Talk about dumb and dumber…
Fox Sports host Colin Cowherd is about as high up on the media food chain as a guy can get. And why not? He spends the majority of his time talking NFL football – which is money-in-the-bank-popular. And he does an excellent job garnishing his sports news and views with down-to-earth, friendly common sense.
How good is he?
His daily show reaches an estimated 139,000 + sports losers and by some estimates he’s worth upwards of $25 million and has however many vacation homes.
In other words, he gets around…
The other day he was interviewing KC radio refugee Nick Wright now of Fox Sports.
“So I know this will sound confusing to you, but I might have a reason for you to check Kansas City off your list of cities you haven’t been to,” Wright begins. “Because in the spring, I’m getting married in KC.”
Long story short, Wright’s been shacking up a woman for years. But instead having a formal wedding, when he left KC for Houston 10 years back, they spent their wedding savings on a house.
Cowherd’s lame retort:
“I didn’t know Kansas City had an airport. Because my entire life I’ve never walked through an airport and seen a sign (that read) ‘to Kansas City.’ I swear to god. I see London; I see Paris; I’ve never seen Kansas City.”
Talk about clueless…
The top sports talk host in the country – who obviously follows the Chiefs and to a lesser extent, the Royals – has the Cowtown mixed up with Topeka?
So because Cowherd sees signs for New York, Chicago and Atlanta, he assumes KC’s 2.5 million person flyover is just like Peoria or Des Moines.
Hold it right there…
Dumb as Cowherd’s take was, Wright’s was equally ignorant.
“Until a year ago, not only did KC have an airport, I would argue that we had the greatest airport,” he quips. “Literally no restaurants – there might (have been) one Pete’s coffee shop – but here’s how it worked. Every gate you got out of your car; you walked in the airport; you walked to your gate and each gate had its own security…You could honest-to-god get out of your car at 7 pm and be waiting for your plane at 7:04 pm. It was the most convenient airport in the world.”
The kicker:
“But because there was literally no restaurants or amenities or whatever, a lot of planes didn’t fly into it. So much to my chagrin they redid it and now it’s big and there’s restaurants and whatever and now I hate it.”
Longtime media guy and travel agent Jack Poessiger‘s take?
“I just can’t imagine a person with that kind of experience would be that ignorant,” he says of Cowherd. “That doesn’t make any sense. If he does sports he should know Kansas City has a big population. Any intelligent person would know that any market the size of Kansas City would have an airport. What’s the word I’m, looking for? It’s pretty ridiculous to make a statement like that. I’ve never heard anything that silly.”
As for Wright’s sentimental but also ridiculous take…
“Restaurants don’t determine who flies into an airport,” Poessiger says. “It’s the passenger count and the competition. I mean, here we are one year after the grand opening and we’re losing a major carrier, Jet Blue.”
As for which of the two statements were the most ignorant…
“They’re both pretty dumb,” Poessiger says. “Number 1 was not knowing we even had an airport, but the other one is pretty close behind.”
I’ve listened to Cowherd for a long time, he’s the best in the business and the 2nd best isn’t even close to his talent. Colin likes to joke around with Nick so the KC reference was just to egg him on a bit. Nick likes to stir things up a bit as well so a sharp jab at MCI isn’t anything out of the ordinary.
I’ve moved around the U.S./world quite a bit, haven’t lived in the KC area in decades but I will tell you almost nobody knows anything about KC. Most think KC is in Kansas. I wouldn’t quite call KC a cow town like Charlie O’ I’d call it one of the better big Midwest cities and MO is definitely better than the surrounding states.
So yeah, in a way KC is paradise with bad weather.
I’m with ya, Farflunger…
Up to a point!
Cause I recorded that bit between Cowherd and Sir Nick and it was not jokey in the slightest.
Cowherd literally had NO CLUE. I know it may seem a stretch, but never having been here, he looks at KC as being like any number of smaller cities that have the odd pro sports team.
And Nick – who is a total suck up to Cowherd – was actually trying to go easy on him. Plus he didn’t really fully get how things work – as Jack pointed out.
Oh, well…
I’m thru being thin skinned about being a flyover town – actually never really have been. We live in a nice little corner of the world; have indoor plumbing, the Internet and a ton of really good restaurants.
It’s a nice place to live, but if I was in any number of other places, not somewhere I’d wanna vacation in general.