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ArticlesESPNTwitterBy Andrew Bucholtz on

Working in sports media prepares people for a lot of debates, but there are sometimes debates elsewhere that are even more controversial. Sports figures sometimes wind up in those thanks to social media posts, and then wish they hadn’t. The latest example of that comes from ESPN SportsCenter anchor Randy Scott, who delivered quite the take in a video posted to X (formerly Twitter) Monday of him driving behind a group of cyclists, with that captioned “these monsters must be stopped”:

“15 miles an hour behind this sad suburban peloton. Everybody just has to adjust their day while they’re out doing their midlife crisis. Oh, now we’re going 10 miles an hour! Now we’re going 10! Thanks, fellows! Appreciate it!”

That led to a massive amount of criticism for Scott. Here’s a small sampling of that:

Scott did get some support for his stance from others, though, including former ESPN colleague Trey Wingo:

But that was far outweighed from the criticism for Scott, including for complaining about the perceived problem of being delayed by cyclists using a road without suggesting alternatives. On Tuesday, Scott did finally offer his thoughts on proposed solutions in a long thread. But he also ended that thread by crying “uncle,” and saying fighting with pro-cycling X users was worse than the backlash he’s received for any sports take:

Scott is far from the first sports media personality to take fire for his takes on cycling. That’s happened quite a lot over the years across cities. One particularly notable case came from 92.3 The Fan Cleveland radio host Anthony Lima in 2016, when he had to apologize after saying on air he got a “murderous feeling” when behind cyclists. But this crops up every once in a while with a different figure, and it particularly is notable when it takes place on a social media service like X.

Cycling/share-the-road discussions are important, but those conversations often could use some detailed nuance. That’s especially true with consideration of local contexts of other road use, cycling-specific infrastructure, relevant municipal/state/national laws, and more. And, as a global platform that focuses on short thoughts at the expense of nuance and prioritizes engagement and virality, X would seem to be a particularly bad place for those discussions.

Scott appeared to find that out this week. And he set himself up for some of the particular criticism here with his approach of filming while driving, using inflammatory and insulting language like “sad suburban peloton” and “out doing their midlife crisis,” and captioning the video “These monsters must be stopped.” That led to a predictable worldwide wave of criticism for him, and to his eventual conclusion that “Fighting with cycling twitter is worse than any college fan base, any Cowboys perceived slight, any LeBron or MJ hive.” We’ll see if other sports media figures learn from that, or if this cycle repeats itself again.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz