If you’re going to criticize Patrick Mahomes, you better be prepared to deal with the wrath of Kansas City. And that includes from the city’s most prominent sports media voice, Nick Wright.
But while it was hardly a surprise to see the FS1 star come to Mahomes’ defense after longtime Kansas City radio host Kevin Kietzman called him “fat” following some not-so-flattering Fourth of July photos, Wright’s response wasn’t just rooted in his affinity for the Chiefs and their superstar quarterback. Never one to shy away from a good spots media beef, the First Things First co-host recalled his longtime rivalry with Kietzman stemming from his own Kansas City radio days.
“I joke somewhat about having a list of rivals. What was not a joke was 15 years ago, I was in a blood feud with this man where he went on the record calling me the Jacksonville Jaguars and he was the New England Patriots and mocked me at every turn,” Wright recalled on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz on Wednesday. “And in old school silly radio wars, when I finally beat him in the ratings 15 years ago as a kid, I held the listener party at his radio station’s restaurant. Smash cut to 10 years later — he owned the radio station, by the way, owned it — he got forced out because of a horrific thing he said about Andy Reid of a place he owned. So he did what every low IQ, not that talented but I like talking into the radio guy does, which is like, ‘well maybe I’ll just make the turn to neanderthal politics.’ And that’s been like his little niche.”
Wright also stated that despite headlines from websites like this one, Kietzman isn’t technically a Kansas City radio host. And in claiming that his viral comments about Mahomes came on “a podcast that can’t have 35 listeners,” he couldn’t help but compare the current states of their respective careers.
“And now for the first time in a decade, he’s noteworthy while I’m on one of America’s premier platforms. Which is to say — not to make it about me — but we know who won that battle,” Wright said. “Sorry Kietz, that son of a b*tch. I hated him so much. Oh my goodness gracious. And people are like, ‘oh, Nick, don’t, you’re punching down.’ No, no, no. It will never feel like punching down. It’s a bad dude who’s bad for my city. And now people are like, ‘local Kansas City radio host.’ That guy — it’s like calling someone a local television host if 30 years ago they bought time overnight. Like, gimme a break.”
Asked what it looks like when he’s involved in a blood feud, Wright pointed to everything he had just said.
“I try to think I’m an intensely loyal guy and so I will even at times, to my own detriment, try to back my people,” he said. “But if you are not that, and I also think you hit the trifecta: being a bad person, being dishonest and the thing that’s worse than all those: totally and wholly untalented, I just never let it go.”
In Kietzman’s meager defense, the podcast where he made his Mahomes comments is a part of iHeartMedia and he does host a separate daily show for KCMO Talk Radio 95.7 FM & 710 AM. But while this may not be a guy who just happens to have access to the internet and a store-bought microphone, Wright’s larger point about the outcome of their rivalry stands.
As for his Mahomes comments, there’s no debating that this is the most attention that Kietzman has received since his departure from Sports Radio 810 WHB in 2019. One reason for that is because such criticism of the greatest quarterback of this generation is so rare. And an even bigger reason is because it’s currently July.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.