Clay Travis Sports Gossip Queen

Clay Travis

There has been a lot of twitter chatter the last week or so over Clay Travis' new website "Outkicking the Coverage." If you don't know Clay Travis he is a Tennessee sports guy who does a radio show on sports in the south, mainly Tennessee related.  He also wrote a couple books about Tennessee football. I can't call Clay a reporter because he doesn't actually report any news; you can't call him just a smart-ass like me because not all his stuff is funny. He is a new breed of  blogger/reporter/smart-ass/homer that has been created by the interwebs.

As you all know I am very positive on bloggers, seeing as though I am one and all. I think it's great that anyone can now express their opinions and ideas and have them read by the masses.  If people like what you have to say it will catch on and you will be a hit, if they don't then it will fizzle. Blogging has made reporting on sports a capitalistic venture that anyone can get involved in. The problem is when you have guys like Clay Travis or Brooks from Sports by Brooks. These guys are actually making their living off blogging about college sports. When you are making your living off the site then you have to have site hits. It becomes not about sharing cool or interesting thoughts about sports, it's about writing something that will draw folks in.


Clay has been doing a series of stories on Alabama and whether Alabama players committed some NCAA violations. There are some photos of them signing jerseys and memorabilia for a Tuscaloosa clothing store owner. I will rag on other schools when I see something like this, so I really have no room to complain that a Tennessee guy is having a field day with these photos. I do have a problem when folks don't tell the truth, don't do any research, and play pretend dress up reporter. Clay isn't doing the digging like a reporter, he is just trolling message boards and posting innuendo.

For instance, Travis posted a photo the other day of a kiosk selling Alabama jerseys signed by the players. Travis said here is proof the players knew their jerseys were for sale because this is in the same mall as the store they signed them at, in Tuscaloosa. The problem is the picture was from Birmingham and not the mall the players signed them at. The funny part is Clay Travis was at the Birmingham mall where the picture was taken the week before he said it was a picture of a mall in Tuscaloosa. He was at the Birmingham mall for SEC media days. Travis knew what he was doing, it wasn't about being accurate, it was about saying whatever he had to to get folks to his website. See Travis blatantly lie to get hits here. Clay Travis and Sports By Brooks don't add anything, it's not funny, it's not smart and insightful, it's not news. Clay Travis is the News of the World of the sports world. In it to make a buck.

Or take the other day when Travis said "How does a young black guy like Julio Jones afford all those suits?" Wait ... what? So Julio being black somehow comes into play on whether he can afford clothing? Travis seems to be a reasonably intelligent person, he must have known that comment would start a bunch of mess.  Of course he knew it, he knew it would cause controversy and draw people to check his site. Being a little bit racist to get site hits, new low.

I am sure there are places in my blog where I have strayed from accuracy. But not on purpose and not to get hits.  I also fully admit I am just a funny smart-ass out to make folks laugh, while occasionally throwing a penalty flag when someone is a huge d-bag. Hey Clay, you're a huge d-bag.

Not trying to out kick anything, just trying to have fun.



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