Trump Is Shaking Up Football Culture One Dance Move At A Time
Unlike years prior, football players are no longer afraid to show their support for the incoming president.Unlike years prior, football players are no longer afraid to show their support for the incoming president.Did THIS generation just save America?
The counting is done, and Donald Trump has won with a stunning 312 electoral votes — the most any Republican candidate has won since George H.W. Bush in 1988.
“Blaze News Tonight” host Jill Savage and Blaze News editor in chief Matthew Peterson are joined by Clay Travis, OutKick founder and co-host of "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show," to discuss how Trump was able to achieve this landslide victory.
According to Travis, Kamala Harris “got her a** kicked” partially because “she never really told us what she thought on the issues, and the ones she did tell us about she was wrong on.”
“Meanwhile, Trump was right on everything,” and he expanded his voter base by appealing to “men in particular — black, white, Asian, Hispanic.”
However, there was another major factor that contributed to Harris’ epic loss: Generation X.
“You spoke about how Generation X came out in large numbers. Why do you think that is?” Peterson asks.
“Because Generation X has great judgment,” Travis answers. “I do think Gen X saved America.”
“I think a big reason why is Trump appeals to people who grew up in the 1980s and the 1990s. ... We grew up in an America that was awesome and an America that was filled with belief that we were the greatest country in the history of the world,” he adds.
“A lot of Democrats frankly don't believe that anymore, and I think much of Generation X, myself included, fundamentally rejects this idea that somehow as America is a fundamentally awful, racist country, and we like the idea Trump is selling, which is American exceptionalism is a good thing. We are the freest and fairest country in the history of the world,” he explains. “I think Gen X is one of the biggest and foremost defenders of that idea.”
Jill then points to another group that “overwhelmingly voted for Trump” — college football players.
“Why does Donald resonate so well with this group?” asks Jill.
“I think young men innately are seeing through the BS world that they have grown up in — this woke universe where suddenly being male is wrong,” Travis says. “I think a lot of these young men in college football programs, you know, they saw this crazy Lia Thomas business, and they don't think it makes any sense.”
“They're tired of having to pretend that they don't believe what they believe. I am super optimistic that this next generation of men, these young men now 18- to 29-year-old who are coming in to vote, are going to have a big impact,” he adds.
To hear more of the conversation, including Travis’ thoughts on exactly how Trump flipped the swing states, watch the clip above.
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'Alabama stole our kicker': Miami (Ohio) head coach mocks media for not living in 'reality' when it comes to transfer portal
University of Miami (Ohio) coach Chuck Martin made a point-blank statement that the University of Alabama illegally recruited their kicker Graham Nicholson.
In an interview posted to the official Miami (Ohio) Redhawks website, coach Martin made direct claims that the Alabama Crimson Tide program "stole" their kicker.
'You media people, it's all pretend.'
"All right, special teams, you lost your kicker," a reporter prefaced.
"We didn't lose him, he's at Alabama," Martin interrupted. "We know exactly where he's at."
Martin then accused the media of playing "pretend" when it comes to the reality of the NCAA transfer portal.
"You media people, it's all pretend. No, Alabama stole our kicker, they illegally recruited our kicker and stole him from us. That's a fact, but that's college football," he continued.
"We live in this La-La-World, let's not talk reality. I don't know why, every coach knows what's going on. Yeah, Alabama stole our kicker, a couple of other schools tried to steal him," Martin added.
Alabama Head coach Kalen DeBoer spoke to media after a practice and was asked by a reporter about Coach Martin's claims.
"The Miami of Ohio coach accused you guys of tampering with the recruitment of Graham Nicholson. Do you have a response to that?" the reporter asked.
"I don't know anything about that, I guess that comment," DeBoer replied. "Yeah, I mean he (Nicholson) entered the portal and we reached out to him. So, that's how it goes, right? We did everything you're supposed to," he claimed.
While it has not been specified exactly what the potentially illegal recruitment acts might have been, it has been speculated that since this was Nicholson's second time in the transfer portal, his deal with Alabama may have been predetermined.
Barstool Sports' Connor Knapp suggested that since Nicholson entered the transfer portal in December 2023 and then again in April 2024, it was likely that his move to Alabama was already decided by the kicker before the transfer window.
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'I didn't come here to make money': Colorado State quarterback reportedly turns down $600,000 to change schools
Colorado State University quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi reportedly turned down a massive sum of money to change schools and said his job as a college athlete isn't to maximize his revenue streams.
Colorado State coach Jay Norvell revealed in a recent press conference that Fowler-Nicolosi told him he was offered $600,000 to enter the transfer portal and play for Kansas State University.
'My job in college isn't to sit here and make as much money as I can.'
"He said that a guy from Kansas State called and offered him $600,000 because they lost their quarterback," Novell said in a video posted by On3. "I'm not accusing Kansas State of anything; I'm just telling you what the kid told me.
Massive contracts for the name, image, and likeness of college players are now routinely paid out since the rule change in 2021 allowed players to make money off their brands. It has since become somewhat common for athletes to transfer to bigger schools in hopes of growing their following and getting bigger endorsements.
Fowler-Nicolosi, however, offered a refreshing take on the situation when asked by reporters about not taking the offer.
"I didn't come here to make money. I came here to win games and play ball for the Rams," the sophomore replied. "I think if we play ball here, we do our job, we do what we're supposed to, we win championships, go to the playoff, shock the world, I think the money will come eventually."
The quarterback seemed confident that the money for himself and his teammates will eventually come with their success.
"My job in college isn't to sit here and make as much money as I can. I know the new landscape is exciting for a lot of people. There's a lot of opportunities out there, but at the end of the day, I'm a 20-year-old kid with higher goals in life than to make money in college. So as much as a blessing that would be and set myself up for a long time, I think if I do my job here and we get it done and perform like we know how we're supposed to, I think there's several people on this team that will be taken care of for life after college."
'The money in college is nice, but ... that's not my ultimate goal.'
Wide receiver Tory Horton may be one of the players the 20-year-old was referring to. According to CBS News Colorado reporter Richie Cozzolino, Horton was also "offered $600,000 to hit the transfer portal."
Horton too answered questions about his decision to stay and said growing as a person at Colorado State is important to him.
"You want to go somewhere where you want to be, and where you love, and where you enjoy growing and having that experience and becoming the man that you want to be," he explained. "The money in college is nice, but ... that's not my ultimate goal."
Horton added that he knew what he was getting with the Colorado State system and that also influenced his choice to stay put.
These decisions give hope to schools that worry that their top players will be targeted for transfers by bigger programs. However, Colorado State is not exactly a small school that doesn't have the revenue streams to make similar offers to its players.
The school was ranked 61st in a nationwide ranking of college athletic departments with over $61 million in annual revenue.
Kansas State was 49th with about $100 million in revenue.
Schools don't exactly want their offers out in the public eye, however, as Coach Norvell noted in his interview.
"If they don't want their name thrown in it, I think they should probably get a handle on their people," he said of Kansas State. "There's a lot of that going on in college football; that's just the way things are right now," he added.
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In the latest reality TV shocker, the Florida State Seminoles did not receive a rose
Major college football never needed a postseason playoff. The game was perfectly fine when the opinions of sports writers and coaches determined a mythical national champion.
No one was harmed when sports fans argued throughout the off-season about which team really deserved to be ranked No. 1. The players on teams that finished second or third didn’t suffer post-traumatic stress disorder.
College football used to be unique. Every game mattered. The final score of every game mattered. Even if powerhouse Nebraska scheduled a mid-major, the margin of victory contributed to the perception of the Cornhuskers.
I say all of this because I’m not going to shed any tears for Florida State. The Seminoles finished their season 13-0, winners of the Atlantic Coast Conference championship, but were left out of the four-team playoff because, in the opinion of the selection committee, one-loss Texas and one-loss Alabama are better than FSU.
Twenty-five years ago, Florida State’s players would have been thrilled with an ACC championship and a bowl matchup. The new system has made them victims.
Here we go with pesky opinions. They still matter in major college football. The playoffs were supposed to eliminate opinions and allow everything to be determined on the field. But as long as a selection committee exists, opinions are going to matter in college athletics. You can’t escape opinions unless you further dilute what had been sports’ greatest regular season by expanding the playoffs to 24 teams or more.
It’s time to admit that the people who have been trying to improve college football have actually ruined it. The pursuit of more financial riches has professionalized college football and increased the corruption in the sport.
Florida State fans believe the selection committee invited Texas and Alabama to the playoffs because ESPN and ABC have exclusive broadcast rights to SEC football beginning in 2024, which will include Texas, hence overriding the network’s ACC affiliation.
College football was never pure. But it was different. Many of its young players felt a genuine connection to the schools that overlooked their high school transcripts and SAT scores and invited them on campus to learn, socialize, and play a game.
That isn’t true any more. Athletes now feel entitled. Why shouldn’t they? Corporate media programmed them to believe only two things really matter: money and competing for a national title.
In the pursuit of money, the college season has been expanded, conferences have been blown up and made irrelevant, and the only bowl games that matter are tied directly to the playoffs.
Happiness is based on expectations. Twenty-five years ago, Florida State’s players would have been thrilled with an ACC championship and a bowl matchup against Georgia. The new system has made them victims. A great crime has been committed against Florida State. Everybody is a victim these days.
Ohio State just finished its season 11-1. The school’s starting quarterback, Kyle McCord, announced yesterday he’s hitting the transfer portal.
College athletics are now no different from the NBA or NFL. The players are mercenaries. That’s not said to demonize the players. It’s said to demonize the school presidents, administrators, coaches, and members of the media who failed to protect what was special about college athletics while attempting to generate more revenue.
Bad leadership produces entitled young people and corrupt systems. Not one thing about college football has improved in the last 40 years.
There were far superior ways to compensate college athletes than name, image, and likeness. NIL and the transfer portal were initiated as reactions to the NCAA’s lack of vision and the establishment media’s lack of sophisticated ideas.
This is a group failure. It isn’t going to be fixed when the playoffs are expanded to 12 teams. There will be a whiny Florida State every year.
College football is just another reality television show. Reality TV is scripted. Alabama and Texas are bigger stars than Florida State. The networks don’t care about competition. They care about ratings. That’s why the networks spent all season trying to convince viewers that Deion Sanders was the second coming of Bear Bryant.
What’s funny is if Deion coached Florida State, the Seminoles would have qualified for the playoffs with a 12-1 record.
College Football Doesn’t Want To Fix Its Broken Playoff System, It Wants Ratings
The people behind these playoff systems don’t want objective champions, they want eyeballs on screens.Utah State QB to forgo senior season, join Navy SEAL training instead: 'I just want to ... protect this great country'
In an era of college football in which elite players can receive seven-figure NIL offers, one humble quarterback has decided to serve his country rather than seek fame and fortune. Levi Williams of Utah State University has chosen to forgo his final season of eligibility and start Navy SEAL training instead.
On Monday, Williams announced his decision on Salt Lake City radio station KSL 97.5 FM, just two days after he led the USU Aggies to a thrilling double-overtime win over the New Mexico Lobos. "It’s something that took a lot of thought and consideration," he said. "I love football and it’s so great, but I knew eventually it was going to come to an end. With the timeline of training and stuff, it just works out perfectly to end it this year."
Williams, whose mother and grandparents also served in the military, added that patriotic fervor played a significant part in his decision. "I just want to be in a spot where I can protect this great country, where we get to play football with the freedom to do that," he said. "I think this is the best country in the world. So I’d like to keep it that way and protect it as long as I can."
In addition to his family, Williams claimed that he has the full support of his fiancée, Tatum. "I told her, 'Hey, I need to talk to you about something really serious. This is what’s on my heart and where I feel like God’s calling me,'" Williams told KSL. “She said, 'That’s awesome. Let’s do it. I’m with you until the end.' Her dad was Army as well, so she kind of knows the military life. So she’s excited."
Williams grew up in Canyon Lake, Texas, and then spent three years playing for the Cowboys of the University of Wyoming before transferring to Utah State in 2021. His two years with the Aggies didn't go as planned, however, and Williams spent much of his time on the bench as the third-string quarterback.
That all changed last Saturday when injuries to fellow QBs Cooper Legas and McCae Hillstead left Coach Blake Anderson no choice but to start Williams.
Williams made it count. He had 351 total yards, including 153 yards carrying, and accounted for a staggering five touchdowns against the Lobos. Even after he botched a snap in the second overtime, Williams picked it up and ran 13 yards for the game-winning score.
His performance in that game was so remarkable that Williams was named the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week and one of eight Manning Award Stars of the Week. The win also brought the Aggies' record to 6-6, making them bowl-eligible.
Though listed as a junior, Williams has already graduated from USU and intends to begin Navy SEAL training shortly after the Aggies' bowl game. He'll certainly need to focus his efforts, as the qualifying fitness test is daunting: a 500-yard swim; maximum push-ups, pull-ups, and curl-ups done in separate two-minute intervals; and a 1.5-mile run. The swim and the run each must be completed within 12.5 minutes.
Rather than shy away from the challenge, though, Williams seems to embrace it, as well as the opportunity to serve alongside other devoted patriots. "What I love about [the SEALs'] ethos and their motto is that no one guy is better than the other.
"It takes all of them to complete a mission."
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