Colin Cowherd clings to sports as his last source of trust

The one foundational piece of this country that Colin Cowherd still trusts? Sports.

In a July 4th message to his followers, Cowherd sounded more like a disillusioned college professor than a Hall of Fame radio personality. He lamented what he sees as a nation slipping away, eroded by broken institutions, partisan grifters, and most of all, a mainstream media machine that thrives on fear.

Fourth of July Weekend thoughts 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/zrPFyRzplY

— Colin Cowherd (@colincowherd) July 4, 2025

“I often question how much I trust it,” Cowherd said. “The media often makes it feel like the world is unraveling all the time. They frame every crisis as unprecedented. I’m still waiting for the tariffs to ruin the economy.”

Cowherd’s “still waiting for the tariffs to ruin the economy” is a shot not at the policy itself, but at the media’s breathless panic when Donald Trump first imposed them. The sky never fell, he points out. The hysteria, in his view, was the real story.

That’s coming from the same Cowherd who once called Trump a “con artist,” but also, more recently, described him as a “really appealing” leader. That was back in January, when Joe Biden was still in office and wildfires were tearing through Los Angeles. Cowherd floated the idea that Trump, for all his faults, at least knew how to command attention in a crisis.

It was the kind of rhetorical swerve only Cowherd could make. From contempt to reluctant admiration and back again, all within a few news cycles.

But this time, the target wasn’t Trump. It wasn’t even the GOP. It was the entire media ecosystem, one Cowherd says overreacts, oversells, and overwhelms. Yes, there’s a lot of irony in Cowherd calling out the mainstream media for distortion and exaggeration, when he too often veers into hyperbole himself.

But it’s not hyperbole to say that institutional trust in government, academia, corporate leadership, and yes, media, is low across the board. And while many of us have spiraled into cynicism over Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” Cowherd points to one last refuge.

“But through it all, the one foundational piece of this country, a really important part that I trust and dive into is sports,” Cowherd continued. “It rarely lets me down. This past week, I’m watching someone I’ve never met and likely won’t — (USMNT goalkeeper) Matt Freese — make saves in the Gold Cup. I was rooting for him like he was family.

“This isn’t some love letter to sports, almost a Thank You card on this Fourth of July weekend. It’s just a cool twist I didn’t see coming about the profession I chose. It’s become a portal — sports has — to view culture, history, conflict, identity, and grace. A prism for society where class, politics, and race don’t vanish, but converge into a shared desire. One goal. One team. And one win. In a world that feels more fragmented than ever, sports doesn’t.”

Cowherd’s message wasn’t perfect. It came with contradictions, selective memory, and his usual flair for the dramatic. But it also tapped into something real, that there’s a growing unease with the institutions that shape daily life and a desire to find something, anything, that still feels dependable.

That may not be the media. It may not be the government. And come this fall, with 17 million Americans set to lose their health care under the soon-to-be-implemented “Big Beautiful Bill,” it may not be the system at all.

But for now, at least in Cowherd’s world, it’s still sports.