# Please explain the appeal of sports talk radio
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170
**Category:** The Game Room
**Created:** [January 18, 2014, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170 "2014-01-18T23:01:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/21 "2014-01-20T01:54:42Z")
“Sports talk radio is the opiate of the masses.”
-Karl Marx
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/22 "2014-01-20T02:17:19Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#):
>
> It’s just like people who can … tell you foot lbs of torque on a 1963 pontiac Tempest
The four maxxed out at 215 ft/lbs, the 326 V8 did 352, and the 421 SD produced nearly all the torque in the known universe.
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### Author:  [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/23 "2014-01-20T03:13:05Z")
> [@Fleetwood](#):
>
> Ever have the misfortune to listen to JT the Brick? The worst. At least now he talks a bit with the callers. When first on, callers would do written diatribe or woof on their team, but they were pre-recorded. No live interaction with the host. Most national sports shows are lame, but JT is a meat head.
I forgot all about this butthead.
I can’t believe he is still around. Is he part of a national broadcast, like ESPN, or FOX, or maybe CBS Sports?
He was awful. Starting with his name, JT “the Brick”. What does that even mean?
I throw him in the Jim Rome camp. To be honest, my recollection is that they were very similar in the way they did their shows. And i could never figure out who these guys appealed to. Even the idiots out there have to be insulted by these two nut sacks. I don’t recall anyone saying a good word about either one of them, but someone had to be listening to them besides their moms.
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### Author:  [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/24 "2014-01-20T03:22:12Z")
> [@Tread](#):
>
> 2 - 1,000 yard rushers in the same season. a 14 game season, never done before or since… yes they had one
Wrong.
See 1976 Pittsburgh Steelers
Franco Harris - 1128 yds
Rocky Bleier - 1036 yds
Record - 10-4
This is why sports talk is vital to this country. Tread will no longer be misinformed about the Dolphin running backs. He now knows the Steelers did this amazing feat inly 2 years later.
😃
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### Author:  [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/25 "2014-01-20T05:01:11Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#):
>
> I forgot all about this butthead.
>
> I can’t believe he is still around. Is he part of a national broadcast, like ESPN, or FOX, or maybe CBS Sports?
>
> He was awful. Starting with his name, JT “the Brick”. What does that even mean?
>
> I throw him in the Jim Rome camp. To be honest, my recollection is that they were very similar in the way they did their shows. And i could never figure out who these guys appealed to. Even the idiots out there have to be insulted by these two nut sacks. I don’t recall anyone saying a good word about either one of them, but someone had to be listening to them besides their moms.
JT The Brick got his start in sports talk radio as a caller to The Jim Rome Show.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/26 "2014-01-20T06:39:48Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> …
> The sad truth is that most talk radio of all types just sucks…
CFRA in Ottawa is fantastic. Listen on the web. I have no affiliation.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/27 "2014-01-20T18:15:19Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#):
>
> I’m pretty tired of hearing about how (insert QB)'s throwing motion has evolved since 2007. If I’m forced to listen to this stuff (since people turn it on all over the place) why not tell me something interesting about golf or women’s basketball or the Kentucky Derby once in a while? Or ask some tough questions about the major leagues getting tax breaks for stadiums?
Because that doesn’t generate ratings? The reason they leave it out is because people generally aren’t interested in it.
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/28 "2014-01-20T18:27:51Z")
It’s the same appeal as sports threads on the Dope. They’re a way to have furious arguments about something you care deeply about, but that doesn’t actually \*mean \*anything. They’re safe ways to blow off pressure and demonstrate knowledge, or laugh at others’ lack of it. They’re actually a bonding experience of a sort.
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### Author:  [@Bellhorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bellhorn)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/29 "2014-01-20T19:05:22Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#):
>
> It’s the same appeal as sports threads on the Dope. They’re a way to have furious arguments about something you care deeply about, but that doesn’t actually \*mean \*anything. They’re safe ways to blow off pressure and demonstrate knowledge, or laugh at others’ lack of it. They’re actually a bonding experience of a sort.
True, but the more knowledgable sports message boards are now the place I go to, rather than talk radio. Sports talk radio hosts no longer are informative… instead they intentionally propose “controversial” arguments in order to get a reaction from listeners who then light up the switchboards. They’ve become trolls who don’t really believe the nonsense they utter.
But before the internet, they were the only game in town, if you wanted to revel in a hometown win, or let your misery find company in the wake of some heartbreaking loss. My wife never gave a hoot, and arguing in bars can become expensive and dangerous, not to mention intoxicating.
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### Author:  [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/30 "2014-01-20T20:10:13Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#):
>
> Wrong.
>
> See 1976 Pittsburgh Steelers
>
> Franco Harris - 1128 yds
> Rocky Bleier - 1036 yds
>
> Record - 10-4
>
> This is why sports talk is vital to this country. Tread will no longer be misinformed about the Dolphin running backs. He now knows the Steelers did this amazing feat inly 2 years later.
>
> 😃
I sit corrected… yes this proves how vital sports talk is… Steelers had a great running game too… too bad they were not good enough to win those other 4 games…😃
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### Author:  [@tonyfop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tonyfop)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/31 "2014-01-20T20:36:31Z")
> [@Tread](#):
>
> I sit corrected… yes this proves how vital sports talk is… Steelers had a great running game too… too bad they were not good enough to win those other 4 games…😃
Yeah but I can think of 4 more important games that those Steelers, as well as 2 others won since that time, that the Dolphins haven’t managed to win since…
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/32 "2014-01-20T22:30:02Z")
> [@Bellhorn](#):
>
> True, but the more knowledgable sports message boards are now the place I go to, rather than talk radio. Sports talk radio hosts no longer are informative… instead they intentionally propose “controversial” arguments in order to get a reaction from listeners who then light up the switchboards. They’ve become trolls who don’t really believe the nonsense they utter.
>
> But before the internet, they were the only game in town, if you wanted to revel in a hometown win, or let your misery find company in the wake of some heartbreaking loss. My wife never gave a hoot, and arguing in bars can become expensive and dangerous, not to mention intoxicating.
Well, much the same can be said of newspapers. The quality of print sports journalism is generally mediocre and is in some cases appallingly abysmal. If I want to know what’s going on in the NFL I’m much better off online than I am reading the sports pages of pretty much any major daily.
However, media can be mediocre in content but great in delivery. As terrible as some newspapers are, it’s still a lot of fun to read one sipping a coffee in a cafe. Sports talk radio might suck but it’s a hell of a lot safer than reading the SDMB when I’m driving my car. If I want to know what’s going on in the NFL I’m much better off on many places on the 'Net, but it’s not easily read if I’m hurtling down the 401 en route to some place I’d like to get to alive.
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### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/33 "2014-01-20T23:58:41Z")
[QUOTE=LC Strawhouse]
Or ask some tough questions about the major leagues getting tax breaks for stadiums?
[/QUOTE]
> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> Because that doesn’t generate ratings? The reason they leave it out is because people generally aren’t interested in it.
On the sports talk shows I listen to, the extortion tactics used by sports franchise owners to get a publicly-funded arena or stadium have frequently come up as a topic as well as the absurdity of billionaire owners coercing states, counties, and cities, into giving up scarce tax dollars to build sports venues they could easily afford to build themselves. Of course, I live in part of the country that lost an NBA franchise so such chicanery and since that particular wound hasn’t healed, it makes sense that there’d still be plenty of irate hosts and callers who want to bring this topic up on occasion.
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### Author:  [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2014, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/34 "2014-01-21T00:31:36Z")
A few months ago I asked three friends, all NFL fans, if they found the use of local tax dollars for subsidies to their local teams to be reprehensible. I was aghast to find that all three were in favor of the cities of Baltimore, Buffalo and Philadelphia pitching in hundreds of millions of dollars in stadium construction, sweetheart rent deals and the like for their billionaire owners. I had to dig a little deeper to get them to admit that the underlying reason for this viewpoint was a fear of the Ravens, Bills and Eagles packing up shop and moving on to greener pastures.
That bothers me more than a little.
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### Author:  [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2014, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/35 "2014-01-21T00:32:40Z")
I listen to Sports Radio during pledge drives and the last two weeks before elections. It’s very peaceful. My theory is that the Rabid Nuts have abandoned Sports Talk for Political Diatribe, and the Thoughtful Callers have also burned out on politics.
I am the most pre-Title 9 person you will ever meet; I have no idea what any one is talking about. I still like it.
> [@nevadaexile](#):
>
> When you are a sports nut, you are drunk and it’s late, there’s nothing quite like calling into a program and arguing the the finer points of the '72 Dolphin’s running game (they didn’t have one), the number of Gordie Howe’s goals on Wednesdays or the Cub’s staring pitching ERA in 1957.
I believe the OP’s point was that no-one is talking about Gordie Howe (which makes no sense to me; how can you talk sports without talking about the Howes?) Really, if I would be entertained by people discussing Tim Tebow, I could listen to whatever inane Morning Crew was next on the dial.
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### Author:  [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2014, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/36 "2014-01-21T03:12:07Z")
Only good thing about Jim Rome is he is smart enough to know many people hate his show. He freely admits that.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2014, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/37 "2014-01-21T03:49:42Z")
> [@Red\_Wiggler](#):
>
> I had to dig a little deeper to get them to admit that the underlying reason for this viewpoint was a fear of the Ravens, Bills and Eagles packing up shop and moving on to greener pastures.
>
> That bothers me more than a little.
To be honest I find it refreshing someone would at least admit the reason they’re willing to pay the money is to keep the team. At least it’s an honest and intelligent response. The answer I’d find bothersome is the old “it creates jobs” answer, because that answer is stupid.
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### Author:  [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2014, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/38 "2014-01-21T04:07:56Z")
> [@Bellhorn](#):
>
> True, but the more knowledgable sports message boards are now the place I go to, rather than talk radio. Sports talk radio hosts no longer are informative… instead they intentionally propose “controversial” arguments in order to get a reaction from listeners who then light up the switchboards. They’ve become trolls who don’t really believe the nonsense they utter.
>
> But before the internet, they were the only game in town, if you wanted to revel in a hometown win, or let your misery find company in the wake of some heartbreaking loss. My wife never gave a hoot, and arguing in bars can become expensive and dangerous, not to mention intoxicating.
I cannot completely agree. The aforementioned Mike and Mike and even Cowherd and the Van Pelt show do in fact feature guests that know what in the hell they are talking about, having played/coached before or whatever. I enjoy listening to Brian Billick, Trent Dilfer, etc expound on their experiences.
I have to say out of the three shows on ESPN radio I mentioned I find myself liking Ricillo and Van Pelt the most out of all of them.
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### Author:  [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/39 "2014-01-21T17:43:36Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> To be honest I find it refreshing someone would at least admit the reason they’re willing to pay the money is to keep the team. At least it’s an honest and intelligent response. The answer I’d find bothersome is the old “it creates jobs” answer, because that answer is stupid.
Yes, I applaud them their honesty. The part that bothers me is that the almighty NFL is structured to maintain that sense of fear (noteaminLosAngelescoughcough).
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### Author:  [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2014, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-appeal-of-sports-talk-radio/679170/40 "2014-01-21T19:33:07Z")
> [@j666](#):
>
> I believe the OP’s point was that no-one is talking about Gordie Howe (which makes no sense to me; how can you talk sports without talking about the Howes?) Really, if I would be entertained by people discussing Tim Tebow, I could listen to whatever inane Morning Crew was next on the dial.
Yeah, pretty much. I have no problem with talking intelligently about sports while remembering there’s a world around it. I just can’t stand talk about obscure statistics and player behavior (“his yards per carry over the past seven post-season games…” “it looks like his bat speed has gone down…” “there’s a danger his comments from last season might give the other team bulletin board material…”). I find that stuff embarrassing and it has me bolting to change the radio dial.
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