Sports

A tour through Travis Kelce’s baseball era

Published

11 months ago

January 5, 2024

A tour through Travis Kelce’s baseball era

In the folkloric story of Travis Kelce’s life and career, one time period stands out. It was the summer of 2010. Kelce had lost his scholarship at Cincinnati after smoking marijuana and failing a drug test. He was living with his older brother, Jason, working for a call center, tasked with asking random people about Obamacare, often enduring scorn from the other end of the phone. At 20 years old, Kelce wondered if his football career was over.

That’s when Kelce, his future hanging in the balance, joined a summer collegiate baseball league. It was a way to stay busy and also a potential Plan B.

As Taylor Swift fans would discover years later while scouring Kelce’s old tweets, there was a time when people in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, viewed baseball as Kelce’s best sport. His father, Ed, loved the game and coached Travis from T-ball on up. And Kelce’s affection for baseball never really faded. Over the years, he has thrown an ill-fated first pitch at a Guardians’ game, played in a celebrity softball contest, stepped in the Chicago Cubs’ batting cages, filmed a video taking hacks with Aaron Judge and attended Game 1 of this year’s World Series.

I can’t wait for this baseball to get started up!!! A lot of people don’t know, but baseball just might be my best sport!
— Travis Kelce (@tkelce) May 28, 2010

During that transformative summer of 2010, Kelce joined coach Michael Bricker’s team at Champions Academy in Cincinnati. One evening, former Cincinnati Bearcats baseball coach Brian Cleary ventured to see Kelce — a player he already knew plenty about — in person.

“He was playing right field. As they take in-and-out (warmups) and as he’s playing pregame, it’s the best thrower of a baseball I’ve ever seen, to this day, in my life,” said Cleary, now a scout for the Washington Nationals.

The lost stories of Kelce’s baseball career, resurrected largely thanks to his girlfriend’s most fervent fans, are worthy of a Swiftian refrain:

If one thing had been different
Would everything be different today?

In 2006, Michael Dillon had just taken over as the head baseball coach at Cleveland Heights High School. It was the summer before Kelce’s junior year, and Dillon’s athletic director had given him a list of the school’s baseball players. After conferring with a few folks in the local baseball scene, Dillon learned of a notable omission: Travis Kelce.

Dillon heard about this kid who moved with the violent grace of a full-on rainstorm, who could hit the ball a mile and who had been throwing 90 mph since the eighth grade. Dillon tracked down the schedule for Kelce’s summer team. He ventured to a game, and one of the first things he saw was Kelce blasting a line-drive to the base of a wall 400 feet from home plate.

“I’m like, ‘What the f—?” Dillon said. “I’m pissed at this AD. How and why was he not telling me about Travis Kelce?”

Kelce was a three-sport star, a quarterback on the football team and a rim-rattling post in basketball. He was also a dominant youth hockey player and even had a stint playing lacrosse in middle school. Although he didn’t play baseball during his sophomore season for Cleveland Heights, Kelce was still spending his summers on a diamond, and his father had been trying to convince his youngest son to go all-in on baseball. Ed had at one point contacted Reggie Sanders, a Cleveland Heights alum turned Braves scout who ran tryout camps in the area. Sanders (not the former major-league player with the same name) answered the phone and almost immediately began rolling his eyes.

Papa Kelce was telling him how talented his youngest son was, how he was always trying to follow in his older brother’s footsteps. (Jason Kelce was already playing football at Cincinnati.) Ed thought his younger son was an even better athlete.

“I was probably putting the phone down,” Sanders said, “grabbing a cup of coffee and then coming back. Like, ‘Whatever bro. I hear this all the time.’”

Sanders, despite his skepticism, went to watch Travis play.

“He looked like Josh Hamilton,” Sanders said, referencing the 2010 American League MVP. “I saw him get a base hit. He got on first, stole second and then stole third way before the catcher could even get it out of his glove. It was something surreal.”

Sanders evolved into a sort of mentor to Kelce, and kept in close touch with Ed.

“I think that was his father’s dream, to see him in a major-league baseball uniform playing in the World Series,” Sanders said.

The ensuing winter, Dillon stopped Kelce following a basketball practice and made a sales pitch that amounted to a guilt trip.

“You’re the best football player in the school,” Dillon told him. “You’re the best basketball player in the school. You’re out there playing with your teammates and your friends, helping them be successful. Now you don’t play baseball? What is it? Some of your best friends are on the baseball team. You’re gonna be letting them down. You’re gonna be letting the school down. You’re gonna be letting yourself down.”

Kelce always had an undying loyalty to his hometown, a diverse suburb east of downtown Cleveland.

“I’ll be there, Coach,” Kelce told him.

Kelce, who had been academically ineligible for football as a sophomore, first had to raise his grades and ACT score. But midway through his junior season, he was finally able to join the baseball team.

Early in Kelce’s first game, teammate Evan Knoblauch was playing center. A batter from the opposing team smashed a ball over Kelce’s head in left. Knoblauch recalls Kelce yelling out: Oh s—!

Then Kelce turned and started sprinting. He atoned for his bad jump, turned his back to home plate and snagged the ball with a spectacular basket catch. In center field, Knoblauch clapped.

“Man,” he remembers thinking. “Good to have him back.”

A lifelong Cleveland sports fan, Kelce appeared with his mom, Donna, before a Guardians game in April. (Nick Cammett / Diamond Images via Getty Images)

By May of Kelce’s senior year, he made The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer as a player of the week. He went 14-for-22 with 12 runs scored, five doubles, two home runs, four steals and 12 RBIs.

The “About Travis” section below his statistics noted Kelce was a fan of the Cleveland Indians and Cavaliers. His favorite movie was “Talladega Nights.” His favorite actor was Will Ferrell. He enjoyed eating at Outback Steakhouse and watching “SportsCenter.” He was a typical teenager.

By his senior season at Cleveland Heights, Kelce had also become the best hitter in the area. Playing mostly outfield and third base, he led the area with a .588 batting average and belted six home runs. Dillon was an early adopter of swinging with a slight uppercut and viewed unlocking even more of Kelce’s monstrous power as a work in progress.

“He would have been an Aaron Judge-type player,” Dillon said.

Kelce even made a few appearances as a closer and was an imposing flamethrower. But his pitching appearances were limited, and teammates tried to avoid facing him in practice for a reason. Years later, no one was totally surprised when he spiked his ceremonial first pitch at the Cleveland Guardians’ home opener.

“He didn’t really always know where it was going to go,” Dillon said.

Kelce also had a reputation for being, well, a goofball.

Some of the stories verge on the apocryphal, and Kelce himself doesn’t mind playfully amplifying them. Sure, Kelce texted his old friend Knoblauch when he was contacted for this story: “Tell him about the legend of 6-6.”

Travis Kelce is a large man. But at a certain point, his outsized reputation exceeded even his actual stature, culminating in the so-called “Legend of 6-6,” a catchphrase for Kelce deeds both good and bad. It would come up when he did something amazing. It could even be a fallback when Kelce did something idiotic. Teammates might shrug and joke: He’s 6-6. Someone that size can get away with anything.

Perhaps, however, his deeds only made him seem that big. As Kelce recently told Knoblauch: “I’m 6-4 7/8.”

On at least one occasion, after the team finished in and out, Kelce would grab the ball, and instead of bringing it into the dugout, he hurled it over the right-field fence.

“He wants a laugh. You tell Trav to do something, Trav would f—— do it,” Knoblauch said.

But he was a goof who was intensively competitive. In a game against rival Beachwood, Kelce came in as the closer. Cleveland Heights was up by two runs. But Kelce was especially wild that day. He issued three walks and gave up a double. The bases were loaded in a tie game when Kelce plunked the opposing batter, hard.

“Right in the neck,” Knoblauch said.

The winning run scored. Kelce walked off the field, took off his glove and hurled it over the fence above the third-base dugout. The glove sailed into the stands on the nearby football field. (“Travis Kelce is the poorest and sorest loser I’ve ever been around,” Cleveland Heights basketball coach Barry Egan once told The Athletic).

Kelce then stomped into the dugout, where a 50-gallon metal drum was serving as the trash can. He grabbed the barrel and tried to hurl it in frustration.

“I’m running in from left field, and I have an obscured view,” Knoblauch said. “All I see is two legs sticking out of the dugout.” Kelce had tried to throw the trash can, flipped, fell over and bruised his ribs.

Later, on the bus ride home, Kelce told his teammates he was sorry and that he had let them down. Too bad no one could contain their laughter.

The summer before they departed for college, Kelce ended up pulling Knoblauch onto a summer team called the East Side Thunder.

“He vouched for me,” said Knoblauch, who went on to play baseball at Denison University in Ohio. “The cool thing about Trav is he still does this now. He introduces people to people.”

It was the spring of 2010 at the University of Cincinnati, and Ed Kelce called Brian Cleary.

Travis had just finished his redshirt freshman season on the Bearcats football team. Now he was suspended for that failed drug test.

As Kelce recounted to Vanity Fair this past summer, Kelce hit Bourbon Street when the Bearcats were playing in the Sugar Bowl. He was listening to Lil Wayne. “And I wanted to smoke what he was smoking,” Kelce told the magazine. After a few days of partying, Kelce and his teammates were called in for an NCAA drug test.

Kelce knew he was screwed.

A few months earlier, Cleary was walking down an athletic department hallway when he bumped into football coach Brian Kelly and asked him: What if Travis Kelce played baseball in the spring?

“I could not get the sentence out of my mouth,” Cleary said, “before he said ‘Absolutely not.’”

But Kelly had left for Notre Dame. Kelce was suspended for a year; new football coach Butch Jones kicked Kelce off the team and revoked his scholarship.

“It was like my life was over,” Kelce told the Wall Street Journal this fall.

Ed was trying to help his exiled son.

“Is there any way,” Ed asked Cleary, “you can set him up with a way to play baseball?”

Ed had a similar conversation with Dillon, and a few connections led them to Michael Bricker and Champions Academy. The local baseball facility had a collegiate summer league that played most of its games around the area, meaning Kelce could still work out and take summer classes.

Dillon called Bricker and convinced him to set up a workout. “I finally got him to understand that this guy, he’s worth a look at,” Dillon said.

Not long after, he was starting in right field against other college players.

Reviews vary on the caliber of competition. But Ed was soon calling Dillon during games, excited at how well his son was playing. The closest thing to a historical record comes from Kelce’s hilarious tweets in the summer of 2010.

June 5, 2010: Aftger game game 1 I’m batting .1000 gotta keep it going through the double header tomorrow

July 3: 3 for 3 with a double, triple, a sacrifice fly and 3 rbi’s, glad I could put on a show for my mom and pops! Feeling good!

July 14: 2 for 4 with a pair of singles and 2 RBI’s which is solid but not what I want, gotta do better on saterday! Now its time to grab some food!

Kelce left an impression in more ways than one. “One of the two or three funniest guys I’ve coached in 20 years,” Bricker said.

Bricker had worked as a scout for the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox. He had even evaluated Michael Jordan, another athlete whose father loved baseball.

“Had pro tools,” Bricker said of Kelce. “He had a major-league arm, major-league speed. He fielded the ball well and hit for power. The only tool that would remain to be seen would be hitting for average. He could really square up a fastball and hit it a long way.”

Bricker notes that Kelce struggled against breaking balls. He had another flaw, too.

“He didn’t like the bunt sign,” Bricker said. “He liked to shake that one off.”

Travis Kelce hitting dingers with Aaron Judge @tkelce @TheJudge44 pic.twitter.com/Va8g8kn29s
— BBQ Dom (@RealBBQDom) April 12, 2023

Kelce knew his game needed work, so he again reached out to Sanders, who was based in Arizona. Kelce was interested in coming down to work out.

“He never wanted me to forget about him. He always stayed in touch. He wanted a Plan B,” Sanders said. “He was like, ‘Bro, I don’t know about this football thing.’ He was not really thinking the football thing was going to work out.”

Cleary is unsure how Kelce would have fared against high-level pitching, but knows he could have played at Cincinnati. Sanders believes Kelce could have been a second- or third-round pick, and perhaps a top prospect had he grown up in a warm-weather state and played consistently.

Bricker ended that summer with an even stronger review: “Kelce could have been another Kirk Gibson had he stayed at baseball. Kirk Gibson could have been a good receiver, tight-end type guy. I think they both chose good career paths.”

Kelce, who declined to talk for this story, never played baseball at UC. His suspension didn’t end until Jan. 1, 2011. By then he was geared up for a return to football. And — after spending a year attaining a 3.2 GPA — a position switch from quarterback to full-time tight end became the invisible string tying him to his destiny.

“I think from that point on the writing was on the wall for him as a football player,” Cleary said. “He never made it on the field for us, but it wasn’t for lack of trying on his part or our part.”

The closest Kelce came to the majors was throwing out two ceremonial first pitches. The first was this past April at Cleveland’s Progressive Field, a ball that went straight into the turf. In June, the Royals gave him a shot at redemption.

That is when Kelce toed the rubber, went into a brief windup and threw a ball that caught the inner edge of the plate. As the ball hit Bobby Witt Jr.’s mitt, Kelce held a pose on the mound. Then he pointed and motioned as if it were a called strike.

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Ranking Juan Soto’s free-agent suitors: Which team will sign him? And for how much?

Published

5 mins ago

November 22, 2024

Press Room

Ranking Juan Soto’s free-agent suitors: Which team will sign him? And for how much?

Three weeks into this MLB offseason, two questions dominate the discussion across the sport:

Which team will sign Juan Soto? And for how much?

The Soto sweepstakes are heating up. Five teams — the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox and Blue Jays — have met with Soto and his agent, Scott Boras, to make their initial pitches. A sixth team, the Phillies, is expected to sit down with Soto soon, and more could follow.

The teams know they have a chance to sign a generational player who is just entering his prime. They also know it’ll cost them.

Soto’s contract is expected to break records in terms of both average annual value and present-day value (as calculated for luxury tax purposes), but not surpass the total amount of Shohei Ohtani’s heavily deferred 10-year, $700 million deal with the Dodgers from last offseason.

Sources with the involved teams believe the Soto contract will end up being $550 million to $650 million, depending on the structure of the deal, and 10 to 15 years, depending on luxury tax impact and other factors that could benefit the team in terms of length.

(For comparison’s sake, keep in mind Ohtani’s $700 million deal had a net present value of $460 million for luxury tax purposes because of all the deferrals. The next largest contracts in MLB history were Mike Trout at $426 million, Mookie Betts at $365 million and Aaron Judge at $360 million.)

I predicted a 15-year, $622 million contract when I finalized my top free agent ranking in late October. I believed Soto would get $622 million because he is only 26, has one of the best hit tools the game has ever seen, and should age well. Fifteen years makes sense when you consider many superstar players have signed deals that run until they’re at least 40, even though the backends of those contracts rarely work out well for the teams.

Those are eye-popping numbers, but they’re really not surprising given the player.

A player who will be entering his age-26 season. A player who has already been to two World Series. A player who is comparable to Ted Williams with 40-home run power.

Sure, Soto is only adequate defensively in the outfield — though he was a Gold Glove Award finalist this year — but he has a strong and accurate arm. Sure, he doesn’t possess blazing speed or get good leads, but he is a smart, instinctive base runner.

He’ll go down in history as one of the best on-base percentage players of all time. His bat plays at the highest level against the best pitching. His penchant for the dramatic is well-documented. All the cliches apply: He wants to be at the plate in the biggest moments, on the biggest stages — and he’s proven he’ll perform, as he demonstrated with a sensational walk-year season in New York that included a three-run homer that propelled the Yankees to their first World Series in 15 years.

May we once again re-introduce, The Generational, Juan Soto. pic.twitter.com/6R5fWpEg6I
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) October 20, 2024

After the World Series, Soto followed the Boras script to a T when he spoke to the media.

“I don’t know what teams want to come after me, but definitely, I’ll be open to this and every single team,” Soto said. “I don’t have any doors closed or anything like that. I’m going to be available for all 30 teams.”

Soto said he was open to any team, even if that might not be the case, because that’s the best way to get the best offer, and it’s surely what his agency advised. If a player wants a particular destination, Boras and his lieutenants don’t want anyone to know until the end of the process, so they can maximize the offer, let all the teams that are in the bidding think they have a chance — and then when they get the best offer — go back to the team the player prefers and ask for its best and final offer.

Boras has always counseled his star clients to wait until free agency to sign to maximize their value, and that strategy is poised to pay off handsomely for Soto, who turned down $440 million from the Nationals in 2022 before he was eventually traded to San Diego.

His agency has almost always recommended players take the most money and years — for themselves and their families but also to grow the market for future free agents. While some have suggested Soto prefers to play on the East Coast, during free agency he’s indicated he’s open to the West Coast. Several in the industry familiar with Soto and his camp believe he will take the biggest offer, with the most money and years trumping geography. The best opportunity to win championships could be a deciding factor among those he’ll consider. With the belief that the top teams will be willing to commit the dollars it takes to land him, in the end Soto will choose exactly where he wants to play.

At the start of this offseason, I thought about one-third of the teams in the league would make a serious bid for Soto. Things can change in the coming weeks, but at this point, I believe there are only six or seven legitimate landing spots for the four-time All-Star: the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies and Red Sox — who I view as the most likely destinations — followed by the Blue Jays and maybe a team that’s yet to emerge. All of those named teams should have the resources to make a deal, and all but the Blue Jays should be contending or within striking distance of perennial contenders over the next several years.

Alex Rodriguez is flanked by his agent, Scott Boras (left), and Rangers owner Tom Hicks after signing a record 10-year, $252 million contract with Texas in 2000. (Tom Fox / Getty Images)

Boras has a long history of surprising the baseball world with free agent landing spots, like when Max Scherzer signed with Washington, Iván Rodriguez signed with Detroit and Alex Rodriguez broke the bank with the Rangers. If an unexpected team emerges and decides to outbid the field, there’s a chance Soto will accept the offer. It’s just tough to see that scenario unfolding, especially because that team would need to beat out so many big-market behemoths.

But in my four decades working in MLB front offices, I learned it only takes one wild-card owner to change the free-agent landscape, one owner who’s willing to shatter records to land a franchise player for their club.

Another variable to consider in all of this: The Boras Corporation represents many of the top free agents — and they are intermingled and can affect each other. For example, Boras also reps first baseman Pete Alonso. Let’s say, for illustrative purposes, Soto has six teams in contention and all are willing to bid in the $600 million range, but Alonso has only two teams that will bid in the $150 million to $200 million range and only one of those teams is also in on Soto. Then it might be best for the Boras Corporation and both of its clients if Alonso signs the best offer he can get but it also pushes Soto to one of his other five teams if the money he’s being offered is the same. Ultimately, the player makes the decision that’s best for him, but free agents’ markets can be connected and affect who signs who.

MLB’s Winter Meetings will be held next month at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, the same hotel where Boras negotiated A-Rod’s record-breaking deal with the Rangers in 2000 and where Albert Pujols shocked the sport by signing with the Angels in 2011.

It’s easy to imagine Soto with Boras at the podium in Dallas a few weeks from now, announcing his next team and another ground-breaking deal. But which team’s cap will be on his head? Which fan base will be ecstatic?

When the dust settles weeks or even months from now in the race for the offseason’s most-prized free agent, who will win the Soto sweepstakes?

Soto said he was open to joining all 30 teams. Below, I’ve ranked the field of plausible contenders — including teams actively pursuing him, others monitoring his market, and still others that make sense as destinations and possibly could emerge — based on who is most likely to land him. (I left out roughly two-thirds of the league because those teams either aren’t engaged in Soto’s market or have no realistic chance of signing him.)

Here’s how I see the state of the Soto sweepstakes as of today.

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The Big Five — teams with a legitimate chance to sign Soto

Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor could be teammates next year if the Mets outbid their crosstown rivals. (Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)

1. New York Mets

The Mets are my favorites to sign Soto because I believe if their owner, Steve Cohen, wants him, he will make the highest bid — offering the most dollars and years — and if he does that and no other team matches it, I think he’s getting his man. Cohen was the highest bidder last offseason for Yoshinobu Yamamoto before the Dodgers matched the Mets’ bid, and his offer two years ago to Brandon Nimmo (eight years, $162 million) far exceeded any other the outfielder had received.

2. New York Yankees

The tandem of Judge and Soto brought back memories of Ruth and Gehrig and Mantle and Maris — and rightfully so. Soto seemed at home in the Bronx. He loved the fans and the fans loved him. I think if the Yankees have the best offer on the table, or match it, there is a strong chance he returns. If they don’t sign Soto, expect them to immediately pivot to some combination of Anthony Santander, Christian Walker, Willy Adames and Tanner Scott.

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3. Los Angeles Dodgers

If I’m Soto, I’d sign with the Dodgers because they are positioned to build a dynasty. Can you imagine a lineup of Ohtani, Betts, Freeman and Soto for the next several years? My goodness. Beyond their overwhelming talent, the Dodgers have the resources and the culture that give Soto the best shot of winning in the short- and long-term.

4. Philadelphia Phillies

Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has a track record of signing star players. It’s always been a key part of his formula and how he’s won wherever he’s gone. I believe he has one more future Hall of Famer on his mind: Soto. J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber’s combined $44 million comes off the Phillies’ books after 2025; Nick Castellanos’ $20 million per year comes off after 2026. There is a pathway to make a Soto deal work financially by backloading the first couple of years of a 12- to 15-year contract. And, Phillies ownership — with Dombrowski and before he arrived — has shown it will play in the deep end of free agency and dish out record deals.

5. Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox know they made a mistake when they decided not to go all-in to keep Mookie Betts, and they’ve learned from their missteps in recent years. They appear to be serious players for Soto. They have one of the best farm systems in the game and payroll flexibility going forward. Their meeting with Soto went well, as they sought to convince him that the special talent in their system will allow them to spend on free agents and trade acquisitions over the next several years. Soto was impressed with that aspect of their presentation, according to a league source briefed on the meeting.

Five teams that could surprise

Toronto is one of three AL East teams that have met with Soto during free agency. (Nick Turchiaro / USA Today)

6. Toronto Blue Jays

The Blue Jays finished second in the Ohtani sweepstakes, and they have the resources to make the largest offer to Soto. They can sell him on representing a country — not just a city — but can they really convince him they’re positioned to win?

7. San Francisco Giants

The Giants have struggled over the years to land top position player free agents, but they were the highest bidder for Aaron Judge before the Yankees matched the offer and they were the highest bidder for Carlos Correa before nixing the deal over concerns about his medical records. Perhaps Buster Posey, their new president of baseball operations, might be able to convince Soto to sign with them — but this is a long shot, especially with a payroll reduction possibly on the horizon.

8. Washington Nationals

There could not be a better script for Nationals president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo than to trade Soto to San Diego for a Herschel Walker-type prospect package and then two and a half years later, re-sign Soto.

9. Houston Astros

Astros owner Jim Crane has historically been opposed to long-term contracts as he allowed both Correa and George Springer to depart over the length of the deal. He did extend Jose Altuve and is working to do the same with Alex Bregman. However, I think it’s more likely he focuses on extending Kyle Tucker than landing Soto.

10. San Diego Padres

If the late Peter Seidler hadn’t gotten ill, he might have completed a long-term contract to keep Soto in San Diego. However, that would assume Soto wasn’t focused on reaching free agency and he showed otherwise. It’s unlikely the Padres’ current ownership team would be willing to put another huge long-term contract on the books at this point, but I will never bet against A.J. Preller pulling off a surprise move.

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Sports

Jake Paul’s business partner talks claims of rigged Mike Tyson fight, says Paul is boxing's 'greatest gift'

Published

36 mins ago

November 22, 2024

Press Room

Jake Paul’s business partner talks claims of rigged Mike Tyson fight, says Paul is boxing's 'greatest gift'

A sports icon came out of retirement last Friday, leading to decibels that are seldom touched at a sporting event, as 58-year-old Mike Tyson, in his first professional fight since 2005, battled Jake Paul in front of more than 70,000 fans at AT&T Stadium in Arlingon, Texas.

But by the middle of the fight, boo-birds rang out in the crowd, and with Paul winning by unanimous decision, accusations of a rigged fight ran all over social media.

If you know Jake Paul, none of that bothers him. He thrives off the hate and has embraced the role of the heel in boxing and life.

“He’s the ‘problem child,’ people want to boo him, and that’s the special sauce that he has,” said Nakisa Bidarian, co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions, in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.

(Cooper Neill/Getty Images for Netflix)

Bidarian and Paul co-founded MVP together three years ago, and their promotions have helped put women’s boxing on the map with two spectacles by Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, the second of which was the co-main event last week in Arlington.

Although Bidarian admitted that the 60 million households watching the fight and the largest gate outside of Las Vegas ever was probably more because of Tyson, he said Paul “played a massive role” in the historic event.

It was historic by just about every metric: attendance, viewers, gate, bets placed, social media discussion. But the overwhelming reaction to the fight was that it was a disappointment.

“I don’t care what people have to say. They’re always going to have something to say. It is what it is,” Paul told Fox News Digital after the fight.

Added Bidarian in his interview, “The only win there was if Mike Tyson knocked out Jake Paul, otherwise, the haters would have found a way to complain no matter what.”

But with it being a Paul spectacle, there is, once again, some speculation about the fight being rigged, fixed or staged.

Some fans have tried to point out instances in which the former heavyweight champ could have easily knocked out Paul with an uppercut; some have said that Tyson was biting on his gloves to keep himself from going wild in the ring. Some fans also believe that there was no way a boxer with just four years of experience could have possibly beaten the “Baddest Man on the Planet.”

But all of those claims are BS, Bidarian said.

“In terms of this fight specifically, I will say the following: It was sanctioned by the athletic commission. Our partner was Netflix, who is the biggest media company in America and is a public entity. There was professional sports betting on the event,” Bidarian said. “So, if you were to rig such competition, it is a federal crime. And myself, Jake Paul, Mike Tyson, executives from Netflix would all be going to jail, they would be risking their entire company, and we would be risking our entire lives to do that. It is preposterous that people even suggest that this was in any way anything other than a professional fight. … That was not the case in any Jake fight, let alone this one.”

“This was 100% real from beginning to end,” he added. “It was so real that the guy had an ulcer, and we took a five-month break to give him time to heal the ulcer to be able to perform at his best level. If it was staged, why did we even postpone it? We could have just moved forward with the date: ‘Oh, you have an ulcer, you’re not going to hit each other. It’s going to be fine.’ What are people talking about?”

Mike Tyson and Jake Paul exchange punches at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Nov. 15, 2024. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

JAKE PAUL-MIKE TYSON SNOOZER DRAWS HARSH CRITICISM: ‘NOT GREAT FOR BOXING’

Even some more high-profile fighters at the top of their game have called out Paul, including Ryan Garcia, lightweight champion Gervonta Davis, heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois and undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev. Bidarian said that “with the exception of one,” Paul is interested in “all” of the inquiries.

“What’s next for Jake is whatever Jake wants it to be. He is the biggest face in all of boxing. … His goal is to be a world champion, so you’ll see us do things that give him those opportunities. And our goal is to think outside the box, do disruptive things and capture the imagination. We did that last Friday, and we’ll continue to do that.”

It’s no secret that Paul is disliked, and many think this is all just a marketing play. It’s no secret that Paul is a marketing whiz, and some of his opponents have been selected rather wisely. But as much of a businessman as Paul may be, Bidarian said he sees him “first and foremost” as a boxer.

“That’s what he dedicates anywhere from 70 to 75% of his time,” Bidarian said.

At the same time, Paul puts emphasis on “professional” in the term “professional boxer.”

“He is the most professional boxer in professional boxing. He is a businessman, he conducts himself like a business, he shows up on time, he delivers every line you need to deliver, he does the promo when no one else wants to. …” Bidarian said. “He knows how to sell. [Dallas Cowboys owner] Jerry Jones said to Jake Paul, ‘Kid, you’re one of the greatest marketers in all of sports.’ And that’s true. He’s four years into this sport, and he’s co-headlining a record-setting event.”

That’s why Bidarian has a rather strong message to those who don’t believe Paul is a serious boxer.

Jake Paul celebrates after his victory over Mike Tyson. (Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

“Show me another athlete, including their amateur or high school career, who has four and a half years of experience that has achieved as much as he has achieved inside and outside of the ring,” Bidarian said. “Even in that performance against Mike Tyson, who is 58, is very unique for someone who is four years into doing a sport. … Jake Paul has gone into the lions’ den and showed that he outboxed a much more skilled boxer in his heyday than Jake Paul, and that’s a lot more impressive than 99% of boxers do in their 10th, 12th, 15th fight.”

“More importantly, Jake Paul has put on for this sport like no athlete has before,” he continued. “He’s put on for the women in this sport, he’s put on for the youth in this sport, he’s put his own money into renovating gyms to give access to young boys and girls to learn about the sport of boxing. He’s partnered with USA Boxing to push amateur interest in the sport.

“He’s the greatest gift the sport has ever seen, in my opinion.”

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Sports

Rams vs. Philadelphia Eagles: How to watch, prediction and betting odds

Published

1 hour ago

November 22, 2024

Press Room

Rams vs. Philadelphia Eagles: How to watch, prediction and betting odds

The Rams’ victory over the New England Patriots last Sunday put them back at .500 and kept alive their playoff chances.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford passed for four touchdowns for the second time in four games. The 16th-year pro and coach Sean McVay, the Rams’ play-caller, must be at the top of their games against an Eagles defense coordinated by Vic Fangio, who flummoxed the Rams in 2018 when he ran the Chicago Bears defense.

“He’s arguably the best of this generation,” Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said, adding, “He’s about as structured as they come in terms of tendencies and percentages. You just can’t pop him on anything. He knows that and we know that.”

Against the Patriots, Rams receivers Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp each amassed more than 100 yards, and running back Kyren Williams showed signs of returning to his early-season form.

Veteran right tackle Rob Havenstein could return from an ankle injury that has sidelined him for two games, further strengthening a line that gave up no sacks against the Patriots.

The Eagles have given up a league-low 17.9 points a game. They rank second against the pass and seventh against the run. Edge rusher Josh Sweat has six sacks. Veteran cornerback Darius Slay Jr. leads a secondary that includes rookies Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean.

Quarterback Jalen Hurts leads an offense that also features star running back Saquon Barkley and receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. Hurts has passed for 12 touchdowns and rushed for 11. Barkley averages 113.7 yards rushing per game and also is a threat as a receiver.

The Rams have been riding the play of a young defensive line that features edge rushers Jared Verse and Byron Young and linemen Kobie Turner and Braden Fiske.