A Plea To The Jim Rome Radio Show: Please Start Talking Sports Again

While writing this article I'm reminded of the phrase “I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.”

Only this time I was listening to the Jim Rome Show and some sports talk broke out.

Because of programming circumstances, coupled with my love of sports in any fashion, I choose to torture myself everyday with an hour of his daily radio show.

What used to be a very entertaining and, (get this) informative show has turned into a nationwide “click”,  more reminiscent of a teenage girl's social setting than a sports talk show. He is captain of the high school cheer leading team, and the majority of his listeners are begging to pick up a set of pom poms and audition.

Basically if you aren’t in on all the inside jokes, you are wasting your time, and will be ridiculed for it. He knows more than you, and he will let you know it.

Humility isn’t one of his strong suits.

Oh, he still does interviews with athletes from time to time. Ironically enough each one is the “best one “he has ever done. If you have ever heard an interview hosted by Rome, you will undoubtedly hear him humbly state, following it, that it was the best one he has ever done.    

This leads me to wonder however, if every interview he has done is the best one he has ever had, then does that mean the first interview he ever did was the worst?

But I digress.

Listen to him for an hour and you will feel like you just watched an episode of Jerry Springer.

There are so many mundane sound effects redundantly played in an attempt to be funny, that you were sure you could actually feel your own brain cells dying.

It’s not that he isn’t popular.  The man has a huge following.

His nation of “clones” as he calls them, is more like a legion of mindless minions; a role they embellish by the way. I honestly think he calls them clones because they are expected to share his beliefs or risk being “run” from his show. This theory is supported in part because Rome will ridicule those who enjoy things that he doesn’t.

Don’t you dare get caught saying you like the sport of soccer for example, or that you play Fantasy Football.  You will be targeted for a lifetime of jeers by  him and his followers.

I have never seen a group of people so brainwashed and having such little respect for themselves since I last watched an episode of , well….. Jerry Springer.

If you think I am being harsh on them, you should hear how he treats them on his show.

He degrades his own fans on air, and they love it. He calls them names, and they beg for more.

He attacks their character and they provide him the ammunition. This isn’t just stuff that comes up randomly; he works it into the show.

He encourages them to degrade each other, as well as other people, during calls to the show, in what is referred to as “smack offs”. Each one of these “smack offs” is as beneficial to a “sports show” as reading a list of “your momma so fat” jokes.

After an hour of listening to him, I feel like I need to take a shower.  

He used to be creative, and have interesting takes on stories that actually dealt with sports. He had gained a reputation over the years as being forthright with his opinion.

He was not afraid to call someone out if he felt they portrayed themselves, their sport, their city or someone one else in a negative manner.

He had a take, and he didn’t suck

But to me, he let his popularity go to his head. When his creative ideas ran out, he relied on his listeners desire to sell their own soul for a chance to talk with him live as a way of creating material for the show.

The substance of his show, and I use the term “substance’ loosely, is his reacting to off the wall e-mails his fans send in.

The majority of said e-mails are inside jokes, which Rome takes up more airtime explaining, and then resetting the story of why the e-mail should be funny to other listeners (by the way, Rome will tell you exactly what is funny and what is not).

Rome can waste up to five or six minutes on one e-mail, resetting old jokes, old stories, and old sound bites, without ever introducing new material.

It’s actually a rather genius scheme from an efficiency standpoint. He needn’t take nearly as much time researching information for a new show, when he can spend 35-40 percent of his shows air time resetting old material.

Everything in life evolves. To Rome’s credit, his show has evolved into something that earns him more than worthy ratings whether he deals with the topic of sports or not. It’s just a shame it has come to that from my standpoint.

I enjoyed the show more when it was Rome’s takes on athletes I was listening to, not a callers take on other callers. He can sit back now and let his cash cow work the system.

Like I said, it is a plan that is working. But I do miss the old, creative Jim Rome.

As "Romey" would say “I’m out!”

Maybe he should add to that… “of ideas.”