Sports Personalities

I have a love/hate relationship with sports talk shows. On one hand they can create narratives that make watching the actual games more interesting, adding more context and stakes to what you’re watching. But on the other hand a lot of them are just too….performative? There are a few culprits that stand out, but those tend to be the ones people pay more attention to. And that’s fine, I understand it’s probably due to the over the top performative nature of the show which keeps people more engaged and is easier for the casual sports viewer to follow. That being said, I have some issues with this formula. 

Let’s start with the main perpetrator, Stephen A. Smith. I’ve been watching First Take since 2010/2011 and I have a lot of respect for how he’s climbed the ranks of ESPN during that time, gaining notoriety and earning several raises during that time. However, his bombastic style has gotten more and more grating. I’m a wrestling fan and there’s a saying that the best characters are when guys take an aspect of their personality and multiply it by 10. It seems like Stephen A. has taken this to heart and then some. It’s too much. It’s gotten to the point where he’s become a caricature of himself. His influence has caused First Take to be a show of style over substance. Even some personalities I generally have a decent amount of respect for are reduced to squabbling children when they get on the show. 

Now let me address Skip and Shannon on Undisputed. Skip is way too biased for my taste. It causes him to be overly negative towards players/organizations that oppose teams he likes. It’s hard for me to take his opinions seriously when he’s so clearly biased towards certain people. You might as well pick some random die hard fan to talk. The character Skip portrays is just the ultimate hater. This forces Shannon to be equally biased in the other direction. While I have a lot of respect for the football mind of Shannon Sharpe, if LeBron’s a part of the discussion, you might as well skip the segment (no pun intended). There is a place for entertainment in sports talk shows, but when you go as far as these guys, it’s just hard for me to take you seriously. 

A lot of these popular sports talk shows try to make the hottest, most controversial takes possible to make the show more entertaining, while being loud and cartoonishly over the top to get their point across. On the flip side, let’s get into some sports personalities that I think are really good. First off, Bomani Jones. He’s the antithesis of what mainstream sports talk shows are. His takes are all extremely eloquently put together, well thought out and extremely extremely logical (sometimes to a fault). He has no noticeable bias towards teams or players. I will say one negative about his presentation is his tendency to speak as though he’s always the smartest person in the room, but the thing is, he just might be. Unlike other sports personalities, Bomani doesn’t have to try to make himself sound smart, he just is. He exudes intelligence and competence, forcing you to take everything he says seriously and you respect his opinion even if you disagree. He’s able to make his points very clearly and concisely without dumbing himself down or becoming overly animated. He comes off as being very authentic. Unlike the other people I mentioned earlier, he doesn’t seem to be playing a character. His intelligence is also very broad. He knows everything about everything it seems. He’s definitely the best of the best and he’s been at the top for the past few years now. 

Now on to other standouts: 

• Rich Eisen – In wrestling they say a good referee has the ability to almost disappear in the ring while the performers are in there doing their thing. Rich has mastered this in his interviews. He’s been at this for a while and is an expert at setting his ego to the side and letting his guests shine. That being said, he has enough sports knowledge and personality to carry the show if he doesn’t have guests. He’s personable, inoffensive, and he has a certain charm that makes you want to keep listening. 
• Dominique Foxworth – Dominique is very well spoken and intelligent, but beyond that he really knows his stuff when it comes to football. He does a good job of informing the viewers/listeners about why he feels the way he does about certain players/teams based on what he sees on the field. I’ve really gotten fond of listening to the podcast he and Bomani drop every Friday, they have good chemistry. I believe he will grow in notoriety within the next few years. 
• Mina Kimes – One issue I have with a lot of sports personalities is that I feel like I know more about sports than they do and it’s annoying to listen to them when I have that in mind. Mina is different. I love listening to Mina talk about football because she for real for real watches film. Like she knows so much about players that I barely even pay attention to. She knows so many small details about formations, personnel, blitz packages, etc. and it’s just refreshing to listen to. She’s able to convey her points without seeming condescending, boring, or overly biased. She always talks about football with so much joy. She’s very endearing, and I always feel like I’m learning when I listen to her. 
• Jalen Rose – I bring up intelligence a lot when I talk about sports analysts, but Jalen Rose almost seems completely unbothered by whether he comes off as intelligent or not. Not to say he’s unintelligent, he just doesn’t seem to care, which is unlike almost anybody else. He comes off as being very easy going for the most part. In many ways he’s the most authentic sports personality there is, at least when he’s on his show Jalen & Jacoby. His basketball takes are elite, his predictions are almost always spot on. However he does get some points off for his lack of football knowledge. He may not be quite on the level of the others I mentioned, but he’s still a very good analyst and deserves to be brought up.
• Honorable Mention: Marcus Spears

While there are a lot of problems in mainstream sports talk shows, there are a decent amount of bright spots too. I know most people aren’t huge nerds like me that spend a large part of their day listening to sports podcasts, but hopefully this will help bring more eyes and ears to the sports personalities that I like while enlightening the people who took the time to read this post.