Welcome Clay Travis to the World of Hot Take Idiots

As I stated yesterday, I watched my Wolverines lose yet another bowl game. I have come to realize that they are a mediocre, pretty much irrelevant college football team. Yes, they have a big name, a big name coach, a big stadium, are on TV all the time, but when it comes to play on the field, they are a 9 or 10 win team at best. I hope this changes, and I think it can, especially under Jim Harbaugh, but for now, they are a mid level Big Ten team. That's the honest truth.

But, I am not here to douse more gas on the fire that the media has been hitting Michigan with the moment that game ended yesterday. Quite the opposite in fact. I am hear to ask, why does Michigan and Jim Harbaugh bear so much of the brunt from media members who have never, ever coached a single game, at any level, of any importance, ever? I have gone on the record stating how much I think Paul Finebaum actually loves Harbaugh because he is ALWAYS talking about him. A weekend during the college football season doesn't go by where he doesn't have some flippant comment about Harbaugh or Michigan. All this coming from a guy who looks like he never played a sport his entire life. It's okay though, he gets owned constantly on ESPN now by many, many former players that they currently employ. Go look up the whole Cam Newton-Eli Manning debate when Ryan Harris absolutely trolled the shit out of him on live TV. It was tremendous.

Today I want to talk about Clay Travis, who I can almost guarantee is a racist, and never did anything of consequence in the sports world, comments he made on Twitter yesterday. He said something along the lines of Jim Harbaugh being the most overrated coach in the history of college football. Now, I do agree with most people that Harbaugh hasn't done what many, myself included, what we thought he could do at Michigan. But still, he has a solid, winning record at Michigan, he has gone to a bowl game ever year, had them on the cusp of the playoff twice and turned a program that was in the toilet under Rich Rod and Brady Hoke, into a viable Big Ten contender. So, I want to ask Clay Travis, who was against his alma mater Vanderbilt taking the word "confederate" off a hallway sign, why is he the most overrated coach? What has he done to you personally that makes you think he is the most overrated coach ever? Is it because you placed a bet on Michigan, because you are a degenerate gambler, and it didn't work out the way you hoped? Or is it because you are a hot take dipshit that works for Fox Sports, and you always want to say some stupid shit that your dumbass fans will rally behind? I have to think that is the case. You know what Clay Travis, I am shocked, absolutely shocked, that you don't work for that frat boy website Barstool Sports, because your takes are as hackey as the nonsense they put up daily. I'm fed up with people who have never played, or coached at any level saying stuff like this, and it gets hundreds of thousands retweets. That is all he is doing this for. He doesn't care about Michigan football or Jim Harbaugh, he just wants the clicks, retweets and likes. He doesn't know what he is talking about. He isn't out here doing the things that major division 1 college coaches do. He doesn't have it in him to do that. He isn't good enough to do that. I told my father today that, since he thinks he is so smart, I'd like to place him in the job as head coach at Michigan for one day, that's it, just a day, so he can see how hard it is when idiots like himself say this nonsense on Twitter. Clay Travis is no better than Paul Finebaum or Skip Bayless or Stephen A Smith or Jim Rome. He is a wannabe, a hack and a phony. He was never able to reach the heights that these coaches he chastises have, and he is jealous. This is the pathetic state of what some consider real journalism.

My point? Clay Travis is as awful a human being as his takes. He is a nobody with no real accomplishments, except acting like a typical bro. Take his mic, phone and computer away from him, and he is just another average nobody. And he is certainly no Jim Harbaugh. You can take that to the bank. I'd much, much, much rather have Jim Harbaugh as the Michigan football coach then read another dumbass tweet from a Fox Sports moron like Clay Travis. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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What the Death of Dave Mirra Tells us about all Sports

We should study CTE, not just lay blame

It was recently released that deceased BMX biker Dave Mirra had CTE at the time of his suicide. This is a tragic event that could have been stopped had Mirra gotten the correct medical attention. He clearly had a lot of demons in his closet and he had some brain trauma from all the trick bike riding he did in his life. This was an avoidable tragedy.

The reason for my blog today is how little coverage this story is getting on major sports networks. Once again, the Fox Sports and ESPN's of the world are criminally under reporting this story, and I think it has to do with Mirra's chosen profession. Had he been a football player, this story would be reported on ad nauseam. I know that this is a touchy subject, but dammit, all the pro and non pro athletes that suffer from CTE deserve as much coverage as all football players get when they die and their brains are studied and it's found that they have CTE.

ESPN and Fox Sports have not stopped talking about Junior Seau's untimely suicide, and they strictly blame it all on football. Well, Seau chose to play football. He was very good at football and he turned it into a hall of fame career, but when he took his own life, the people that are trying to rid the world of football strictly blamed it all on the hits he took on the field. Yes, that is the main cause of the brain trauma, but there has to be some other things, non football related things, that went into his suicide. I don't think he woke up with a football headache one day and decided it was time to punch out, I'm pretty positive there were some other things going on.

The people that want football outlawed are on a mission to make this game seem so violent that it causes people to take their own lives. They want everyone else to think that the only reason former football players do the weird and violent things they do is because of all the hits they took and nothing else. I understand that football is a violent game, it's meant to be, but the people that play know what they are getting themselves into. You go into football knowing the possible repercussions. I knew when I played that I could get concussions or broken limbs or tear muscles, it was a part of the game.

I also played baseball and basketball, and let me tell you, I could have gotten just as badly injured playing those other two sports. I was a pitcher in baseball, and any time I stepped on a mound, I could have been hit in the head with a 100 mile per hour line drive. I've seen in real time, and on TV, pitchers get hit in the face and it is not pretty. There is so much blood and blurred vision and, sometimes, even loss of consciousness. Basketball, while I think it is the most athletic of any sport I have ever played, there are many times I have banged my head on the hardwood floor, or was smacked across the face and head by an opposing player, or I was hit in the face with a basketball coming at me at a decent speed, all those things and more. I knew those risks and I still chose to play. But, no one ever bad mouthed me for playing baseball or basketball the way they did when I played football. Baseball and basketball where never considered as dangerous as football was. The people that didn't like me playing football said that I would get injured and I would suffer headaches the rest of my life and I would be sore and my knees and legs would hurt forever, but, I have more soreness from basketball in my knees and legs than I do from football. Baseball was more terrifying to me because of the constant threat of a smoked liner back to my face than someone blind side blocking me in a football game.

Football was, and is, dangerous, but it is no more dangerous than baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, or now even, BMX. Hockey and soccer are just as violent as football. The players helmets in hockey are so much smaller and have such little padding, I bet way more hockey players than football players suffer from CTE, but it never gets covered like football. I instruct young kids in soccer, and I have seen so many of them take a soccer ball to the face, and I think, at least they aren't pros, because that would have been a concussion, but no one bad mouths soccer. Soccer is the most played sport among kids in the US, and I bet a ton of retired soccer players suffer from CTE from taking too many soccer balls to the face or from doing headers, but it never gets reported. Even cheerleading is so much more risky than football. At any moment, while doing a human pyramid, or a drop from a twist or flip, you can be dropped directly on your head. I can almost guarantee that current and former cheerleaders greatly suffer from CTE.

To bring it all back to my original point, we now see that BMX can have just as dangerous results as football. No one would have ever thought that Dave Mirra would have CTE. Hell, I barely knew anything about Mirra until I heard that he had taken his own life. It is a tragedy and my heart goes out to his friends and family, but why won't ESPN talk about him and what happened more? He was a legend in his particular sport, and the only thing ESPN has done is put on their crawl that he committed suicide and that he had CTE. They have done little to nothing as far as an anchor talking about Mirra and the demons he had, and his CTE. BMX has always looked dangerous to me. Those bike riders do some of the most daring and reckless stunts that I have ever seen. I get nervous going down a big hill on my bike, so to see these pro BMXers do things like flips and twists and jumps off humongous ramps, it was equal parts exciting and terrifying to me. I always thought that it was dangerous, but it was also pretty cool. Then, as I got older, I noticed that the helmets and the padding these riders wore weren't that protective. BMXers looked like they cared a bit more about cool looking pads that actual protective pads. Whenever they took a fall, I was very worried that the riders wouldn't get up. When they did get up, they looked woosy and wobbly. They clearly had a concussion, but they kept going back out there. I know a lot of people bad mouth the NFL's concussion protocol, but if these BMXers could go out and do a stunt an hour after a brutal fall, what was their concussion protocol like?

I would hope that channels like Fox Sports and ESPN would give this more coverage and explain the dangers involved in BMX riding after what may be their biggest star ever takes their own life, but they instead want to focus on what Johnny Manziel is doing or how the Yankees are playing or who is LeBron blaming now. It's sickening that they have barely covered the Dave Mirra tragedy at all. They have all but pushed it to the side and that is sad. If the Fox Sports and the ESPN's of the world are going to continue to tell us how dangerous football is, they need to tell us how dangerous every other sport is. There is danger everywhere you go when you choose to play sports, it's not just in football. The big wigs at the big channels need to inform the general public of this. It is their job and they are doing shitty work. They may want to end football, but former pro athletes, in every pro sport, most likely has some form of CTE, and until they get the same coverage, the war against football will wage on. That is a sad state of affairs. It's tragic that Dave Mirra took his life, but it's disrespectful and tasteless the way that the major sports channels and media outlets are barely talking about it. It's truly a shame.

RIP Dave Mirra.

Ty 

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

Will No Nonsense Nick Saban Take the Cowards Way Out?

Make a choice coach.

Late last night, or depending on how you look at it, early this morning, two Alabama football players were arrested on drug and weapons charges. This isn't the first or the last time this has and will happen at Alabama, but one of the players figures to be a key cog on this years team. In fact, he is a projected starter, preseason All American and will be a first round pick in next years draft. That players name is Cam Robinson and he is a starting offensive lineman on the team, left tackle if I remember correctly. The other player, Hootie Jones, is a back up safety that was expected to compete for a starting job this fall. Jones would, or will, be in the rotation come this fall, but his name doesn't resonate unless you are an Alabama fan or a crazy college football fan, such as myself. Cam Robinson is the big name that is involved in this whole story.

So, first things first, the drug charges. It was weed, and it is a throw away. We as a country just need to decriminalize weed ASAP. It is not a gateway drug. It doesn't cause many ill effects. It just makes you hungry. Now, I'm not a smoker myself, but I know people that enjoy weed and they are very great, very nice, very fun people to be around. They show no signs of being deviants or criminals. They just like to get stoned. The weed charge is dumb and I could care less that these two 20 year olds were getting high.

The weapons, that's another story. I'm very anti gun. I think guns are incredibly dangerous when in the wrong hands. Guns are made to kill or seriously injure people. They are not toys. They are real things that cause real problems. This is where I start to get angry and curious as to what the mighty Nick Saban is going to do. The Jones kid, I wouldn't be surprised if he is kicked off the team, winds up at some junior college and in two years is making his way into the league. Saban will say goodbye to him, but he will catch on elsewhere and, if he is smart and lucky, he will turn his life around and stop playing with guns. Jones will be an afterthought.

The question is what will Saban do with his preseason All American, his QB's blindside blocker, his captain of his enormous offensive line, his next future first round pick? Will he suspend him? Will he make him miss games and practices? Will he cut this kid loose? This is the same head coach that came out and blasted the NCAA for allowing Jim Harbaugh to run satellite camps, stating it was bad for the kids. Will he do what is right for this kid and teach him a lesson, or will he give Robinson a slap on the wrist and only make him miss a few summer practices? If history has taught us anything, I can almost guarantee that Saban lets Robinson slide. Sure, he will make a big deal about giving him a "suspension", something like missing some summer workout sessions, but I would be willing to bet a lot of money that Robinson will be on the starting offensive line when Alabama kicks it's season off in early September. Saban will say he has learned his lesson and that he is a changed kid, But let's be serious, if Robinson were a back up, like Hootie Jones, he'd be kicked off the team. But, since Robinson has all the preseason accolades and acclaim, Saban will, once again, contradict himself and let this kid play. Robinson will not miss a single second of game action.

These kids, and I will assume Robinson was the ringleader, were found with unlicensed weapons in the car. That is a felony. They also had all the weed, but that is a ridiculous charge and hopefully the police let that slide and only focus on the guns. So, why do two twenty year olds need unlicensed firearms? That's one of two main questions, the other being, what will Saban do, but I'm pretty sure I've already answered that and I will answer it some more in my conclusion. I just don't get why these young kids think it's necessary or cool to have guns. There is nothing cool about that at all. Also, they are division one football players, I'm sure they could win any fight physically if need be. They are big dudes that no one would mess with anyway. Some will say, what if someone else pulls a gun on them, and that is a valid point, but that doesn't happen nearly as much as some stupid accident involving guns. I choose to believe that these kids had guns for recreation purposes and not for safety. That's when guns become scary and when something unfortunate happens. These children, and yes they are children, do not need guns ever. They weren't hunting or going to a shooting range or on a skeet shooting team, they had unlicensed guns. They were clearly trying to be cool. They were being idiots. They were acting like spoiled rotten college kids that think they are above the law. They were being stupid.

Now, it's up to Nick Saban. The mighty Nick Saban. The same guy that channels like ESPN and Fox Sports lavish praise on for his take no crap attitude. The guy that challenged Jim Harbaugh(and lost I might add, the ban on satellite camps was lifted). The guy that wins titles. The guy that never cheats, ha ha ha, that sentence was almost impossible to finish writing. What will he do? As I said above, I think the back up safety, Hootie Jones, he will be gone. Jones will be the casualty from this story so ESPN can talk about what a great leader Saban is, you know, typical ESPN bullshit reporting. But, Cam Robinson will see little to no discipline. He is a big time player and Saban is too afraid to really stick it to important players on his team. He has a fear of his fan base turning on him, so he will do nothing to truly discipline Robinson.

Therein lies the main problem. College sports are a business and becoming a joke, if you are a pro level prospect. The kids that are going to go to the next level can get away with almost anything. If you are a good athlete, you are above the law, at least according to coaches like Nick Saban. This is a travesty. This Robinson kid, and Jones for that matter, should face felony charges, but they won't because they are good football players. Something very similar to this happened to former Missouri QB, Matty Mauk. He was caught on camera snorting cocaine, and it was only until he was deemed not as good a player anymore that he was cut. But, don't cry for him because he will be back on a football field next season at Eastern Kentucky because they still believe in him. No wonder athletes have god complexes with the way they are treated. Matty Mauk should be in jail and Cam Robinson and Hootie Jones should be going to court for a felony weapons charge, but since they are good at football, they get fourth, fifth and sixth chances. That stinks. It's funny how this stuff all seems to happen in the SEC. I guess football players are truly above the law in that sham of a conference. Shame on Alabama, Nick Saban, Cam Robinson, Hootie Jones, ESPN, Fox Sports and college football retroactively for the way they will sweep this very big charge under the rug and not talk or report on it. Everyone involved is guilty, but I put the most guilt on Nick Saban.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He longs for the day when we hold the adult coaches more responsible than the children that play for them. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.