OT: Cowherd Leaving ESPN for FoxSports (Apparently)

Submitted by BornSinner on

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. 

MGoBoard

Go Blue 1984

July 16th, 2015 at 12:21 PM ^

be watching and good for him and Fox sports. I will never watch ESPN again except for live sports after that political bullshit they pulled last night. What a joke!

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Go Blue 1984

July 16th, 2015 at 12:36 PM ^

Pushed their liberal leftist agenda by awarding the courage award at the Espys to some freak with an identity crisis who cut his balls off and cut a hole in his taint instead of giving the award to someone who is actually courageous like Lauren Hill or a double amputee war veteran. I guess when the president says its courageous that makes it right. Sad but true are country is screwed if that is what is considered normal.

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WorldwideTJRob

July 16th, 2015 at 1:00 PM ^

I see your point but nobody gave a shit about the ESPY courage award before and nobody will give a shit next year. The ESPY's are a makeshift award show anyway so who really cares who they give their awards to. People are just uncomfortable about the Jenner story and really would care less who won the award as long as it wasn't Jenner.



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schreibee

July 16th, 2015 at 1:55 PM ^

WTF happened to "no politics" on this blog? I guess mods will stumble over this thread eventually, and then let's all play the game "How many right-wing wacko homophobe posts can be blocked and deleted at one time" 1984, time to get back in your time capsule. But I don't think '84 is gonna be far enough back for you...try '54

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SelleckStache

July 16th, 2015 at 12:21 PM ^

And he kept talking about how no one listens to other networks. When she returned he had a two week kick of "Do you want to get paid or do you want to matter" or something like that. The guy is a blowhard who will backtrack and flip flop on anything. Looking forward to whoever replaces him on my AM dial in the morning.

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Mr. Yost

July 16th, 2015 at 12:44 PM ^

Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith are to ESPN what Fashion Police is to E!

It's for entertainment only.

Cowherd actually thinks his opinion is the only opinion on earth that matters - he's a jerk, he's arrogant, even moreso than Skip portrays on TV.

He's far worse IMO, he just yells at everyone...whether you agree or disagree with him, he's just being an ass and yelling. And he's made a name for himself.

Jim Rome was just an ass...Herd took it to the next level.

If I could get rid if just one ESPN personality, it would be him. Like I said, Skip and Stephen A. are entertainment for that type of person. In the same way Joan Rivers and Kathy Griffin were entertainment for certain people.

I can live with that, I never watched Fashion Police and I don't watch First Take. It's the same show...just one about Fashion and the other about Sports.

Cowherd actually influences the thought process and people actually take him and his opinion seriously...I've never heard someone form an opinion and jusitfy it with "well Skip Bayless said it, so it must be true."

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Qmatic

July 16th, 2015 at 4:44 PM ^

I agree. Sometimes if you watch First Take and see the reaction Skip makes after some of his outlandish statements, you can tell that he is just trolling for entertainment purposes. Does anyone actually believe that Skip and Stephen A disagree on every single sports topic?



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NRK

July 16th, 2015 at 1:30 PM ^

I remember that and it did not surprise me when it happened. 

 

Eventually Cowherd did give them credit after a nice grassroots internet campaign got on his case about it. In typical Cowherd fashion he was a petulent child about it at first until either he (or more likely his bosses/ESPN Ombudsman) decided it was easier to give credit where credit is due and get it over with.

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bronxblue

July 16th, 2015 at 12:32 PM ^

I look forward top absolutely nothing changing in my life except that it'll be less likely I'll stumble on to him acting like an idiot when I'm flipping channels because FS1 is out in Mordor on my cable package.

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Brian Griese

July 16th, 2015 at 12:33 PM ^

sucks.  All it is troll, troll, troll, and troll more.  And then it's open call time when Bob from Southfield says how David Dombrowski sucks because he didn't trade Don Kelly for Mike Trout.  

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kgh10

July 16th, 2015 at 12:33 PM ^

Fox can grab all the "talent" they want but until they are televising what people actually want to see: sports/ large sporting events, they will never out seat ESPN. Right now, ESPN gets coverage for all the most popular live sporting events and it's not even close.

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chatster

July 16th, 2015 at 2:32 PM ^

I’m also in the MGoBlog minority in usually enjoying Colin Cowherd’s show. The Herd is geared to a national audience. He often relies on detailed statistics to back up his opinions. Plus, even if it may take him a while, he also admits when he has been wrong. He blundered with the recent Jim Harbaugh interview, but generally, he’s much better prepared for interviews than he was that day.
 
I’m living in the metropolitan New York City area, and a fan of only three New York area sports teams (Rangers, Giants and Knicks), but a much bigger fan of college sports, international football/soccer and the business of sports. Maybe that’s why I prefer Cowherd to any of the local hosts, because at least Cowherd will discuss subjects that interest me. It’s why I usually prefer BBC World News, CNBC and the PBS NewsHour to local news broadcasts and to cable news stations CNN, MSNBC and Fox.
 
New York’s two sports radio stations are geared to the longer-established, local professional teams – Yankees, Giants, Knicks, Rangers and to a lesser extent the Mets, Jets and Nets. The Devils, Islanders, Red Bulls and NYC FC are inconsequential to them, and the only chance of hearing talk about college sports is during the college football playoffs, the build up to the Heisman Trophy Award ceremony and March Madness. New York’s ESPN affiliate doesn’t even broadcast the last hour of Cowherd’s show. Most of the local hosts probably think that Real Madrid is just the better comparison to Fake Madrid, that Inter Milan is the heart of the city, compared to Outer Milan and that Petr Cech is a bank account for animals.
 
After Cowherd leaves ESPN radio, I expect that the sports topics that I’m interested in rarely will get mentioned on the local NYC sports talk stations. I don’t like any of the local sports talk radio hosts and I’m not interested at all in whether Vinny from Queens thinks that Lucas Duda is underpaid, or whether Manolo from Manhattan thinks that Dellin Betances is baseball’s best closer, or whether Shlomo from Monsey thinks that the Knicks should’ve paid to get Jeremy Lin back, or whether Marshall from Hoboken thinks that the Rangers made a major error in not re-signing Carl Hagelin (although THAT’s not true, THAT I’d be interested in hearing, because I’m going to miss Carl Hagelin flying all over the ice at Madison Square Garden.)

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raleighwood

July 16th, 2015 at 12:37 PM ^

I can't help but think of Fox Sports as Under Armor (or Reebok!).  They're willing to pay for relevance, but everyone would rather be associated with the top dog (ESPN = Nike).

Has Erin Andrews' sports related profile gotten higher or lower since joining Fox?

 

 

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Mr. Yost

July 16th, 2015 at 12:46 PM ^

...they're still growing tremendously like UA is (rather than Adidas).

FoxSports1 has become a staple for many people...NBCSports never caught on outside of NHL fans.

College Football being on Fox Sports and all of the MLS/World Cup action they've had have them trending in the right direction. They'll never be ESPN, UA will never be Nike...but at least both are growing.

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gmoney41

July 16th, 2015 at 2:10 PM ^

NBC sports also has the premier league, so it is always on saturday and sunday mornings for me.  Other than hockey and soccer, there really is nothing on NBC sports.  Fox sports is doing more golf, baseball and soccer, and i thought they did well for the women's wc and now the gold cup.  The only thing ESPN does well is the actual games and 30 for 30 can be really solid.  I haven't watched a spotscenter in years, because their highlight shows are terrible. 

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