You’re just talking loud / And saying nothing – James Brown
In the early 2000s, a new kind of sports talk emerged on the radio. It was a morphing of sports and entertainment with the primary demographic being young men. It was called Guy Talk. It sprang forth from the hothead sports capital of America, Philadelphia, and became wildly successful.
As usual, the longest standing voices were the best: Jim Rome, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, etc. These were, for the most part, professional, seasoned radio guys who leaned into the format and capitalized on the rise of conservative talk radio, where yelling got better ratings than discussion.
And as terrestrial radio became less trafficked with on-demand options growing in popularity, TV took notice. Shows like Pardon the Interruption (an almost laughably on-the-nose title) have found incredible success despite a show made up mostly of guys yelling at one another (not a totally fair analysis, but not unreasonable either).
It’s not that any of this is new. Saturday Night Live lampooned such point-counterpoint discussions in the late 1970s. Movies like Network and copycat TV spokesmen like “I’m Mad Too” Eddie Chiles channeled the (nearly always white) angry man long before Tony Kornheiser or Stephen A. Smith. Still, most of that was political. But, between Guy Talk, shows like PTI and the explosion of social media with controversial websites like Barstool Sports and Jomboy feeding the fire, sports dialog has gotten rougher and the animus between warring parties more extreme mirroring political rhetoric.
Take the recent spat between injured Jets QB Aaron Rodgers and late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel. Rodgers appeared recently on The Pat McAfee Show. McAfee, a former pro football player, has created one of the most hyped podcast/TV shows thanks in large part to friend Rodgers appearing with regularity to talk about whatever crazy conspiracy theory he is spouting that week…and, presumably, football.
In this appearance, he intimated that Kimmel might appear on the infamous Jeffrey Epstein list that was just released after a court battle. The list contains the names of previously redacted celebrities who may or may not have been involved with Epstein’s high-profile crimes related to sex with underage women.
Kimmel is no stranger to his own controversies. He is a long-time devotee of Howard Stern and began his television career with comedian Adam Carolla on Comedy Central’s The Man Show where the credits would roll with the two co-hosts drinking beer and watching scantily clad women jump on trampolines.
Now, the late night host on ABC is an outspoken critic of conservatives and conspiracy theorists including Rodgers, who he has roasted repeatedly on the show. In response on X, he vehemently denied Rodgers’ accusation (it is unlikely he is on that list as he was not in Epstein’s circle), and threatened to sue Rodgers for making such a claim, while, naturally, calling him an asshole in the process.
McAfee walked back the comments the next day saying, in essence, “Bro, it’s just a joke,” which is about as big of a non-apology apology as you’ll get, never mind a classic passive-aggressive thing to do to cover your ass.
All of this isn’t necessarily earth shaking or world changing. It doesn’t rise to the level of “grab ’em by the p***y” former president Donald Trump categorized as “locker room talk” causing everyone in every locker room everywhere to sit up and say, “Say what, now?” But, it is nevertheless having an impact on how we all follow sports.
It changes the tenor of every conversation and, like so many elements of society over the last decade, amplifies the loudest and most aggressive regardless of what they are saying or if it is true. It’s one thing to do that in politics. We almost expect it at this point — not that it is a good thing, but it’s no shocker. It’s another to do this in American sports, something that already drives the passions of average people across the country.
This is not to say there aren’t some absolutely great talk show voices who combine legitimate sports analysis with entertainment. You only need to look as far as Houston Press‘s own Sean Pendergast, who turned winning Jim Rome’s annual “Smack Off” repeatedly into a career in radio that is now decades old. He has become a terrific sports journalist who knows how to keep an audience listening with hot takes that both entertain and actually make sense.
As Pendergast has said here and on his show, it’s important to delineate between regular, everyday hate and sports hate. The former can lead to all sorts of awful things including widespread violence. The latter SHOULD cause only momentary distress that is left behind after you leave the stadium and sober up.
But, again like the rest of the world, it feels like the toxic nature of simple discussion has devolved into something beyond sports and beyond analysis. Instead of reasonable debate, we get name calling that inevitably escalates into something more stupid and dangerous.
There is a time and a place for all of this. There is room for vociferous debate and reasoned discussion. We can have “conservative talk radio” and NPR. But that means we have to want that. Right now, it feels like all we want is to listen to people shouting at one another.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
