Around the same time Mike Stoops was finally fired as defensive coordinator at OU, rumors began circulating on the always credible and accurate college football message board circuit that Stoops and an OU linebacker got into some sort of fight or altercation in the locker room at halftime of the Texas game.
Although just about everyone in the local media who covers OU said the rumor wasn't true, The Sports Animal's Regular Jim Traber – a rightwing truther conspiracy theorist who believes everything he reads on Internet message boards and comment sections – ran with the story as if it was a proven documented fact, kind of like his .227 career MLB batting average.
This ruffled the feathers of those in the OU loyal homer media. That includes The Sports Animal's Dusty Dvoracek. He's a former defensive standout who not only played for Mike Stoops, but probably owes his life and current career to the Stoops family.
As a result of this connection, Dusty scored the first big post-firing Mike Stoops interview yesterday during his Sports Animal "Monsters in the Mid-Day" show. The interview was about as soft as the OU defense, and felt like one long "I Love You Man" beer commercial, but it was still a good listen if you bleed crimson and cream. Towards the end, Dusty even called out the "integrity" of people in the media who were spreading rumors (a.k.a. Jim Traber). You can listen to all the ass-kissing right here.
A few hours after that interview, Regular Jim Traber took to the air for his Afternoon Sports Beat radio show. I haven't listened in a long time, but I'm sure our 2007 Jim Traber Drinking Game rules are still accurate.
According to the Ogle Mole Network, some caller asked Jim about his "sources" for the rumors he was spreading. Jim rambled on about how he had more than one message board "source" and that he was the only one in this market to have the courage to speak the truth about OU or whatever. Then, a few minutes later, the unthinkable happened – Mike Stoops called Jim Traber to set the record straight.
Check out the phone call after the jump.
Yikes. If these guys ever do a radio show together, they should call it The Total Incompetence Hour. It would just be Jim and Mike mouth-breathing and talking over each other about their careers peaking in the early 2000s.
Seriously, that was about as underwhelming as a Star Wars sequel (or prequel)! I was expecting fireworks and general shock and awe, but instead all we had were a couple of red, white and blue sprinklers and a black snake.
Here are a few other thoughts and observations:
• We already know Jim Traber is a hypocrite, but this just proves it even more. The guy beats his chest and says "Come say it to my face," but when the person he's speaking the "truth" about confronts him on it, he runs into a Mazzio's buffet and refuses to talk. "I have nothing to say!" Dude, you're a loudmouthed radio host who doesn't shut up. He's the perfect definition of "All Bark. No Bite."
• If it wasn't obvious from watching the Sooners play defense over the past few years, the phone call proved it was obviously time for Mike Stoops to go. The first thing he says when calling into a radio show is "No, I don't have anytime to say. What do you mean?" It sounded to me like he had a few too many Club Specials at the 19th hole.
• I really wish Josh Heupel would have called into Jim Traber's show to address rumors that Gabe Ikard gave him a wedgie following the 2013 OU- Texas game.
Anyway, I have a couple of other thoughts on this, but then I realized I've already spent four hours writing 600 words about a boring radio fight, and need to be somewhere at 2:00. I'm a Johnnie's first time caller and I'll listen to reader comments about all this off the air.
