Jason Whitlock has left FS1’s Speak for Yourself, Outkick has learned. Whitlock’s contract expired this past Sunday and the two sides were unable to reach an agreement. Fox Sports PR and Whitlock were not immediately available for comment.
Outkick became aware that something might be up when we noticed that Whitlock was not on today, not in the guide for the show in the next two weeks, and had been removed from the SFY Twitter avatar.
Whitlock joined FS1 in 2016. At the outset, he co-hosted SFY with Colin Cowherd, before a stint where he was the solo host. Marcellus Wiley joined the program as new co-host in 2018. Before the pandemic hit, the show had been garnering viewership momentum.
Whitlock has gotten better over time on television.
He was a mess early on in his TV career; seemed compelled to hot take everything and was a KK-Style bomb-thrower more than anything.
He still enjoys his hot takes, but he's not like he was back in the day when he was essentially a super-sized Skip Bayless. And now he'll at least make some sort of cogent (if wrong-headed) argument in favor of whatever weird stance he happened to take at that moment.
I wouldn't say he's even in the top half of guys I truly enjoy listening to these days, but I'll pick and choose segments he's done on Youtube on occasion and find them at least interesting.
10 or so years ago I'd have said "eh, who cares? Guy sucks..." but now I think he's actually decent at this and will probably find a way to a decent enough gig somewhere. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Whitlock has gotten better over time on television.
He was a mess early on in his TV career; seemed compelled to hot take everything and was a KK-Style bomb-thrower more than anything.
He still enjoys his hot takes, but he's not like he was back in the day when he was essentially a super-sized Skip Bayless. And now he'll at least make some sort of cogent (if wrong-headed) argument in favor of whatever weird stance he happened to take at that moment.
I wouldn't say he's even in the top half of guys I truly enjoy listening to these days, but I'll pick and choose segments he's done on Youtube on occasion and find them at least interesting.
10 or so years ago I'd have said "eh, who cares? Guy sucks..." but now I think he's actually decent at this and will probably find a way to a decent enough gig somewhere.
And I've been searching madly for it, but can't seem to find the clip of when Eric Mangini was on Speak For Yourself, and Whitlock basically called him out and said his shitty opinions were a product of him having his head so far up Belichick's large intestine.
I do appreciate that about Whitlock. He'll tear people apart if they deserve it. [Reply]