All That and a Bag of Mail: Ryan Tannehill Outkicks His Coverage

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Congrats to OKTC’s first hall of fame member, Ryan Tannehill, on his selection as the number eight overall pick. Soon Tannehill will become the 17th different quarterback to start a game for the Miami Dolphins since Dan Marino retired. 

Tannehill’s wife Lauren, who we “discovered” back during the Texas game, set the Twitter world abuzz. as soon as Ryan was drafted.

So we’re going to give her the beaver pelt trader of the week award.   

You can follow her on Twitter here. 

Now on to the mailbag. 

Steve writes:

Clay, how much would ratings increase if ESPN or the NFL Network put cameras on the wife or girlfriends of the top draft picks?

Wouldn’t you rather see them interviewed by Suzy Kolber?

I love the idea of a girlfriend cam. Or even a hot mom cam. Did you see Matt Kalil’s mom? His whole table looked like a scene from “Real Housewives of Orange County.” (Spoiler alert: not that I watch this show religiously and can’t miss a single episode, but I’d love to see newbie TV “star” Alexis paired with Chris Berman at the NFL Draft. Also, Berman is perfect evidence for why old people have to keep up with technology. Compare how out of touch Berman is with someone like Tony Kornheiser. Berman is six years younger. But which one seems older? Basically, which one would make an awkward Quenton Coples and Freddie Couples joke. Yeah, Berman.)

But back to the WAGs cam, this would be a great idea to stream online.

Can you imagine what the site traffic to, say, the NFL Network online would be if you could watch a WAG’s cam?

Twitter kills the suspense of the actual draft — Adam Schefter tipped every pick — so why not focus on WAGs and make this an actual celebrity event?

I think it’s genius.  

Plus, women would love this. My wife watches all those fashion shows — the one with Joan Rivers just crushing people is outstanding. In fact, could E! cover this so we didn’t have to watch online? Would the NFL allow it?

I’m all for it.

@nickwilsonlive Tweets: 

Are they for real? Can’t do this. 
 
 
It doesn’t matter who you root for, you just threw up a little bit when you saw this.
 
The only way this car sticker is anything other than execution worthy is if a mom is driving, she has three kids, and they all went to these three schools in order. 
 
But what are the odds that a family of three would go to three different SEC schools and none of the three would be Vandy?
 
That seems pretty unlikely, right?
 
Otherwise, this is just the biggest front running car in SEC history. (I’m assuming the Georgia sticker is for Herschel Walker and has been there since 1982).
 
Because there’s no way a Southern man is driving this car. Even if his kids went to all three schools.  
 
It 100% has to be a mom, right? There’s no other explanation.
 
A Southern man would rather drive a car with an “Vegans for Obama,” bumper sticker than this one. 
 
Brian J. writes:

“Clay, 

US Senator Mark Warner came to an event down here a week ago with Governor Tim Kaine. Warner was key in moving Virginia Tech from the Big East to the ACC when he was Governor.

During the “cheese” moments as Senator Warner was working the room, I struck up a conversation about conference realignment.
He was pleasantly surprised to speak with me about it due to how infrequently he discusses non-political topics with people in receiving lines.

I thanked him for his forward thinking when he moved VT.

I then aasked if he would be a conduit for a joint move by UVA and VT to the SEC.

I pitched him on more TV revenue*, Southern exposure and the chance for me to host friends coming to Blacksburg and Charlottesville for games.

He chuckled and said moving them to the SEC right now would be a road too far.

I asked about the Senator Manchin (WV) – Senator McConnell (Louisville) fight for the BIg XII. He said it was more quickly furious and intense than any back room dealing he’s seen during his time in the Senate. Thought this would be at least interesting and inform future Expansion-Palooza articles…

*DC Metro is #8, Norfolk/Hampton Roads is #43, Richmond is #57, Roanoke/Lynchburg is #66, Bristol, TN/VA is #96 (100,000 new to SEC), Harrisonburg is #178, Charlottesville is #183
all told, the SEC would increase their DMA markets size by almost 4,250,000 TVs, basically – they’d be adding double what Atlanta by itself gives to the SEC in ratings.

This is actually pretty great reporting.
 
You know what’s going to be great, if the SEC eventually seeks a team from Virginia this is going to be one of the top Google results.
 
And Senator Warner might be accused of flip flopping if he suddenly supports Virginia Tech to the SEC. 
 
I do love the idea of U.S. Senators not speaking to one another based on expansion. The only thing that would have been better is a Senate fist fight over Louisville’s exclusion from the Big 12. It’s like Preston Brooks meets 2012.
 
    
 
@aflener writes on Twitter:


“What’s more impressive, 5 1st round draft picks in bball like UK did in 2010 or 4 in fball for Bama this year?”
Great question. 
 
I was actually thinking about this during last night’s draft. 
 
I think it’s Bama football for this simple reason — projecting first round picks in football is much, much tougher than it is in basketball. 
 
Anthony Davis could have played at Sewanee last year and he still would have been the number one pick in this year’s NBA draft. That’s because basketball recruiting rankings by and large pan out. Football recruiting rankings are another thing entirely, much more of a crapshoot. Back in 2005 I wrote that five stars football players were more than twice as likely to be arrested as they were drafted in the first round.
 
And there were only 28 five star players that year.
 
Need more evidence of how unreliable rankings can be? Rivals number one football player, running back Bryce Brown, is in this year’s draft and probably won’t get picked. He did nothing in three years of college despite being healthy. 
 
That doesn’t happen in college basketball.   
 
Basically, it’s much, much harder to project who the top picks will be in football. Now, the counter argument is that a basketball recruiting class includes much fewer players, but, again, where top basketball players go is almost incidental. They would be top draft picks at 18 if they could enter the league. 
 
No one in the NFL would be top a top pick at 18. 
 
So I’m going Alabama as being much more impressive than Kentucky. Nick Saban hasn’t just won signing day, he’s won the draft three and four years later. That’s much harder to pull off.    
 
@paulsupple Tweets:

“Shouldn’t 40 times be changed to mph? Rather than someone running a 4.55 we’d say he ran 22.45 mph. Much more fun.” 

100% yes.

Like, right now.

You could also put cars on the NFL combine graphics racing against the players.

Every time I find myself in a school zone and start to speed back up I look out the window and try to approximate exactly how fast a 4.2 forty is moving.

The only other person I’ve ever heard of doing this is my dad, who once turned to me as we were driving 25 miles an hour through a neighborhood and said, completely unprovoked, “I think Carl Lewis could run this fast, don’t you?”

Written by Clay Travis

Clay Travis is the founder of the fastest growing national multimedia platform, OutKick, that produces and distributes engaging content across sports and pop culture to millions of fans across the country. OutKick was created by Travis in 2011 and sold to the Fox Corporation in 2021.

One of the most electrifying and outspoken personalities in the industry, Travis hosts OutKick The Show where he provides his unfiltered opinion on the most compelling headlines throughout sports, culture, and politics. He also makes regular appearances on FOX News Media as a contributor providing analysis on a variety of subjects ranging from sports news to the cultural landscape.

Additionally, Travis serves as a co-host of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, a three-hour conservative radio talk program syndicated across Premiere Networks radio stations nationwide.

Previously, he launched OutKick The Coverage on Fox Sports Radio that included interviews and listener interactions, and started an iHeartRadio Original Podcast called Wins & Losses that featured in-depth conversations with the biggest names in sports.

Travis is a graduate of George Washington University as well as Vanderbilt Law School. Based in Nashville, he is the author of Dixieland Delight, On Rocky Top, and Republicans Buy Sneakers.