Is there a more arrogant and phony sports host in all of America than Jim Rome? I doubt it.
Rome is Exhibit A of a plastic man. He begins every show with the same words, except for substituting the day of the week. "Welcome. What up....we have a tremendous Monday show for you today."
It's like all his interviews, "Hi. Welcome to the show. How are you?" That's about as sincere as the cashier at the grocery store who looks the other way and tells every customer in a dull voice, "have a nice day." Yeah, right.
If you watch Rome's shows Monday through Friday you'd have much of it memorized. The man is incapable of ad-libbing or actually being sincere. His radio show is far more interesting and freewheeling. I don't know what his problem is on TV; maybe he's so concerned about his image (slick hair, expensive suit, fashionable goatee, etc.) he can't relax. Whatever.....the show comes off very stiff.
The best part of the TV show is his "forum" when he has two guests. They vary, but usually these people actually have personalities and sound relaxed. Watch Jim's eyes; he's always nervously looking at the teleprompter to see how much time's he got left. Half the time, he isn't even listening to his guests.
Rome also is the world's biggest whiner. On his radio show, he gets on a topic and repeats the same message over and over and over. He's like being married to the world's worst nag.
On his TV show, if you are a guest, or have been a guest, you get treated like royalty. For a guy who likes to come across as controversial, his interviews are softer than Larry King's. He'll just fawn all over you. HOWEVER, if you don't accept his invitation to come on his show, you are worse than Satan and he will bad-mouth you forever. You can always tell who won't come on his show (Herm Edwards, Bill Belicheck, Curt Shilling and many more) because Rome goes out of his way to give nasty comments about them all the time.
If you are 1,000 miles away, Rome will call you all kinds of things, but if you're near him in the studio, or on the phone with him, it's totally the opposite. I guess getting punched in the mouth early in his career by NFL quarterback Jim Everett changed him. The man is only "brave" when the object of his attack is nowhere near him. What a phony.
