It’s only Wednesday, and the collective sports media has already cooked up another beef.
This time, it’s Cris Carter versus Joy Taylor.
Taylor created headlines recently for torching Aaron Rodgers, who is still a free agent, for missing Steelers OTAs. And yes, Twitter, Taylor knows that Rodgers isn’t on Pittsburgh’s roster, even if it’s inevitable he’ll probably be the starting quarterback, and not Mason Rudolph, who created his own stir for appearing at a Donald Trump rally last week.
This was brought to the Hall of Fame wide receiver’s attention as he stared out his podcast studio window and gestured broadly towards the Atlantic Ocean.
“I was trying to see if some dolphins or sharks popped up from the ocean,” Carter said on his Fully Loaded podcast. “I’d much rather listen to them than Joy Taylor.”
The former FS1 personality didn’t say that he didn’t care for Joy Taylor’s opinion, but he also didn’t not say that either. He was pretty annoyed with Taylor’s commentary, though, and offered some background on her upbringing in Pittsburgh and where her allegiances may lie, despite being a longtime Miami radio host.
“These people, man. They got, they got — OK, alright, let me settle down,” Carter continued. “Joy is from Pittsburgh. So, the Pittsburgh Steelers are really her team. She lived in Miami, you know, traveling around with Jason, her brother. That’s where she cut her teeth in the industry, broadcasting-wise. Then, she adopted Miami. So, she’s a Dolphins, Heat [fan] on the side type thing. But, Pittsburgh, that’s where she’s from. And she has a love for the way they do things, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“But, Joy, do you have a contract for your job? Did people give you a contract or did you just went on the air and just spewing out stuff, content, and say, ‘Hey, they’ll get the contract worked out.’ Because the NFL doesn’t work that way, you can’t show up without a contract. And guess what? You gotta have two agreeing parties to have a contract. So, slow down, just like the Cleveland guy, ‘Oh, I don’t want to see Kenny Pickett.’ What do you know? And, Joy, her brother is a Hall of Famer, and now she’s got her nephew [Mason Taylor] drafted by the Jets, [who] could be a really good player. The tight end. Could be a really good player.”
Carter’s larger point wasn’t entirely off base, even if it was buried beneath a few personal jabs and meandering tangents. He’s right about how contracts work — Rodgers isn’t showing up anywhere, OTA or not, without ink on paper. That’s standard. That’s the business.
But Taylor wasn’t confused about that. Her commentary was less about logistics and more about optics.
“But, Joy, come on. Just, come on,” Carter adds. “I mean, you’re telling Aaron Rodgers what to do? Pittsburgh has screwed up the quarterback situation — not as bad as Cleveland — but they’ve screwed it up. They’re hoping and praying Aaron comes because when they let Justin Fields leave and go to the Jets to be their starter, they screwed that up… It’s June. So, yes, Joy, you’re right. It is a problem. But it’s not your problem. And it’s not a problem because you said it’s a problem.”
Carter was looking out the window when he heard Joy Taylor’s name, but he perked right up for Terry Bradshaw’s Rodgers critique. That tells you everything you need to know about who he thinks gets to speak on certain subjects.
It’s Carter’s opinion that Rodgers doesn’t owe anyone anything until there’s a deal in place, and the Steelers’ mess at quarterback doesn’t give Taylor license to make it his fault.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.