Jim Rome: Sports Idiot

Driving in the car this morning to mail my mom’s birthday card, I happened to have The Ticket 1050 on the radio left over from yesterday’s NFL action. Mornings they broadcast an opinionated idiot named Jim Rome who, amazingly enough, also has a show on the Fox Sports Channel. This guy talks and talks about athletes and teams and spews his opinions as if he were that other radio idiot Rush Limbaugh. A further parallel is that Rome calls his fans Clones, just like Limbaugh and his Dittoheads. Hey, you all know that Limbaugh wanted to audition for the Monday Night Football job that Dennis Miller got, right? The producers had two words for him: Yeah right.

Back to the SportsIdiot. This morning he was ragging on Martin and Bill Grammatica, brothers who are placekickers in the NFL (Tampa Bay and Arizona, respectively). I have no clue why Rome was so upset, he seems to feel that placekickers should not celebrate after making field goals because these guys aren’t really football players. Hmm, if placekickers aren’t football players, how come they take up roster slots? How come primetime teams like the Raiders take them in the first round of the draft? I’m not as familiar with Bill (although I know he kicked a gamewinner with almost no time left yesterday) but Martin’s nickname is Automatica Grammatica–in three seasons he has yet to miss a point after–which tells you how good he is.

And Rome had the nerve to say he hoped there was no third Grammatica brother to come into the league because he couldn’t stand it. He actually addressed this part to the Grammaticas’ mother! I mean, insulting professional athletes is, I suppose, something they have to accept in this day but to talk to a mother? Puh-leez! I’m happy to report that the SportsIdiot had to eat his words five minutes later after some listener, who Rome wasn’t man enough to put on the air, told him that there is a third brother, he currently kicks in college, and in all likelihood will make it to the NFL soon; of course the SportsIdiot claimed he knew of this younger brother all along, he just preferred to pretend the guy didn’t exist.

I’m going to be very happy for a long time and pretend Jim Rome doesn’t exist and I advise you to do the same.