Clay Talks With Marco Rubio

mistaken in the world of politics in general, Senator from Florida. Now, actually start here because there's a fantastic article that one of our writers, I believe, Armando Sugaro did an out kick about your son and his high school football career. And I know you're a diehard Dolphins fan, so I want to start here and just get your read on this.

I am a diehard Tennessee Titans fan, and after the loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the playoffs, Senator, I'm over forty years old and I could sleep that night because I was so upset over the performance over the three interceptions. I know you're a diehard Dolphins fan. What's the worst loss that you can remember where you thought to yourself, I'm way too old to care as much as I do about something that I don't have any direct impact on. Does that still get you in the gut?

Sometimes Dolphins losses, do you remember one where you're like, oh my god, this is unbelievable. Well, you know, I think what happens is like anything else, you build immunity of these things, just like you build this immunity. So I want to say it was after the four season the Dolphins lost is very close playoff games to the San Diego Chargers, which which I thought was probably the last time that had a legitimate chance you had a team that could have made a run. I mean that

was the year. If you remember Marino Um toward his achilles tendons for and they have this team, and this team can win some games. I mean, you've got and they lose a game on the road to San Diego. At least Pizza Tayanovitch misses this last second field goal. You know they win that game. I think they win the following week, uh and go to the to the

Super Bowl. I think the I really think I think was Steelers who ended up going that year and um, but nonetheless, I UM, I can remember that vividly and that really haunted me. That the following season, they just got rocked by the Bills in the playoffs, and that was the end of Don Shula's the tenure here with the Dolphins. Was his last game. So that was a bad one. And that was way back obviously, So I mean, I mean in the two thousands and the two thousand tens, um,

they really haven't had any singular game like that. They really haven't been I mean, they went to the playoffs twice since the last time the Dolphins won a playoff game was in two thousand, yeah, for two thousand seasons, so maybe two thousand and one, and they haven't won a playoff games since then. It's been twenty three years and they've been to the playoffs twice since then. I

can't recall a game. And and that's a sad thing to say, you know, because I mean usually it's like, Okay, you got a team that you can't have a chance, but like right now where you know, like when you're like rooting to be like the seventh seed in the road wild card team, I mean, it just tells you how far, how toughest franchise has had it for twenty years.

The Titans, you know, they've been in the mix. I mean, I know it's frustrating to see what happened this season, how they came out at the end, but they're in the mix. You know, they got a single on there where they got some players and a core that they've built around, and and and so you know. Uh, but the Dolphins, I mean, it's been a while since they

since it mattered, and I hope that changes now. Are you a believer into a I'm a believable Look, I have no ways And I always tell people this, Like my assessment on to is based on sixty minutes of football seventeen weeks a year, right. I mean, I don't get to see him in practice. I don't get to It's not what I do every day. So but I can tell you there are things he does that I think are unique. I think he has an elite accuracy. I think he's a quick rhythm passor a great, very

good rhythm pass. I think he's a guy that can put the ball in the hands of guys who can make yards after catch. And there's a lot of guys who made their living in the NFL with that, you know, And I think the question is he has to be in the right system, you know, the surrounded by the right talent, with a coach that believes in him, and

that's structured to make it work that way. So they spent the fifth pick in the draft on him, So they got to try to make it work, you know, with him and see what they can maximize from them. So I think that there are some things. Look, the one thing I mere about too, he was a freshman, and do you remembers as well, was eighteen, nineteen years old. They put him in at halftime. This kid takes where I believe it was like a twentysomething art stack. It

was like an overtime against Georgia. It was like a wipeout sack, you know, like the craziest thing you ever saw. And then the next play he comes in, he looks off the safety I think hit Smith down the left sideline for a down the championship. I mean, that was ice blood in his things. I remember thinking, I mean, this kid's nineteen years old and he's delivering, you know, and what's happened with quarterbacks? And you're seeing it now, you're seeing the fruits of it is and I'm seeing it.

I haven't seen it for years. Now. These kids are throwing into complex schemes that are working on I mean they're nine, ten of eleven years old these seven on seven tournaments. So by the time these guys make it to the NFL, these guys, some of them have had ten to twelve years of elite quarterback training and they thrown thousands and thousands of passes um in seven on seven in high school football where everybody's throwing the ball around.

And I think that's part of what happened with two of coming in as you mean, there's a guy had grown up in that sort of system and so maybe that moment wasn't too big for him. So I remember that day thinking, you know, there's something unique about this guy. You know that he's able to do that, But I think he's got to be in the right place to make that work. You guys ever have any cross politics

meeting Democrat Republican sports conversations on Capitol Hill? Like is there a Democrat that you may not have much in common with politically, but you guys are both huge sports fans and you end up in convergence. I'm always just

kind of curious. You're obviously in the world of politics, but is there any sort of approachment or come together conversations surrounding what might have happened in the world of sports over the weekend, if you've got a hearing on Monday, like it would in a lot of other businesses, or you know what they used to call water cooler conversation back in the day when people were actually in offices. I'm curious how much how much discussion of sports there

is on Capitol Hill in your experience. Yeah, yeah, there is, and I'll tell you, I mean, obviously some people more than others than you're always pretty busy when you're up there. But look, the Senate is different than the House. I'm not saying better, I'm the saying different. It's smaller. It's only a hundred people, so everybody knows everybody, and eventually

you end up working with everybody there on something. The other thing is any one senator can blow up the whole place, like you know, really slow down everything and slow down your stuff. So you really there's just this built an incentive to like, you know, fight with someone

on one issue. But not make a permanent enemy out of them, because like next week they may be working with you on something else and eventually that's what happens in the Senate is you know, you can't get any passed unless somebody from the other side it's with you it so you've got to maintain these relationships. I think there are people that are more more sports centric than now.

There's obviously um you know uh So for example, and then the Cory Booker played as you know, and at Stanford, so that's someone I've talked to a few times about the recruiting process and then just college football at large, and you know, we'll talk about that especially, you know, I think about him and those guys. There's those West

Coast games. Man, you gotta stay up till like three in the morning right to see usually I mean Stanford comes across a couple of other times, come across time zones, or you come across and play on the East. I mean, if you're like a b y U fan, I mean, you've gotta be up until three in the morning in East Coast time on a Saturday night, you know, to to see them play and all that. So I think that's where you lose some of it if these guys are And then we had some conversations about name, image

and likeness with the SEE people. But I wouldn't say I don't think it's maybe it's just unique to me. I wouldn't say that anybody that's follows that, um, you know, as closely. Now, obviously with Tubberville there sort everybody gravitates to him. I feel bad but all the time because like ais a u S senator, everybody always wants to talking about what do you think about this, you know, college football related and he's a very joyful guy and very happy to oblige everybody. But I'm like, you know,

you guys asking about Ukraine or something, you know. But but but having him there has kind of made him the magnet for both sides to kind of gratitude towards and talk about this stuff. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live. We're talking to Senator Marco Rubio your own football career. I know you grew up in Miami, if

I'm not mistaken, and obviously, Miami is a hotbed. I grew up in Vegas. You know, I grew up in moved to Miami, So I was born in Miami. When I was seven, we moved to Las Vegas and then uh, and then we came back when I was going into ninth grade. So it was kind of that deal. So what was it like growing up in Vegas? So, I mean, you know, everybody has the glitz and glamour. I'm going out there, I think for the n C Double a basketball tournament. That's one of the things that is one

of the great times to be in Vegas. But around the time that you were there, that had to be an an interesting dynamic. I think your is it your dad who worked in a casino. Yeah, both of my parents worked in the end and my my mom was made at a hotel called the Imperial Palace, which um and then my dad was a bartender at a place called Sam's Town. And uh, look, it was first of all, Vegas was not what it is now. How did how by the way, how did they make the move from

Miami to Vegas? What was the I mean, obviously, I'm assuming maybe there was the idea that they were gonna jobs, but they didn't mean the opportunities in Miami. Yeah. Yeah, it was a cheaper to live there, and there were a lot of jobs that there. Um uh, we had three aunts, three of my mom's sisters already lived there, and so they're like, yeah, you know, and it's true. I mean, you get there and my dad found a

job pretty quickly. My mom as well, just wasn't hard to find service sector jobs that paid enough for them to own a home. And uh and and that's kind of what happened, you know. And I do remember growing up, like my mom telling people like, oh, I want to move. And I look back now at Iron if she start, I want to move to a place that's a little bit you know, more family translate, you know, than Miami. And I look back and I'm saying, so that Vegas,

you know, that's uh, that's that's what. But but from from their perspective, you could that she had family there, so she had that support network. I think that's the big thing that people forget about working class family. It's not just about moving. You're very rarely going to pick up and move somewhere that you don't have, you know, your cousins your your sisters, your brothers, your aunts, your uncle's you're not gonna do it because that's your support network.

I mean, if if you've got to go pick up a couch, you know, from the refrigerator, from from the store, it's your cousin's pickup you're gonna use. I mean, you got to go somewhere, it's you're you're going to leave your kids with your relative. So we always had to be around family. Maybe that was our entire support network. And so Vegas was the only other city in the country where we had family or they could find a job, So it wasn't unique time to grow up there. You know,

the city was smaller than it is now now. A fair fourth space used to fly the planes right over the city. Uh so I remember seeing all the Air Force planes constantly flying over us. I went to a very mixed school, racially mixed school. UM it was I don't know what the statistics were, but it was a substantially you know, uh minority African American and Mexican American UM school that a substantial majority of that. So it was just it was I mean, I look back fondly

at my my memories of Las Vegas. Did you see the video that went viral of the kids in Las Vegas having it announced that they no longer had to wear masks? Did you say, did it? Did it make you think back to when you were a public school kid in Las Vegas? A little bit? Yeah? Except probably. I mean, I guaranteed the school that go to didn't even exist while I was there. And that's just gets grown stuff. But but it does it. It makes you

look back to that entire time. And so this whole generation rights of people that kids in particular that have come of age, I mean, they don't have any memory of not having to wear a mask all the time, and and I and I just think that there comes to this point, right, but the becomes this almost I mean, what's happened in American life today is the stuff that you used to read in the Onion or Babylon be you know, what was satire or satire and ironic and

and things that you can make fun of. This stuff like that actually happening in the real world. And so you tune into a Super Bowl game where you're watching this thing and I mean it's like eight thousand people in the stadium and no one's wearing a mask. The more famous you more are, the less masculer. And and then thinking on Monday morning, a bunch of kids in that city and across the country're gonna have to go to school and wear a mask. Even the State of

the Union. I don't know if you saw these rules they came up with to attend the State of the Union. Um, I saw that they were going to let people go, But what are the rules. I haven't heard them specifically. For first, when Biden speaks, Yeah, so a negative COVID test twenty four hours before you got to wear a mask. You've got a socially distance where they're gonna put members in the calorie and babers on the floor. But it's

all theater. It's all complete theater. Okay. Look, I can tell you now for a fact, and I'm not going to call him out because I don't want to. You know, in the Senate Democrats, you know, when the cameras are on, most all of the most of them wearing a mask. But there are plenty instances in which there are no cameras around where those masks in the where to be found. They don't have them on, And you know, it's just

it's it's a theater. At this point, It's almost like these are the rituals that you have to perform in this theater in order to prove you know that that you're you know that you're in the on the right side of it. And that's what that State of Union thing is. It's theater. That's all it is. Uh, there's nothing more about it. I wish the super Bowl was in California and so far so I'm sorry, I wish the State of the Union wasn't so far stould have

to wear else. What did you think? But I know you watched the super Bowl, and that was one of the things that jumped out to me. Well, first of all, you're around my age, so I bet you grew up listening to Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre and and Eminem and all those guys. And so I loved the halftime show because to my mind, the nineties and the early two thousand's are like the greatest moments in American history, right,

I mean, I feel like everybody got along. I feel like, by and large, you know, we didn't have this cancel culture, this identity politics. It was everybody thought, everybody agreed that we all had way more in common than we don't. And by the way, I still believe that. But I think there's this whole thesis about social media and what

it's done in terms of dividing us. And certainly I woke up this morning and I'm reading Axios's Morning Digest and it's like, Hey, the squad has got Democrats terrified because it's led him into such a far left a world. But were you like me? Did you grow up a fan of all those guys that were performing at halftime? Yeah? Look, I mean I'll tell you something like I came. I didn't.

I landed at the airport in d C on Monday, and this guy from TMZ who's always there, a nice guy, talked to him all the time, and I saw him coming for me, and I took a vase of because I didn't want to answer this question about the halftime show, because it's just, look, I think it's time to be Look. Look, I did I like the halftime show? Mean? Look, do I like the kneeling thing with Eminem? Did I like?

You know? Do I think? And you know what, By the way, I don't know that Eminem has has commented, But when I noticed was Dr Dre was playing on the piano a few bars of Tupac, right of one of Tupac's most famous songs. So I understand that the but when I saw him and m kneeling there, I

took it as he's paying homage to Tupac. Now there's also the overlap with Kaepernick, but that's the way that I took it watching it live, because you know, a part of me was like, man, I wish they would come out to California, Love and they would have the Tupac hologram and really that video right back in the day. When then there, That's exactly what I was thinking. I was the whole time. I was sitting there thinking that the problem with the hologram, okay, and they did it

at Coachella. It was a stark problem with the hologram is I don't know if you can pull that off in daylight. Oh that's a good point. Problem. But if they had done the hologram, they might have they might not have been able to play the second half, but they might have had to delay it like forty or five minutes because it would have just taken everybody out, you know, in terms of I also think that the mentally it would have just shook everybody up, I think.

And the hologram problem too is I think it's harder to edit the hologram, you know, I ever film it is to have of it. I mean it's hard to sort of the censor out. You know, you're you're around my like we're around the same age. Like that to you took you back to the nineties of the early track. Yeah, it's the soundtrack of that era, absolutely, and I was like, look, I don't think those guys are upstanding models for everybody.

I don't think they claimed to be that. Like I don't think snowpart goes around saying I want want people to be like me, and I think people should live like me. I do think that these guys were pioneers in a genre that that that gave birth to sort of what we have today and something that struck me right my kids generation. I have kids nineteen whatever, and they're sitting there laughing at us, like, who are these old guys? You know that they don't know much about it.

And I'm thinking back to the year that Paul McCartney would did the halftime show was in the Jacksonville super Bowl, and I was there thinking like, why Paul mccartey, who's this guy? I mean, I knew who he was, but I'm saying, like, why Paul McCartney so and all these people are around me going crazy Paul McCartney performing. Now I've become those people, you know, because for them that's

were the old guys. Now, yeah, I had did. I thought it was a logical choice simply because of the Los Angeles connection, you know, the death Row connection, to the to the entire West coast of a rap and the like. And at the end of the day, look, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'm not saying these are people that I think we should be nominating for, you know, presidential metal freedom or something. I'm not. I'm not. That's

not what I'm saying. I am saying that that music is reflective of things that are happening in this country, particularly during that period of time, and you see it. It's reflected in their lyrics, but it's also reflected and you know, I mean, this guy's made a career. It's not just the music anymore, it's the I don't know if you ever got to watch this commentary with Kevin Hart during the Super Bowl that would do the side

commentary things during the during the Olympics. Yeah, it was pretty good during the Olympics on my poem, Yeah, they were really good. I mean, this guy's made up the other people. You know. I people don't talk about him. I keep created a career as an actor, and this guy got a gentleman acting career that's built on uh, everything he's done, and so um yeah, look out of you.

That's a long answer to your question. Yes, I think we've lost the capacity right to say, Okay, I like, I like something, you know, and I don't get caught up in all the other things that are around it, like the complificated two things say just that they lost the music, or I like performatively should hear about I can separate those two things. Yeah. My argument has been I wish that everybody had the freedom that rappers do

in their creative space because I'm so fired up. And we talked a lot about on the show at the idea that artists would be trying to censor other artists. So Joe Rogan is an artist of sorts with his show the idea that Neil Young would somehow find it to be valedictory for him to say you shouldn't be able to say what you're saying. It used to be artists would protect other artists, even going back and wrap, you know, in the Two Live Crew, uh, Supreme Court

case and all those things. And it's it's wild where we've ended up. Where I feel like every day is basically the Internet of blame factory. And I see who's trending, and I'm like, oh, what did they say now? Because I feel like everybody's trying to get canceled. I mean, I'm sure you saw Michelle Tafoya stepped right off the sideline, went on Tucker Carlson, actually shared her political opinions, and

almost immediately she was trending all over Twitter. She's not even on Twitter, uh and uh, and people were going after her because she didn't have the expected or appropriate opinions for somebody who was in sports media. Yeah, And

I think that's the problem. That's the thing we've lost in this country is the understanding that the free speech, you know, your free speech as the price and the price of it is other people's free speech, okay and so um, And that's what's happened now, right, So so I think what it's done is it has a bunch of people sort of feeling boxed in, like you are afraid.

I mean you are terrified. Most people are terrified on depending on what your profession is on a daily basis, that you are one sentence, you know, one old comment made a long time ago in a different context, away from ruining your life. I mean, I know a lot of parents that live terrified. You know, they have some

fifteen year old has multiple social media accounts. You shut them down, they open up any one, and you're just terrified that one day somewhere the link like say something that a fifteen year old might say, and that's it. I mean, at fourteen or fifteen years of age, they're going to get some college is gonna say I won't admit you, and they're gonna get ruined and things of this nature. So I think that's part of it, and

it's gotten to the point of hysteria. Right. It's so I think of all the things in the world that people should not be offended by as a podcast, because the podcast is not like it's like a radio broadcast, you know, and even that shouldn't terrify people. You just change the station or whatever. With a podcast, you have to take active steps to like find it, turn it on, and listen to it. Right, So, if there's a podcast

that offends you, it's very easy to avoid it. In fact, you've got to really work hard not to to actually interact with it. So I don't understand that, and and and but that's what we've gotten to. And it's funny you mentioned UM to Life crew. Luther Campbell is actually a high school football coach in South Florida, and I've interacted and I've interacted them quite a bit over time, and you know, and I've actually joked to them about it because I don't know. It was about a month ago.

We had a group of people here and I don't know what I was asking something about. UM. I forgot what it was. But the Alexa was on and it heard lyrics came on and I'm sprinting to the alexa unplugged it from the power so that UM, so that you know, these lyrics started playing, and I've joked with them about it. And you talk about his case. His case was a sheriff and broward that didn't want him to perform, and he took it all the way to

the Supreme Court and one and on that front. So look, I think there is a huge amount of building resentment towards all this Canada count account cancel culture and things of this nature. How it manifests itself over the next few years, I don't know, but I think people are starting to see that. I mean, you're running out of people to cancel and things to get outraged by. And it's really I think there's gonna be a real snap back against it. How do we get out of it?

That's the question that I get asked so often by so many different people, by the way of all different political stripes and circumstances. Because one of the things that I think is becoming quite clear is you mentioned the idea of a fifteen year old. Right, I've got a fourteen year old and eleven year old in the seven year old and you well remember and everybody out there listening who has ever been a fourteen or fifteen year old,

you do a lot of stupid things. Whether you're a Democrat, Republican, independent, black, white, Asian, Hispanic. It's a lot of parents out there terrified that their kids gonna do something on social media that's going to cause a major uproar and turn into a freaking national story. I mean, you saw what happened to the Covington Catholic kid for just going to Washington, d C. On a school field trip and standing on the steps. How do

we get out of it? How how do we come through and and emerge saying on the other side from what feels like a a true moment of insanity in the country. Well, I don't think there's a political answer to it. I think there's much of what we're seeing in these country's as a cultural problem, um and and social problems, social cultural problem. And I always tell people that like politics reflects our culture, it's not the other way around, you know, and so that that that's the

first point we have to understand it. So not some law you're going to pass that fixes is. I think it has to be the growing awareness of people that this is just too much already. Like I'm done with it, I'm tired of it, I don't want to hear about it.

Don't ask me to be outraged by so and so. UM. I think it has to start with people just sort of refusing to play along with this stuff, just refusing to play along with it the return of common sense, you know, explaining to people, look, you have you we have to stop judging twelve, thirteen, and fourteen year olds like they're forty year olds. And also I think a little bit of the acceptance. I always tell people that, like,

you have to let your kids make mistakes and fail. Now, you know, am I going to let them run a car over the side of of of a cliff for something? No, You're not gonna let them do terrible mistakes that are life altering. But if people are not allowed, you can't build resiliency. If you don't if you don't interact with you know, uh, the challenges and adversity and mistakes, you're just not And I mean part of growing up is

making mistakes. And I'm not encouraging mistakes, but those are teaching lessons and things you have to go through in order to become And don't see what happens is if you don't let kids make mistakes, if you don't have if you don't let them lose, if you don't let them fail, if you don't let them have adversity, then what you end up with is a year old person that's incredibly fragile, that at any time they interact with anything that's challenging, they can't they can't confront it. That

they they're not resilient, they can't deal with it. And then they turn around and want people are coming and take care of it for him. Right, So I really don't like what this person saying. Please silence them for me, as opposed to this person is an idiot, that's his opinion. I don't care to impact my life, and you move on,

but let'm say whatever he wants. And that that that I think is part of a broader problem we're having, and that is we spend and it's natural, right, but we spend so much time sheltering people from the uncomfortable that when they have to finally interact with it as an adult, um that they have built a capacity to do it. And and uh and and so they're demanding the authority step in and just silence it and crushes.

That's also important, I think for why sports matters to so many kids out there is it helps you develop that ability to lose and work hard and keep coming back. Where do you think you would be if you hadn't ever played football? How would it? How it has changed your life? Look, that's a really good question, and that's a great question the reason why I care about and

it doesn't have to be sports. I honestly believe that kids have to be good at something or try to be work to be good at something at a very young age. And it's not just at school. All these lessons, all these virtues that people want to teach, you've got to apply them or you're not developing them. And sports, to me, is a great teacher of that. It doesn't have to be sports. It could be imagine any this thing, but but it has to be something that teaches you.

One of the most important things in life. Number one is do you have to show up on time? That's the harder to get up in the morning and go somewhere and be there on time. If you if you fake it that part out, you know, that's of life right there. Number two is I want to achieve something like I want to get from here to there. That's my goal. Because there's a difference between you know, people, there are people who have ambitions and then there are

people that have a drive to fulfill that ambition. You can have ambition, but if you don't have the drive, it's not gonna happen. So you have a goal in mind, whatever that goal might be, and that has a price. Just like going to the store, you have a pay a price to get something. If you want to get that, it has a price and you have to pay that price to even have a chance to get it right. So if your goal, and athletic is a great place

to learn it. I want to be the best football player I can be or then and I want to be the best or whatever I can be now. I have to apply myself and do the things I have to do and give up something in order to achieve that. And learning that model, it's what you're going to use for the rest of your life. And I think that you asked me how sports impacted me. It wasn't athletic success. I was not a successful athlete. I was not someone that was going to ever play at another level and

anything of that nature. But I learned that if I wanted to achieve something or I wanted to be a part of something, there are things I couldn't do, and there are things I had to give up, and there are things I had to do that I may not have wanted to do in order to be a part of it and to achieve it, and and learning that when I was sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, fourteen, fifteen, you know, for that matter, is what I think I took away from sports, and it's helped me every step of the way.

So you know, that's why for me, it's like when when I lose, whether it's running for president or something I couldn't get past, or you know, some disappointment in life. The way I view it is all right, I gotta go back on Monday and study the film and see what we went wrong and improve from it and get better and apply it the next time I faced a situation like this. I think that's the lesson I taken from sports, and and that I hope, you know, my

kids will take away from from sports. What's that like to run for as it it and not win? Well, that's interesting. I mean I had a lot of fun. I mean the campaign, I met a lot of great people. I made friends all across the country. I learned a lot about America. I was exposed to parts of America

and things about America. You know, I'm an enormous believer in the American dream, and so for me, it was shocking to go out and talk to people that weren't nearly as optimistic because they didn't love the country, but because you know, their dad and their grandfather had both worked at some factory somewhere, but that factory left and now there's no jobs in that community, and everyone's telling them to go, you know, to college and become a

software engineer, and that's not what they want to do. So there's no job for them. So there's real anger about why that's happening. Um. You learn about the fact that oftentimes in life you know things you know, they're just like in sports, you know one or two things outside of your control. In some cases, UM determine the outcome. And that's just the way it is. UM. So I was a lot of fun. It wasn't fun not to win, but but but I enjoyed every second of it. And

other than obviously the you know, the outcome. And but I learned a lot from that process. I think I'm a better senator because I ran for president, because I was exposed to issues, ideas and parts of the country and issues across the country that I really could never have known about had I not been their visitors and had to interact with people, and so you know, it's

a lot of work. Like I said, it's a unique process. Um, I think I actually I ran in a very unique electoral environment with the Trump running and it was kind of this privot moment in American political history is and um, you know, but but I don't regret it for one second. I think it made me. You know, it's a lot of hard work, but it made me know better all the way around. I know, you're running for the Senate now is going to be its own animal, But is there a part of you down the road that would

be interested in running for president again? Yeah. Look, once you've run for president, you obviously have an interest. And for me, the interest was if I can do things and senate, those same things I could probably do that I can do as a president even more right because president of the ability to influence them even more than a sen senator can on most issues. I think the one thing I appreciate now a lot more than I did maybe in fifteen or sixteen, is it's not just

about wanting to do it. It's about an environment. So I always say to people like, if you're imagining you're the world's greatest surfer, with the most advanced surfboard possible, and you've practice really hard. But if there aren't ways, I don't care how good a surfer you are, you can't surfer. There's no ways you could you have to, and you don't control whether those waves or not. And I think it's the same when it comes to politics.

Sometimes it's not just that you want to run or that you'd be a good president, but is that the right time for someone like you? Um, And what you're about is the timing of the environment, right. And so that's the one thing I think I've come to appreciate more about politics than you know. I think I can point to a lot of people that have won presidential elections and say they wouldn't have won either one had they ran four years earlier, eight years earlier. So and

I think that's the part. I just don't know if that environment is ever going to be there for someone who And in addition to that, whether that aligns with whatever is going on in my personal life at that moment, you know, my family or health, whatever things you don't control and can't predict. You were talking earlier about working on n I L I know you are. I believe a Florida Gator fan. Um. In terms of of college football? Um, and uh, how do you see this playing out? Because

I'll give you a story. I had a conversation recently with some guys who are raising money. I grew up a big University of Tennessee fan, and they said, for instance, Arch Manning. Um, and I'm Cooper. Well, he's an awesome guy who is arch his dad? And Arch is a five star quarterback recruit. For people who might be listening to us not familiar, the nephew of Eli and Peyton Manning.

Cooper is the oldest brother of of Archie sons. Um. They said he could get ten million dollars in n I L. That's how much demand there is for him. The Texas is, the Alabama's, the Georgia's, I think maybe L s U. There's a bunch of different teams that are fighting as hard as they can to try to sign Arch Manning. Is a quarterback getting millions of dollars going to fundamentally change the fabric of college football. Should

there be a universal rule? Um, how would you if you had a magic wand deal with the impact of N I L as it spreads across the college football landscape. Well, I think a couple of things that are inevitable. The first is I think that genie cannot be put back into the bottom. Okay, so that that there's is no

way to put that back. And at the end of the day, that's just gonna You can't have an industry that's generating billions of dollars and tens of millions of dollars for for an organization and yet the people around it not demand. Hey, you know, at some point I want a piece so that we are a capitalist, free enterprise society. So there comes a point where that's just a fact and you can't put that genie back. So yes,

I think it's going to fundamentally all alter football. I think there are some athletes that are going to garner that type of attention of overwhelming majority of athletes playing at that level are not going to qualify for that. Then maybe they'll all get a two thousand dollars or one thousand dollar a month, you know, and I l deal, but really not that level. And I think they're fine

with Everybody understands there at a different point. Here's what I think ultimately happens, and I think it happens before maybe before the end of this decade. I think the big the five major conferences are going to finally wake up and realize we don't need the n C Double A. Where do we need the n C Double A for I mean, they're not We have our own TV contracts. The only thing in the n C Double A is for us is a pain. All they do is come up with rules and try to enforce them and try

to govern us and so forth. And I think they're gonna break away, and I think they're going to create their own league separate from the n C Double A at least the five major conferences. Is why. I think you're seeing them all trying to expand and grow and geographically and I think once that happens, what you're gonna be left with is that whatever that entity is, the Big five conferences, that level of college football, and then the rest of it are just going to be like,

you know, normal regular college football. And I think that's what that's where we're headed, and I think that's what the conferences are positioning and posturing towards. And I think at that point that n I l deal. The one thing I would do immediately is I would allow, you know, the schools to be involved in this process, because right now it is the wild West. Schools and most many states can't be involved at all. And so I've got these athletes in the hands of these street agents or

even agents, but the schools can't be. Look, and all these schools have community outreach. They're the program offices there are. These are the offices that help these kids do community service, you know, do the turkey giveaway, you know, whatever it is they're doing in a community, and that they should be allowed to also work with these kids to identify an I L deals and to make you know, to be involved in which ones are good, which ones are not,

and so forth. But that's my view of it. I don't know how you put this genie back in the bottle at this point. And um, and I ultimately think the one one point I would make is there's gonna company if you if you have you know, a million dollars or let's say half a million dollars and name image and likeness deals, I could see where school assess

to them. Look, you don't need the scholarship. Let me use the scholarship on a kid that doesn't have those deals, and you know, use your N I L scholarship to pay for part of your tuition. You still have another half a million dollars of pocket change, and that way, I can use that scholarship on a kid that may not have those deals to bring him into the the program.

So you're gonna have a lot of what would traditionally be known as walk on but with a one million dollars in an image and likeness deal, they don't need a scholarship, and that's alsop can then go to someone that they're trying to recruit or bring in. And UM, I think that's kind of where we're headed now. Um you know, I think you'll see that here in the next four or five years. Fox Sports Radio has the

best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live. We're talking to Marco Rubio, senator from Florida. UM I mentioned earlier what your high school football career was like. Everybody, this this is to the point earlier about sports and instilling some measure of character by by challenging yourself. Everybody, he has a moment where they recognize, hey,

I'm probably not going to be a pro athlete. I say everybody. There's a tiny pinprick of people that actually end up being pro athletes, and everybody has that realization at different ages. If you don't go on to being pro. Right, some of us are out there and you're like, you know, eleven or twelve years old, and you look around and you think, boy, I'm the twelfth best player on my little league team. The odds of me being a major league baseball player are low, but you can still love

the game. Did you have a moment of realization when as a football player you were like, boy, I'm not going to be able to play in the NFL. I'm not gonna necessarily be able to go to a high level, high level school. I was having this conversation with my wife the other day because she was like, man, all these kids, because you do different levels, you travel whatever.

The kids all have this dream and then slowly they all become aware of it and you end up going pro in something other than sports, which is the good tagline I think for the n C double A. That is true for most people, even in college athletics. Was there moment in time where you thought, hey, I'm not going to be an NFL player, I better find something else that I can be good at. Do you remember having that moment of realization? Yeah, I do, and I mean before I dressed that point, and I want to

forget it. I want to make one point because related to what you're saying, and that is I'm I'm involved a lot like I have been for a long time, with a lot of young people recently graduated from high school, some already in college, some playing with my son, and others, you know, a little bit younger than him. And the one thing I tell him about sports is everybody you're playing a game. This is a kids game, and there comes a point and everyone that's playing where someone comes

to you and says you can't play anymore. For some people, like Tom Brady, that happens, you know, later they get to decide when that moment is. For other people, it happens at sixteen, seventeen, eighteen nineteen. So some people it happens after three or four years in the league. Someone's gonna come to you and say you can't play anymore. We're not You're done. So it's decided for you. So at that moment what happens. So you've got to be prepared for that moment what you do next. Now, that

moment for me, you know, came basically. I went to play football at a small school in Missouri called Tarkyo College isn't even open anymore. And I'm sitting there and it's cold, and there's like less people in the stands at our games and there our high school games, and frankly, I think high school. My high school team, which is a pretty good high school team, especially in my junior year,

might have even been about the deepest college team. And I'm sort of there thinking to myself, Um, I'm here halfway across the country, gonna graduate or get a bunch of credits that may not even transfer when the time comes to leave this place, that it goes under. Um,

you know, five nine d seventy pounds. I run a you know, four seven maybe four six five on a good day in the forty There's just not a lot of people with those measurable measurables, uh playing in the National Football League and uh much less you know, at any program of much larger than this one. And it's time, you know, you gott the fork in the road is and you've gotta make a decision. So for me, it

was kind of a gradual realization. I've looked, it's just think gonna happen, like it I need to start like life is real now it needs to happen. So I was it was there in Missouri, probably in December or January, my first year in college, that I sort of realized, like I need to get back to Florida and go to school and get a degree because I mean, number the numbers just don't lie. I mean, if you're five nine one seventy year, you better be running a four three or four to nine. I mean, I think I

don't forgot. One of my coaches told me, like the smaller you are, the faster you better be. There has to be something just to have a chance to play at a bigger college, not to mention at a higher level. So but that moment came then, and it will come for everybody at some point. And some of it is by choice, and some of it, you know, is a choice. Some of it is imposed on you by reality. And and that's fine, that's okay. I mean, at the end of the day, I've always do this is always told

my son and our kids. Is if playing football teaches you all these lessons and allows you to get into a school that you might not have been able to get to on your grades alone, and for free. I mean, we just won the lottery. You get to play a game, and that that game has allowed you to learn these lessons and go to a school you can't otherwise get into. Perhaps and and and they're going to pay for it. I mean, what more can you ask for at that point?

You know? And and obviously that's not true for everybody. Some kids I do think have the ability. But it's going back to the presidential talk that's not just on them. For a lot of these people, is are you drafted by the right team and the right circumstances and do you not start suffering injuries because and what position are you playing? Because I think it looks if you're a quarterback that has some attributes, they're going to give you

a little longer to develop. If you're a running back that's disposable man running backs, I mean, I mean these guys, I mean they're they're they've become disposable. I mean they're going through them. They're not even drafting them high anymore. So a lot of it depends on that too. There's just a lot of factors you don't control that determine how far and how long you can play. If you weren't a senator, if you hadn't gone into politics, what do you think you would do? That's a great question.

I mean, I think there's a couple of things that probably would have wanted. I mean, I've always you know, I always would like to say, if I could live in some alternate universe and have to be two people, right, I would love to have been in the front office of because I love the process of sort of identifying talent and putting the right talent next to each other.

It's not just about building people that are you can put in time of putting as all star teams, but putting together the right mix of players who complement one another and allow you to win games as a team. I love all of that, and so that's what that's what I think. Maybe I would be doing it. I don't know if I'm being good at it, but that's certainly something I think I would have wanted to been

a part of if I wasn't doing this. But you know, I guess I'll just focus on Ukraine and stuff like that at this well, I the people will be listening to this. One of the things I like doing for conversations like this is people can listen to them. You know, it can be hopefully just as enjoyable a year from now as it is right now. But as we're discussing what's going on, the situation in Ukraine literally hour by

hour feels like it can be constantly shifting. You've obviously been briefed and and updated on so many different things involving the Ukraine situation. What do you anticipate happening if you were sort of game theory wise playing out what Vladimir Putin's goals are here. His goal is to take back parts of all of you, and probably not all Ukraine,

but parts of it. And the isn't a simple I mean, if blab and Putin was on your podcast right now, number one, I think a lot of you know, people are returning into I would be a treat to talk with him there. Yeah, yeah, I see how good as English is and all that, because I know he's, uh, he works on his English and so forth. But but the other thing you would see, he would basically say it this way to you, and that is Look, uh, he's presented these guys are Russian. He's not American. He

wasn't raised in the US. I mean his view of life in general, and the Russian view of things in general is very different than the American viewpoint as a country that's been invaded multiple times throughout its history, and you know that just impacts the culture and how it used things. In his mindset is power. We Russia should be a powerful country, should be one of the world's

most powerful country. As a powerful countries have the right to have a sphere of influence, to basically have some area of the world where they dominate, not necessarily govern those countries directly, but at least have leaders and societies that are loyal to them. And he believed that Eastern Europe should be part of there. There should be a sphere influence for Eastern Europe. Response to Russia, I know

would argue that they want that in the Pacific. I think Iran believe that they should be that in the Middle East to some extent. And then you know, the United States can have the Western hymns or he wouldn't care. Uh, you know, because he's so you guys have the facto have that now with Canada and Mexico and Caribbean so forth, with some exception. That's what he would argue. So Ukraine's a part of it. It's the largest countries in Europe. It was a key part of the Soviet Union. A

lot of Soviet leaders came from Ukraine. And so this whole notion that Ukraine is a separate country or separate people, to him, it's not. It would be in his mindset. It would be like saying, hey, you know, Texas is its home country and Texans should be allowed to break away from the United States and do whatever they want. That's what he would say to us. So that's why I believe he will go in, and maybe by the time this thing air is he will have gone in.

At some level, they'll find some excuse for having done it, and he's going to install some puppet government that's loyal to him and make sure that Ukraine never is a part of the European Union, NATO. And that's it's pretty straightforward. That's kind of like the direction he's headed. So I think he'll stop there. No, I think his next move is to try to force NATO to remove troops from every country, and it's thirteen countries that have been added.

Um and and then I think he'll have felt like, you know, he'll go down in history as the guy that restored great Russia's a great global to a great global power status. I know that you spend a lot of time and have over your life in South Florida with a variety of different people who have come to the United States to escape socialism, to escape oppression, and I think that in many ways kind of ties in

with the question we just asked about Ukraine. We saw in those people overwhelmingly break in the direction of Donald Trump and in the direction of the Republican Party. Do you expect for that to continue to accelerate? We uh, We mentioned axios and the problems that the Democratic Party has with for lack of a better term, to catch all of woke politics that have kind of infected and

taken over that party. What are the people in South Florida who have come to America because of America's excellence and opportunity say to you when you're out on the campaign trail, and do you think that acceleration of the Hispanic vote certainly in South Florida, but maybe even around the country is going to continue to move in the direction of the Republican Party. Yeah, as long as the Republican Party's responsive to the things that people like that

are thinking about. Because the two things. The first thing I know, we have wading we're going to learn here at some point that ethnicity or even the color of your skin is not what determines how people vote. Right, So when you when people say, oh, look at the Hispanics that have flipped over, Yeah, there's some aspect of

their experience, right. They came from or their parents came from a country that went far left, and you're trying to convince them that America sort of this terrible place, and they're like, no, no, no, I know what a terrible place looks like, this is not a terrible place, and why would you screw this up? You guys have a great place. So there's no doubt that there's that aspect. But the one that I think people don't really entirely

embraces the Hispanic community. Their primary identity on an hourly and daily basis, and certainly on a political basis, is that they're working class small business owner. That's their identity. And so, you know, people working class people that didn't go to Harvard or Yale and don't listen to CNN or follow Twitter on a daily basis, they think some of the such as insanity. They think it's insanity and and they rebel against it. But it's not because they're Hispanic.

It's because they're working class or small business owners and and and that's their identity. And so I think what you're going to continue to see here is that that vote is going to increasingly resemble the vote of working class people across the country, of every ethnicity, of every race, of every background, because the primary identity is not their ethnicity, it's the fact to get up in the morning and go to work somewhere, either in their own small business

or to provide for their families. And some of the people that are in charge seem to live on another planet. And and and I think that that's what you're seeing evidence of. And I think that trend is going to continue as long as the Democratic parties held hostage by a group of committed revolutionary Marxists who want to fundamentally, you know, tear down the country and rebuild it into something very different. Well, last question for you last night.

I know I said I want this to be timeless in some ways, but I do think this question is kind of timeless. We talked a lot about sports with you. Uh. The transgender issue is something that OutKick has been covering, and we've certainly been talking about a lot on Clay and Buck. And right now there is a University of Pennsylvania men's swimmer who decided to become a woman that is poised to set all time records for women's swimmer

again biological male swimming as a as a woman. Uh, it's as if the world of sports is afraid to even touch it. You know, the ESPN, which covers the intersection of sports and politics all the time. I can't tell you the number of times I heard, Hey, so and so athlete is not going to go to the Trump White House, as if it were a lead sports story. They basically ignored it. Um, what should happen in the

world of of sports? And I think this could be an interesting, you know, sort of breaking point because what it represents, Senator to me is you have to choose a side. Right, You're either in favor of Title nine and women's athletics and and and and women being able to achieve the highest level in their sport, or you are going to allow a biological man to potentially come in and set all time records. And we talked earlier about how many people feel like they can't speak out.

We talked to a lot of the girls on this team. We did a story for them at out Kick and Senator. They said, Hey, we're not even willing to use our own names here because we want to go to grad school, because we want to go get jobs, and we're afraid of the top Google result for our name being so and so is transphobic. They that's not what this is about. But we've spent our entire lives trying to compete to win championships, and now this biological and is coming in

and he's dominating in women's sports. How crazy is it that we've reached this point in athletics. Well, I think the crazier part is not that we've reached the sport and athletics, is that we've reached a point in our culture where simple physiological and biological facts we're being asked

to ignore them. Okay, one thing is a difference of opinion and the other thing is that it's just absolutely insisting that everybody must ignore physiological and biological facts established in science, you know, and we've got to believe in science or some things and not another's. Men and women are different. One is not better than the other. They're equal in the eyes of God, they're equal in the eyes of the law. They have the same rights, but

they are there's differences. There are things that physiologically most women can do better than most men, and vice versa. And you see it time and again in the athletics. Clearly a man is is if you look at the one times of men versus women in track, men's times are really faster than women. Is there a really fast woman that's faster than the lowest man's. Yeah, I'm sure there is. But we're talking about buy and large, the

rules of the road and the engagement. So what we set up a situation now where if someone says, I identify as a woman, even though you're a man in every way, I mean, according to the rules these people

have created. And you know, if Lebron James says I want to play in the w n b A, They're gonna have to let him play in the w N b A. And I assure you if he played in the w n b A, he would quickly, you know, hold every record that league has ever said, and he would dominate those games, not because he's a better human being or a more important than being, because he has physiological advantages over the people he's playing against. By the way,

those things extend even even within the gender. So there's a reason why we break up boxing and mixed martial arts into into weight classes, because you know, Floyd Mayweather may be a great fighter, but you know, if you put him in a ring with Mike Tyson and his prime, it's not going to be a very good fight because

the heavier guy has some physiological advantages. And I don't care if Mike Tyson identified as a middleweight, Were're gonna letim fight in the middle way because he would hurt the middle way because he was bigger, stronger, and was able to impose himself. And so I just think we've

got to get back to that realization. And and and I think what the one thing we've lost the capacity is to say one thing is to say, look, okay, I get it, you identify as a woman, you want to you're in the process of same shape, changing your gender, to all kinds of treatment. I don't know anything about that stuff, man, but I'm gonna treat you with dignity and respect because you're a human being and you deserve that, and you know, and the laws should protect you as

much as anybody else. But what you can't do is you can't impose that on everybody else. This is not This is no longer about just respecting the individuals. It's now about imposing the views of one group on everybody else and force and telling everybody else everybody must now change the way you live, work and do sports because some people feel this way. That's that's that's the point where you get that right now, And that's where the

point we're at right now. And um, you know, I don't think I don't know how this thing works itself through, but but it starts getting absurd. I think that's what's gonna happen. And if you're gonna start to see absurdity, that that will be impossible to ignore or you're going to destroy women athletics. Senator Marco Rubio, I've really enjoyed the chat. We'll have to get together at some point

in the future. Maybe when we're in d C. But in the meantime, I hope your Gators have some good luck, but not too much good luck, because at some point I'd like for Tennessee to beat Florida once every Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Let me tell you if he's watching now, I mean he's listening, he's listening to somebody's I mean, I don't even know. I I don't want to violate the answer double A rules or whatever. So um, because I'm an alumni of the school and all that. But but Florida's

now in the running. I hadn't even seen that the most recent update. Have you met Billy Napier yet, by the way, I have not. I have not, but I hear great things about him, and um and I think you know, Florida in our facilities, Uh, I mean are gonna be second to none. So um uh look, I mean, if you're listening now, March, I mean, I just think Florid us a good choice. I mean, just check it out. Man. Uh, that is Marco Rubio making his play for arch Manning.

I appreciate the time of a man. Have a good weekend him and uh and a good time figuring out what's going to happen here as we roll towards the midterms. Thanks Ma, Man, thank you. I'm Clay Travis. This has been wins and losses.