Note: This is the second of a four-part Kraken Reaction conversation with Furness.
With apologies to the beautiful ginger flows of Seattle Kraken prospects Jagger Firkus and Ty Nelson, hockey has always been the red-headed stepchild of U.S. sports talk radio and TV.
Examples abound, but we’ll limit our introduction here to one egregious example. On ESPN’s popular First Take show last year, Michael Kay was a guest of Stephen A. Smith. (In addition to being the Yankees TV voice, Kay hosts a sports talk show on ESPN’s New York City outlet).
First Take sidekick Molly Qerim: “Which team in New York wins a championship next?”
Kay: “Rangers.”
Smith, appalled at the very mention of a hockey club: “Oh, Lord.”
Qerim: “They don’t count.”
Smith: “Only thing I know about hockey is the puck is black.”
I guess “Stephen A.” hasn’t been told that Sharks GM Mike Grier is black. So are a lot of players. In the Kraken organization, so are broadcasters J.T. Brown and Everett Fitzhugh. Not that the color of the executives, announcers, or players – or the puck – should make any difference to someone paid to know about sports.
Even before the Kraken emerged from the deep, KJR-FM midday host Ian Furness made sure hockey got a seat at his sports talk table. Now that Furness has added hosting duties on the new Kraken Hockey Network, I asked him about the proud ignorance of the sport so many of his colleagues actually boast about.