Brandon Tierney and Carl Banks An AA illustration of Brandon Tierney and Carl Banks.
By Chris Novak on

WFAN listeners on Wednesday morning were treated to a tense on-air argument. During a midday show featuring hosts Brandon Tierney and Sil Licata, along with former New York Giants star Tiki Barber, another former Giant joined the show. That would be the legendary Carl Banks, who won two Super Bowls with the Giants in 1986 and 1990.

The topic of discussion became the play of second-year EDGE Kayvon Thibodeaux. A Top 5 pick, Thibodeaux has received criticism for his play. Some have thought that he hasn’t lived up to his draft status. His play was the center of Banks’ debate with the radio hosts, and that debate intensified. It got to a point where Licata actually hung up on the former Super Bowl champion Banks.

After the dust-up occurred on the air, the WFAN took to his X account to post about the incident, to clear the air, and to establish a ground rule or two.

Tierney’s full statement read:

I truly like @CarlBanksGIII. Have known him for years and I am FAN of the man and the player. He forgot more football than my entirely family tree put together. But lecturing us on how to do a show is where today’s disconnect started. Got off the rails. Just being honest.

Pertaining to this debate topic, we see things differently. Got heated. All good. I genuinely enjoy having him on every week and look forward to next week. And I mean that. Never here to do good people dirty. But we will always defend our show and what we do. #RESPECT.”

So there are two schools of thought here: No player or entity should be above criticism. If we toe the lines that make it appear we’re doing that, then we’re creating all sorts of problems for ourselves, both in the present and in the future. So, the idea that Thibodeaux can’t be critiqued on his play is obviously not the way.

That being said, are radio hosts above criticism, either? No. Transparency is important, and Tierney’s breakdown of the situation is appreciated. So he extinguished this issue and came out of it pretty unscathed. However, just because you hold the platform doesn’t mean you can do whatever with it, either. Player critiques have hit an interesting period of time where a lot of former players have been very outspoken. But the language and the jargon used have been toeing a disrespectful line. So while this dust-up was cooled off, it’s following a noticeable and worrisome trend.

Nevertheless, the Giants themselves decided to play around with the situation with a hilarious graphic that read “Carl From Flint.”

[Brandon Tierney]

About Chris Novak

Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022

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