Early life
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.
Career
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]
Outkick the Coverage
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]
Fox Sports
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]
Vanderbilt controversy
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]
CNN comment controversy
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]
Personal life
Travis' wife, Lara, is a former Tennessee Titans cheerleader. They have three sons together.[4]
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