Steve Duemig

Steve Duemig is an American sports media personality. He was also a former host on The Golf Channel's Grey Goose 19th hole. He still hosts Fox Sports Radio's weekly call-in show College Game Time Warmup, and has a daily local sports talk show on AM 620 WDAE in Tampa.

Duemig was born in Pensacola, Florida but was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after his family did not want him. He reportedly was a fan of the Philadelphia Flyers, Philadelphia Eagles, and Philadelphia 76ers as child.

He also played on the first The Big Break aired on The Golf Channel.

Career prior to broadcast communications

Duemig is a former PGA Head Professional and also briefly played on the PGA Tour.

Controversy

Duemig's show has been criticized for its lack of basketball coverage. Callers have criticized him for not being knowledgeable about the NBA. The National Basketball Association of the United States and Canada, commonly known as the NBA, is the premier professional basketball league in North America.

Critics have also questioned Dueming's lack of coverage of NASCAR, to which Dueming has responded that the sport is "...a sport for rednecks and yahoos" and that he has no interest in it. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is the largest sanctioning body of motor sports in the United States.

One of Duemigs biggest criticisms is verbal on-air attacks on callers who call his show wishing to openly cheer for or discuss sports teams not based in the Tampa Bay area, and is especially harsh when those callers root for an out of area team to win against a home team (he makes exceptions for college sports, claiming people who root for their alma maters cannot realistically be expected to root for a local college team, as they have no vested interest in that school). He had admitted that he was raised in Philadelphia, and was a big fan of their local teams, but upon moving to Tampa he switched allegiances.

Duemig commits a substantial amount of air time to the discussion of topics related to golf and horse racing. Duemig is a former Head professional and a member of the PGA of America, as well as a former partner in a horse stable, and has considerable knowledge on both of these topics, but has received criticism for the amount of time he devotes to this subject as it is not perceived to be of interest to the majority of his listeners.

He frequently discusses the Las Vegas lines placed on sports games, particularly the points-spread. While Clear Channel (the company that owns and operates AM 620 WDAE) has guidelines that prohibit hosts encouraging listeners to participate in gambling activities, Duemig always prefaces these discussions as how he would "play the line" thus staying within the parameters of the guidelines. Duemig however did violate these guidelines once by making an on-air recommendation for an offshore sports book. Whether or not he was punished has not been made public.

Deumig frequently claims that he has received many offers to leave Tampa for national syndication, though at various times officials for both Fox Sports Radio and ESPN Radio have denied any interest in hiring Deumig to host a daily show. While his College Football Pre-Game React show is nationally syndicated, it is a weekly show and is pre-empted in many markets in favor of local programming or infomercials. However, Deumig once hosted the Grey Goose 19th Hole for the Golf Channel.

Deumig is often criticized for the fact that he will often criticize a local sports figure but then turn around and be incredibly nice to them in a later interview. This is most evident with his recent criticisms of Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden, who he claimed he "was not a fan of" and Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Jay Feaster who he claimed should be fired due to incompetence. In subsequent interviews within the same week, Deumig conducted "softball" interviews with the two men where he heaped praise on them.

Deumig has also devoted considerable time during political elections to discuss his admitted conservative political beliefs. During these sessions, Deumig only allowed on-air callers who wanted to talk politics, though he did acknowledge that the vast majority of callers on these shows were people wanting to talk about sports, not politics. For the 2006 political primaries, Deumig refrained from discussing politics.

To Duemig's credit, he has often broke local stories several days before the events actually take place. For example, he announced the Tampa Bay Lightning's intention to cut captain Dave Andreychuk prior to the event occurring due to what he claimed was insubordination against Lightning coach John Torterella. Lightning administrative officials initially denied it, but ended up placing him on waivers a week later, citing him as a defensive liability (at the time, Andreychuk was last on the team in +/- and was on pace to score only 11 goals, which would have been the lowest in his career).

Scott Brantley Fight

Once while working at a formerly competing sports-talk radio station prior to coming to Clear Channel, Duemig and his former co-host Scott Brantley had an on-air disagreement that turned into a fist fight off the air. Duemig once addressed the issue several years later on his show on 620 WDAE. He admitted that Brantley puniched him hard in the face after a disagreement. But now the issue is over.

Sale of Tampa Bay Buccaneers

In 2000, Duemig broke a controversial story revolving around the intention of Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glaser planning to either sell the team or to move them to Los Angeles, California. Duemig claimed to receive his information from unnamed sources, and refused to name them because they were employees of the Buccaneers, and did not want to compromise their employment. The story generated and sustained a substantial amount of public interest for nearly two years, and even made national headlines on ESPN. The Bucs held press conferences at the end of both the 2000 and 2001 seasons to refute the claim and as of 2006, Glaser is still the owner and Los Angeles is still without an NFL franchise. Duemig to this day claims that the story was legitimate, but still cannot name his sources because they are either still employed by the Buccaneers or because upon dismissal from the organization, were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements.

Deumig was quoted in the St Petersburg Times as saying:

"If by some miracle this never came to pass, my credibility would take a hit, no question about it. ... (But) it wouldn't be the first time a reporter got a story wrong," Duemig said on the air. "But I am not wrong. I am not backing down."

Executive vice presidents Joel and Ed Glazer, along with DeBartolo, vehemently denied rumors fueled by the reports.

“Man Crush” of Specific Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Deumig has often been accused of having an unbalanced and obsessive loyalty to specific players of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Most notably RB/FB Mike Alstott and Keyshawn Johnson, who also had or shared considerable radio time with Deumig.

Mike Alstott has had specific attention from Deumig. This is because Alstott and Deumig hosted a one hour call in shown (The Mike Alstott Show) for several years. Deumig would often defend Alstott or with hold his criticism of him when he played bad. However, Deumig’s “Man Crush” had become fully apparent when Buccaneer Head Coach Jon Gruden refused to use Alstott as a featured back in his offensive plans and instead wanted to use Alstott as a true fullback.

Deumig has insisted that Jon Gruden has had an “agenda” against Alstott and has planned to destroy Alstott’s reputation. At one point Deumig stated that Gruden set Alstott up to fail when he had Alstott go for a 2-point conversion against the Washington Redskins with the victory on the line. Despite the fact that Alstott made the 2-point conversion and won the game for the Buccaneers Deumig was highly critical of Gruden.

Deumig also had a serious attachment to former Bucs WR Keyshawn Johnson. In fact this “Man Crush” became so apparent that the St Petersburg Times wrote an article describing Deumig’s relationship with Keyshawn Johnson:

With Mike Alstott out for the season with an injury, it didn't take long for WDAE-AM 620's Steve Duemig to find another Buc to fawn over (Keyshawn Johnson).

And in rather disgusting style this week, Duemig defended his best new buddy with such fervor it made him look foolish and overly defensive.

Pompous, arrogant, full of himself and, quite frankly, a little dishonest. Duemig and Johnson are two blowhards in a pod. He applauded Johnson, as if he was the only wide receiver in Bucs history to catch balls over the middle.

As if he is without question the "best receiver this team has ever had" (Jimmie Giles had more yards on fewer catches and twice as many touchdowns, so he might have an argument there.)

Other players that Deumig has displayed a “man crush” on include: Dave Andreychuk, John Lynch, Keenan McCardell, & Simeon Rice.

Issues with members of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Deumig has been vocally critical of many members of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers these individuals include:

Warren Sapp, Trent Dilfer, Tony Dungy, Jon Gruden, and any Buccaneer offensive coordinator.

Deumig was highly critical of former DT Warren Sapp for what he perceived as being unfriendly to fans of the Bucs.

QB Trent Dilfer received some of the hottest criticism of any member of the Buccaneers until Jon Gruden’s arrival. Deumig would often bash Dilfer’s ability as a QB when with the Bucs. This set the tone for how Deumig’s shows format.

Former Bucs coach Tony Dungy often was criticized for being too conservative and costing the Bucs a chance to go to the Super Bowl. After Jon Gruden took over the Bucs Deumig has changed his tone about Dungy and now often speaks about his firing as a bad for the team.

Jon Gruden has been accused of everything that has gone wrong with the Bucs. Overall, Deumig thinks he “stinks” and wants to see him fired.

Issues with others in the Media

In addition to his well known conflicts with Scott Brantley, Deumig has had several conflicts and feuds with other radio personalities, many being on WDAE 620. These include:

WQYK-AM 1010's T.J. Rives: accused WDAE-AM 620's Steve Duemig of, essentially, lying to listeners and playing it off as if he has been to Bucs camp.

Duemig fired back, as he is wont to do, by calling Rives something derogatory on the air and disputing that claim. T.J. Rives stated:

"I think the bottom line is if you want to be able to do your job and do your job well, you cannot sit in your studio and speculate on what might be happening,"

Rives then said:

"What he was doing was acting like he knew who was having a good camp and trying to portray that to his audience. As far as I'm concerned, that is stealing a paycheck. That is unforgivable. If you're not going to get in your car and come over as almost everyone else has done and watch this stuff, fine, but don't act like you have been over here and you have been watching."

In a bit of irony T.J. Rives works for the Buccaneer Radio Network, and hosts the John Gruden Coaches Show that preempts Deumig’s show.

WDAE-AM 620's Dan Sileo: Deumig blasted former Buccaneer and morning radio host Dan Sileo for is open and vocal support of the New York Yankees. Deumig stated it made him sick to turn the radio on to his station and hear someone rooting against the Devil Rays and instead rooted for the Yankees. Sileo blasted Deumig for making comments about who he roots for.

WDAE-AM 620's Ron Diaz and Ian Beckles: Mike Alstott appeared on the Ron and Ian shown to discuss an upcoming charity event. When asked about his future in football, Alstott hinted that he might retire as his injury was a concern to his family. Later on his show, Deumig blasted Diaz and Beckles for cornering Mike into saying he was going to retire. On there show Diaz and Beckles came back at Deumig and his criticism. Diaz, stated he was going to talk to management after the show about Deumig, while Beckles was more vocal when he stated “he best keep my name out of his mouth”.

Pewter Report: Deumig has received a lot of criticism from an online discussion board linked with the pewterreport.com magazine. Often the members of this insider’s magazine have been critical of Deumig for what they see as “Bucs Bashing”. Several times Deumig has called out Pewter Report owner Steve Reynolds for not controlling the content of the web pages message boards. Despite claiming to be a friend of Reynolds, he has been highly critical of him. At one point Deumig referred to Reynolds as “little Stevie” and then removed them from the afternoon line up during football season. This was due to Pewter Report members calling Deumigs show and criticizing his reporting on the Bucs.

Jim Rome: Deumig has been vocal in his criticism of nationally syndicated radio host Jim Rome. Rome’s show is on before Deumig’s afternoon show.

References

http://www.sptimes.com/News/012501/SuperBowl2001/Sports_Babe_planning_.shtml http://www.sptimes.com/2003/11/21/Sports/Duemig_a_shill_for_Jo.shtml http://www.sptimes.com/2002/08/09/Bucs/Feud_between_radio_st.shtml http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Steve-Duemig