On the football field and in the sports media landscape, changes have occurred since Kordell Stewart roamed the sidelines. A new archetype – the mobile quarterback – has been created, showcasing the style of many young stars in the league today, such as Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, Patrick Mahomes, and Josh Allen.
The mobile quarterback, however, was not readily accepted in the mid-90s when Stewart entered the league. Stewart was drafted in the second round by the Pittsburgh Steelers as the 60th-overall pick after a successful college career at the University of Colorado. Stewart always wanted to be a full-time quarterback in the NFL but had plenty of people and entities doubting him, making it difficult for him to win the starting job.
Entering the 1997 season though, the Steelers moved on from Mike Tomczak as the starting quarterback and gave the role to Stewart, allowing him to fully display his talents on the field regularly for the first time.
“The media has their way of creating narratives – ones that fit their narrative,” Stewart said. “It’s not the narrative, but it’s their narrative and causes the followers to buy into that narrative.”
Stewart was quickly referred to as “Slash,” a nickname given to him by the team’s color commentator Myron Cope. The name referred to the slash punctuation mark (“/”) placed between the different positions he could play (quarterback/wide receiver/running back) and highlighted his unique and extraordinary versatility on the gridiron.
His talent on the field helped the Steelers reach both the AFC Championship Game in 1997 and allowed them to return to it in 2001. Stewart was a Pro Bowl selection in that 2001 season, posting 3,109 passing yards and 14 passing touchdowns along with 537 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns en route to a 13-3 overall record.
“I like to look at [it] as saying that I’ve been blessed with a tremendous amount of talent,” Stewart explained. “I don’t want to be, if you will, suppressed in how I move [or] think because of someone else’s inability to identify all in which I can do on the field and even in the media. You have to have that someone who has confidence in you to give you that chance on their platform or [have] it in yourself.”
Stewart put that versatility on display in the world of sports media when he began appearing across ESPN programming in 2009 on shows such as First Take, NFL Live, College Football Live and Mike and Mike in the Morning. Additionally, Stewart worked as a sideline reporter for the network’s coverage of the United Football League airing on the then-Versus Network, interviewing athletes, coaches and other personnel throughout the game and working alongside Doug Flutie, Anita Marks and Dave Sims.
By October 2012 though, Stewart made the move to 92.9 The Game in Atlanta to host GameTime, an afternoon drive show with Carl Dukes. He remained with the station for 19 months, amicably leaving in May 2014, but learned a considerable amount of what it took to be a radio host during that time.
Working for Terry Foxx, the station’s program director, who is now the director of program and audience at 90.9 KUT in Austin, a considerable differentiator of the program was in Stewart’s perspectives and opinions as a former professional football player, and the ethos it garnered.
“Transparency was always my thing and still is,” Stewart said. “You give [the listeners] the inside scoop – your experience – which I think they have a tendency to like a lot. It’s not like you’re just talking; it’s connecting them to a moment that maybe they can remember [or] they can research.”
Being succinct in the points you make as a host was another aspect of the job that Stewart learned from Foxx, largely due to the preponderance of listeners tuning in from behind the wheel of their cars. Obviously since Stewart’s move out of radio, the landscape of audio consumption has considerably shifted towards digitally-based platforms, including on-demand listening and podcasting; however, the same principles apply when trying to keep listeners engaged, especially with the amount of choices readily available to them.
Nonetheless, the concept of utilizing resets, albeit trite in essence, remains a fundamental part of attracting and retaining listeners when imbued with cognizant and concise dialogue.
“It’s kind of like rebooting the system when having the conversation within 30 seconds on speaking about something,” Stewart said. “It’s a technique. It’s not easy, but you have to put yourself in the listener’s position. If you can do that, then you can do some good radio and good podcasting without having to look at the replay of the show.”
The nature of that dialogue for radio programs, according to Stewart, cannot be too recondite in scope, for it is imperative that you tailor the extent in which you discuss something to the general acuity and intellect of the audience. Being aware of his audience as early as his days on the gridiron, Stewart has found ways to both connect and relate to them from the perspective of a former starting NFL quarterback, and it has led him towards opportunities and success across multiple broadcast platforms.
“To be able to not just play the game but to articulate it and give it to a fan base that’s willing and eager to get the inside scoop about the game and just [what] sports in general is about and what it takes per se to be a professional… was what I liked and loved to do,” Stewart said. “It became really easy to transition from playing the game to actually doing commentary.”
Stewart made the transition towards digital when he departed 92.9 The Game to join TuneIn, an internet radio platform accessible to listeners on mobile devices, computers, and on other technologies. Joined by Brian Webber, Stewart co-hosted the weekday program NFL No Huddle from 4 to 7 p.m. to discuss sports and entertainment. Just over a year after the show’s 2015 debut, the show added a podcast to its weekly content, allowing it to reach a broader audience and adapt to the digital age.
It was also during this time when Stewart took two summer classes at the University of Colorado to finish earning his communications degree, which he had started in the ‘90s before joining the NFL but came up three credits short. He was motivated to complete his degree to set an example for his son and also make his late-father proud. While returning to study at the university, he was able to broadcast his show remotely from the college campus.
With his communications degree in hand and experience working in both terrestrial and internet radio, Stewart was approached by the Bleav content network to take his talents to the podcasting space. The network, which was founded by Bron Heussenstamm, has sought to produce premium content for all types of sports fans. It has shows for each NFL and college football team with a host and at least one former player, along with those that cover the game at large including Stewart’s podcast titled On The Edge with Slash.
The platform also has shows pertaining to Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League among other sports entities and produces over 1,000 hours of new content per month. This content is distributed both on Bleav’s platforms, along with SiriusXM, SportsMap Radio, and TuneIn, giving it the potential to find large groups of listeners and a chance to continue to expand.
“All of the parties that are connected in some capacity have a chance to be a part of it,” expressed Stewart. “You end up finding yourself being able to have some fun with it and know that you just want to be mindful that everyone’s listening.”
Stewart officially joined Bleav last month and described his podcast as one that will be “tough but fair” keeping with his belief in transparency. Being “on the edge” describes the trajectory of his career, according to Stewart, largely due to his desire to become a quarterback after initially joining the Steelers out of the draft and playing largely as a wide receiver. Now, he hopes to apply that same mindset in order to craft a podcast sound that stands out among the multitude of others available to consumers today.
“When I say ‘tough but fair,’ I’m going to apply it in a way that’s not going to be so diplomatic and politically-correct if you will in following the narrative of what everyone is talking about,” Stewart said. “I’m going to talk about the truth of what it is I see; what I think is fair or not fair; good or not good, and I don’t care who it is.”
Stewart hosts the podcast with Joe Ceraulo and together, the duo seeks to improve the show with each new episode. Moving from working in radio to podcasting, many of the same principles apply and Stewart does not recognize there to be too many differences between either medium.
Yet podcasts are continuing to gain more popularity in terms of aural content and can reach more people than terrestrial radio, even though many stations are now producing original podcasts and/or putting full-length shows or smaller segments on-demand as podcasts.
“Radio was the wave at one time [but you had to] make sure you have enough towers in the air so you get enough reception so it can go as far as it can go with enough satellites,” Stewart said. “[With] podcasting, I can reach anywhere…. Podcasting is the new wave now – it’s the hot ticket today – but radio will always exist; I don’t think it will ever leave.”
In addition to his regular podcast, Stewart recently joined a new sports betting podcast with Ceraulo and sports handicapper Brandon Lang titled Bleav Me. The movement of sports betting into sports media has been quite pronounced in the last year, not only because of the legalization of sports betting in certain states around the country, but also because of genuine fan interest in it and the new revenue streams created from various sportsbooks.
Now, the implementation of sports betting into all types of programming, whether it be studio shows or live game broadcasts, and also the creation of new programming with it as the central topic, is becoming something more commonplace by the day.
“It’s truly a joy to have a chance to be in this space because… this is the lay of the land now when it comes down to how this thing is created and made,” Stewart said of his move into podcasting. “….It’s fun. It gets you back out there in a different way and more of a modern way because not everyone can catch you on television but a lot of people can actually catch you through the media outlets to give you an opportunity to be heard.”
Bleav describes itself as an omnichannel content network for professionals and produces sports and entertainment content in the form of podcasts and other original programming. Stewart believes the platform is set up well for sustained success because of the talent it has brought on to produce compelling and appealing multiplatform content distributed to various outlets.
“If you give [the audience] good quality content that they can utilize in this space of podcasting and television if you will or live streaming, then the Bleav network is believable,” Stewart affirmed. “….I believe in the opportunity that they’ve given me and the platform that they’ve given me, and it’s my opportunity to show my style, who I am on the networks and give them as much as I can so those who are listening can believe me and believe in what I’m doing.”
Many athletes have moved into the sports media space over the years, and there are plenty of recent examples of athletes who have started in the industry while still remaining active players. According to Stewart, it takes believing in oneself to enter into the space and remaining true to your own experiences and opinions within the various mediated communication platforms.
Yet it is essential to remember that many fans want to continue to hear from their favorite players, especially when they retire, and working in media is one way for athletes to do that and preserve the connection to those fans.
“Back in the day it used to be about the helmet and not who the person was,” Stewart said. “….Now there’s a human element in this space because there’s more athletes getting involved with television, radio and podcasting. If [they] can believe in what they know and know what they believe in and give it to the audience, [fans] are going to love that player that they once loved.”
For Kordell Stewart, his journey in sports media is far from over as he seeks to grow his new podcasts with Bleav. Being able to genuinely be himself by discussing his career and displaying his versatility in media is his way of continuing to live up to his nickname “Slash,” as he uses his past experiences and exudes his passion for football to position himself to become a compelling listen to new consumers and expand his reach.
At the same time, he serves as a source of inspiration to the next generation of athletes and media professionals finding ways to amalgamate their talents in whatever endeavors they seek out – even if they are told by others to just stick to what they are best at.
“Sometimes when I’m out here working, those who are the bosses sometimes like for people to do what it is that they’re good at to allow that void or that space to be solidified so they can create more spaces,” Stewart said. “In my mind when I really think of it, it’s almost like they say ‘A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.’ If you can do more – the more, the merrier…. You don’t want to minimize yourself.”
