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Jim Nantz sends clear message about hot take culture

When Jim Nantz settles into the booth Sunday for Jets-Bills broadcast, It will be the 40th anniversary of the day he first called a game for CBS. That’s four decades of delivering the soundtrack to some of sports’ most popular moments. But instead of celebrating his own career, Nantz is looking around the industry and asking the question. Who’s next?

On this week’s SI Media Podcast with Jimmy Traina, Nantz was asked about Mike Tirico's recent observation on more students want to be Stephen A. Smith than Nantz. They want to argue and go viral. Few want to grind their way up the long road of play-by-play.

“It speaks to the power of social media, hot takes, creating conversation,” Nantz said. “And they think that’s the business.”

He’s not wrong. You don’t need a job at ESPN or CBS to build a following today. You just need a YouTube channel, an X account, and the willingness to yell louder than others with an opinionated take. For many young people, that looks a lot more appealing than moving to small towns, calling high school games, and hoping for a shot 10 years down the road.

But there’s a problem here and Nantz knows it. Calling games is the heartbeat of sports broadcasting. The games themselves are the story and the play-by-play voice is the storyteller. If everyone wants to be a hot-take artist, who will be left to describe the action when the lights come on?

Nantz has seen it firsthand. He still gets letters from students and young broadcasters, but too often, he says, the dream isn’t about the craft. It’s about fame. “They want to be on TV. They want people to hear them,” he said. “That was never the hook. It was the story and the ability to be a storyteller that was a draw.” Does that make Nantz rare?

This isn’t "old-man-yells-at-cloud" stuff. But rather a reminder that sports media is dangerously tilting toward opinion and less about facts. The value of entertainment is being placed above real news gathering. As Nantz put it, “It’s okay to not have a hot take on everything.”

He’s right. Because while the Stephen A. Smiths of the world have their place, a sports media ecosystem, without fresh play-by-play voices there's a missing foundation. The next Nantz, Tirico, or Al Michaels won’t appear if everyone’s too busy chasing likes and retweets.

Forty years ago, Nantz started at CBS with a dream of telling stories through games. The question now is whether enough young voices will be willing to do the same or does the future belongs only to the loudest takes? Stay tuned.