bias and the holding back of the Hunter Biden story. What are the liberals so afraid of? They're afraid of free speech. They're afraid of allowing people to communicate their opinions publicly.

And I got to tell you, hats off to Elon Musk and thank goodness for what he's doing. In addition to all the other things he's doing with Tesla and SpaceX and his artificial intelligence stuff, which is just like almost mind blowing in terms of what it's going to do. Probably one of the most consequential people, certainly of my generation, right?

But you would have none of this information if you just watch the so-called traditional old school media because they don't report on it. How could they not report on it? I mean, Donald Trump wakes up and goes to lunch with somebody and they give you every detail of everything.

He's not even the president of the United States anymore, and they just tee off on him. Meanwhile, you have something consequential like this, and they don't do anything with it. It's just absolutely unbelievable. All right, time to move on. We're going to talk, time to bring on the stupid, because you know what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere.

All right, well, we got two. One is even bigger than the other one. But I'm going to Breitbart here. This 40-year-old Florida man, you know, it always cracks me up, right, when you see Florida man right in the headline or the first paragraph. Florida man, he was arrested Thursday. The allegation is, it's hard to say, just special, kind of stupid. Tried to rob a Walmart.

The timing could not have been better for this pretty stupid act if he did it. There were 40, 40 sheriff deputies at the Walmart. It was a shop with a cop day, you know, preparing for Christmas, shop with a cop day, 40 sheriff deputies, and this guy walks in and tries to rob the Walmart. That's a special kind of stupid there in Florida. If he did it, that's the allegation.

The next one, you're going to hear this name a lot. So, you know, we hear AOC, we hear the squad, whatever. But there's a new special kind of stupid in Congressman-elect Maxwell Alejandro Frost. You might as well get used to seeing this name because this guy...

is one of the youngest members of Congress. Supposedly, they bill him as the first Gen Z to serve in Congress. I think he's 25 years old. He filled the seat in Orlando, Florida, that was Val Demings. Now, Val Demings, I actually served with in Congress. He ran against Marco Rubio. Lost.

She was the former police chief there in Orlando. I mean, she came with credentials. She was actually a pretty smart individual and somebody I did enjoy interacting with, even though I disagreed with on just about everything. But she had a degree of sophistication and knowledge and was worthy of a debate and a discussion. But this Maxwell Alejandro Frost, well, he is now serving in that seat as

And he expressed his frustrations with the rental market in Washington, D.C. He said that he left his job, worked full-time on his campaign, has no money, has no resources, and that he can't get a place to rent because his credit score is so incredibly bad that nobody will rent him a place in Washington, D.C. Now, your credit score's got to be pretty bad, and I would love to know what he thinks he did

How did he get such an incredibly low credit score? It gives you a lot of confidence that he can take on budgeting $4 trillion. And I'm fascinated to see where the Democrats put him because of his financial prowess. One of the core competencies, actually, that you have to have as a member of Congress, like understanding budgets and numbers, but obviously...

This guy has failed that in his life. The second thing is that Frost has, he earned the endorsement of Dream Defenders, and that Frost, this congressman-elect, has called for, quote, a prison and police-free society. He does not believe that there should be any prisons, nor does he believe there should be any police.

Now, what kind of world does this guy think we're living in? He obviously doesn't think you need to pay your bills on time. Now he doesn't think you need to pay rent. I'm sorry, not rent, but he doesn't need to pay the piper if you break the law. There's no police. There's no 911. What does this guy think you should actually do? Those are bringing on the stupid because, like we said, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere.

Now it's time to bring on Clay Travis. Clay has been hugely successful. Written books. He's got Outkick. He's got a huge presence on Fox. He's got his radio show. Really looking forward to talk to Clay Travis. So let's give a ring to Clay Travis. Clay Travis, how are you doing? Clay, Jason Chaffetz, thanks so much for joining us. I do appreciate it.

No, I'm excited to get rolling here. We're on an absolutely insane news cycle, it feels like, so who knows what might happen while we're talking. But it's been pretty chaotic of late, but yeah, no doubt.

Well, you're everywhere. Seriously, you've – you know, it's so funny. You always talk about like, hey, somebody's star is rising so fast. And then you look behind the scenes and they're like, man, they've been pounding the pavement for a long time getting things done. And so we see you all over Fox and OutKick. And, I mean, you're obviously on a roll. But I want to go back to little Clay, little like –

I was born in. Start back then, and I want to kind of walk through your journey because it seems like you're on a fun ride.

Yeah, look, I'm a Nashville kid born and raised in Nashville, still live here now. And as a public school kid, kindergarten through 12th grade, went away to college in D.C. at George Washington on an academic scholarship and then came back here for law school at Vanderbilt.

Um, got married, moved to the United States Caribbean, uh, where I practiced law, uh, which was, uh, an experience came back, continue to practice law a little bit, but, um, had what I would say was a quarter life crisis, uh, where I was like, man, I,

I don't really want to be a lawyer for the rest of my life. And so I started writing online about sports in 2004. And that eventually led into radio that led into TV. But we started our own site.

So I really kind of for people who remember the era of the Internet back in the early 2000s, when the idea of a blog was just kind of beginning. I was there at the at the inception of that era before social media really came in. That was the way you could get your your voice heard on the Internet. That's where I came from. Now, that was that when you were in the Virgin Islands. Is that right? That's right.

Yeah, the U.S. Virgin Islands. And I was working at the largest law firm in the Caribbean at the time. And I think they still are. I was there working for that firm for a couple of years. And then I came back. And at that point, I had started writing for CBS Sports by that time. I was getting paid $100 a week, I think, for two or three columns. Wow.

And yeah, not much. And that led into I wrote my first book book was called Dixieland Delight. Yeah. Going around to at the time there were only 12 Southeastern Conference football and conference schools. But I went around to all 12 football stadiums and wrote about that experience in a book that came out in 2000 and.

seven, I believe, if I remember correctly. I think that's right. How did you fund that? I mean, going around, that seems like just a dream, whatever. And how did you convince people like, hey, look, I'm writing a book, honest. I need some access here. Did that fly? Well, I didn't have, yeah, so it's funny. I didn't have a great deal of access. You know, I wrote it as a fan. So I was sitting in the stands. I bought tickets. I was, you know, Vanderbilt,

for law school was filled at the time with SEC grads, right? Like people who had recently left undergrad from pretty much every school in the Southeastern Conference. And so I had a lot of good friends who would help to show me around and experience the traditions with and everything else.

And so, you know, I did the whole trip. I mean, I was driving around probably for five thousand dollars or less. Right. I mean, and that might have been an exaggeration. I slept on a lot of couches. You know, I drove my car everywhere. I don't think that I flew to any of the destinations, maybe the University of Florida. I'd have to go back and check. But for the most part, I drove everywhere. And that's part of the adventure, right? I mean, that's no doubt.

You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Clay Travis right after this. This episode is brought to you by Honda. When you test drive the all-new Prologue EV, there's a lot that can impress you about it. There's the class-leading passenger space, the clean, thoughtful design, and the intuitive technology. But out of everything, what you'll really love most is that it's a Honda. Visit Honda.com slash EV to see offers.

So let's go back again. Look, you're great on television. You can speak. You can write. Where did that come from? I mean, when did you wake up and say, yeah, you know, I got something to say here? I mean, were you like six years old and mom and dad are looking at you like, wait, Clay needs the floor here for a minute? I mean, what did this kind of manifest itself?

I didn't have any idea I was good at radio and TV and to the extent that I am. I felt pretty good about my writing ability in terms of being able to write rapidly, you know, accessibly and intelligently. I tell the guys and girls that we have working at Outkick now, every article that does well on the Internet,

in my experience, needs to have four things. It needs to be smart, original, funny, and authentic. And so,

As I wrote, I looked at the data and tried to analyze what people were responding to and then continue to do more and more of that. When I started writing online in 2004, where I was writing from was sort of the irreverent, zany fan perspective that I thought was not being written about in sports. Sports media at the time...

still felt very like they treated sports very seriously. And there was somewhat of a ponderousness, I would say to the way that people wrote, um, about, uh, the, the sports experience. And so I came in talking and initially writing all about college football. That's still one of my passions and I still get to be involved in that. Um, and then that led, honestly, I would say yes, because I'm writing on the internet with no audience.

Anytime, and I always have had a public email address, but in those days, any radio show host that invited me to come on as a guest, I just said yes. It didn't matter where it was in the country. So everybody out there, I encourage, especially if you're a writer, try to get your voice out as many different ways as you can.

And that honestly, Jason, led me to realize, oh, I'm pretty good at 15 minutes at a time as a guest talking about whatever I've written about. And, you know, I'd go back and I'd listen to those interviews initially early on. And then eventually that led into some opportunities to be on television. And I would go back and watch the early day television hits, too, because, you

what I would say is what works on radio doesn't necessarily work on television and what you have to be way more concise, right? And what works on television doesn't necessarily work on radio. So you have to respect the, each medium that you're in, uh,

And learn a little bit of the intricacies is probably too complex of a word, but the subtleties maybe of what allows you to communicate well in each of those mediums and how it how it.

sort of how it works and how it all fits together. So that's how it all happened. I started as a writer. I thought I was pretty good at it. It led into radio, which eventually led into, uh, doing those radio hits led into an opportunity to host, uh, my own show, uh, and, uh, locally in Nashville for sports, um, which then led to more television and everything just kind of built on itself. And, uh, you know, I spend as much, I'm writing a book now, but, uh,

I'm trying to make sure that I don't give up writing because I think it's the most important foundational ability that anyone in media needs. But obviously, the audiences for radio and TV are just so seismic that it's an important part of getting your voice out there. Yeah, and the authenticity wins the day, doesn't it? Because

You were talking about the early days of kind of sports reporting. It always seems so scripted to me. So like a little too slick, a little too perfect, a little too well-timed out, you know, instead of just –

the people that just let it rip and i think yeah and ultimately it makes you kind of think you're right it's you've got almost like what i'd call the disney formula i remember watching uh something about disney and and they were talking about their six their formula for success and

how there was a hero, but there was a villain, that somebody was going to be scared and that somebody was going to be victorious. And, you know, it had all these elements to it. And it sounds like you've kind of got that same sort of formula that's, you know, percolated to the top over the course of time.

Yeah, look, I, I, I think to the extent that, that I try to do anything, it is have my voice sound the same, whether you're reading an article that I wrote, whether you're reading my tweets or whether you're listening to us on radio or TV, have a consistent voice. And again, I talked about some of the subtle intricacies of the different mediums. I'll give you an example. You probably experienced this when you started doing television too. Uh,

For instance, if you're sitting and having a conversation with someone and you stare directly at their eyes the entire conversation, you make that person really uncomfortable. So in normal human interaction, you avert your gaze from someone. On television, if you don't stare directly into the camera,

and you know, you look shifty and untrustworthy, right? So it's funny because you can say, well, just act natural. But some things that you do on television are unnatural relative to how you would be if you were having a face-to-face conversation. So you have, that's when I say the subtle intricacies of communication on television. The thing about radio that my wife, you know, has pointed out a lot of times is

It's a very unnatural thing to do because like she'll come up, you know, I have a home studio now. And if, you know, during, she's waiting for a commercial break or something, or she's got a question that she might want to ask.

I'm in a room by myself with no one else there talking into a microphone, and I still move my hands and gesticulate. Now we've got video feeds that are at the VIP, right? But it's just me in a room talking by myself to no one, and it's a very unnatural thing to do, but it feels completely natural.

natural once you get into the but so it's interesting you asked the question writing to me has to be foundational, but not every writer can make the transition to radio and not every radio person can make the transition to TV, which is why for me, I think the guy that I pointed to early in my career and said, Man, I want to be like this guy.

And a lot of people probably will know the name, but Tony Kornheiser, who has been on Pardon the Interruption now for 20 some odd years. When I went away to college, I would read his column in The Washington Post and he was funny. He was zany. He was irreverent. He was a really talented columnist. And then he also had a great radio show and he was very good on television. And that sort of triple threat.

platform where you can do every one of those things and you can do them well uh was somebody that i aspired to to emulate early on when i started and and began to sprinkle in radio and tv was i want to be like tony kornheiser uh and be able to do all three mediums well and uh

I like to think that I've been able to do that. Well, you've got to be pinching yourself like, hey, I can make money doing this. Because, I mean, your passion, obviously, you weren't making anything, right? Wondering if anybody actually heard what you were broadcasting or read what you were writing, right? I mean, when you literally started Zero, Jason, and that's where I started, Zero Readers.

The idea that millions of people would end up seeing and hearing and reading because we just had, I don't know, a monster audience in October in the data for OutKick. And I look back just because when we've got tens of millions of people coming into the site now, and I just remember that feeling of, man, if I could ever have 100 readers, you

a thousand readers seemed like a crazy dream, you know, idea. And then to think that we would be doing tens of millions, it really is a pinch yourself situation. Remember, you know, my grandfather's from coal country in Kentucky. He dropped out of school in eighth grade and

And so in this who I'm named after in the space of not very long to go from, you know, a great grandfather who died of black lung disease to I sit in an air conditioned house and talk into a microphone and into a television camera and make a good living doing it.

I mean, it really is, uh, sort of the American dream. And I don't take it for granted because I know that there's a lot of people, particularly radio. Uh, a lot of people use radio as an opportunity to help, you know, we did early morning radio for a long time for sports talk radio. And I know that feeling of getting up cause I did it for six years, you know, at four 15 in the morning and thinking, Oh my God, I can't believe I got to drag myself out of bed. Uh,

uh, and go do the show and you're dead tired and everything else. But then you realize, Hey, your job's not that hard. It's fun. And there's tons of people out there that are going into jobs that they hate, that they want maybe 15 minutes to, to, or from work, uh, for you to be able to make their day a little bit better. Um, and, uh,

That's why I felt an obligation even during COVID not to take off, even when there was no sports going on, because a lot of people still had their normal life. And me being on the radio and them just being able to sit down in their car or their commute and listen was a big part of normalcy for them. And I don't take that audience for granted. No, and it's an escape. This is one of the things that bugs me is that

whether it be sports or the theater or movies or whatever, entertainment in general. And then all of a sudden they've got to talk about politics. Then they've got to talk about some social issue. I'm just like, can you get the crap out of here? I don't want to think about politics. I don't want to think about some social issue where there's probably some disagreement and feel bad or something. I don't want any of that. I just want to...

you know get into it so go go back to your um your love and your passion of uh football uh for me it was more soccer i grew up playing soccer every day you know i grew up arizona california you could play you play soccer year round but where did the the football passion come into play because like you said at the beginning that was kind of your forte at the beginning

Yeah, look, I think college football in the South and there are lots of other places outside of the South that are great. So I'm not trying to take shots at the Big Ten. It's, you know, any other there is. Yeah.

But it is a passion and a lifeblood in the South. And for people who have grown up here, for much of the time, we didn't have professional sports in the South. There just weren't that many. And so people are...

even if they didn't go to college, never even thought about going to college, are intensely committed to their favorite college football team. And so I grew up starting at the age of five. Now, my grandfather played for General Neyland, who the stadium's named after at the University of Tennessee back in the 1930s, my mom's dad. And so he and my family, we've just always been big University of Tennessee fans.

And so when you start going to those games when you're five years old, it just gets into your blood. And one of the things about SEC football that's particularly unique is how many generations. It's not uncommon at all for grandpa who's 80 to be there with his son and then and then a grandson. And, you know, it's a very much of a family connection, maybe in a way that I don't see. You're doing the whole.

you know, let's get there early and do the barbecue. Oh yeah. The tailgates are amazing. You know, the girls get dressed up in sundresses. The weather tends to be really good in the SEC, particularly for much of September, October, and early November. And sometimes all the way through the whole season, sometimes late in the year, it can get cold depending on where you are. But

So it's just such the game itself, the three hour and change game itself is kind of a small part of the of the weekend and of the experience. And so that was my first book. And I just love it.

I mean, I love it now at 43, uh, as much as I did when I was, you know, eight and nine years old. And I remember being in school and it's Monday and you just think, my goodness is Friday ever going to get here. So we can leave and go up to Knoxville and, and get ready for the big Tennessee game. Um, and, uh,

I, you know, that passion really has not faded. And one of the fun things I get to do now is experience it again through the eyes of my kids. Cause I have three boys, uh, 14, 12 and eight years old. Oh, they're, they're amazing ages. And it just, there's so much fun because, um,

when you get to see sports through the eyes of those kids before they're old, you know, teenagers and really super cynical, right. As they get older or whatever, but that window of like, I would say five or six to 12 or 13 is just such an incredibly fun window, uh, to be able to experience those games with your kids and take them and see it through their eyes again. Um, and, uh, and it's just been a lot of fun. I think, uh,

as you age you get to experience it in different ways but i always say one of the great things about that i found uh about aging is your every age that you've ever been all at once um and uh so you can see the world in a different perspective i think and getting to see my boys uh it reminds me so much of that experience that i had with my own dad and my own family when i was a kid what is it uh you know sport i think

plays such a pivotal role because it can help shape somebody in a way that others who don't experience sport and look it could be dance it could be something you know athletic could be music you know but there are so many things that I think you learn through sport that you can apply in other life skills what have you had that experience like I said growing up playing soccer you learned to

be with teammates that you would never associate otherwise. You need to, you know, get along. When you don't get along, you learn the repercussions of that. All of these little things that you learn as a, as a youngster in sport, I think really like I've hired a lot of people through the years, just through my career, the people that have played sport, I'm just telling you, they know how to work hard. They know how to show up on time and,

They know how to win. They know how to lose. They know how to do a lot of things that somebody who never had those experiences just has never had that life experience.

No doubt. I think it's wildly important. And I tell my kids, and I've been saying on my radio show for a long time to the extent, you know, when I did morning radio, I tried to keep in mind that there were a lot of, you know, boys and girls riding into school, for instance, with mom and dad. You might be listening to my show as part of your morning commute. Make sure you use the ball. Don't let the ball use you. And I think that's such an important life lesson because –

No matter who you are, at some point, you take off that jersey for the last time as a member of a team. And it comes to different ages for different people. But even for, you know, the most successful among us, that tiny 0.1 percent, they're still pretty young when their athletic career ends. And so there are so many people, I think, who have talent that.

allow the ball to use them and aren't thinking of ways of applying the lessons that they're learning in sports elsewhere. And I think one of the most important is just learning how to work really hard and still lose because, you know, in life,

you are not going to win every single opportunity you go out. And learning how to work hard and fail and rebound from that failure is, I think, probably the most important lesson that any of us can take from sports. And so my own boys being involved in those events, I mean, I'm competitive like anybody else. I want to win. But knowing how to give your all, lose,

and then get right back up and go do it again um i think is really really important um and the teamwork aspect is also incredibly important because you're you're never going to be on an island no matter what you do so your ability to get along with other people

is oftentimes more important than sometimes your actual aptitude. Because I think all of us know people who are really, really talented at something, but they just can't get along with their coworkers. They just can't avoid becoming obstacles for themselves. And that creates

challenges that don't allow them to succeed to the limits of their talents. And so all of those lessons come from, I think, being involved in sports.

Yeah, you're playing a sport and then you figure out that the referee's not maybe as favorable or fair as you thought they should be. Guess what? That's going to be just like life. You got to figure out a way with a smile on your face to get around that and figure out a different way to attack the problem so that you, I mean, it's just, there's so many life lessons. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be right back.

What's the thing that bothers you about parents in sport and in this age of political correctness? Because I see some others, and maybe I'm too quick to rush to judgment or put a critical eye to it, but I'm like, please don't do that. That's just not going to be helpful to anybody. But when you look at it from your perspective, watching it like you do, what do you see out there that concerns you?

I think there is a rush to specialize and over train athletes. And what I mean by that is at some point you may decide when you're 16 or 17 or something like that. Hey, like for you, it was soccer. You know, my boys play multiple sports.

And so when it's basketball season, we're going to play basketball. And when it's football season, we're going to play football. And when it's baseball season, we're going to play baseball and soccer. You know, we've got like basically four sports going on constantly in the Travis household. But I think that's I think that's super healthy for kids. It experiences them differently.

dynamics. I see some people, you know, like, Hey, this 11 year old just going to do soccer and we're going to do soccer super intensely and no other sport is going to be pursued. I think that has the risk of burning kids out and it, you know, maybe it makes sense if your kid's going to be the next Christian Pulisic in soccer, for instance, but,

But you can tell whether your kid is like a dominant athlete kind of early, right? You know, like, and most kids aren't.

Some super swimmer that's like winning every meet, even when they're playing up out of their age bracket. That's right. Maybe buy that. But I saw this, to your point, I saw this special, this documentary on Wayne Gretzky. And, you know, his dad was really instrumental in creating the, you know, the great one in Wayne Gretzky. And he talked about, they said, you know, I just, so many parents make that mistake. They just...

Well, I played lots of sports. I liked other sports. I would go out and spend a couple hours hitting a puck into an empty net. But, you know, then I'd go out and I'd play these other sports and it helped him. Yeah. Yeah.

I think that if your kid is a really good athlete, playing multiple sports will help them develop athletic skills that translate across the medium. And then, like I said, at some point when you decide, hey, this is my focus and you get to be whatever age that might be, 16, 17 years old, and the kid says, hey –

I love this. I really want to go do this. That to me can make some sense, but I think there's a rush to specialization that I don't know is going to benefit the kid the most. And then the other thing I would say is, man, some of this stuff is just so expensive, right? I hear so many – there was a study recently that came out, and I was like, yeah, of course. You hear so many parents say, well, we're just trying to get them a –

a college scholarship, right? Like that's a big talking point for, uh, for parents out there.

And then you go look at the dollars that they've spent on travel soccer or whatever it is, travel baseball. And you're like, well, you spent more money than the college tuition would have cost. If you just let them play for their local school and put all the money that you've spent on travel into a college fund, regardless of whether they get a scholarship or not, you've paid for college with the travel. Yeah.

So I just think a lot of times the decisions that are being made are not necessarily rational. Yeah. And I worry, and I worry, by the way, sorry to cut you off, but I worry about kids who don't have access to those. Like as we continue to drive up the cost of specializing sports, kids who are talented, but whose parents don't have access to those resources. I just, I hate to think that we're leaving kids behind because ultimately we

What sports does, especially I think for boys, young boys, is it keeps them out of being knuckleheads, right?

Yep.

And the coaching obviously is a huge part of that because there's a lot of father figures in terms of the coaches, but that that is going to be an opportunity to allow them to be more successful in life than they would have if they hadn't played sports, which is where you use the ball. Don't let the ball use you as kind of the life lesson has come for me.

No, I think you're absolutely right. I look at the obstacle course that you traverse as a teenager and the confusion and the hormones and everything else that's raging through your body and

And I credit my love and passion and participation in sport as one that just flat out kept me out of trouble. I mean, hey, we had an 8 a.m. game on Saturday morning. Guess what? I needed to be home and, you know, in bed at a decent time on a Friday night. I probably could have gotten myself in a lot of trouble doing otherwise. No doubt.

I don't know if you know this, but I actually kicked footballs at Brigham Young University back in the day. Oh, that's awesome. No, I had no idea. Yeah, no, I, you know, there's a reason why it's called football. It's the most important position on the field, of course, being the place kicker. We'll talk about that another time.

Clay, I want to ask you some rapid questions, just a way to get to know you a little bit better. So I don't care how many columns you've written. I don't know that you're properly prepared for my rapid questions. You okay with this? Let's do it. Fire away. All right, good. First concert you ever attended? Paula Abdul and Color Me Bad at Starwood Amphitheater in Nashville, Tennessee. I think I was probably either in fifth or sixth grade. My dad took me and a friend.

Yeah, what a proud moment. That's good. That's good. That's great. What was your high school mascot? We were the Royals, which is a weird, weird mascot. But like there was a lion, you know, that was that was involved as like the idea of royalty. So I went. Well, there's a lot of lions in Tennessee. I understand that. Yeah. Yeah. I went to Martin Luther King Magnet High School. It was an academic program.

public school and we were the MLK Royals. No. Okay, good. All right. Uh, who was your first celebrity crush? Oh, this is embarrassing now, given how much she is like kind of spiraled out of control, but I think it was Alyssa Milano on, uh, who's the boss. I can understand that, but yes, in context with, yeah, where things ended up going, but yeah. All right. That I understand that. By the way, this is also funny. I would say Jason,

There's probably a decent chance she knows that I exist because she's hyper, you know, active politically on social media. And certainly I am as well. And so but she hates me if she knows that I exist. So she does. I have no doubt about that.

no doubt about that but yeah so i think that's funny like most people never meet their i've never met her most people never meet their kid crush or whatever but to to have the decent chance that your kid crush legitimately hates you uh is uh is kind of unexpected right so i'll take that as a as a victory of some sorts yeah i had this um great meeting once i was in congress and uh

And I thought, yeah, you know, Debra Messing, she's pretty cute. And then I figured out her politics and I actually met her. She was there going to meet with Nancy Pelosi and I was like,

like oh my gosh this is awful she's oh that's amazing yeah yeah yeah but it was kind of funny not my that's funny i've gotten to meet not my crushes but because of sports a lot of the guys that i grew up as sports idols of uh and sometimes work with those guys which is uh which is definitely like a you know crazy moment when you're sitting at a table next to eric dickerson or uh

or Pete Rose or someone like that. And you're like, Oh my, I can't believe like we're colleagues, you know, uh, in any way. Yeah.

Yeah, no, I was very nice. I held the door open. She got in the elevator and I just wanted to blurt out, you know, you hate my guts, right? Like, and I'm pretty sure she actually knew who I was. But I wanted to just instantly pull up that tweet and say, you know, you said some really nasty things about me. Yeah, but I didn't. You know, the elevator ride wasn't that that fast. So anyway, what's your superpower?

Like everybody's got a superpower. Hey, I can do this really well. Yeah. What's a, what's a clay Travis superpower for what we do? I am almost impossible to offend. And I think that is, uh, and, and,

This is what my wife would say is my superpower is that, you know, if 10 people say something awful about me and one person says something nice, I remember the nice thing and immediately forget all the bad. And for what we do, I think that's that's incredibly important, like because.

I think a lot of people marinate in the negativity of what people say. I think that's a lot of human nature for whatever reason, I don't have that capacity. And I think it's why, you know, I'm perfectly comfortable. Uh, my wife also says the benefit of having three hours a day of radio is I basically get to have public

have public therapy. So I say exactly what I think. And then at the end of the day, I have no weight on my shoulders because it's like, okay, everybody knows what I think. And, uh, and so I, but I would say the ability to, uh, to remember the positive and almost immediately forget the negative in terms of a reaction. Now that, that, that helps life and you're just sanity in general. Two more questions really quick. Pineapple on pizza. Yes or no.

I've done it. I would not order it. I try to try as many different things because I don't know if I would love it if I didn't try it. But I've done it, but I would not order it. Yeah. It should be illegal in the continental United States. I understand Hawaii, but not here. Very last question. Best advice you ever got? Oh, man. I don't remember who told me this, but...

I think always look up and down. Um, and, and what I mean by that is I think very often and very early in American life, we are teaching kids, Hey, aspire. You want to grab that? You want to make sure that you can attain that. Um,

Um, but a lot of times you forget no matter where you are on, let's say the income level, uh, there are a lot of people who are not on your level.

And that can be if you're super poor or if you're super rich. And so be aware of, you know, I talk to the masses every day, right? A large population, whether it's a neurosurgeon or the janitor, I think try to be aware of the perspectives with which everyone is coming to and from. And I try to start off my day every moment

When I wake up for at least a minute as I'm laying there in bed, I try to just think of all the things that I'm grateful for. And I try to do that right before I go to bed at night as well. And so I think gratitude is probably the most important emotion that we have. And I think it's one that we tend to not acknowledge often.

very often. And so I try to do that both in the morning and the evening in the context of being aware of how much good fortune I have. Uh, and I've been doing that for, uh, you know, 20,

five plus years, uh, uh, as a way to start my day and finish my day. No, it's great advice. You know, a dose of humility and humbleness and, and, uh, being grateful, even though you may be going through a difficult time. And I think that's, uh, that's a healthy human attributes. And, uh,

Clay Travis, thanks. Congratulations on all your success. It really is fun to listen to you and watch you and see you. And I appreciate you joining us on the Jason and the House podcast. Really do. Well, you're fantastically successful in a lot of different fields as well. Enjoy being on television with you and appreciate you having me on the podcast today. Hope everybody enjoys it. Thanks, Clay. Can't thank Clay enough. He's a good, fun, authentic voice in America.

tackling every issue and just seems like a great guy. Really appreciate Clay joining us. Please would love it if you would rate this, if you would like it, if you would subscribe to it. We have a lot of good guests that come through the doors here and really do appreciate their time and hope you've enjoyed it. I also want to remind you that you can listen ad-free with a Fox News Podcast Plus subscription on Apple Podcasts.

And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music. Thanks again for listening to Jason in the House. You can go over to foxnewspodcast.com, find out some other really cool Fox podcasts, and hope you're able to join us next week. I'm Jason Chaffetz, and this has been Jason in the House.

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