Aaron Judge, Aaron Rodgers and… who else? New York City isn’t exactly the hotbed of star athletes it once was. And Colin Cowherd and Nick Wright agree it’s because sports icons no longer need the Big Apple to get famous.
Discussing the idea on the latest Colin Cowherd Podcast, the two Fox Sports hosts discussed why a shifting media environment explains the change.
“I don’t think it’s just bad GMs,” Cowherd said, who explained the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers somehow now have more star power than all the sports teams in New York (and throw in Chicago too) combined.
New York used to make stars with the media attention it offered and celebrity status it could create, Wright added. Now, stars make themselves.
Add in crappy weather and small properties, and New York just may not be worth it anymore to most star athletes.
“In modern society … it barely matters,” Wright said. “In modern society, because of the way media has changed and because of the way getting your own message out has changed and because of the way everyone can be their own megaphone, you don’t have to live [in New York] to get it out.”
Cowherd added that it could appeal to some to be in a similarly big city without the downside of how cramped NYC is, plus not to have to worry about harsh media coverage.
As a result, Judge staying with the Yankees and Rodgers choosing the Jets are the only examples in recent sports memory of superstars choosing New York.
“If you are a star quarterback in the NFL, yes there is something to being the quarterback for the Giants, I understand that,” Wright said. “But would Lamar Jackson be way more famous as a Jet than a Raven? No, he wouldn’t.”
Cowherd pointed out that it’s much easier to “hide” in Los Angeles or Chicago, which are more spread out than Manhattan.
“To be in New York, you had to deal with a bunch of s*** to be a star,” Cowherd said. “And you don’t in Los Angeles. The media is soft, the weather is better, we don’t have a city tax like New York, and the truth is it’s a spread-out town where you can hide.”
Cowherd called LA “the best place in North America to be a star.”
Which explains why everyone from LeBron James to Matthew Stafford to Shohei Ohtani has flocked there over the past half-decade, bucking a historical trend.
The rise of social media and athletes self-producing content has made it less necessary to be around other famous people or live in the most populated cities. And New York has suffered as a result, at least when it comes to recruiting famous athletes.
[The Colin Cowherd Podcast on YouTube]
