Devine: Stop giving Colin Cowherd attention

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The Liberty Bell, located at the Liberty Bell Center in Philadelphia, PA. Photo courtesy of pixabay.com user "skeeze."

Sports talk show host Colin Cowherd lit a fire under every fan in the Philadelphia area last Tuesday afternoon, leading to quite a response on Twitter from angry fans.

On his show “The Herd,” he went on a three-and-a-half minute rant about how “Philadelphia is the dumbest sports city in America.”

As expected, the Philadelphia faithful responded in droves, bashing Cowherd and pretty much dismissing every word he said.

The issue isn’t that Cowherd said what he said. It’s the fact that not a single word he spoke was supported by facts themselves.

The basis of his rant was that Philly fans “ran Andy Reid out of town,” even though he became one of the most memorable coaches in Eagles history. He had an “average” quarterback in Donovan McNabb and is currently finding success coaching the Kansas City Chiefs.

But did Eagles fans really RUN him out of town? The departure wasn’t necessarily pretty after Reid coached the team to an underwhelming 4-12 finish in his 14th season, but there were no torches or pitchforks involved then.  

The team did what they had to do following a series of events that shaped the franchise. Reid made terrible personnel decisions, like having an offensive line coach run the defense and wasting a first round pick on Danny Watkins, a firefighter-turned-offensive lineman who spent only three years in the NFL before retiring.

To add salt to the wound, the death of Reid’s son, Garrett, on the campus of Lehigh University in August 2012 didn’t help his case. Fans didn’t run Reid out of town. The fans, management and Reid himself felt it was best to move on, despite the run of success he gave to the city.

The next claim in Cowherd’s rant was how Philly fans ran Terry Francona, former manager of the Phillies, out of town as well after a losing tenure from 1997-2000. Francona has since won two World Series titles and two Manager of the Year awards and is in position to win a third ring this postseason with the Cleveland Indians.

Francona was a different story. He simply had no talent to work with, the exceptions being Curt Schilling, Mike Lieberthal and Scott Rolen. This was a situation very similar to what Ryne Sandberg and Pete Mackanin had to deal with the last few years in Philadelphia.

Francona was not “run out of town.” It was accepted that he was faced with the task of managing a last place baseball team with last place talent.

To round out the pointless rant, Cowherd mentioned how Philly fans give Jay Wright “a hard time.”

Never in the 16 years that Wright has been at Villanova have I seen or heard fans trying to run him out of town, so that argument gets nowhere. Add in the fact that Cowherd said “Villanova is a small, private university in Philadelphia.” News flash: it’s not. It’s located in a town called…Villanova.

Rounding out the rant, he said, “I can’t trust a fanbase that has a courtroom and a jail under their stadium”. He also made the point that Philadelphia was “originally the nation’s capital and [Philadelphia] blew that too.”

He got me there. I should’ve tried harder to keep the city as the capital back in the 18th century. Shucks, Chris.

The point here is that people like Colin Cowherd, Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith are the kind of sports personalities that only spew outlandish filth when their ratings begin to take a hit. Who honestly wants to hear them talk about what they think? Also, what better way to drive up your internet traffic and views than by throwing Philadelphia fans under the bus?

Cowherd simply threw stuff at the wall to see what would stick and he failed. While the man is entitled to his opinion, it’s segments like this where you know it must have been a slow news day and he was in desperate need for attention.

The solution is simple. Don’t fall victim to the clickbait, especially if the faces of the names mentioned above are attached.

Maybe one day, we’ll hear someone bash Philadelphia sports fans without bringing up Santa Claus, a jail in the stadium or D-batteries and for once do their research before showing up to the fight.

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