Clay Travis | |
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 Travis in 2020 | |
| Born | Richard Clay Travis (1979-04-06)April 6, 1979 (age 46) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Education | George Washington University (BA) Vanderbilt University (JD) |
| Occupation(s) | Political commentator Sports journalist Writer Radio host |
| Years active | 2005–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
Richard Clay Travis (born April 6, 1979) is an Americanwriter,lawyer, radio host and television analyst, and founder ofOutKick.
As a political commentator, he andBuck Sexton hostThe Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, a three-hour weekdayconservative talk show which debuted on June 21, 2021 as the replacement ofThe Rush Limbaugh Show on manyradio stations.[1] Travis was a lifelongDemocrat voter before theelection of Donald Trump in 2016.[2]
In 1997, Travis graduated fromMartin Luther King Magnet at Pearl High School inNashville.[3] He graduated fromGeorge Washington University inWashington, D.C., followed byVanderbilt University Law School in Nashville.[4]
Travis originally worked as a lawyer in theU.S. Virgin Islands and Tennessee.[5] He attracted media attention in late 2004 with his personal blog written while he was living in the U.S. Virgin Islands and working for Dudley, Topper and Feuerzeig.[6] ATennessee Titans fan, Travis was unable to getNFL Sunday Ticket, the satellite TV package to watchNFL games in the islands, and went on a "pudding strike", eating only pudding every day for 50 days, with the goal of forcingDirecTV to carry the package in the Virgin Islands.[7] The effort failed, but he blogged about the experience and received media attention.[8]
Travis began writing online forCBS Sports in September 2005, which for the first year was not paid.[9] In 2006, Travis gave up his law practice for good, and when he returned to Nashville he completed an MFA program in fiction writing at Vanderbilt University.[10][11] Later, while writing for CBS, Travis began working on a book,Dixieland Delight, where he visited thefootball stadiums of the 12 then-current members of theSoutheastern Conference.[5][a] After leaving CBS, Travis became a writer and editor atDeadspin, and then a columnist atFanHouse.[9]
After FanHouse was merged intoSporting News in 2011, Travis founded Outkickthecoverage.com.[9] The website later became one of the most visitedcollege football sites on the web.[10] While there, he continued developing his reputation for occasionally "contrarian" opinions and several stories talking aboutOnlyFans models and adult movie stars.[12]
In 2008, Travis worked out at D1 Sports Training withNFL prospects preparing for theNFL draft. He later wrote a ten-part serial about the experience which he titledRough Draft.[13]
In 2010,Nashville Scene named Travis "Best Sports Radio Host We Love To Hate" in the publication's "Best of Nashville" issue.[14]
He later became a co-host of a sports radio talk show,3HL, onNashville's104.5 The Zone with Brent Dougherty andBlaine Bishop.[15] He also hosted a national sports radio show onNBC Sports.[9]
In 2023, theYouTube channel forOutKick hit 1,000,000 subscribers.
In 2014, Travis resigned from his role on3HL[15] and was hired by Fox Sports for its weeklycollege football Saturday pre-game show.[10] In 2015, he signed a deal with Fox Sports to license his entire sports media brand under Fox Sports, includingOutkick the Coverage, which was folded into Fox Sports' website.[16] He also started a national weekly television show, started a dailyOutkick the Show broadcast on Periscope and Facebook, and began a national radio show withFox Sports Radio in 2016.[17]
In 2015, Travis was called out byDeMarcus Cousins for a 2010 prediction he had made that Cousins would be arrested within the next five years.[18][19] In response, Travis offered to donate to a charity of Cousins' choosing.[18][19]
In 2018, Travis began a daily sports gambling television show forFox Sports onFox Sports 1. The show aired for four seasons before ending in 2022. Since 2021 he has also been on Fox Sports’sBig Noon Kickoff college football pregame show.
Travis began a daily sports radio show on Nashville’s104.5 The Zone, 3HL, in 2010. After leaving 3HL, in 2016 he began the “Outkick the Coverage” radio show forFox Sports Radio nationwide mornings from 6-9 am et. Travis left that show in May 2021, when it was announced Travis andBuck Sexton would be taking overRush Limbaugh's time slot onPremiere Networks.[20] That show debuted on June 21, 2021.
Travis, who ispro-choice and against thedeath penalty, voted for formerPresidentBarack Obama twice and had previously never votedRepublican. In 2016, Travis voted forGary Johnson of theLibertarian Party.[2] As an undergrad, Travis interned forU.S. RepresentativeBob Clement for four years while in college at George Washington University.[21] In 2000, he worked onAl Gore's presidential campaign.[2] Travis was hired to work onU.S. Representative Jim Cooper's 2002 congressional campaign but was fired for wrecking Cooper's wife's car.[21]
In August 2016, Travis criticized his alma mater, Vanderbilt University, for planning to remove the word "Confederate" from its historicConfederate Memorial Hall, comparing the move to actions taken by "Middle Eastern terrorists."[22] Consequently, Travis lost a $3,000 promotion deal he had withJack Daniel's.[22] Travis said online that a Jack Daniel's representative decided that his Twitter commentary on the statue "brings (the company) into public disrepute."[23]
On September 15, 2017, Travis appeared as a guest onCNN, with anchorBrooke Baldwin, to discuss free speech, specifically whether ESPN personalityJemele Hill should be fired for calling Donald Trump a "white supremacist" and stating that police officers are "modern-day slave catchers" on her personal Twitter page. Travis stated that it would be bad policy on ESPN's part to fire Hill for her private comments, just as it was bad policy when ESPN firedCurt Schilling for comments he made regarding transgender bathrooms on his personal Facebook page. Travis received criticism for using a phrase he commonly used on his radio show when he said "...I'm a First Amendment absolutist – the only two things I 100 percent believe in are the First Amendment and boobs..."[24] 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??..."[25]
On September 20, 2017, Travis announced he was considering running as anIndependent forU.S. Senator ofTennessee in the2018 election if incumbentBob 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."[26] The following week, Senator Corker announced he would not be running for re-election,[27] but Travis did not enter the race.
In 2018, Travis wroteRepublicans Buy Sneakers Too: How the Left Is Ruining Sports based on theMichael Jordan quote, which argued against what he saw as an increasing politicization of sports by liberal voices.[28]
During theU.S. national anthem kneeling protests, Travis was quite vocal in his opposition. When Nike released an advertisement withColin Kaepernick in 2018, Clay denounced the move and claimed it would destroy Nike's reputation and stock.[29] However, Nike's sales and valuation increased that same year, and the stock price rose continuously over the next three to four years with a peak of over $160 a share in 2021.[30]
During the early months of theCOVID-19 pandemic, Travis repeatedly downplayed the severity of the disease,[31][32][33][34] calling it "overrated",[35] claiming that it is less severe than theseasonal flu,[35] projecting that fewer than several hundred would die of the disease in the United States,[31] that victims of the disease probably have been "killed a month or two earlier" than they would have been otherwise,[36] and stated that the mortality rate for those under 80 and without pre-existing conditions is "virtually zero".[31] He suggested that some advocates for mitigation measures to slow the spread were "rooting for the virus to triumph".[37][38]
On October 30, 2020, Travis said that he would be voting forDonald Trump inthat year's presidential election. He said it would be the first time he had ever voted for a Republican forpresident.[39]
On April 15, 2024, Travis suggested viaTwitter that New Yorkers sympathetic toDonald Trump try to be selected for jury service and hide their sympathies during the selection process for the former president's "hush money" trial to ensure that he would not be convicted; it was pointed out by media observers and others, including RepresentativeEric Swalwell, that this post could be consideredjury tampering.[40]
Travis married in 2004. His wife, Lara, is aVanderbilt Law School graduate and practicing attorney as well as a formerTennessee Titans cheerleader.[8] They have three sons and live in Nashville.
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