I don’t know when exactly adults started using the term “hater.” I have always found it very juvenile. What’s wrong with calling someone that criticizes your every waking moment an asshole? We’re all grown up. No one can send us to detention.
Despite my best efforts, hater is firmly part of the lexicon. That is probably better for sports talk hosts, since publicly declaring someone an asshole is likely to get them taken off the air.
Recently, I heard CBS Sports Radio’s Maggie Gray admit that there is a little hater in her. In listing all the reasons the Chiefs could not be America’s team, her number one reason was that they have been too successful.
“Yeah, people like me. Hater-Aid,” the morning show host said. “You’ve been too good for too long. The success definitely breeds contempt. You’ve been at the top of the mountain, so yes, call me a hater. I don’t care, but people don’t like you because you’ve had so much success.”
Gray’s admission got me thinking about the position national sports talk hosts find themselves in. They are far more likely to be accused of being haters than local hosts. Although we all try to be honest, sometimes a local host has an incentive for landing their blows with a little less force, whereas national hosts tend to have less reason to hold back.
It’s always funny to me to see which fanbases think they have haters. Sometimes, the national perspective isn’t contempt, but ridicule. The two can admittedly look similar, but to the mind of a fan, no criticism from the outside is valid and everyone is lined up against their team, even if that team is 1-12 and has done a pretty good job of standing in its own way.
SiriusXM’s Damon Amendolara admits that there are some teams and fanbases that he enjoys watching struggle. He tries to self-assess if his criticism is fair or if his jokes are in-bounds. That doesn’t mean he worries about being called a hater. He told me that it is a risk that comes with having a national platform to talk about sports.
“I’m in the business of deconstructing wins and losses, and trying to do so in an entertaining fashion,” he said in an email. “In losses, there are failures, mistakes, and disappointments. Every part of that can sound like I’m focusing on the negative if your vantage point is sympathetic (or you’re a devoted fan) of the losing side. It just depends on your perspective.”
ESPN’s Evan Cohen looks at accusations that he is hating on a team or player differently. He welcomes them.
“If a host is perceived as a hater of a team or of a player’s on field/court/ice performance, that is a confirmation of listening by a fan, that’s a great thing!,” he told me. “Our goal is to always be as memorable as possible and to make sure our opinions are conveyed in a way that the fan listening fully understands our intentions and conversations.”
Previous generations of broadcasters tried to take emotion out of everything they did. The day they got their press credential or were put behind a microphone, they gave up their fandom. At the very least, they kept it in check when they were on the clock.
That isn’t so much the case anymore. We know that Scott Van Pelt roots for his Maryland Terrapins. We know Nick Wright will not rest until we all love the Kansas City Chiefs as much as he does. Even in covering newsworthy events like Jim Harbaugh’s suspension, we know that we have to take the commentaries of some in this business with a grain of salt.
Cohen says that there is no sense in trying to hide your loyalties. If you are trying to build a bond with a sports radio audience, they are going to want to learn something like that about you.
“It is our job to paint the full picture of who we are as people, teammates and fans. We don’t hide who we root for, as it has become an association for the audience to remember our show by.”
Jason Smith of FOX Sports Radio says it is the reason that he will be honest about being a hater. Some teams he hated in his youth, like the New York Yankees and Miami Dolphins, don’t offend him the same way now that he is an adult, but the Syracuse alum still can’t stomach talking about his school’s old rival, Georgetown (which coincidentally is where my wife went to school).
“I always want listeners to know us. Our loves, our hates, our quirks, our habits,” he said in an email. “There’s a lot of choices for your entertainment out there at all hours of the day, and I want them to choose us because they know who we are as people, and we’re always going to be real. Selfishly, I like to think I’ve influenced many a listener on the best way to order and consume a Big Mac – extra cheese, extra sauce, no pickles. I will fight you on this.”
Calling someone a hater is supposed to be an insult, but for a talented host, it tends to ring hollow. Some even embrace it. Look at the milage Colin Cowherd got out of criticizing Baker Mayfield or the content Stephen A. Smith still gets out of every Dallas Cowboys loss.
Amendolara knows that there is fun to be had and quality to be found in hate. The key is that the joke has to remain a joke and the host has to acknowledge that the audience is in on it.
“It’s just sports. It’s just games,” he said. “This is an entire ecosystem built around trophies and banners. The problem arises when hosts make things personal or create vendettas, then become combative and obstinate if proven wrong. That sucks the fun out of this. Ultimately, we play characters in this giant ongoing play. Sometimes protagonists, often antagonists. Being wrong comes with the territory. When you can’t admit when you are, it becomes sad and uncomfortable.”
Smith says the fun of hater content has been raised by how much more aware athletes and coaches are of what is said about them now. Think back to earlier this college football season when NC State coach Dave Doreen told Steve Smith to kiss his ass because of a comment the future Hall-of-Famer made on College GameDay.
Reactions like that from the people on the field were not so common just a decade ago. Now, players are inundated with opinions all the time thanks not just to the traditional news cycle, but also social media. Sometimes they bite back and sometimes they just block out the opinions they have had enough of.
“It’s happened to me a couple of times not even involving teams I root for or have any fan feelings about – and it’s now become part of the job,” Smith says. “When we give our opinions, we could get them right back. And it’s never boring. For us, for them, or for the listeners.
“Sometimes you don’t even KNOW what players/teams are influenced by your opinions. Jamal Adams is a player I talked about when he was with the Jets and now the Seahawks. I had said both good things and some critical things over this time. One day he made some headlines about something, and in searching the story on Twitter I realized he blocked me.”
We live in an age of too much media. That means some players, coaches and teams are going to receive too much media exposure. As much as I hate to admit it or even use the word, hateration is real and that is how it is born.
But being a hater doesn’t have to be a bad thing. If you can keep it a joke and it can be used to goad the audience, hating can actually be good for your show.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
