When was the last time you heard a sports radio host or guest just flat-out call someone they disagreed with a jackass?
No, seriously. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?
It used to happen somewhat frequently. Over the most mundane, innocuous stances.
But it doesn’t happen all that frequently anymore.
Why?
At risk of this coming back to bite me later, I think it’s time to declare that sports radio has grown up.
When it was an infant, sports radio was loud. It was brash. Braggadocious, if you will. Now? It’s much more subdued. More even keel. Nuanced.
It has aged like a fine wine. Are there still bad bottles here and there? Absolutely, without question. However, has the conversation shifted away from “whoever can yell the loudest is right” to a more nuanced approach? In some cases, yeah, I think so.
A lot of critiques and criticisms of opinions these days begin with the “I really like (insert name of pundit here), but“. 20 years ago? Heck, even 10 years ago? There was no softening. Everyone was judged on a take-by-take basis, and if you were right yesterday, you were and genius. And if you’re wrong today, you’re a jackass.
That doesn’t really exist anymore.
For instance, take all the discussion that’s happened since Duke’s Kyle Filipowski was “injured” during a court storming at Wake Forest over the weekend. Opinions on the matter, not just on court-storming but on Filipowski’s role, have been all over the map.
And the harshest criticism I’ve heard has been from Richard Jefferson to fellow ESPNer Jay Bilas. Bilas, who — like many who have opined on the topic — is passionate in his stance. He argued that security officials should detain everyone who enters the court, and either arrest them or issue them citations.
Jefferson, who is equally as passionate in his stance, is on the complete opposite side of the spectrum.
Do you know how harsh his criticism of Bilas’ take was? “That’s gotta be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said.
Do you know what his next sentence was? “I love Jay Bilas, a legend in this game…That is asinine to suggest that…this is a part of college sports. It always happens.”
Awful lot of bark, but not a ton of bite. That’s the harshest criticism, for the most part, of an incredibly polarizing topic.
And that’s where are at this point. 97.1 The Ticket’s Jim Costa followed up Jefferson’s criticism by calling Bilas “curmudgeony”.
I recently told a friend that it’s outrageous to me that Taylor Swift fans — Swifties, for the initiated — have had more nuanced discussions about sports in the last few months than sports radio hosts and TV talking heads. But the more that I think about it, the more I shortchanged the industry.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how different sports radio is from where it was in 1995. And you know what? I didn’t give the industry the credit where it was due. We’ve grown up a little bit. Instead of conflict-laden programs built on screamers and bad hot takery, the overwhelming majority of shows are now built on friendships and camaraderie, and I think the industry may be better for it.
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
