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RADIO WARS: Bill Colarulo Wants “People Who Consider Themselves Sports Talk Hosts” to Stop Knocking Down Jalen Hurts for Engagement
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Bill Colarulo on Wednesday afternoon’s Unfiltered show:
“I am so sick and tired of the false narrative that’s being spewed, not only nationally, but even locally, by people who consider themselves sports talk hosts, that don’t know what they’re talking about when they say that Jalen Hurts can’t throw the football. ‘Jalen Hurts is just a running back that plays the quarterback position. This team’s not gonna be able to evolve next year and throw the ball because Jalen Hurts can’t pass.’ We all know the Eagles finished 29th in passing yards because they were bottom of the NFL in passing attempts. They made a conscious decision of ‘we’re gonna lean on our running game.’ But when they had to throw the football, they were #12 in terms of net yards per attempt. That’s pretty damn good. But on deep balls, meaning 20 yards or deeper down the field, guess where your Philadelphia Eagles ranked in terms of EPA? #1 in the entire National Football League. ‘But Jalen Hurts can’t throw the football!’ Did you know he completed close to 50% of his throws that were 20 or more yards down the field. Which is the best in the National Football League. What really makes me chuckle is the false narrative that gets spewed by people looking to create drama and content by taking shots at our Super Bowl MVP quarterback, who has led you to the Super Bowl two out of the last three seasons, who has led you to the playoffs all four years as a starter, but let’s try to knock him down for engagement.”
This is a shot at 94 WIP, which has disrespected Jalen Hurts time and time again in the months after Super Bowl LIX. Spike Eskin and Ike Reese got into a preposterous argument about whether or not Hurts was elite on the day after he won Super Bowl MVP. Then they asked in April if 2025 would be a “prove-it” year for Hurts, who, again, won Super Bowl MVP 10 weeks prior. And recently, WIP has once again been honed in on Hurts as they run through a list of the top 11 athletes in Philadelphia, Joe DeCamara leaving the QB off his list entirely. It’s truly been some nasty work.
Of course people will say, “Well guess what? WIP is looking for engagement, and now they have their engagement. They laid out some rage bait and people took it.” That is certainly true, and we’ve been over the topic many times, but it’s not the takeaway here.
The takeaway is Colarulo going after “people who consider themselves sports talk hosts, that don’t know what they’re talking about.” He does not mention WIP specifically, but this is as close as you can get, and what’s intriguing is that the two stations have historically acted like the other does not exist. You will hear hosts talk about “the other station,” on rare occasions, maybe when a caller brings up something that was said on the other channel, but WIP never mentions the Fanatic and the Fanatic never mentions WIP. There are some people out there who believe it might be in the Fanatic’s best interest to pivot off this, and instead go after WIP and criticize them for their strategy of riling people up by saying the stupidest shit. Essentially they should fight fire with fire, as James Hetfield said back in 1984.
97.5 is getting absolutely thumped in the ratings, right? They have half the resources that WIP does. So maybe instead of fighting an unwinnable war of talking Eagles as a non-rights holder, you take the stance of being the anti-WIP and see what that does for you.
Colarulo, of course, only started on afternoons a few weeks ago, so if you’re looking to establish a new show and gain some traction, perhaps going down this road makes sense. Planned or unplanned, you wonder if it’s something that might give them a foothold as they try to make up some kind of ground on WIP, because 94.1 is way out in front and has been for many years now. We may even have to retire RADIO WARS if the ratings gap expands any further. The Fanatic is going to need one of those bunker busters to threaten WIP, because WIP is more entrenched than an uranium enrichment facility buried in a mountain.
Play the song! –
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com