Arizona Sports Talk Hosts Nearly Brawl (Audio)

Sports talk radio is known as a bastion of tough-talking, sometimes mean-spirited people shouting over other folks to make a point … and that’s just the hosts.

Arizona Sports 98.7 FM nearly had an on-air brawl this week between co-hosts Doug Franz and Ron Wolfley before cooler heads prevailed … barely.

Wolfley, a former NFL running back from 1985-95, co-hosts the show with Franz while also serving as the color commentator for the Arizona Cardinals radio network.

But in a discussion about this week’s opponent, the Oakland Raiders, things got heated between Doug and Wolf. Very heated.

The full exchange is here:

The upshot of it is this: Franz was polling Twitter users, specifically asking younger football fans whether or not they thought the Raiders brand was a joke.

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Wolfley, 52, is from an era where the Raiders’ declarations of “Pride and Poise” and “Commitment to Excellence” were more than just empty slogans and he had a bone to pick with Franz’s informal poll results.

He told Franz he listened to Twitter opinion just a bit too much and was putting too much weight on what he called “10 tweets.” Franz’s response is what heated his co-host to the boiling point:

"“Obviously the conversation is over your head and I apologize to you. I didn’t mean to expose that. By the way, 42 tweets now … “"

Wolfley didn’t take kindly to the insinuation that he was just another dumb jock.

"“By the way, nothing is over my head that you say. Nothing.”"

As they continued to argue over the perception of the Raiders’ brand, the exchange got hotter:

"Franz: “As Aaron Rodgers would say, ‘Relax.’”Wolfley: “You know what Doug? Shut up.”Franz: “No. Don’t ever tell me to shut up.”Wolfley: “Shut up!”Franz: “You’re not man enough to tell me to shut up! That’s a joke!”Wolfley: “You want to go? Seriously? You don’t ever say that to me! BULLCRAP!”Franz: “Why would you tell a man to shut up?”Wolfley: “Seriously, you got a problem? You got a problem?”Franz: “I do have a problem when somebody says ‘shut up’ to me. That’s a joke. It’s unprofessional and it’s immature. You can disagree with me all you want, but to tell another man to shut up is idiotic.”Wolfley: “Speaking of idiots …”Franz: “If you’ll feel better by punching me, go ahead.”"

That was followed by a lengthy, awkward silence.

Arizona Sports vice president Scott Sutherland told AZCentral.com that the situation had been resolved.

"“Everything is OK. In fact, we called them into my office immediately after the show and they had already made up and were mortified and embarrassed. It was certainly out of character for anyone who has listened to the show.”"

On the positive side, no one threatened to have their dad beat up the other guy’s dad.

But for Franz to play the immaturity card after questioning another man’s intellect in a very public and condescending way … yeah, that might make someone want to pop him in the pie hole.

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