Why Jim Rome Sucks.

Cafe Society
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-note- Having just finished typing this, I notice there’s a lot of crude language in this post. I invite you to give this thread a miss if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, Nancy.

I like talk radio. I dislike crazy right-wing assholes. Therefore, I can only really listen to sports talk radio.

There are two sports talk stations in Orlando- 740 and 1080. 1080 is ESPN and is much, much better.

There’s really only one reason why- when I go to Dunkin’ Donuts, ESPN has Colin Cowherd on. Colin is funny, has good guests, and shuts the hell up and lets them talk when they’re on.

740 (Fox Sports) has Jim Rome on. I do not like Jim Rome. Here’s why:

  1. He comes up with a joke (generally non-sports-related), and repeats it thirty-eight times in a row. Generally, he only stops repeating whatever joke he’s doing when his producer tells him he has to take a commercial break.

  2. His interview technique consists of asking annoying questions, reinterpreting the answer, and then dropping the name of someone who’d be pissed off if he heard the quote Rome has just made up. For example:

Rome- “So, Ronny, how did you feel about that helmet-to-helmet hit on Larry Jones last week?”

Ronny- “I know the officials threw the flag, but I definitely thought it was a clean hit. I don’t think he deserves the fine, Jim.”

Rome-“You heard it here first: the NFL Director of Officiating, Mike Pereira, is gay. I really wonder what Commissioner Paul Tagliabue would say if he heard Ronny starting that kind of rumor.”

  1. He refers constantly to “Nocal” and “Socal” as if everyone in the world knows or cares where and what the fuck these places are. I know they mean Northern California and Southern California. It’s still gay. His show is syndicated in something like two hundred markets. He needs to shut the fuck up about all Cals.

  2. He likes to play irritating celebrity quotes thirty-eight times, just like everything else. A few days ago he had gotten hold of an incredibly annoying soundbite of Lesley Visser laughing. Lesley Visser’s laughter sounds like a small donkey being castrated and tickled simultaneously.

He then proceeded to tell knock-knock jokes one after the other and have one of his assistant shitheads play the soundbite after each one. It wasn’t even almost funny the first time. It was, unsurprisingly, slightly less funny the twelfth time. I don’t know what it was like after that because I drove my car into a concrete wall just to make it stop.

  1. He got fired from ESPN for goading (former NFL QB) Jim Everett into beating the shit out of him live on ESPN2. He did this by (shock!) repeating the same goddamn joke forty times. (He called Everett “Chris” repeatedly, presumably pretending to confuse him with female tennis player Chris Evert).

You have to be a complete and utter waste of neurons to get fired from ESPN. Rush Limbaugh, Stephen A. Smith, and Jim Rome are the only on-air personalities I can think of who ESPN canned. I rest my case.

  1. He holds something called “the Smackoff” on his show. Basically, this is an excuse for regular listeners/callers to talk shit about each other('s teams, mothers, wives, cars, hometowns) on nationally syndicated radio. The entrants are invariably unfunny and repetitive, just like Rome. Still, when they’re talking he isn’t and that is invariably a good thing.

In conclusion, Jim Rome is an asshole. Poke him in the eyes if you see him on the street.

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Frank Caliendo does an awesome – or should I say “epic” – Jim Rome impression. He just totally encapsulates the guy.

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Yeah…that pretty much sums him up. I’ve got nothing else to add.

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Harold Reynolds was recently fired from ESPN. I liked Harold.

I couldn’t agree more about Rome. In addition to the things you mentioned, there’s something about his attitude that I really don’t like. Part of it is his super-serious attitude about sports. That’s how he makes his living though. I guess he’s allowed to be super-serious about it if he wants.

The thing that grates on me most is that he seems to think there’s some sort of guy, sports code that needs to be lived up to…and that it’s somehow important that he distinguish for the listener when this code is being lived up to and who is and who isn’t doing it.

The fracas with Jim Everett was pretty good evidence of this attitude. Everett clearly hadn’t lived up to Rome’s standard for toughness for an NFL quarterback. Everett comes on his show and Rome mocks him. WTF? Rome doesn’t exist without athletes. He makes his money off their sweat, and when one of them comes on his show he ridicules them?

As Rome would say…“Jim Rome…total tool.”

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Not exactly. Everett overturned a table, and shoved Rome. No punches were thrown, and somebody ran in to break it up pretty quick. Here’s the clip:

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That’s a great clip. I hadn’t heard about this at all. They fired Rome for that? Good for them, he was out of line.

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I can’t stand the self-important asshole either. Thank God here in the Tampa Bay area we got ESPN radio back so I don’t have to listen to him any more.

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You forgot about the part

where Jim Rome

the broadcaster

pauses for a really long time

in a single statement

as if that makes what HE has to say

important somehow.

Dick.

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Agree totally- he’s the biggest dick on air. I despise him for the all of the above, plus his annoying use of hip slang that doesn’t make him sound cool, it makes him sound pathetic. I also hate the way he claims he doesn’t talk badly about atheletes, but reads viewer mail slamming them, and then claims- hey the caller said it, not me. Ass. And his use of the term “f-bomb” is annoying as well. Hell, his use of any term is annoying, cause its him.

Jim Everett will always have a special place in my heart for beating the crap out of him.

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The handful times I tried to listen to Rome on ESPN, all he seemed to do was read “funny” e-mails from listeners where they signed the names of some sports figure or celebrity, and 3 minutes of it was absolute torture.

I think the radio side of ESPN has taken a huge nosedive in the last 3 or 4 years. At some point they must have decided that they neeed to attract a younger audience, so they canned guys like Wally and the Keeg – middle-aged sportwriters who actually could talk about sports and make it interesting for a few hours – and hired a bunch of younger guys with “attitude” – which apparently means they talk loudly and emphatically and toss around manly insults and talk about how great they are. I put Colin Cowherd into this group from the little I’ve heard him, but Max Kellerman has got to be the pinnacle of this – 75% of his show consists of him reminding us of what a boy genius he is. And Stephen A. “At the End of the Day, Quite Frankly What I Say Consists of Nothing But Pet Phrases” Smith is still on the air in New York.

WFAN is not much better, though.

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Can I hate Rome for a different reason? One of my journalism professors used to quote a piece of “advice” from Rome all the time: “Have a take, and don’t suck.”

There’s some helpful advice. “Have an opinion” - not a good opinion, not a well-researched or intelligent opinion, just an opinion - and “don’t suck,” which is even more helpful. Sounds like he meant “Bluster your way to success.” The advice sucks and Jim Rome sucks.

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I agree about ESPN radio overall, with the exception of Mike Greenberg- he has a great combination of intelligence and wit. Golic however, should be put out to pasture.

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Actually, I like “have a take, and don’t suck.”

What “have a take” means to me is “have your own take”. The last thing call in radio needs is another guy with the same opinion as everyone else. “Don’t suck” goes without saying. I don’t listen to enough Rome to say just how often HATADS is obeyed, but he does get some funny callers.

That said. . .I hate Rome’s show. I don’t think he brings any intelligence. And the pausing as Rum Monkey highlighted is clearly an attempt to stretch an hours worth of material into 3 hours, and it’s something I never got used to.

I used to think it was just his manner, but he speaks much more briskly when he’s on TV. . .also a lame show, especially compared to the entertaining ATH and PTI.

Unfortunately, the otherwise good Dan Patrick also uses the Roman pause to extend his broadcasts. Does this kind of thing have a history in radio? It’s really annoying.

Mike & Mike is the only thing I listen to from ESPN with any regularity.

For me, it’s Mike & Mike on the drive in. Don & Mike on the drive home (a CBS radio show).

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Cowherd grates, however, whenever he assumes controversial opinions as his own to get a reaction from the audience. Sort of a fake contrarian. Often, he just pans the heck out of whatever is popular/successful at the moment.

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:eek:

No way … can’t break that team up. Golic consistently lends valuable insight as a former athlete. He’s also got the uncommon ability to be honest without being a prick about it. He can be pretty schticky, to be sure … but for me, that’s a tiny flaw.

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“Who would have thought this would get such a response?”

-Signed, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake

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bordelond, in retrospect, I agree I was harsh on Golic- most of Greenberg’s wittiest comments are aimed at either Golic’s size or intelligence, so without that, I agree the show would suffer.

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Rome used to have a highlight/outtakes/screw-ups show on late evening TV that I liked. Don’t care for sports radio.

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“I don’t understand why people were so mad at Mel Gibson and Michael Richards”-

Signed, Tim Hardaway

I guess the question is, if everyone here agrees he sucks, who is listening to him?

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Don’t have to much to add, just wanted to join in the Chorus. Jim Rome sucks.