Jason McIntyre, founder and editor-in-chief of the blog The Big Lead, has officially signed on to join Colin Cowherd, a rat wearing a human suit, and Jason Whitlock on their upcoming Fox Sports 1 show, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the negotiations. The hour-long “discussion and opinion-based studio program,” which is called Speak For Yourself but which should be called (and which we are calling) All Takes Matter, will debut next month.
The Sporting News first reported the negotiations last week.
According to a source, McIntyre’s deal with Fox is strictly for the television show, though he does have a weekly radio show on Fox Sports Radio. There aren’t currently any plans for McIntyre to write for FoxSports.com, or for Fox to license The Big Lead, currently owned by the USA Today Sports Media Group, like it does Clay Travis’s Outkick the Coverage.
McIntyre, who made his name, to the extent it’s been made, with sports media and gossip reporting, has an unusual history with both of his new co-stars. Whitlock’s ripping of colleagues Scoop Jackson and Mike Lupica in a 2006 The Big Lead Q&A with McIntyre ended his first run at ESPN, and in 2007 an angry Cowherd asked his radio listeners to flood The Big Lead, resulting in it being offline for a couple of days.
It will be interesting to watch how The Big Lead covers the media going forward now that McIntyre is fully compromised by his tight association with Fox. As editor, he’ll continue to have responsibility for choosing whether or not to pursue critical coverage of his Fox paymasters and ESPN rivals; he just won’t have the same credibility someone in that role usually has.
It’s worth noting that McIntyre and The Big Lead have long been at least spiritually aligned with Fox Sports. McIntyre was on the set of Jason Whitlock’s Super Bowl show when Rob Gronkowski grinded on Julie Stewart-Binks; has Clay Travis on his radio show and frequently engages with him on Twitter; and was leaning towards supporting Donald Trump up until Trump refused to disavow the KKK. The Big Lead has an entire section devoted to pictures of male athlete’s wives and girlfriends, with the “stories” often unbylined.
When reached by email, McIntyre declined to comment. Fox didn’t respond to a request to comment on the deal or on the social media controversy surrounding the Whitlock/Cowherd program having been named All Takes Matter.