prayers for blowouts

...and other collisions of sports and faith

The Best Darn Sports Show Comma

Friday, October 19th, 2007

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The Kansas City Star is reporting that FOX has booked Kansas City Chiefs coach Herm Edwards to be on their show, “The Best Damn Sports Show Period.” Why is this news? Because up until now, Edwards has refused to go on the show because of a certain word that the show uses in its title.

Edwards said, “this show is not the ‘best’ sports show on tv”, when asked why he refused to appear, “so for me to appear on the show for ten minutes would be akin to me lying for 10 straight minutes. And I don’t lie!”

No, we joke. (I made that last paragraph up…and don’t worry, Herm doesn’t have the internet anyway.)

Obviously the word that Edwards had a problem with was ‘damn’, and the only reason he is going to appear on the show on October 30th is because FOX has agreed to change the name of the show to “The Best Darn Sports Show Period” for one day only.

“We were willing to do anything to get Herm on the show, including renaming it,” said the show’s host, Chris Rose. “Herm is such a good interview and we’ve been wanting to get him on so long. We can’t wait.”

As an interesting aside, I sort of predicted something like this in a piece I wrote for Burnside earlier this year. That story, Survey Says, featured the following phony survey Q&A:

I asked 100 Christian sports fans the following question, “When talking about the FOX Sports TV Show, The Best Damn Sports Show Period, what do you refer to the show as?”

71% said they had never heard of such a show.

19% said that they referred to the show as ‘The Best Darn Sports Show Period’, because as one respondent put it “you avoid the cuss yet it still rolls off the tongue like Goliath’s head down Mt. Sinai.”

8% of everyone asked told me I should wash my mouth out with soap.

2% said they used the actual name, “The Best Damn Sports Show Period”, although most of these folks admit to lowering their voice somewhere between the words ‘best’ and ‘sports’.

While many sports sites are asking “Would your change your show’s name to have Herm Edward’s on?”, I’m wondering the opposite. So i pose this question:

Would you as a Christian (if you are one), go on the show with it’s current name? (and if not, would their temporary name change convince you to do it?)

Also, if you’re not a Christian, what do you think of Herm’s stance on this? Noble, ridiculous, or somewhere in between?

I’m not looking for moral absolutes here, just your own infallible opinions