Colin Cowherd has defended the rights of golfers and broadcasters to do business with LIV Golf, but says he declined an offer to do it himself.
Tuesday morning, news broke that the PGA Tour and DP World Tour have agreed to merge with LIV Golf, ending more than a year of mounting tension and lawsuits between the organizations. The merger also puts a spotlight on the PGA’s hypocrisy. After attempting to tout themselves as the more ethical tour, the PGA will now benefit from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the same one they previously shamed LIV for partnering with.
“When you spend time lecturing others on morals and values and why they do things for money, be very, very careful, somebody may once in your life, though I doubt it, offer you cool stuff. Big money, opportunity,” Cowherd said during his Tuesday Fox Sports Radio show. “The only people with morals and values in the world are never offered big money or enormous opportunities.”
After making the declaration that people with morals are never offered big money, Cowherd claimed he declined big money offers to do LIV reads on his show, presumably because he doesn’t feel great about taking Saudi money.
“I was offered six figures to do stuff with LIV Golf, I was invited to tournaments, I said no thank you. But I didn’t lecture sportscasters that did, I didn’t lecture anybody that did.” pic.twitter.com/68hDw2TFGv
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 6, 2023
“By the way, I was offered six figures to do some reads for the LIV Golf Tour. I didn’t accept it,” Cowherd said. “But, but, I didn’t badmouth other hosts that did. That’s the difference. I was offered six figures to do stuff with LIV Golf, I was invited to tournaments, I said no thank you. But I didn’t lecture sportscasters that did, I didn’t lecture anybody that did. I’m not in their shoes, I don’t pay their taxes, I don’t have their life, I don’t know what’s going on.
“Politicians, golf tours, stop lecturing us. When people get great opportunities, I’m not in your shows. I don’t know what it means to your family, maybe it gets your kid to college.”
Many radio stations sold ad time to LIV golf. Last year, WFAN’s Gregg Giannotti and Boomer Esiason cited the awkwardness and surprise of hearing LIV commercials on their station. It’s possible that a local affiliate of Cowherd’s show similarly ran LIV ads on the station, but the Fox Sports Radio host declined an opportunity to do reads for the Saudi-backed tour.
While there’s irony in Cowherd lecturing about not lecturing, he wasn’t boasting about his own ethics. Cowherd maintained having no issue with anyone who was attracted to LIV because of their deep, Saudi-backed pockets. But it’s certainly interesting to hear he declined six-figure offers from LIV. Maybe Cowherd didn’t want to deal with the backlash that would have inevitably came with promoting LIV on his national radio show. Regardless, he was apparently presented with a lucrative offer and turned it down.
On the contrary, the PGA Tour was very comfortable taking shots at golfers who were joining LIV, until they were presented with an offer lucrative enough for them to ignore any concerns about the Saudi blood money.
[The Herd]
