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The war of words between sports media personalities Mina Kimes and Clay Travis continues as the pair exchange barbs back and forth on Twitter.
After Clay Travis wrote an article accusing Mina Kimes of being a “left wing liberal cry bully” for claiming Outkick has caused “racist attacks against she and her family,” Kimes replied by suggesting that Travis’ politics are not way he’s controversial, but his personality.
Here’s a tiny sample of reactions your “work” produces, and the disgusting hate you engender.
You think you’ve been blackballed bc of your politics, but that’s not true. There are plenty of people with different views in our industry. The reason no one normal talks to you… https://t.co/AUHh4CKnqu pic.twitter.com/eQk5yFgeAY
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) August 19, 2024
“I want to add: I don’t see myself as a victim at all. Weird s— comes with the job. And the job—my job—is an absolute dream—I get to talk about football with my friends on TV,” Kimes said on Twitter of her issues with Travis and his fanbase.
Kimes also added that Travis isn’t actually a sports personality as “no one actually cares” what he thinks about them and that people instead respond to the “inflammatory bulls—” he “sweatily peddles.”
“Meanwhile, Clay will go back to sweatily peddling inflammatory bulls— for an audience who sends tweets like those, bc it’s all he has: no one actually cares what he thinks about sports,” she said.
Kimes might have a point about Travis’ sports analysis abilities, certainly as far as his gambling record is concerned, as the 45-year-old routinely whiffs on his public betting picks.
The idea that Travis has been intentionally leaning into right-wing rage baiting certainly isn’t a new one, as PFT Commenter of Barstool Sports previously said that Travis admitted as much to him a few years back.
“Clay is such a fraud,” Commenter said on an episode of his Macrodosing podcast. “He literally told me back in like 2015, ‘There’s no market out there right now for right-wing sports, so I’m going to just start becoming a right-wing sports person. He told me what he was going to do.”
As for what Travis’ was initially triggered over, the ordered-on-Wish Dave Portnoy was angry that Kimes mentioned Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz on Pablo Torre’s podcast, in which she said:
“There’s something, to me, really important about seeing someone like this modeling a different kind of masculinity. We’re kind of seeing it in the NFL with the Kelces, and Dan Campbell — this idea that ‘big, tough football guy’ isn’t separate from showing emotion and empathy.”
As of this writing, Outkick has published 11 articles about Kimes, including four since August 12. There’s also a *weird* 2023 article about her “baby bump” at the 2023 ESPYs.
“Fellas … it’s over. ESPN NFL analyst Mina Kimes is officially preggers!” the article begins. “Yes, the young lady once dubbed Yale’s Hottest Girl with a major influence in NFL media is expecting.”
In late 2023, Kimes signed a multi-year extension with ESPN that sees the frequent NFL Live, First Take, and SportsCenter contributor earn over $1.7 million per year.