Talk about smoke and mirrors…
Give it up for former Kansas City Star sports scribe Jason Whitlock.
As both Whitlock and the Star continue their slide into obscurity, it’s Whitlock who seems to be winning the battle to at least appear to remain relevant.
Case in point, when Big Sexy departed KC after an ugly falling out with the newspaper, he managed to trick former 610 Sports host Nick Wright into implying that his parachute was a golden one. Wright’s unsubstantiated implication was repeated and reported by other sports media as fact, leaving many with the impression – however unlikely – that Whitlock’s new blogging career landed him on easy street.
Unfortunately blogging and making the odd guest appearance on cable sports didn’t turn out to be quite as as lucrative as taking down twin six-figure salaries in local radio and newsprint.
Especially in light of Whitlock telling the world know last year that he’d gone bankrupt.
Big Sexy then returned to blogging at Fox Sports 1
There followed a parting of company with ESPN after Whitlock’s failing to get a website off the ground that was to have served as an incubator for young, up-and-coming African American sportswriters.
After ESPN pulled the plug on Whitlock’s project, he left “voluntarily” and fell back on his old ways of tossing out haymakers like a column calling retiring NBA legend Kobe Bryant “the most fraudulent superstar celebrity athlete” ever.
There followed an obscure blog interview under a headline that read, “Jason Whitlock Talks Strip Clubs,” in which he claimed to have made “a small investment in his own strip club” in Florida.
Classy.
As for Whitlock’s pending move to Fox Sports 1, it’s “a network that very few people watch,” SportsGrid notes.
The $64 million question:
Outside of landing musical sports jobs, staving off financial ruin, buying minority interests in strip clubs and a failed attempt at fashioning a foundation for budding black sportswriters, has Whitlock changed much?
Apparently not.
As evidenced by his latest tweet: “Just because you have a small mind don’t assume I do, too. Just because you’re focused on me don’t assume my actions are always about me.”
That said, some things never change…
Late last year – shortly before Whitlock got canned for the second time at ESPN – he managed to trick a gullible NEWSWEEK writer into “reporting” the following:
“Two years ago, ESPN signed the 48-year-old to a five-year, multimillion-dollar contract, to create The Undefeated, an ambitious website conceived by Whitlock to discuss the intersection of race and sports in America.”
Some things never change…
I always liked Whitlock in print. I miss his columns in the Star as he was the only person who would take on Carl Peterson. No denying that he’s his own worst enemy who apparently pisses away money like the athletes he covers.
Whitlock not only took on Peterson, but I remember he was the only media member in town that figured Scott Pioli (Egoli) out pretty quickly.
Whitlock hinted at a dinner he and other local reporters had with Pioli. According to Whitlock, Pioli got frustrated and angry with some of their questions and burst out, “If your not all in, then get the hell out.” From that moment forward Whitlock new Pioli was full of it.
Then came the whole Brian Waters saga. While the rest of the media wanted to portray Waters as selfish or a bad teammate, Whitlock stood up for him. Questioned Pioli and Haley and tried to get Waters end of the story. BTW, the guy that Pioli and Haley and some people in the media wanted you to think was a selfish jerk, won NFL Man of the Year later that season.
Yep, some jerk.
Whitlock would of been a good thorn in the side of Pioli. But thankfully for him, Whitlock was all but done with the Star by the start of the season.
uh….
Give the guy credit. He loved the ladies/strippers and probably hookers.
reminds me of the glaze.
wish him luck. He’s a national celebrity and seems to land on his
feet on the networks.
Plus his pics on kcc show him with hotter women than we’ve seen glaze with
on kcc.
Good luck Jason…..keep rolling.
If you need a vw give hearne a call.
That is, if he can afford a VW…
It’s not easy getting credit after you declare bankruptcy.
And if he even actually does snare one of those seven figure deals like Nick Wright and some other wannabe sports “reporters” like to imply, come see me about a BMW. That would be a nice complement to a larger percentage ownership in a nicer strip club.
maybe a used vw.
new bmw’s are beautiful! what is that the z4……
Had my first bmw from hafkemeyer inmission….loved
it…but the owner (burt) never sent our letters on a recall
and had it out with him. Marion…your present boss
was great in getting things done.
Hearne I saw Jason daily on THE HERD with a big name sports tv talk show…the host…forget his name someone out there had to see it…but it was daily during the NFL season…so I thought he had a new job..then later he had his own show that followed, but now its gone, no clue.
ESPN did not pull the plug on Whitlock’s project–they pulled the plug on Whitlock. The Undefeated, long delayed and nearly mismanaged to death by Jason, officially launched on Tuesday. https://theundefeated.com/
You are correct, sir…in a way…
They pulled the plug on BOTH Whitlock and his project. The project is going forward under new direction
look…we’ve all had our ups and downs…its life.
I hope hearne does well in his new career….hope glaze packs them in (waiting
for some free tix to the midget wrestlers (lol)….and by the way what’s
the height limit to qualify as a midget wrestler. chuck was wanting to take
on one of the midgets!!!!!!!!!!
Harley, midget show was May 17th. It was very busy and a fun show. I was impressed with how good they were and well prepared. Our first time with them. I’ll have them back.
Hey I saw Nick Wright on Fox 1 yesterday filling in as the head guy on THE HERD. Looked good, same show I saw Jason on this past winter. Now its oh they don’t have a large viewership, most shows don’t there are too many but getting on them is still not easy,and some pay well.
First off I will defend Hearne, he has more money than he needs guys…he works cause he wants to work and be out socially that’s all. Plus he loves cars and he is into it, by the way he is THE NUMBER ONE SALES GUY THEY HAVE TODAY, he’s killing it. As for a couple divorces … so? What is so odd or destructive about that. He had a longtime marriage with his first wife who was very nice it just ran out of steam as most do after 20 years. They parted on a friendly line.
As for Jason I think he has or had a show on Fox with sports… I saw him all winter on it and then on his own NFL show that followed so he may be on Fox now.
I like Whitlock, he has done more nationally than almost any other sports guys in kc media. He shows up. All the time. Give him credit. As for the girls, well I’ll leave that to your own opinions. I don’t hang out in strip bars, I have dated some dancers, many pretty ones, but most of my girlfriends have not been dancers. Don’t know bout Jasons.
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT CHOCOLATEEEEEE!
“As for Whitlock’s pending move to Fox Sports 1, it’s “a network that very few people watch,” SportsGrid notes.”
FS1’s flagship show gets like 35,000 viewers. It is astoundingly low.
bob…fox sports 1 is part of the fox entertainment group.
fox sports 1 reaches into 84 million homes…not bad…and they
do broadcast some big sporting events in major sports.
There arte dozens of little watched channels that go into millions of homes!
That’s what makes it so amazing. Nobody watches FS1.
this weekend nascar drew over 650,000 viewers on fs1…that’s big for the third most valuable sports network. Bob…lets say this….wrong again/2
Let me get this straight, Great One:
You actually think NASCAR watchers give a you-know-what or even know who Jason Whitlock is?
car dog: that wasn’t the comment.
Please read.
You said no one watched FS1…
bob the boobhead said they got 35,000 viewers
on their flagship show.
You said there were lots of channel s that
get into millions of homes….but had no eyeballs.
I merely did some research on google
an found both of you guys wrong.
they get big numbers…650,000 viewers
is a lot of vviewers. Do they know Jason…
I can’t say because I wasn’t there.
But your comment shows again you know
nothing…you don’t fact check your
own comments….you don’t even take the
minute to research the crap you say.
So again hearne…you said they had no eyeballs but nascar is not the only program doing some
big numbers on FS1.
Some of the football games they get do even
better numbers than nascars.
So hernia….have a happy holiday and
i’ll leave you with this:
YOU AND BOB WERE BOTH WRONG…NOT
ONCE ….NOT TWICE…BUT THREE TIMES.
AGAIN YOU LOOK LIKE A FOOL.
BEFORE YOU WRITE SOMETHING PLEASE
SPEND SOME TIME RESEARCHING IT.
KNOW YOU’RE BUSY SELLING CARS….
BUT WHEN YOU POST SOMETHING BE SURE
IT’S CORRECT.
oh…a bit more information:
FOX SPORTS 1 was ranked the THIRD MOST VALUABLE SPORTS NETWORK
behind ESPN and the NFL Network.
Not bad for an offshoot network!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So that’s makes Jason’s deal even better…hope he can land a great position there……
They’ve gotta land the eyeballs first, wild man
they have eyeballs hernia.
Average 160,000 viewers….highly valued station….right behind nfl network and
espn….BOB IS WRONG (fits the pattern on kcc) ….fs1 has eyeballs
get 500,000 plus viewers for nascar.
Again…don’t act like you know media. You don’t!!!!!!
FS1 is a great spot for Jason. He’s on a major
national network and eventually and hopefully moves up the ladder there.
Fox sports has many channels so if he does well he will move up the ladder.
I’m sure he and Hillary appreciate your role as cheerleader!