Clay Travis: “First of all, I don’t blame in any way, Sarah Fuller, for the media ridiculousness that has followed her kicking one time to begin the second half for Vanderbilt. But this feels to me like a manufactured stunt far more than any sort of significant sports story. Vanderbilt has a punter that punted the ball seven times during Saturday’s game for an average of over 43 yards per kick. It is regular in college football or the NFL for a kicker or punter to get injured, and for someone else to have to do their job because there aren’t enough roster spots to justify having backup kickers, or having backup punters. If the punter gets hurt in an NFL game, the kicker typically punts, and if a kicker gets hurt, the punter typically kicks. Vanderbilt could have easily had the punter train to run up and pop the ball into the air at a greater distance requiring a fair catch to be made, than what happened to begin the second half of this game… Also this woman, Sarah Fuller, addressed the team at halftime, and lectured them on their effort and the team morale. Have you ever heard of a kicker addressing the football team at halftime and reading them the riot act because the kicker didn’t like the effort that he was seeing out on the field?? What do you think the reaction was in the Vanderbilt locker room when a girl who had never been on their team during the entire season, and had not stepped foot on the field yet for an actual play, got up and lectured them about their lack of effort and intensity that she could see? It was ridiculous, and if that halftime speech was filmed and if this all turns into a ‘Disney-fied’ story, this is even more absurd. The kick doesn’t even make sense strategically. You are up 21-0 at halftime. How many times have you ever seen a team down 21-0 come out to start the second half and voluntarily design a play that gives the ball to the opposing team at the 35-yard line? That’s a disaster. If they kicked the ball directly out of bounds, Vanderbilt would have gotten the ball at the 40. Vanderbilt only did five yards better than the worst thing that a kicker could do to start the second half of a game… I’m sorry, this feels like a ploy – FAILED by the way – by Derek Mason to try to keep his job because he’s done something so incredibly WOKE that Vanderbilt wouldn’t be willing to fire him. I give credit to Candice Storey Lee, the Vanderbilt Athletic Director who is a woman, for not falling victim to this identity politics charade and refusing to fire Derek Mason as a result.”
Listen to Clay Travis explain why he thought Sarah Fuller’s historic one-kick appearance with the Vanderbilt football team was simply a ‘manufactured stunt’ scripted by embattled Vandy head coach Derek Mason in one last ditch attempt to appease the ‘woke’ community enough to not fire him during a winless season.
Fuller became the first female player in Power 5 college football history to take part in an actual play, as Fuller, a goalie for the women’s soccer team, made the kickoff to begin the second half.
Vanderbilt said they asked Fuller to try out for the team in an emergency role on account of their starting kicker missing the game because of COVID-19.
Fuller sent a directional kick 30 yards towards the sideline that was downed at the opponent’s 35-yard-line with no return.
Fuller was later named SEC Special Teams Player of the Week, however, Mason was fired on Sunday, after going 27-55 in 7 years with the Commodores.
Check out the video above as Clay details why he believes the whole thing was an ‘identity politics charade’ that had zero connection to anything related to a COVID-19 contingency plan, or to give the Vanderbilt football team a competitive advantage in any way.
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