Sports Blogs • The Goofily Named • The Scofflaws

Have you heard about this douchebag sports radio guy?

Of course you have. Everyone has. Except us. Until now.

Yes, we’re extremely late to the party on this Colin Cowherd vs. The Big Lead story, but you have to remember that oddsnark is located so far away from the bright center of the blogging universe that the light we see from our monitors today contains news that is actually millions of years old.

Anyway, if you’re like us and missed this item because you’ve been so wrapped up in the saga of Sanjaya on American Idol, here’s a quick recap: Cowherd, a talk show host and blowhard on ESPN radio, last week issued a fatwa against The Big Lead and instructed his knuckle-dragging followers to flood the site. They did and crashed The Big Lead’s servers for about two days.

Firstly, I’m either impressed that Cowherd has that many listeners to bring down an Internet site, or I’m disappointed that The Big Lead is hosted on an old Gateway 386 in someone’s basement. Secondly, has the blogosphere really reached such proportions that big-time sports radio is lashing out like a wounded animal? We just might be witnessing the end of the world as we know it.

Seriously, though, this little episode offers a startling reminder of just how new to the game this Internet medium is. In the fallout from his “fatwa,” Cowherd was lightly admonished by the brass at ESPN and made an apology on his show. No harm, no foul, right? Since it was “just” an Internet site, no one seems to think it matters all that much. But what if instead of a Web site, he had told his listeners to all go out into the night and burn every copy of the USA TODAY they could find? Or what if his listeners had tried to jam a competitor’s radio signal? There would be a cry throughout the land and lawsuits and all manner of teeth knashing and hand wringing.

The upside to all this is that The Big Lead is back online and getting loads of free publicity from blogs such as this one and in the mainstream media. Cowherd’s little stunt has done nothing but raise the profile of sports blogging, so maybe we should thank him. Looks like the joke’s on you, caveman.

And if any other talk radio host out there would like to target an Internet site, please choose this one. We could use the publicity.

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