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For tons of sports hosts, the calendar flipping to July doubles as an invitation to mail in the content. The long NBA season mercifully ends, and we all start to see football coming on the horizon. This is the time for vacations and fill-in hosts, GOAT debates, and schedule talk.

But on The Domonique Foxworth Show, this might just be the best time of year.

The retired NFL cornerback took a circuitous path to hosting his own show for the four letters, writing features for Andscape before hosting weekend radio and breaking into the new-look Get Up roster. Since 2022, Foxworth has used the podcast to explore all the corners of his own skill set as a commentator. This summer, Foxworth and producer Charlie Kravitz have taken full advantage of the break from big-time sports to reach into their deep toolbag for conversations on labor, media, youth sports, and athlete health.

That these two would create compelling and creative content together is no surprise. Foxworth, beyond his playing career on the gridiron, is an experienced union leader. He was the president of the NFL Players’ Association executive committee, a Harvard Business School graduate, and a former COO of the NBPA. It would be no exaggeration to call Foxworth one of the most interesting and thoughtful people at ESPN.

“They present it as a way to create parity and maximize fan interest in every market…I don’t think that it does that.” – @Foxworth24 walks us through the NBA’s second apron and what some of its unintended consequences are. https://t.co/tPbF7ULqpe pic.twitter.com/uyRdVWViZz

— The Domonique Foxworth Show (@FoxworthShow) June 27, 2025

As hard as it would seem to keep up with a host like that, Kravitz makes it look easy. Coming up in the Erik Rydholm branch of ESPN as a producer on Highly Questionable and then its digital spinoff, Debatable, Kravitz knows how to take the silly and make it serious. But, the Foxworth Show shines because of the chemistry Kravitz has developed with Foxworth and the effort he puts into shaping each conversation.

Their resumes make the Foxworth Show a place where the audience will see a television-worthy breakdown of Minnesota’s stifling secondary, followed by an Ivy League panel discussion on the economics of Caitlin Clark, within a few months. This is what podcasting used to be.

A decade or more ago, podcasts were intended for in-depth discussions and offbeat conversations. The top shows were known for “Half-Baked Ideas,” getting high with Elon Musk, and hardcore history. They were radio’s black sheep younger cousin. You listened to them to stretch your mind out and have a laugh.

The blast of new podcasts in recent years has morphed their identity. Now, podcast is a term that is almost impossible to define. In sports, they are for live reaction streams, sit-down interviews, and bro outs. They appear to be replacing the traditional studio show.

Ultimately, sports podcasts could become something like the Foxworth Show.

The offseason has given Foxworth and Kravitz time to delve into the NBA’s Achilles’ epidemic, the ramifications of Ace Bailey’s potential holdout, the NBA’s new CBA, a Caitlin Clark spinoff league, and the professionalization of youth sports. In previous years, Foxworth has hosted conversations with sports science writer David Epstein and NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum during these quiet weeks.

But he can do sports talk too. During football season, the more traditional Sunday night recap episodes with ESPN NFL writer Bill Barnwell are just as great.

Looking through the cracks of megadeals for top talent and the spending spree for live game rights, ESPN does need content. As much as the network might prefer it this way, many fans won’t pay to subscribe to the Worldwide Leader simply for games that they can illegally pirate or catch at a local bar. ESPN needs to establish a brand and a library featuring exceptional hosts.

Particularly at a time when ESPN (and most of sports media) faces the perception that it has backgrounded journalism over loud, messy entertainment, the Foxworth Show can do both. Perhaps the trick of today is to simply Trojan Horse the former into the latter. If so, Foxworth and Kravitz have been playing that trick on the audience for years.

Foxworth is not among the names typically listed among ESPN’s great hosts. Kravitz isn’t a recognizable producer like Stanford Steve, Ty Schmit, or Paul “Hembo” Hembekides. But ESPN clearly believes in the Foxworth Show, giving it a primo syndicated spot on ESPN2.

While other shows relax, the Foxworth Show has shown why it deserves that belief and is on its way up.

It’s officially been eight months since Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election to now-President Donald Trump, and the campaign retrospectives are already hitting the presses.

On Tuesday, Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf released “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” detailing the 2024 presidential campaign and perceived missteps by Harris and her team that led to Trump’s win in November. The book details confidential memos, obtained by Politico and published in Tuesday morning’s “Politico Playbook,” written by Democratic strategist Maria Comella to Harris’ campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon.

Within the memos is a surprising sports media tie-in. Written in the final weeks of the campaign, Comella warned O’Malley Dillon that the current Harris strategy was not working and that the Democratic nominee should alter her media strategy to get herself in front of different groups of voters.

One name specifically mentioned by Comella was The Ringer founder Bill Simmons. Simmons, of course, hosts one of the most-popular sports podcasts in the country. He’s also historically been friendly with the Democratic party, having hosted former President Barack Obama on his show while he was still in office.

Simmons’ show isn’t inherently political and rarely strays that way, but that’s exactly the type of interview the Harris team believed their candidate should’ve been looking for. The memo includes suggestions like “consider a male moderator as a contrast so it doesn’t feel and look too much like ‘girl talk.’”

Comella wasn’t the only Democratic operative pushing for Harris to appear on these platforms. In September, Harris ally Bakari Sellers was urging the nominee to appear on shows like Simmons’ and Paul Finebaum’s.

Of course, even if Harris wanted to appear on The Bill Simmons Podcast, it’s unclear whether he would’ve agreed to have her on. In an interview with Semafor one month after the election, Harris’ deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty acknowledged the difficulty the Harris campaign faced getting her booked on mainstream sports programs. “It got more complicated for sports personalities to take us on their shows because they didn’t want to ‘do politics,’” he suggested.

In today’s political climate, there is likely little to gain for the most popular sports hosts by having on political figures. Doing so guarantees angering a portion of your audience, so why bother?

That’s why it’s easier said than done when a strategist like Comella suggests something like this. There’s little upside for a sports personality to get political, unless it’s part of his or her brand. And seeing that politics isn’t a big part of the Simmons brand, especially in 2024, maybe that particular recommendation from Comella was a bit shortsighted.

Whether you’re a fan or not, Colin Cowherd’s influence on sports radio is undeniable. This year, the Fox Sports personality and former ESPN host will be honored in the Radio Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025.

When the news of his Hall of Fame induction sank in, Cowherd didn’t hold back on how much it truly means to him, despite his usually unflappable demeanor.

“It’s a huge deal. I don’t get terribly emotional about stuff,” Cowherd admitted. “I’ve seen everything now at this point. But my wife knows how much it means. My friends know how much it means. It’s a big deal for me. I don’t want to be congratulatory, but yeah, in my life, it’s been one of my goals.”

Cowherd’s phone buzzed nonstop with congratulatory messages from longtime friend Joe Fortenbaugh to former bosses alike. One notable exception was Danny Parkins, the Breakfast Ball co-host, who purposely held off, knowing he’d have the chance to congratulate Colin in person on The Colin Cowherd Podcast.

“You inspired people like Nick [Wright] and my generation to do radio,” Parkins said. “And then Nick and I would always joke…that you also kind of ruined the next generation of radio hosts, because people would try to be you. But your brain is so singular in terms of the analogies and the comparisons. It was an amazing thing. And then you would hear people try to be you and it’s like, ‘No, man, this is a one of one talent.’ You crushed it in TV and podcasting and all that, but it was made for radio.”

“You really deserve it. I don’t know how many more people in generations after you — if any — will have a big impact on the genre of radio, just because it’s changed,” Parkins continued. “There’s going to have to be a podcasting Hall of Fame. People younger than Colin Cowherd that made an impact in radio. It’s a short list, man. It’s just not as influential anymore, sadly. You’re probably one of the last radio titans. Other people will get in. They’ll keep inducting people. But in terms of people who meant more to the medium to you…you’re one of the last ones, man. You meant a ton to radio.”

And radio has meant a ton to Cowherd.

At 61, Cowherd began his broadcasting career as the play-by-play voice for the Las Vegas Stars, then the Triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. After roles in Las Vegas, Tampa, and Portland, he joined ESPN Radio in 2004, taking over the late-morning slot with his show The Herd, quickly emerging as one of the network’s biggest stars.

Cowherd later hosted ESPN’s SportsNation from 2009-12. In 2015, he jumped to Fox Sports amid the launch of FS1, and unlike many peers, he has remained a steady presence for over a decade. Earlier this year, he signed a new three-year deal despite ESPN’s reported interest in bringing him back.

Part of the new contract involved moving his operations from Los Angeles to Chicago, which is conveniently close to the Swissôtel Hotel, where his Radio Hall of Fame induction will take place on October 30.