Sports Fans Killed Woke Sports. This Is What Comes Next | Clay Travis

The Rubin Report

Emma Dog Productions

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.5 • 13.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to Clay Travis about building OutKick during the early days of independent media; the evolution of sports journalism before and after 2015; how podcasting shifted from audio to YouTube dominance; the impact of Trump’s 2016 win; selling OutKick and how financial success gave him more freedom but didn’t change his passion for work; how sports media became overtaken by identity politics around 2015; why woke culture peaked with trans athletes like Lia Thomas and ESPN’s award decisions; and how Clay’s new book explores Trump, sports fans, and cancel culture; why professional athletes failed to push back against woke sports culture; how fear of backlash and team control silenced dissent on issues like BLM and trans athletes; why only top-tier talent like Aaron Rodgers can defy political narratives; how Colin Kaepernick’s activism outweighed his skills as a backup quarterback; how media hypocrisy extends to figures like Harvey Weinstein and Epstein; and much more.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	And we move from what I would say was the Jordan era to, hey, your identity is going to define you in some way.
0:08.1	This is where my book opens.
0:09.9	Leah Thomas winning the Women's 500 Meter NCAA Championship.
0:14.9	To me, in March of 22, was the absolute apex, the high tide, as it were, of woke sports.
0:22.7	I also think this is where the dishonesty of social media had so much to do with it.
0:27.7	You're making tens of millions of dollars as an athlete.
0:30.4	You've got a team that's pretty much advising you on what you put up on Instagram or what
0:34.9	you put up, and they were saying, hey, you don't want to get in crosswise
0:39.0	with the trans community or you don't want to seem like you are speaking out against BLM. That's the actual
0:45.5	attack to me on sports is everyone is amoral if the talent is good enough. That's where you can really, like,
0:52.8	hey, is this the right message?
0:55.9	My new book called Balls,
0:58.4	and it's how Trump, young men, and sports fans saved America in the 2024 election.
1:00.9	What do you make of generally, like,
1:02.6	the economics around sports these days?
1:05.0	That it is just so freaking expensive
1:07.8	to go to any game with the family.
1:19.7	Yeah. freaking expensive to go to any game with the family. All right, guys, as you know, it's August.
1:21.8	So I am off the grid, but I did not want to leave you without content because content is king and you people need to
1:30.9	watch us talk all the time. So I brought on another talker, Mr. Clay Travis, the breastman in all
1:37.5	of sports media. How are you, my friend? I'm doing great. Where is the, how many different
1:42.7	destinations do you have for August plant?
	...

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