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A Closer Look At Clay Travis

Jason Barrett

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When his job as a pro football reporter brought him to Nashville in previous years, John McClain would field questions from friends about what Titans stars Steve McNair and Eddie George were really like.

Now when McClain, the legendary reporter with the Houston Chronicle, comes to Nashville he fields the same question, but not about Titans players.

“Now when I come here it’s, ‘What is Clay Travis really like?'” McClain said. “And I tell them, ‘What do you think he’s like?’

In the past eight years, Clay Travis, a Nashville native and 1997 graduate of Martin Luther King Magnet High School, has propelled himself from a couch-crashing blogger and aspiring author to a one-man sports media brand.

Travis is one-third of the on-air team for “3HL,” the ratings-dominating afternoon rush-hour show on 104.5 The Zone. His website, OutkicktheCoverage.com, has a lucrative licensing deal with Fox Sports. And Travis has added national TV to his list of accomplishments as part of Fox Sports 1’s college football show.

He has broken stories of national interest, turned local YouTube videos into social media sensations and waded happily into any and every controversial sports topic imaginable. And he has a certain knack for provoking vitriol in a way that great sports commentators seem to relish.

Not bad for a kid whose MLK classmates voted him “most likely to fall down while bowling.”

Travis is now a full-fledged celebrity, the guy sports fans in Nashville and throughout the Southeast want to know “what he’s really like.”

But eight years ago that sort of success appeared to be far away.

Dissatisfied with practicing law, which he did as a litigator and general practitioner in the Virgin Islands after graduating from Vanderbilt University School of Law, Travis set out to write his first sports book, “Dixieland Delight.”

He scalped tickets on the cheap, slept on friends’ couches and hit up all 12 SEC stadiums for about $3,000 in the fall of 2006 for his book about the region’s football culture.

The book was a success and, combined with his growing audience as a columnist on CBSSports.com, where he started writing for free, helped Travis’ career gain traction. He went on to write for a variety of websites and was able to make a living writing about this passion.

But if things had worked out a little differently, Travis actually might have had a career in politics instead of sports commentary.

Related: Full transcript of Clay Travis interview

During his time as an undergrad student at George Washington University, Travis interned for four summers in the office of then-U.S. Rep. Bob Clement.

He got a paying job on U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper’s 2002 campaign for the Nashville-area congressional seat, but Travis was fired from that gig. Travis said he went to see his girlfriend, now wife Lara Travis, out of town and had travel problems so he couldn’t return to the campaign as scheduled. That came on the heels of crashing the car of Cooper’s wife, Martha, and Travis was let go.

“It’s interesting to think about what I would have done,” Travis said. “I never really thought I would practice law because I always thought it was too slow-moving. Politics and writing were, I think, the two things that had the most appeal for me. That probably pushed me more toward the writing side versus the politics side.”

Stirring things up

Not long after writing “Dixieland Delight,” Travis began his radio career by doing a Tuesday night show with 104.5 The Zone host Chad Withrow. It was then that the station’s program director, Brad Willis, noticed Travis’ talent on the air. Opinionated, quick on his feet and completely unafraid to wade into controversy, Travis approached broadcasting with a litigator’s ferocity and a blogger’s irreverence.

He was added to the station’s midday show, which after achieving ratings success was moved to the prime 3-6 p.m. drive time slot.

“He’s a lightning rod because he’s opinionated,” Willis said. “When you have an opinion like that — when you’re on one side of the fence or the other — you’re going to stir things up a bit.”

Travis said his contract with “3HL” expires Aug. 31, and the two sides are in negotiations about an extension. Willis declined to comment.

To read the rest of the story visit The Tennessean where it was first published

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Jason Puckett Launches PuckSports.com

“I am super motivated right now and I can’t wait. I have probably been busier now than I’ve ever been in the last 48 hours.”

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Logo for PuckSports.com

Jason Puckett, who decided to walk away from a contract offer from iHeartMedia’s KJR in Seattle after finding out his partner Jim Moore had been laid off, has launched a new venture – PuckSports.com. ‘Puck’ has a baseball opening day show posted on the Puck Sports YouTube page and also posted an introductory message about his new venture and what led to creating it.

“I wanted to talk to you guys, the listeners out there, the viewers out there, sorry for all of this,” an emotional Puckett said. “Sorry for what has happened and what has taken place. Thank you for all of the comments and the well-wishes and what you have said about myself and Jim.

“It has been a whirlwind of a last few days, for sure and I do want to say that I feel for the people that we used to work with. “I know it’s not easy to go through that, I have been on that side of it many, many times in this industry when someone is let go and you have to sit there and answer all the questions about them and for them…It’s unfortunate and it shouldn’t be that way, but the reality of this business is it’s like that.”

Puckett then told his fans that PuckSports.com and YouTube are where you will be finding his content along with Moore. “I am going to take what I have learned over the years and apply it to a new age of media,” he said and noted this was a direction he had been thinking about for a while.

As for what took place that led to his decision to not sign his contract and talk away, he said, “I just want to take you briefly back to last week. I don’t want to get too much in the weeds, I’m not here to lay any blame or point any fingers at anybody…there’s too many good people that I have worked with that I don’t want to drag into this. It was a process that was at times handled fine, handled perfectly, and at other times it got to a point where it just went on too long. But that’s corporate media and that’s what happens.”

Continuing on Puckett said, “…I had been without a contract since about January…when I was away from the station that was something that we and the station agreed upon…to see if we could get something done and we were all hopeful that we would…I was only supposed to be gone a couple of days…unfortunately as these things sometimes happen, it just went a little bit longer…We received the deal and it was what we wanted, but unfortunately with that news a few hours later came the news from corporate that Jim had lost his job. Obviously there was a mix of emotions with that from me.

“I wrestled with that and the decision and what I would do. It was hard for me to move forward…I couldn’t fight the perception more than anything that I had received a new deal while at the same time, my partner and good friend, guy I love to death, who I grew up reading…it was a hard reality…The loyalty I have, I couldn’t live with myself even though Jim knew what the truth was.”

Puckett said he was aware Moore was planning to step away from the radio show at the end of the year and was looking forward to the nine months they would have left to work with one another. Then, when iHeartMedia made the decision to make Moore a casualty of their latest round of layoffs, Puckett knew he needed to revisit the idea of starting his own venture.

He said, “It has kind of changed my timeline as far as what I wanted to do and where I felt I was at…I am super motivated right now and I can’t wait. I have probably been busier now than I’ve ever been in the last 48 hours.”

Puckett said several of the show’s regular guests would stay with the show and he thanked several sponsors who he said would remain supporters of the show with the new venture. ‘Puck’ noted that starting next week, “…We get underway in full force…I’m going to continue to try and make people laugh and entertain you and talk about sports…and all of the other things you have become accustomed to with this show.”

As he started to wrap up, Puckett said, “I’m jumping into the deep end of the pool and I am going to see if I can swim or sink.”

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Kirk Minihane: WEEI is “Going to be Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb in Afternoons”

“Maybe the two most sensitive c***s in the history of radio. That’s a show we are going to ruin.”

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Photos of Kirk Minihane and Rich Shertenlieb

As the speculation continues on where Boston sports talker Rich Shertenlieb will end up, one former WEEI host said he has the scoop on what is going to happen. Kirk Minihane, now with Barstool Sports, said, “What I heard was, initially, was they were moving Rich Keefe from nights to middays, moving Adam Jones from afternoons to middays and keeping Fauria there, and moving Andy Gresh to afternoons…But now it appears Rich Shertenlieb is going to do afternoons with Andy Gresh.”

On Wednesday, Boston Globe sports and sports media columnist Chad Finn put out a post on X, saying, “Didn’t think Rich Shertenlieb would end up at WEEI after leaving Sports Hub. I do now, most likely in afternoon drive. Audacy management has been telling people to expect changes.”

Minihane continued commenting on the matter, saying, “It’s going to be Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb in the afternoons, which is going to be so awful. Maybe the two most sensitive c***s in the history of radio. That’s a show we are going to ruin…we haven’t done that in a while, we are going to take that show down…Once that show starts, we are just going to blitz them with phone calls because Gresh can’t handle that.

“What they don’t understand, because they are so dumb, is that…Rich Shertenlieb has no fan base…no fan of [Toucher and Hardy] in the morning is going to be like ‘I’m not going to listen to Felger in the afternoons, I’ll now listen to Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb.’ It’s going to be dreadful.”

Recapping what he has heard the rest of the WEEI lineup will be, Minihane said, “…And then in middays you have Adam Jones, failed afternoons. Rich Keefe who has now failed middays, drivetime, nights and is now going to fail again in middays… and Christian Fauria who has never drawn a rating in his life.”

WEEI has not commented on any of the speculation. BSM will have more as the story unfolds.

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Former 670 The Score Host Tommy Williams Has Died

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Photo of Tommy Williams
Courtesy: Lakeshore Public Media

Tommy Williams, who was heard for a decade on 670 The Score, died on Wednesday at the age of 66.

Williams began his broadcasting career in his hometown of Gary, Indiana in 1982 at WLTH before moving on to The Score. In 2003, Williams became the PA Announcer for the Gary Southshore RailCats of the American Association where he had his signature call to get the attention of the fans, “People, People, People.”

A story in The Times of Northwest Indiana said, “The longtime RailCats public address announcer and Lakeshore Public Media sports journalist was known for broadcasting countless games, interviewing countless athletes and covering Region sports at all levels. The Gary native and co-host of “Prep Sports Report,” “Prep Football Report,” and “Lakeshore PBS Scoreboard” often signed off shows saying, “Gary, Indiana, you know I love you.”

“The cadence he had in his voice echoed across the Region in a way we may never see again. He was widely known and widely loved,” Tom Maloney, vice president of radio operations at Lakeshore Public Media told the paper.

“He’d want to be remembered as the voice of Lakeshore sports,” his Regionally Speaking co-host and producer Dee Dotson told The Times. “Most people will remember him for covering prep sports all the way up to semi-pros. He’ll be remembered for treating each of his subjects like they were world champions. His depth of knowledge of sports at all levels is commendable. He was a walking encyclopedia of stats.” 

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