Message Boards....

"Instead of chasing that paper. 
Just live your life (Oh!), 
Ay ay ay. 
You got no time for no haters. 
Just live your life (Oh!), 
Ay ay ay. 
No telling 
Where it'll take you. 
Just live your life (Oh!), "  TI featuring Rihanna 

A part of being a sports talk show host that I never got fully accustomed to is the message board faction.  A message board is a really cool thing when people use it right….but it’s like the line “Every tool is a weapon – if you hold it right”.   Being on the radio means you are in the public eye.  Someone who runs a radio station believes that you have the ability to argue and discuss topics in an intelligent and entertaining manner and thus, your voice becomes larger than the average sports fans.  There is a lot of animosity that comes from being on that stage.  Enter the message board.

The two main message boards for sports here in Nebraska, Huskersillustrated.com and Thebluejaycafe.com, are both extremely good sources of information about the teams that they cover.  Breaking news, articles about the team, speculation on stories, and predictions from the media all get linked to threads on the boards.  However, when Rick Pitino called sports talk radio listeners “The Fellowship of the Miserable” while he was here in Omaha – I think message board fanatics fit the bill better. 

People often ask me why do I write on message boards – why bother to lower yourself to their level and give the rogue idiots the satisfaction that they got to you?  I never felt like I was making a mistake by answering people who write about me on message boards until recently.  I have always seen myself as the same as any sports fan with the love of competition, the love of my team, the love of what is going on inside the sports community – the hot topic of the day if you will.  But the experience of being let go from Big Sports 590 has changed me. Maybe I need to keep anyway from them the next job I go to.  Sad though - I love the interaction with diehard fans...but it seems like it was more trouble than it was worth.

I have read things over the past few days that have really saddened me.  The one insult that will always get to me is to call me a liar.  If you remember “Back to the Future”, Michael J. Fox’s character Marty couldn’t stand to be called “Chicken”.  He freaked out when you did, melt down and bow up….well, that’s what happens to me when you call me a liar.   I try very hard to be an honest person in life – both public and private.  Your character is what you have when nobody is watching.  So when people write that I’m lying about what happened to me – well, it hurts.  The hateful words directed at me are sad too but I grew a thick skin about personal comments about me a while ago.  If someone wants to hate me for my mind or for what I say on the air, that’s the job I choice.  Unfortunately, when someone is vulnerable, that’s when the vultures come out of their hiding. 

I will always say this – if you ever have a question…just ask.  Direct questions get direct answers from me.  Always