NFL Network’s Kyle Brandt slams media’s ‘disingenuous’ Cowboys approach

Known for his passionate fandom of the Chicago Bears and Buffalo ills, NFL media personality Kyle Brandt, co-host of Good Morning Football, often steers clear of dissecting the Dallas Cowboys. He disagrees with the moniker “America’s Team” bestowed upon the Cowboys, but his disinclination to discuss them goes beyond that. On the SI Media with Jimmy Traina podcast, Brandt elaborated that he doesn’t find them inherently captivating to dissect or analyze just for the sake of talking about them.

“Here’s what I don’t like; I don’t like the media push to talk about them just for the sake of talking about him,” Brandt said regarding the impression that he doesn’t like talking about the Cowboys. “When we started Good Morning Football, one of our mission statements was to not follow the conventional TV rules. It’s like anything with a podcast now or something; you have to find a way to be different. And so, our thing was like, let’s honestly try to talk about all the teams. Let’s try to treat them like they’re really our children — everyone gets fair time.

“It doesn’t always work out that way, but I’ve just seen rundowns, and I’ve been in production meetings where they’re like, ‘Just talk Cowboys.’ And I’m like, ‘Hold on a second now, the (Los Angeles) Rams are really good, or the (Detroit Lions) are getting good; whatever it might be.’ ‘It doesn’t matter, just talk Cowboys.’ And I hate that. I hate that because it’s [disingenuous], and people get sick of it, and I think it’s just a fake thing to do.”

Brandt compared it to a movie that prioritizes shock value over substance, like throwing gratuitous sex and violence at the screen to keep the audience entertained, even if it contributes nothing to the story or characters.

“It’s just stuffing the movie with sugar because people like it,” he said. “I don’t like talking about it, for Cowboys’ sake. And then, they never amount to anything. We all know they’re never going to amount to anything every year, yet we still do it. I just find it regurgitating and fake; it’s cotton candy. It’s doing it for doing it sake, and it’s not how I like to do TV.”

Brandt said he knows how the Cowboys can be rating darlings, and he’s seen advanced metrics when talking about the Cowboys versus others, but GMF has never “adhered” to that.

“We have the luxury of being on the league’s network where it’s like we don’t have to do that,” said Brandt. “And it definitely hurts our ratings, and I’m sure we could do more if we just screamed about the Cowboys every morning — it’s just not authentic. My number one core at this point in my life — and I’ve been doing this for long enough; I’m a middle-aged fart — is I crave authenticity so much where I will look at someone on TV or listen to a podcast, and I’m like, ‘I really feel like that’s them.’I feel like they would say the same thing if they weren’t on the air,’ and it’s so rare.”

[SI Media Podcast]