Richard Clay Travis (born April 6, 1979) is an American sports journalist, writer, television analyst, and the morning radio show host for nationwide Fox Sports Radio from 6-9 am et. Travis used to work as an analyst on Fox Sports 1's college football pre-game show and their weekly SEC football show. In September 2017, Politico described Travis as a "darling of the alt-right" due to his increasingly controversial political statements.
Video Clay Travis
Early life
Travis was born on April 6, 1979, in Nashville, Tennessee and graduated from Martin Luther King Magnet at Pearl High School in 1997. He graduated from George Washington University in 2001, majoring in history, as well as working as a student basketball manager. He then attended the Vanderbilt University Law School and graduated in 2004.
Maps Clay Travis
Career
Travis originally worked as a lawyer in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Tennessee. He attracted media attention in late 2004 with his personal blog written while he was living in the U.S. Virgin Islands. A Tennessee Titans fan, Travis was unable to get NFL Sunday Ticket, the satellite TV package to watch NFL games in the islands, and went on a "pudding strike", eating only pudding every day for 50 days, with the goal of forcing DirecTV to carry the package in the Virgin Islands. The effort failed, but he blogged about the experience and received media attention.
Travis began writing online for CBS Sports in September 2005, which for the first year was not paid. In 2006, Travis finally gave up his law practice for good. Later, while writing for CBS, Travis began working on a book, Dixieland Delight, where he visited all 12 stadiums in college football's Southeastern Conference. After leaving CBS, Travis became a writer and editor at Deadspin, and then a national columnist at FanHouse.
Outkick the Coverage
After FanHouse was merged into Sporting News in 2011, Travis founded Outkickthecoverage.com. The website later became one of the most visited college football sites on the web. While there, he continued developing his reputation for occasionally "contrarian" opinions.
In 2008, Travis worked out at D1 Sports Training with NFL prospects preparing for the NFL Draft. He later wrote a ten-part serial about the experience which he entitled Rough Draft.
In 2010, Nashville Scene named Travis "Best Sports Radio Host We Love To Hate" in the publication's "Best of Nashville" issue. He later became a co-host of a sports radio talk show, 3HL, on Nashville's 104.5 The Zone with Brent Dougherty and Blaine Bishop. He also hosted a national sports radio show on NBC Sports.
Fox Sports
In 2014, Travis resigned from his role on 3HL and was hired by Fox Sports for its weekly college football Saturday pre-game show. In 2015, he signed a deal with Fox Sports to license his entire sports media brand under Fox Sports, including his website Outkick the Coverage, which was folded into Fox Sports' website. He also started a national weekly television show, started a daily Outkick the Show broadcast on Periscope and Facebook, and began a national radio show with Fox Sports Radio in 2016.
Travis was called out by DeMarcus Cousins for an erroneous prediction he had made five years earlier that Cousins would be arrested. In response, Travis offered to donate to a charity of Cousins' choosing.
Controversies
Vanderbilt Confederate Memorial Hall
In August 2016, Travis criticized his alma mater, Vanderbilt University, for planning to remove the word "Confederate" for its historic Confederate Memorial Hall. Consequently, Travis lost a US$3,000 promotion deal he had with Jack Daniel's.
CNN "boobs" comment
On September 15, 2017 while appearing as a guest on CNN with anchor Brooke Baldwin, Travis received criticism for remarking on "boobs" during a discussion on racism and sexism, saying he believes "in two things, the First Amendment and boobs." Baldwin cut the interview short and later responded, "when I first heard 'boobs' from a grown man on national television (in 2017!!!) my initial thought bubble was: 'Did I hear that correctly??..."
On multiple occasions, Travis had stated the same sentiment on his web site.
Politics
A self described "radical moderate" who is pro-choice and against the death penalty, Travis claims to have voted for former President Barack Obama twice and never voted Republican.
As an undergrad, Travis interned for U.S. Representative Bob Clement for four years while in college at George Washington University. In 2000, he worked on Al Gore's presidential campaign. Travis was hired to work on U.S. Representative Jim Cooper's 2002 congressional campaign but was fired for wrecking Coopers's wife's care.
On September 20, 2017, Travis announced he was considering running as an Independent for U.S. Senator of Tennessee in the 2018 election if incumbent Bob Corker decided not to run. Travis also stated that he believed with his name recognition he "could beat anyone in the state" and would make both major parties "incredibly nervous." The following week, Senator Corker announced he would not be running for re-election.
Personal life
Travis' wife, Lara, is a former Tennessee Titans cheerleader. They have three sons together.
- Dixieland Delight: A Football Season on the Road in the Southeastern Conference. HarperCollins, Inc. 2007. ISBN 0-06-143124-9.
- Man: The Book. Citadel. 2008. ISBN 0-8065-2871-0.
- On Rocky Top: A Front-Row Seat to the End of an Era. HarperCollins, Inc. 2009. ISBN 0-06-171926-9.
- Republicans Buy Sneakers Too: How the Left Is Ruining Sports with Politics. Broadside Books. 2018. ISBN 0062878530.
References
External links
- ClayTravis.net
- Biography at Sportsline.com
Source of article : Wikipedia
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