ALL ABOUT CLAY TRAVIS (true story)

Travis was born on April 6, 1979, in Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated from George Washington University in 2001, majoring in history, as well as working as a student basketball manager. He then attended the Vanderbilt University Law School and graduated in 2004.

Travis originally worked as a lawyer in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Tennessee.^[1] He attracted media attention in late 2004 with his personal blog written while he was living in the U.S. Virgin Islands. A Tennessee Titans fan, Travis was unable to get NFL Sunday Ticket, the satellite TV package to watch NFL games in the islands, and went on a "pudding strike", eating only pudding every day for 50 days, with the goal of forcing DirectTV to carry the package in the Virgin Islands.^[2] The effort failed, but he blogged about the experience and received media attention.^[3][4]

Travis began writing online for CBS Sports in September 2005, which for the first year was not paid.^[5] In 2006, Travis finally gave up his law practice for good.^[6] Later, while writing for CBS, Travis began working on a book, Dixieland Delight, where he visited all 12 stadiums in college football's Southeastern Conference.^[1] After leaving CBS, Travis became a writer and editor at Deadspin, and then a national columnist at FanHouse.^[5]

After FanHouse was merged into Sporting News in 2011, Travis founded Outkickthecoverage.com.^[5] The website later became one of the most visited college football sites on the web.^[6] While there, he continued developing his reputation for occasionally "contrarian" opinions.^[7]

In 2008, Travis worked out at D1 Sports Training with NFL prospects preparing for the NFL Draft. He later wrote a ten-part serial about the experience which he entitled Rough Draft.^[8]

In 2010, Nashville Scene named Travis "Best Sports Radio Host We Love To Hate" in the publication's "Best of Nashville" issue.^{[citation needed]} He later became a co-host of a sports radio talk show, 3HL, on Nashville's 104.5 The Zone with Brent Dougherty and Blaine Bishop.^[9] He also hosted a national sports radio show on NBC Sports.^[5]

In 2014, Travis resigned from his role on 3HL^[9] and was hired by Fox Sports for its weekly college football Saturday pre-game show.^[6] In 2015, he signed a deal with Fox Sports to license his entire sports media brand under Fox Sports, including his website Outkick the Coverage, which was folded into Fox Sports' website.^[10] He also started a national weekly television show and restarted his 3HL weekly radio talk show.^[11]

Travis was called out by DeMarcus Cousins for an erroneous prediction he had made five years earlier that Cousins would be arrested.^[12][13] In response, Travis offered to donate to a charity of Cousin's choosing.^[12][13]

In August 2016, Travis criticized his alma mater, Vanderbilt University, for planning to remove the word "Confederate" for its historic Confederate Memorial Hall.^[14] Consequently, Travis lost a US$3,000 promotion deal he had with Jack Daniel's.^[14]

In September 2017 while a guest on CNN with anchor Brooke Baldwin, Travis received criticism for remarking on "boobs" during a discussion on racism and sexism, saying he believes "in two things, the First Amendment and boobs."^[15] Baldwin cut the interview short and later responded, “[W]hen I first heard 'boobs' from a grown man on national television (in 2017!!!) my initial thought bubble was: ‘Did I hear that correctly?'"^[16] Previous to the CNN incident, Travis made the statement multiple times.^[17]

Travis' wife, Lara, is a former Tennessee Titans cheerleader. They have three sons together.^[4]