From Allen
Read the story on the TFP website about Clay Travis running against Corker for senate.
I listened to your show and to Clay’s – you guys are both very entertaining – and wonder if you think he could win in a political race like that.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
Allen –
In short, no way.
No way could he raise enough money or get enough mainstream support to win a U.S. Senate race.
But, if he wanted to run someone’s campaign, someone should give him a serious look.
Travis has really scripted an unbelievable path of self-promotion on almost every level and risen to a national platform by doing it.
He in some ways is a southern Bill Simmons, using college football, a strong anti-ESPN stance and political issues the way Simmons used the NBA, a hatred of the Yankees and movie quotes to rise from a website to a personal sports media empire in a lot of ways.
He deserves a lot of credit for the path and the courage to follow it despite the unknowns.
As for winning a seat in the Senate, no, we can’t see any way that happens.
But if you had asked us seven years ago if the guy who wrote on his own website, cussed a lot and was best known for asking Tim Tebow if he was a virgin would have a national morning sports radio show, we would have said no to that too.
Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Jeremy Maclin (18) runs in a touchdown against Cincinnati Bengals cornerback William Jackson (22) in the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Gary Landers) NFL picks
OK, we were one game better last week. If we improve at that rate, we’ll be back and better than ever soon.
(Side note: For a lot of us, the “back and better than ever” tag will be forever linked to Mike & Mike, which is ending its 18-year run a couple of months. Did anyone else see Trey Wingo on with the Mikes earlier this week? It was awkward. Like new spouse, ex-spouse and you all at the same party and converging at the snacks at the same time. The chemistry between Mike & Mike has been strained for a while, but you bring in the third wheel, and well, let’s just say it was flat.)
On to the picks, and as a caveat, you will notice that all of the lines are on same number. (We get the lines for our NFL picks on Friday mornings from vegasinsider.com. We get the lines for our college picks Thursday morning from the same site.)
The NFL lines are frequently right there on the football-friendly numbers of 3, 6, 7, 10 and 14.
We always recommend buying the half – a betting decision to get an extra half-point toward your side with the price being double the juice if you lose. (Juice is 10 percent of a losing bet that goes to the house because the house is the house and more times than not the house wins.)
Baltimore minus-3 over Jacksonville. Both teams will be sluggish, this game is in London after all. (Side question: The London thing is kind of stupid right? How can we really believe player safety arguments and seriousness when they play of four days rest and travel around the globe for a 9:30 Eastern kick and tons of jet lag?) Still, the Ravens defense is legit. Like really good. The Jags offense? Well, not so much. Blake Bortles stinks. We know this. He has completed 56.4 of his passes for less than 175 yards per game with two TDs and two picks in two games. We may go against Bortles for a while and see where that leads.
Atlanta minus-3 over Detroit. Detroit is 2-0 and has generated a lot of “are the Lions the best NFC North team” talk this week. Maybe they are. But Atlanta is the best team in the NFC, and there’s a pretty big gap there, considering what the Falcons did to the Packers and Bears already.
Denver minus-3 over Buffalo. Another field goal game in which the road team is favored. Like the previous one, the road team should be favored by way more. Denver just crippled a Dallas offense that has better pieces and parts than these Bills. Unless Trevor Siemian remembers he’s Trevor Siemian, this is a three-score win for Denver.
Oakland minus-3 over Washington. Again, Vegas being Vegas, daring us with home underdogs. We’re not biting. Not when this Raiders team has as good an offensive collection 1-through-11 as any team in the league.
Monday night bonus: Dallas minus-3 over Arizona. Hey, why not get off the slide with a 5-0 week capped with a Monday night win. Dallas is hot about last week’s pantsing against Denver. Arizona with David Johnson lost to Detroit and needed a Tyrian Mathieu miracle to escape the woeful Colts. As with all of these buy the half, but here’s betting you will be able to turn this one off before the fourth quarter.
Last week: 2-2 against the spread (50 percent)
This season: 3-5 against the spread (37.5 percent)
Fat Vader
How about a little T/F Wednesday (it’s a thing, right?): the two sides will agree to standing for the national anthem in exchange for independent discipline committee.
T/F: The inevitable strike will carry over into the regular season of 2021.
FV –
Sure that’s a thing. Even on a Friday.
We will take the second part first.
True. We firmly believe unless there is some shocking revelation between then and now – or the ratings continue to slide at an even greater scale, meaning the owners know they can’t afford a stoppage – it will affect the NFL regular season.
And as Paschall noted on Press Row this week, that means Washington will win the 2021 Super Bowl, since it did the previous two seasons in which the strike/lock outs cost us games.
We are quite intrigued with the quid pro quo that will be the cash-heavy, ratings-mindful NFL negotiations on the horizon.
We will get an early precursor to the NFL’s stance on the national anthem in how they react to the players’ request in August to have November as NFL social activism month.
The NFL allowing that, unconditionally would open up a box so big it would be unreal. Heck, Sammy Watkins may have the Awareness March for people who believe the Earth is flat.
And that’s the hardest thing about that. If the NFL says yes to the request, how are they going to classify which social causes are important enough to get the OK and which ones are not. If the NFL says no, it likely will be spun to make the NFL look like they are anti-equality, which is not a good look.
This has been made such a big issue now, not sure the players can even use it as a bargaining chip for anything, even something they want so desperately as an independent review committee.
Because, we reference the lose-lose place of the league in terms of the request for a social activism month and the optics and public opinion of saying no.
Well, if the players union trades the right to protest for anything – money, bigger rosters, fewer preseason games, an independent review committee – a fair conclusion there is the protest was as much about the leverage in negotiations as it was whatever issue the players claimed.
That’s not a real good optic either, you know?
UTC kicker Victor Ulmo celebrates his first field goal. The University of Chattanooga Mocs met the Jacksonville State Gamecocks in the Guardian Credit Union FCS Kickoff at the Carmton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama on August 26, 2017. From JMC
Also, for Friday’s Mailbag, I completely understand the Butch Jones issue taking center stage for obvious reasons but is there a reason why Mocs coverage this week is almost non-existant? I know that reads like a Captain Obvious question but given the playmaking against a team we should have easily beaten where there was NO tackling or NO pass protection for the QB, I can’t help but think there are some serious inner problems. I don’t want to imagine a second coming of Rodney but what is going on?
JMC –
Thanks for the question.
Can’t speak for other venues, but we had Coach Arth on the radio show Monday. Maybe we have not done a deep dive into UTC’s 0-3 start around these parts, but there were several folks who believed this was a real possibility. (Tip of the visor to Stewwie here. Dude nailed the reality of this start back in August.)
If Tom Arth is not a success it will completely and totally stun me. Stun me. In a way that it’s hard to think of a time my early impression of a new head coach was that wrong. Seriously.
Let’s review and it’s pretty clear why the struggles are here.
New staff. New 3-4 defense. Young offensive line. Suspensions to your best offensive and defensive players, each of who are viewed to be as good as anyone in the conference on that side of the ball.
Take two of those, heck maybe even three of those, and maybe 0-3 would be a bigger concern. Add all five and, well, here we are.
If that sounds like excuses, well, maybe so. And know this: A loss this weekend would mean some real issues about the now.
As for Arth, we have no worries about UTC’s future.
Rushmore of Bill Murray characters: Carl Spackler, Dr. Peter Venkman, John Winger and Ernie McCracken. This is offered with much respect to his turns in the Royal Tenenbaums and his two spins as himself in Space Jam and Zombieland.
Rushmore of all-time NBA: Red, MJ, George Mikan, David Stern. Man, this is a tough one. There’s a hard argument for more players such as Bird, Magic, LeBron, Wilt and Russell. There’s also the great innovators – like Danny Biasone who implemented the 24-second shot clock – and so many others. You could also make an argument for the Nike swoosh being there.
Rushmore of medical/doctor TV shows: M*A*S*H, ER, St. Elsewhere, House (but that’s leaving several on the outside looking in, including one of the Mrs. 5-at-10’s fags Grey’s Anatomy)
Rushmore of athlete cameos in movies: Kareem in Airplane, Tyson in The Hangover, Favre in Something About Mary, LeBron in Trainwreck.
On this day in 1692, the last eight people were hanged in the Salem witch trials. There were 20 overall.
On this day in 1888 the first issue of National Geographic was published. Man, try to explain to future generations about how a lot of us used to sneak peaks at the photos of breasts back in the day. Now, boobs are everywhere. (Even CNN.)
Tommy Lasorda is 90 today. Here’s betting he celebrates with a bowl of pasta. And a nap.
Nathan Hale died on this day in 1776. Yes, he has one of the all-time quotes in “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country” after he was caught by the British and before he was hanged. Man, lots of hangings in today’s 5-at-10. Side question: The game “Hangman” underrated, overrated or properly rated?
Yogi Berra died on this day two years ago. There are too many Yogi quotes to even name.
On this day in 1970 a little show called Monday Night Football debuted with Howard Cosell, Keith Jackson and Don Meredith. Gang, in the world of sports on TV, that is the Godfather of them all.
Think of the trends it set and trails it blazed. Sports in prime time. A colorful former player/coach in Dandy Don. The opinionated media star in Cosell. The highlights at halftime.
And this week’s response certainly not from my family.
God you are an $%^. Did I hear you say you are against the nets and safety after that little girl was hurt?
Do you even believe half the crap you say?
Good talk.
And while we normally don’t answer these per se, we wanted to give at least a little context.
No we are not against nets or safety. And no one wants little kids to get hit with line drives.
But in truth, what we said was, that the overreaction and hand-wringing because one foul ball per 10,000 gets noticed like this is over the top. And then to start regulating and legislating because of the super, Super, SUPER small sample sizes seems ridiculous to me.
And listening to some of the talking heads preaching about the need for the nets, well, it’s pretty dog gone easy to take a pro-safety stance. (Even easier is to take a pro-Safety Dance, but that’s a different story altogether.)
That said, yes, we believe almost all of the things we say.
Good talk.