The Herd with Colin Cowherd
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| Genre | Sports talk |
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| Running time | 3 hours |
| Country | USA |
| Home station | ESPN Radio (2004-) ESPNU (2008-2011) ESPNews (2011-) |
| Starring | Colin Cowherd |
| Air dates | since March 29, 2004 |
| Website | The Herd with Colin Cowherd |
The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a sports talk radio show hosted by Colin Cowherd and broadcast on ESPN Radio from Bristol, Connecticut. The show is heard Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. ET until 1 p.m. ET on most ESPN Radio stations and is simulcasted on ESPNews. Segments of the show are archived into the ESPN Radio Daily Podcast, and full shows are available for download on the paid subscription ESPN Insider section of ESPN.com in the ESPN Radio section. The show features commentary on the day's sports news, perspective on other news stories, and interviews with sports analysts and sports figures.
Cowherd is joined on-air by producers Vincent Kates, David Fisch and Tom Wassell. Fisch was an All-American high school swimmer, according to his mom. ESPN Radio SportsCenter updates during the show are performed by Dan Davis. On his March 5, 2010 show, Colin announced that Amanda Gifford would be leaving The Herd to become a "suit". Additionally, the show will be cut back one hour, now airing three hours, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Contents |
[edit] Regular Guests
- Mel Kiper - Especially during the lead up to the NFL Draft.
- Trey Wingo and Mark Schlereth
- Eric Allen
- Peter King
- Peter Gammons
- Beano Cook
- Sal Paolantonio
- Trent Dilfer - Segment titled, "I Beg to Dilfer" courtesy of Herd emailers.
- Curt Schilling - Every Monday.
[edit] Guest Hosts
The regular fill-ins for Cowherd are Erik Kuselias, John Kincade and Doug Gottlieb.
[edit] Controversies
- Eddie Guerrero's Death - In November 2005, Cowherd was criticized by former ESPN ombudsman, George Solomon for his treatment of the death of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestler Eddie Guerrero. Colin was quoted as saying "he passed away doing steroids", implying that Guerrero's death had been caused by steroid use. According to Dr. Kathryn Berg, the assistant chief medical examiner for Hennepin County in Minnesota, the autopsy showed that Guerrero died from a hardening and narrowing of the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the heart.[1]
- Using Un-attributed Material - In March 2006, Cowherd was criticized for using a joke on his show that was posted on the "M Zone", a University of Michigan fan blog without crediting it.[2] Cowherd later apologized on-air and gave the M Zone full credit for the material. The M Zone response: "He was very cool about everything. This incident is now resolved and over."
- The Herd Knocks Blog Offline - On April 5, 2007, listeners of The Herd knocked The Big Lead blog site offline. Cowherd directed his listeners to access the web site home page simultaneously which resulted in a massive increase in traffic. The blog site's servers were not capable of handling so many users at one time so the site was knocked off-line for approximately 96 hours. ESPN's new Ombudsman, Le Anne Schreiber wrote an article sharing her (negative) opinion of Cowherd's actions. Schreiber contacted Traug Keller, a Senior Vice President at ESPN Radio, and Keller indicated that Cowherd would face no disciplinary action for the stunt, because there had been no policy against such a tactic at the time. To prevent this from happening again, Keller instituted a zero tolerance policy of such activities in the future.[3]
- Sean Taylor's Murder - Cowherd was criticized for comments made regarding the circumstances surrounding Sean Taylor's death. On November 28, 2007, one day after Taylor's home invasion murder, Cowherd claimed that Taylor's past had brought this upon himself, and that Redskins fans who mourned him were not "grown ups." Cowherd stated about Taylor's turnaround; "Well, yeah, just because you clean the rug doesn't mean you got everything out. Sometimes you've got stains, stuff so deep it never ever leaves." Taylor's death was later found to be the result of a botched robbery, and the robbers hadn't known Taylor was home when they entered.[4]
[edit] New contract
In early 2008, Cowherd signed a new 4-year contract to remain with ESPN Radio. On air, Cowherd attributed his longevity at ESPN to the fans of his show, claiming he did the show for his fans, and not his critics or those in ESPN management.
On Dec. 6, 2011, Cowherd tweeted that he had agreed to a new 4-year deal with ESPN.[5]
[edit] Awards
On December 19, 2005, Sports Illustrated named Cowherd "Radio Personality of the Year". Cowherd was lauded by columnist Richard Deitch for providing "an engaging mix of entertainment, information, and reportage.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ Solomon, George (December 27, 2005). "Radio aims to be provocative, fair". ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=solomon_george&id=2272113. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
- ^ Solomon, George (April 6, 2006). "Vitale still signature face, voice of ESPN hoops". ESPN.com. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=solomon_george&id=2396135.
- ^ Schreiber, Le Anne (April 8, 2007). "Cowherd's 'attack' on blog: 'Zero tolerance'". ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?id=2830113. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
- ^ Schreiber, Le Anne (December 11, 2007). "Proportion, perspective missing ingredients in news coverage". ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=schreiber_leanne&id=3148853. Retrieved 2007-12-13.
- ^ Colin Cowerd tweet @ESPN_Colin Dec. 6, 2011
- ^ Deitch, Richard (December 19, 2007). "2005 Media Awards". Sports Illustrated. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/richard_deitsch/12/19/media.circus/index.html. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
