Idiots Write About Sports

So KNBR (The Sports Leader) fired Larry Krueger a week after declaring that “he won’t be fired.”
On the one hand, I hate to see anyone lose their job because of one mistake. As Gary Radnich said, “you don’t get a second chance anymore.” But then here’s this other hand, and good ol’ Lefty tells me that if a guy makes stupid racist comments on the radio, he probably deserves to be cut loose.
The bigger idiocy is that KNBR originally declared that they wouldn’t fire Krueger. Way to sound contrite, guys. Sure, the station and Krueger apologized for what he said — but the defiant statement that he wouldn’t lose his job over it made the whole thing sound like, well, “a slap on the hand,” to use the words of a manager whose brain has turned into Cream of Wheat.
Now, I’m sure Kreuger will find another job. Because sports radio has an insatiable appetite for jackasses, and although Krueger might be a loving father off the air, on the air he’s a jackass.
I used to listen to KNBR all the time. Frank & Mike, Kevin Radich, Gary Radnich’s brilliant noon show and his less-brilliant morning show… but now? I honestly can’t remember, outside of a Giants broadcast, the last time I listened to KNBR. It’s gotta be more than a year.
KNBR’s been playing with fire since the days of Steve McPartlin. The John London “Not Just Sports” disaster — can you say “morning zoo?” — showed that KNBR really had sunk to the lowest levels of its medium, trading in any remaining amount of class, any shred of credibility with its audience, for the basest of radio gimmickry.
I’m not saying KNBR was ever a shining diamond of broadcast integrity. After all, I remember Mike Cleary’s comedy skits wedged between plays of “Afternoon Delight” by the Starland Vocal Band. But now there’s no denying that KNBR’s got the luster of a dried-up piece of horse manure.