Clay Travis on Rachel Nichols’ ESPN controversy
OutKick founder Clay Travis joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to react to ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols complaining about Maria Taylor getting the NBA Finals hosting gig last year over what she suggested was for ‘diversity’ reasons.
Jemele Hill called Outkick founder Clay Travis an "idiot" in a recent podcast, appearing to blame him for recent drama happening at ESPN.
On Tuesday, Atlantic writer Jemele Hill guest starred on the podcast Le Batard And Friends for a segment called "An Honest Conversation About ESPN, Rachel Nichols & Maria Taylor." This episode focused on the ongoing drama surrounding ESPN reporters Rachel Nichols and Maria Taylor.
On Sunday, the New York Times released leaked audio and footage from July 2020 that featured Nichols suggesting that Taylor received Nichols’ original position to host NBA Countdown because of her race.
"I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball," Nichols said. "If you need to give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your crappy longtime record on diversity — which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it — like, go for it. Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away."
Nichols was quickly removed from her position as a sideline reporter for the NBA Finals as a result on Tuesday.
On the podcast, Hill discussed this controversy alongside Amin Elhassan and quickly related the story to her own drama regarding ESPN. At the 12:50 mark, she shared her belief that ESPN was being led by "idiots" like Clay Travis.
CLAY TRAVIS: WOKE RUCKUS CONTINUES AT ESPN
"They let a false narrative persist about our show that people ran away with," Hill goes on. "They let the idiots in the room control the conversation, people like Clay Travis. They allowed those people to direct their course of action. They panicked, and suddenly, they were very intentional about the things that they were doing in our show. They wanted black faces. They didn’t necessarily want black voices."
Hill previously worked for ESPN as an anchor until 2018 when she stepped down to write for the ESPN website The Undefeated. However, many including Clay Travis have speculated her different position was a result of her frequent political statements.
In 2017, Hill originally came under fire for referring to then President Donald Trump as a "white supremacist." While ESPN condemned her comments, she continued to keep her position through the year.
Travis previously covered the Hill controversy and previously sparred with her on Twitter. Regarding Hill’s new position, Travis stated in 2018, "The truth is this: her show was a ratings disaster and she painted herself into a corner by calling the president a white supremacist on Twitter. Which further killed the ratings and made her radioactive on a sports network for advertisers who didn’t want to be connected to a personality who was guaranteed to alienate at least half of a sports audience."
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Travis recently discussed the Rachel Nichols and Maria Taylor controversy. On Tuesday, he described the situation stating "The woke-pocalypse has arrived at ESPN. Jimmy Pitaro [CEO of ESPN] is trying to figure out what he can do to survive."
Podcast host Dan Le Batard also disparaged Travis during the conversation referring to him as a "sh*t stain" at the 3:57 mark.
Fox Corporation purchased Travis' popular sports site Outkick earlier this year.
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