OT: Cowherd Leaving ESPN for FoxSports (Apparently)
http://thebiglead.com/2015/07/16/colin-cowherd-leaving-espn-whats-next/
Colin Cowherd, a prominent national voice on ESPN radio since 2003, is leaving the network, multiple industry sources tell The Big Lead. While no destination is finalized, talks are progressing towards a deal with Fox Sports. The move away from the Mothership does not come as much of a surprise for anyone who follows these things closely, or has been listening to Cowherd’s show for the past few months.
But, the timing will leave a gaping hole in ESPN Radio’s weekday lineup and has broader implications about where some things are going both in Bristol — few will forget the great talent exodus of 2015 at ESPN, which has seen the network lose other outspoken voices in Bill Simmons and Keith Olbermann — and in general sports media. The difference here was that ESPN did make an aggressive bid to keep Cowherd, but was upstaged by Fox, who are clearly looking to make a big splash.
I hope Bomani Jones or Dan LeBatard (or both!?) replace his time slot.
Colin Cowherd and Fox seems like a match made in heaven.
And I agree on Bomani Jones. In my opinion, he's the funniest guy - and one of the smartest guys - at ESPN. I generally hate sports radio, but his show is actually pretty damn good.
He's also reuniting with his old boss Jamie Horowitz (who was famously fired from the Today show after like 2 months, and is the new president of Fox Sports) who is basically responsible for everything everyone hates about ESPN -- the whole embrace debate nonsense and inserting LeBron, Tim Tebow, and Johnny Manziel into every goddamn conversation.
Now...if they would just dump the whole First Take crew, the purge will be complete.
I actually find Bomani Jones to be a boarderline racist and not interesring at all. I'm one of the few that liked Cowherd. He had his bad moments (obviously his crap interview with Harbaugh), but when his hot takes weren't centered on Michigan I liked his antics. Bomani rubs me the wrong way, and he's always bringing race into the discussion even when it shouldn't be.
Odd b/c Bomani actually brings race into the discussion when it's appropriate unlike ... Stephen A. Smith... Not to mention his blunt attitude doesn't avoid topics that other people tip toe around.
I'll forever give Jones credit for this Sterling segment that nobody else had the balls to talk about... if you think this is "racist" then LOL.
Discussing Donald Sterling is clearly the time race should be brought up. I'm not talking about moments like this. I'm talking about the little comments he makes almost every episode that bring up race in some way. He tries to find an issue with everything.
Did you actually watch the video? B/c you're who he's talking about. In fact, he pretty much quotes your statement.
The funniest part of it is that he actually wrote an article about Sterling in 2007 about his antics and nobody read it. (You would probably brush it off as him "bringing up race into everything")
Come 2014, ESPN re-ups it, and it gets more hits than it ever did between 2007-2013. Suddenly people are semi-interested all b/c Sterling happened to be ratted out in broad daylight.
So... You don't like Bomani Jones b/c he's a "borderline racist," but Colin Cowherd is A-Ok??? If you were going to tag one of Bomani or Cowherd as "borderline racist," I don't think Bomani is the choice for many.
Ever listen to Cowherd describe his affection for Oregon (the state)? "Wonderful people, mostly white, that drink lots of beer and wine. Don't screw with Oregon."
And Bomani is the borderline racist.
Bomani's all flash and very often brutalizes 'facts' for 'comedic reporting.' Went on and on about Swiss police arresting FIFA officials at their office buildings for largely two hours and when corrected mocked a guy as if it was obvious for the audience and then went after his Twitter pic. Really? That's not offensive, it's just stupid.
Could easily see Stink landing here. Coach is awful. Could give Rusillo (sp?) an earlier slot. Or they could pull someone from outside. It's not really a difficult spot; Detroit Radio shows that when you have a morning lead-in, you can put anything on after. 2-3 PM is much harder to entertain in than 10 AM when majority of folks carry over from Mike&Mike.
Honestly feel Cowherd has been dropping in popularity for a while and his schtick has changed a ton since 2010'ish. Too much about Colin.
hosted alone no less, not many people can do 10 hours every week all by themselves.
Maybe he is alone because he is a dickhead.
I'm not sure he "can" do it, since I haven't met anyone that actually chooses to listen to his show.
Cowherd is the sports talk equivalent of late '90's shit-rock gods "Creed" or modernday "Nickleback." Nobody likes them, but everyone has heard their music because its crammed into drive time terrestrial radio.
*god-rock shit
If you listen to his show daily, many of the callers that call in agree with him and or there's at least a civil debate going on if not. I guess that may have to do with the screener one could argue.
I've heard a couple of his segments, not just the Harbaugh one, and I generally found him to be trite and extremely limited in what he actually talked about as it related to sports. His phone screeners obviously keep it clean, but most of his talking points feel like this faux social commentaries that allow him to pontificate without actually talking about sports. I guess my bigger problem is that I can't stand sports radio anymore, and him (and Screaming A, Skip, and Rose) seem like the personification of national radio idiots. Maybe he's better at times, but I find him unsufferable. Plus his show on ESPN was turrible when he was talking.
Agreed he has a show, seems bottom of the barrel work.
By these standards, the guy who invented the pet rock is super talented...I mean, he made a million dollars...
.There are untalented (or worse) people in positions of significance all over the place. Start with politicians and end with ESPN's other "talents", Skip and Stephen A.
If that guy figured out how to somehow monetize a pet rock, then yeah damn right he's talented compared to the lames who didn't think of it or couldn't themselves.
:)
Definitely an obituary worth reading.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/us/gary-dahl-inventor-of-the-pet-rock…
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Wow... 'great talent'? I may sound like a dog and stutter like Mel Tillis, but I've got more talent than Coward in one paw!
I think I heard you call into the Cowherd show the one time I listened to it.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Oh ya, big loss to ESPN. Not everyone has sources that predict Belichick to Michigan.
Is this all because of the way he butchered the Harbaugh interview?
no one disliked Cowherd before that.
Cowherd has been a source of (deserved) ridicule on this blog long before the Harbaugh interview.
let's not be the fanbase that suddenly thinks everyone cares about our coach's interview and it makes contract decisions. guy had a huge career - the FOX deal is likely multi-channel where Colin had run his gamet at ESPN when it came to new content.
Just to be clear, my comment was meant to be sarcastic. If the Harbaugh interview had anything to do with Cowherd's move to Fox, it's only because it was the last straw amongst countless other insipid, pedestrian comments he's made over the years.
ESPN is a never ending sports machine. When employees cost too much they can replace them with cheap talent and get 90% of the return of a well known name. This happened when the Dan Patrick / Rich Eisen group left and was replaced by SVP / Stu Scott (RIP) generation.