Adam Carolla, Clay Travis Perfectly Encapsulate Modern American Politics Using Sports Rivalries As Apt Metaphor

Sports provide such incredible metaphors for life. They teach us lessons that are applicable off-the-field. That's the reason so many people fall in love with them. It's the reason I did, certainly. OutKick founder Clay Travis joined the Adam Carolla Show this week and the pair perfectly used sports rivalries to encapsulate the state of modern American politics.

There's a major divide in the United States of America. Politics are invading every aspect of our lives and nearly every issue -- political or not -- is super-charged by incendiary politicians and media trying to sow dissent and fear.

Americans understand that Democrats support Democrats and Republicans support Republicans. That's how the two-party system works. But there's a more sinister problem with the integrity of the game.

And that's something that Clay Travis and Adam Carolla dug into during a recent episode of Carolla's podcast.

OutKick founder Clay Travis appeared on Adam Carolla's podcast and the pair had an important conversation about the state of politics in America and how they relate to sports fans. (Photo: Getty Images)

"I've seen it for so long: Alabama, Auburn, Ohio State, Michigan, Yankees, Red Sox. You're a member of the tribe. You'll defend anything," Travis said. "That is where we are with politics.

"Every sports fan out there knows you'll defend your team even when they're in the wrong," he continued. "And I think that's ultimately what's wrong with politics. It used to be we picked the guy that we thought the other side would potentially like.

"We were trying to persuade them that our guy was actually a pretty likable guy and he do a good job. Now we pick the guy that is going to infuriate the other side the most."

Salient point, and correct. It's a sad state that American politics have devolved into a complete "us vs. them" mentality where there used to be common ground: we're all Americans.

That's what defined the United States of America. People from every background working together in a country where anything is possible with hard work, determination and grit. Now, though, politics is causing people to segment into different groups.

And, when that happens, groups are going to fight with one another. That's exactly how sports works. You can't be a Dallas Cowboys fan and not hate Philadelphia Eagles fans. You're not going to meet many Cleveland Browns fans with positive things to say about the Pittsburgh Steelers.

OutKick founder Clay Travis appeared on Adam Carolla's podcast and the pair had an important conversation about the state of politics in America and how they relate to sports fans. (Photo: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports)

But that's OK! Because it's just sports. It's a game. At the end of the day, we know it's about competition. Sports is for enjoyment and entertainment. A break from the harsh realities of life.

That has major consequences, though, when it leaks into other segments of society. Especially with regard to identities like gender, race and religion.

What's really problematic, however, is that the game is rigged. At least if everyone were fighting a fair battle, there would be a chance for resolution. But Adam Carolla appropriately related it back to the sports analogy.

"You're always going to want the other team's running back suspended for punching his girlfriend and then make excuses for why your guy gets to suit up on Saturday or Sunday for punching his girlfriend," Carolla began. "That that I think we can all live with. It's not a great part of human nature, but no one would ever deny it. And I think as a country, we understood that concept pretty well.

"What we didn't understand is the announcers and the referees getting involved with the game. And that's what we were just up against."

OutKick founder Clay Travis appeared on Adam Carolla's podcast and the pair had an important conversation about the state of politics in America and how they relate to sports fans. (Photo by Mickey Bernal/Getty Images)

Carolla was referring to recent events surrounding COVID and Hunter Biden's laptop. Media, tech companies and the government banded together to shut down discussion and debate.

"The Steelers hate the Ravens and the Ravens hate the Steelers, so they're going to go battle it out," Carolla continued. "But we didn't know what the referees were up to. We didn't know the CIA, FBI, CNN, and Twitter .

"Big tech is the referee. Hunter Biden's laptop the Ravens saying it does exist. Well, the say it doesn't exist. But now, let's ask the referee. Tell us Twitter, does it exist or not? Nope. Thumbs down. We went booth and it doesn't exist.

"We didn't know the refs were bought. That's what just happened to us," Carolla concluded.

You can watch the entire exchange here:

The entire conversation raised some very important concerns about the current American political system. Chief among them: Democrats and Republicans are always going to fight for power. That's understood and, although that creates some division and has flaws, the system works -- by and large.

However, the job of the media is to simply report the facts and let Americans make their own decisions. Unfortunately, as a society, we invented something called "MY truth."

Except, there's no such thing as MY truth. There is only THE truth. And having MY truth runs completely counter to THE truth. In fact, I'd argue that both cannot exist simultaneously. They are mutually exclusive ideas.

Until we get back to THE truth, we cannot fix the system.

And that ultimately starts with the media owning up to its mistakes and getting back to doing its job.

Let me rephrase.

Get back to doing THE job.