Will Cain Talks Simone Biles with Clay and Buck
Will Cain, the host of the Will Cain Podcast and Fox & Friends, joined the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show to discuss Simone Biles bowing out of team competition at the Olympics.
"Fellas," Will said before he answers the question,"I can’t tell you how surreal it is to sit here, and I think I told you this individually. But to sit here and talk to you, it’s like my worlds colliding. It’s like your high school friends and your college friends becoming friends independently of you. Because, Buck, you and I go back now well over a decade. And for the last five years, Clay and I have been playing in the same sandbox and getting to know each other. So to see you guys together, it’s really a beautiful thing."
To the topic, Will says, "the bottom line is, we are celebrating quitting, and that’s where we have gotten as a culture and as a nation. Now, first of all, I do think Simone Biles deserves her own individual criticism. But without me knowing all the details of whatever it is going on with her, my focus and my attention, Clay, is way more on the reaction.
"There’s a headline. There’s a cover today, I believe, of the New Yorker praising her bravery for quitting. And look, you tweeted it, Clay; I feel exactly the same. I put my sons, 13 and six, into sports to learn the lesson that we are now saying the opposite is praiseworthy of. Meaning, I put my boys into sports to fail, to be resilient, to never quit. They’re not going to be professional athletes. I know that very well. I put them in to learn life lessons — and look, this is reflected across all of our culture. 'Words are violence. Protests and riots are ‘mostly peaceful.’ Boys are girls. Quitters have strength.' Everywhere you look, it’s not just the language that’s been turned on its head, but it’s the values that have been turned on their heads."
Buck then asks Will how much of the reaction is because Biles is a prominent millionaire athlete who is an African-American female.
"Definitely. A good amount," Will responds.
"There’s no doubt that most sports pundits paint by numbers. They see, 'Oh, my gosh, look! Woman. African-American. Therefore, I champion, whatever they do.' Here’s what’s more fascinating. I think there’s something else going on. I’m curious to get your guys’ feedback on this. Mental health."
Adding, "this is all such a weird thing when we get pushed into far corners. Mental health is real thing, right? We have to focus on mental health. But it’s also become this total Get Out of Jail Free card. Like, if you invoke mental health, no matter what decision or behavior you then initiate? Eh, no one can question it. Listen to the language we’ve adopted. “I need to focus on me. I need to put myself first.”
"No! That’s not what we preach or believe, and if you just say, 'But it’s in pursuit of my mental health' Oh. Well! Get out of jail free. No more questions asked. Celebrate pushing that to the forefront.
You can hear Will's full conversation with Clay and Buck below, and Will's new podcast: