UPDATE: Audio of Kornheiser’s rant has now been posted on Youtube:
Lance Armstrong unleashed a stunning stream of vitriol to his 2,457,806 Twitter.com followers today directed at ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption host Tony Kornheiser in reference to comments the ESPN personality recently made on his daily ESPN radio show in D.C.:
So what did Kornheiser say to make Armstrong so upset? The cyclist referenced the ESPN host’s March 11, 2009, show on ESPN 980 in DC. A show in which Kornheiser said this about cyclists:
They don’t share the road. They dominate the road. They dare you to run them down. Then when you do, they get angry. What is that about? So you tap them. I’m not saying you kill them. I’m saying you tap them. Tap them once. If you’re not rubbing, you’re not racing right? So you pop them a little bit and see what happens.
Those comments are excerpted. For more context, go here, via Dan Steinberg at the WASHINGTON POST. ESPN 980, which archives the complete audio of each Kornheiser local DC show, has not surprisingly deleted the audio of the March 11 show completely. I haven’t confirmed yet if ESPN Bristol asked for the deletion.
Kornheiser only recently returned to co-Hosting duties on ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption after being suspended for two weeks for making comments about ESPN SportsCenter anchor Hannah Storm’s wardrobe.
While what Kornheiser said about cyclists was foolish, especially in light of what just happened here in Los Angeles, he says wildly hyperbolic things about people and current events almost every single day on his ESPN 980 DC radio show. I came to realize that when reporting on the Storm situation. I listened back to several of his shows and found that Kornheiser never shies away from an extreme expression on local radio when given an opportunity. (Kornheiser’s generally a completely different guy than the more measured and affable person seen daily on ESPN’s PTI.)
Radio execs will tell you that Kornheiser’s DC schtick makes for great radio, and they’re probably right. But with Kornheiser hosting sports media’s biggest weekday stage (ESPN-TV’s PTI) and the aftermath of his Storm comment, it is now clear that if Kornheiser doesn’t start softening his edge on his DC radio show he may significantly injure his employment status at ESPN.
An indication Kornheiser understands that is the apology that Armstrong said he received from the ESPN host this afternoon:
If Kornheiser didn’t have his ESPN-TV PTI gig, worth millions per annum, do you think he’d apologize to Armstrong? Does “very sorry” sound like Kornheiser for something like that? It doesn’t if you’ve listened to a lot of his local DC radio personality.
Without PTI, I think Kornheiser’d revel in Armstrong’s negative reaction and try to take advantage of the national attention for his local DC radio show. We actually saw a little of that today from ESPN 980’s Twitter.com account - which failed to amuse Armstrong:
Though if Kornheiser was never on ESPN’s PTI, Armstrong probably wouldn’t have found out (or cared) about what he said. In fact, without his ESPN profile, Armstrong probably wouldn’t know who Kornheiser is. (Unless he was from DC or lived in the area.)
Kornheiser is certainly entitled to entertain his DC listeners as he sees fit. But make no mistake, that gig is a sidelight now for him and if he had to pick between hosting his ESPN 980 show and being on ESPN television, he’d drop daily DC radio. That’s the reality of the conglomo-driven sports media world we live in today. (Nobody ever said it was fair.)
As I can’t imagine ESPN 980 execs asked Kornheiser to apologize to Armstrong, I’ve got a message into ESPN Bristol asking if it requested Kornheiser extend the gesture to the cyclist. Wouldn’t surprise me if Bristol did, but perhaps Kornheiser did it himself knowing that he might be called on the carpet again.
4:24 pm on March 18th, 2010
kornheiser is an idiot. he shouldn’t be allowed a national audience. local is fine, but the guy says things like this to hundreds of millions of people every day and in my opinion, its not necessary.
5:06 pm on March 18th, 2010
Mike S…did you listen to it? Most of it was in jest. Actually, Kornheiser almost always ends his show telling bikers to be safe and wear white if they ride at night
5:45 pm on March 18th, 2010
Can’t believe Lance had the ball to say that.
5:56 pm on March 18th, 2010
“Most of it was in jest.”
then why was the audio deleted by the station from the online archives?
6:52 pm on March 18th, 2010
Kornheiser is da man!!! Funny dude…love PTI!!!
7:17 pm on March 18th, 2010
I agree with Tony Kornheiser on this issue. Can’t stand cyclist at all so whenever i hear about one getting hit by a car, it brings a smile to my face.
9:41 pm on March 18th, 2010
I believe that several years ago, when Kornheiser was doing his original radio show (even before the ESPN radio show), he knew a lady who was killed riding her bicycle. That is why he always references “wear white” at the end of his shows. He says many things in jest and if you lived in DC, you would actually “get” what he said regarding bike riders in the city.
Not the biggest Korheiser fan. He can be a douche bag but I actually think Armstrong is a bigger one.
10:11 pm on March 18th, 2010
Jackson:
I hope you’re car breaks down, and then the only one that decides to offer help is a cyclist.
Maybe that experience will wipe that ****-eating smile off your face.
1:24 am on March 19th, 2010
Kornheiser is great. Suck it haters!
8:41 am on March 19th, 2010
The cyclists by me are fine, don’t ever see them hogging the road, etc. ButI’ve seen cyclists disobey traffic laws and just “dominate” the road. There is a news story from a year or so ago where a cyclist attacked a driver at a red light because the driver had the nerve to tap his horn at him. Turned out the cyclist was riding in the car lane, instead of the bike lane. So you have nuts on both sides.
Not saying you should run them over, nor do I know the tone Kornheiser had on his show, but I can imagine depending where you are, the cyclists can seem like d-bags.
9:46 am on March 19th, 2010
Tony is just saying what everyone else is thinking, but too pc to say. Cyclist are the worst. They want to have all the rights of cars, but don’t want to follow any rules. They want to go half the speed limit, not let you get around them, and then when cars are stopped at lights they want to right up beside everyone and get back in front so you have to try to pass them again.
Not to mention no one wants to see a 250 fat ass in tight yellow spandex.
9:46 am on March 19th, 2010
Kornheiser has lost the little brain he had to start witth. Why any network would even think of having him on their show is outragious. He contribued nothing to Monday night football, in fact I bet many fans turned off the sound . He can’t play any sport and he’s one reason people hate his type!!!
10:53 am on March 19th, 2010
He’s a propagandist. He blows everything out of proportion for the sake of hearing himself talk…He wouldn’t have the nuts to run anyone down.
11:40 am on March 19th, 2010
Of course he blows things out of proportion. That is what makes it funny. Not one person listening to the radio show ever thought he was serious. He was expressing an annoyance at bikers by using hyperbole. He also has “encouraged” listeners to shoot at people who cross-country ski in their suburban neighborhood after a large snowfall. If you LISTEN to the whole segment, instead of just reading the excerpt, you would get the joke. Lance Armstrong should be playing along, and understand the joke. This is ridiculous.
2:07 pm on March 19th, 2010
If you listen to the Kornheiser radio show daily, you get it. Today Lance Armstrong was on the show and now all is well. Let’s put this to bed and move on to something else.
3:54 pm on March 19th, 2010
Why the Hannah Storm tag?
4:30 pm on March 19th, 2010
He’s got a point about the D-Bags who play Lance Armstrong on the weekends with their beer bellies hanging out of those god-forsaken tights shirts and pants. When I was a kid we called that “playing bikes”, and we have laughed at anyone dressed that way.
9:35 pm on March 19th, 2010
Lance, know your role. Ride your bike.
8:45 am on March 20th, 2010
Two little douchbags foolin’ with a gun,
One shot t’other and then there was one;
11:00 am on March 20th, 2010
Lance, you need to put your big boy pants on and shut up and get the joke. I am not a big Kornheiser fan but I like in the DC metro area and I get the joke. 9 out of 10 pedal power igits in and around DC act is if the own the WHOLE ROAD CURB TO CURB and TRAFFIC LIGHT and STOP SIGNS do not apply. I am all for sharing the road. My “daily” driver is a motorcycle, I ride my Bike (one with an engine) about 300 days a year. Nothing is more deadly to rider on a Motorcycle than a Deer crossing the road or a Donkey’s Anus on their Pedal P.O.S with an IPOD jammed in their ears.
5:14 pm on March 21st, 2010
tony k. is funny as hell. lance is understandably upset, but aren’t there more important battles to be won?
7:30 pm on March 21st, 2010
Hey Fog Horn Leghorn,
In regards to you saying you smile when a cyclist gets hit by a car. I’m a avid cyclist and also a martial artist for 25 years now and I WOULD LOVE TO PUT A SMILE ON YOUR FACE COWARD! People like you do not last long in my classes. To weak!
2:24 am on September 7th, 2010
Tony is right! And Lance is just a little cheating bitch that needs to STFU…wish he was in front of MY car sometime…
2:24 am on September 7th, 2010
ROID RAGE by Armstrong!!!