Talker whiffs with swing at Halladay
Football’s risky, too, but he isn’t telling Brady to quit
“I root for the wall. That ain’t no tragedy. (Race car noises) ‘Yeah. I take that turn like that. Woo!’ And then you crash into a wall and I’m supposed to feel bad for you? Give me a break.” — Boston sports talker Michael Felger
I’ll confess that I don’t listen to sports radio. I listen to Gerry Callahan, cohost of Kirk & Callahan on WEEI, whose “sports talk” show is to sports what Hooters is to chicken wings: Sure, they have ’em, but that’s not why you go.
I did, however, log on and listen to 98.5 (WBZ-FM) host Michael Felger’s commentary on the accidental death of retired pitcher and two-time Cy Young winner Roy Halladay. Because there just aren’t a lot of people who respond to the death of a 40-year-old husband and father with, “Bon Voyage,” “moron,” and “He got what he deserved.”
No, most people reserve that language for radio talk hosts fired for saying idiotically insulting things on the radio. Trust me, I know.
Not that Felger should be fired. I believe his future should be left to the marketplace, plus I’m tired of the rush to demand that people be fired for every mistake, misstatement or misunderstanding. Some nitwit social justice warrior in Lynn posts a dumb online message about cops and we have to drive her mom’s coffee shop out of business? A biker flips the bird at the president’s passing motorcade — an act that demonstrates everything great about being an American, by the way — and she gets the boot from her job? Good grief.
So, no, don’t fire Felger. Mock him. Mock him for being the real moron. (On his show yesterday he offered a half-hearted apology for what he called “dumb hyperbole.”)
The fig leaf Felger had used to legitimize his otherwise juvenile display of verbal jerkery was the argument that Halladay doesn’t deserve our sympathy because he engaged in an unnecessary and risky activity — piloting his own plane, for fun.
“[Halladay] is like the bad guy to me,” Felger said in his original rant. “You got this family, and you’re gonna screw around in this little toy plane? I find that offensive, that you are that cavalier about life ... I got no sympathy for you.”
No sympathy for a guy who risks life and limb just for fun? Dude, you do know that you talk about sports for a living, right?
Sports — you know, stuff people do just for entertainment that involves the direct likelihood of injury and the real risk of death. Stuff like football, hockey, boxing, mixed-martial arts ... You see the problem yet, Captain Compassion?
You literally make your living off people who are paid to beat each other senseless and give each other brain damage.
Felger argues that he’s not being a hypocrite: “If I die helicopter skiing, you have the right to do the exact same thing I’m doing to Roy Halladay.”
Well, I don’t know about “helicopter skiing,” but the risk of dying from regular skiing is 1 in 1.4 million, while the risk of dying while skydiving is 1 in 101,100.
Or to put it another way, they’re both less risky … than football.
Boston University researchers found CTE, the progressive, degenerative brain disease, in 110 out of 111 deceased NFL players.
So when was the last time you called Tom Brady a “moron,” Michael? Doesn’t he care about Gisele and the kids?
Every year a professional athlete dies doing what he or she loves. Others are permanently injured — baseball players injured for life by off-target fastballs, hockey goons who end careers with head-targeting assaults. All for a “thrill”? A bit of fun?
Felger obliquely acknowledged this truth in his nasty comments about NASCAR (see beginning of this column). More than 500 people have died racing in the past 25 years. So I get it, Felger. The same way you get a regular paycheck for talking about it.