New York Jets defensive lineman Quinnen Williams appeared on The Jim Rome Show on Friday to promote College Colors Day, a celebration of college football spearheaded by sports licensing brand CLC, and it did not go well at all.
Williams was late for the segment and when he did show up, sent Rome into a fit after refusing to discuss anything but the promotion. Rome ended the interview after a minute and proceeded to rip Williams, his reps, and the Jets for the next four minutes for what he called “bad, bad form.”
“Do you really think that I would bring you on this show only to talk about your product? Do you think I care that much about that product? Or even at all?” Rome asked facetiously. “Come on and just get a bunch of free advertising that other people pay for. My guy, that’s not how that’s done. Without totally losing it and going off, I want to reiterate, great player and really good dude, very poor execution.”
Rome even had some advice for marketing reps and team officials thinking up their next branded appearance for an athlete.
“Memo to everyone who’s got a pitch, you’ve gotta play some ball,” Rome said. “You cannot come on to pitch something, and then when I ask you something about your team, in a short segment, by the way that you’re late for … if I ask you about your teammate, you can’t shake me off and say, ‘yeah but I’m not here to talk about that, I’m here to talk about this.’ I know very well what you’re here to talk about, and I always get to it.”
Rome felt that even when he did ask Williams about College Colors Day, the New York star gave him hardly anything.
“If you’re not going to talk about anything but the pitch, which is already bad, bad form, when I get to the pitch, you should at least be ready to talk about the pitch,” Rome said. “Jets gonna Jet. I hate that. That’s such a bad experience, because I had such a good experience with him the last time I spoke with him. And I know that’s a good dude. That’s a great player and a good dude who just had a really bad appearance on The Jungle.”
Rome’s issue may seem a little niche and inside the business, but it’s still an all-time rant from a veteran radio host trying to maintain his composure. Respect to Rome for holding in what he probably really wanted to say to Williams in that moment.
[Jim Benton @bentonweb]
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.