Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [335]
I came out later and said, “Here are the facts. Here is the truth.” I never really apologized. I came on the air and said, “Many of you were offended. You were offended by my tone or tenor. I understand it. That’s my Colin tenor. Some people love it. Some people hate it. But I’m not going to apologize for my tone. Go back and look at exactly what I said.” One of the comments that bothered people—people said, “He turned his life around.” And I came out and said, “Hey, a lot of times you clean the carpet, but you don’t get all the stains out.” And people are, like, “What does that mean?” Well, just because you turn your life around doesn’t mean everybody else is going to accept your apology. I mean, Sean had made a lot of enemies in his life apparently.
There’s been a coarsening of the country. I’m not blaming conservative radio, but I think there’s just been a coarsening of the airwaves over the last fifteen years. Much more partisan. Much more anger. And in sports, because the athletes have separated themselves from the common guy, it costs significantly more to go to games, so fans feel more of an ownership. “I’m paying for this, so I’ll damn well say what I please.” There’s clearly a feeling of ownership of the player because you’re paying his salary and because there’s a distance now between the athlete and the media and the athlete and the fans. There’s a resentment that’s built up, and that caustic sort of resentment bares itself on the radio on a daily basis. It’s funny; many people have labeled me “controversial.” I find myself to be so overwhelmingly reasonable. I often go on the air and I say, “People, settle down. We’re overreacting here. Michael Vick? We’re overreacting.” But the ratings are in overreacting. So I listen to a lot of radio and some of the stuff that comes out of political radio talkers’ mouths is just wrong. It’s just absurd. It’s clearly stirring the masses—often the less-educated masses who react emotionally to everything. So some of it can be blamed on the media. Some of it can be blamed on the ticket prices and the separation of fan from player. And some of it is just the coarsening of the country. We have more media. People see more now. People get numb to stuff. And I think as civilizations age, you see this all over. You just see a coarsening because we see more, we get used to more, we get numb to harsher action and harsher dialogue.
I do believe that I bear some responsibility—all of us do—to know that our words can create actions. And there have been times where I’ve tried to cool volatile situations. There are other times where I’ve probably riled people up. But I know that when you get a very emotional racial situation or social situation, my psychology is “We’re going to be okay. Let’s settle down. Let’s stop overreacting.” The most educated people I’ve ever met in my life not only have a high IQ, they have a high EQ, an “emotional quotient.” People who overreact tend almost always to be wrong. The truth is always gray, not black and white. The truth is almost always in the middle and emotions need to be tempered.
People are happy at ESPN. People smile. A lot of people wanted to work in sports, and they are working in sports. And they have a good health plan, a nice company, a beautiful campus, a good cafeteria, and I find people enjoy ESPN. Now there are the downfalls of corporate America. The ills of corporate. But by and large, I’ve never worked at a happier place. And that goes a long way in quality