Kevin Kietzman
How quickly we forget…
Just a few months back, WHB sports yakker Kevin Kietzman was a force to be reckoned with here in the Cowtown.
By many accounts, Kietzman wasn’t exactly the world’s nicest guy.
Quite the opposite some would say.
The flip side of that equation:
Kietzman pulled few, if any punches, and practically single handedly morphed local sports talk radio from homer talk, with faint hearted criticism of the Royals, Chiefs and KU, to when-did-you stop-beating-your-wife journalism.
He was rude, crude and skeptical – arguably to a fault.
Yet because of his stellar ratings and star power Kietzman appeared bullet proof.
Or so it seemed.
Until he reached critical mass by bringing down the wrath of the Chiefs, KU and their legion of supporters. And then foolishly took on both embattled Kansas basketball coach Bill Self and Chiefs coach Andy Reid.
Might as well toss in the Kansas City Royals, because if nothing else, Kietzman was an equal opportunity offender.
And so it was, that in one fell swoop, Kietzman’s cruel criticism of Reid’s tragic family circumstances landed him on death row. Then just like that he was gone, baby, gone.
Possibly for all time, according to several sources, including some of KC’s top radio heavy hitters who now say they wouldn’t touch Kietzman at any price.
Shades of Fox News heavyweight Bill O’Reilly who sank like a bowling ball after Fox cut him loose.
How bad is it?
Let’s get this out of the way up front. I loathe Kevin Keitzman, and everything he currently stands for as it pertains to sports in general. I was a huge fan of his when he first came on the air and shook things up, and kicked Don Fortune out of the soft nest he had feathered for himself. But then came conference realignment, and he lost me. His attitude and diatribes against Nebraska, and to a larger extent, Missouri were disgusting. Not to mention he was dead wrong on EVERY, SINGLE, ISSUE when it came to conference realignment. His Kstate inferiority complex was put on display for all to see. He knew that the possibility of the Big 12 dissolving into nothing was a real, and that his little agriculture school would be left out in the cold to play in the Mountain West. He also knew that Grandpa Old Balls wouldn’t be around to coach KSU football forever. He was staring right into the abyss, and he lost his shit. He was an embarrassment.
And his moral grandstanding on many issues in general given his marital infidelities were hypocritical at best.
All that being said, Chad Booger paid him handsomely for decades to be KC’s version of a sports shock jock. Now all of a sudden Booger fires him for doing what he’s been paying Kietzman to do?? Booger just goes and bends over for the Chiefs and KU??? What a gutless turd.
Don’t forget that WHB is the ‘official’ radio station of the Chiefs (not named 101 The Fox) as well as the flagship station for the Jayhawks radio network. If those two organizations turned on the station and broke those agreements it would be VERY costly financially. And I imagine implications of that sort gave Boeger little choice other than to get rid of his problem.
Guy Who Says What Idiots Think is a MUron.
Kietzman hated KU and brown-nosed the always-the-fat-bridesmaid MU because MU is also jealous of KU’s championship. Of course, MU hasn’t won a league championship in a sport that mattered since before anyone had hear of AOL!!!
There was a time when KK was good but that was at least 5 years ago, probably longer. My biggest issue with him was it was apparent to me he did zero show prep and has mailed it in for years. He came to making broad generalizations that always left him wiggle room so he could always play both sides of the fence, depending on what the caller was questioning. I mean, the guy on air after the Chiefs first traini g camp practice last year wondered aloud if Mahomes was a bust and asked if Chad Henne was the best QB on the roster. It was so transparent (to me) his judgement had been totally clouded because Alex Smith came on his show and he lost that.
To me, the biggest tell about KK is the fact he was never the target of the Border Patrols Friday morning “Listen or Lose” segment. I know it is juvenile humor but everyone at the station was fair game except one person and I think that speaks volumes. I believe he was probably almost universally hated in the building. You didn’t hear one person give him an ounce of support either. In the end the people who hated him smelled blood and struck. I’m personally indifferent to what he said but man, the KU people in my office were dying to see him fired.