15 Most Biased Sports Personalities Right Now

By Jacob Kornhauser

In every phase of reporting and analysis, bias seeps in a little bit; but with these 15 sports personalities, it’s everywhere. Some of them acknowledge their biases toward particular schools and teams while others don’t even realize just how biased they really are. These 15, though, are total homers for particular teams and players.

15 Most Biased Sports Personalities Right Now

← Tip: Use keyboard arrows to navigate →

Desmond Howard - Michigan football — It's hard not to be biased toward a team when you played for them like Desmond Howard did at Michigan, but it doesn't seem like he tries to hide his allegiances. On College Gameday, he does a great job as an analyst, but whenever the Wolverines are brought up, he would be better served being a little more objective.

Jimmy Johnson - Cowboys — Jimmy Johnson is now part of FOX's NFL Sunday coverage and is a pretty entertaining character, but his love for the Cowboys is never in doubt. No matter what's going on, he will be realistic about Dallas, but then pick them to win almost every week. This isn't that harmful, though, since the other guys on the set constantly make fun of him for his obvious Cowboys bias.

Lou Holtz - Notre Dame football — Lou Holtz is slowly getting phased out of ESPN programming because he isn't the best analyst in the world, but he's also extremely biased toward Notre Dame football. He doesn't even try to give rhyme or reason to him picking the Fighting Irish most of the time, which makes it that much more annoying.

Chris Broussard - Various NBA players — Broussard doesn't have a bias toward a particular person or team, but he has his buddies in the NBA that he tends to give more favorable coverage to. Obviously, LeBron James is at the top of that list because he wants to keep being able to do stories that LeBron allows him to do. Since he actually tries to pass for a sports reporter, that's pretty bad form on his part.

Michael Wilbon - Chicago sports — Michael Wilbon is one of the better sports journalists out there today, but he wears his Chicago pride on his sleeve everyday on PTI. It's more entertaining than anything else, but it does blur his opinion on various sports topics. Since he acknowledges his extreme Chicago bias, it's not quite as bad, though.

Michelle Beadle - Spurs — Michelle Beadle, the lovable host of SportsNation, is a gigantic Spurs fan and she doesn't care who knows it. She routinely goes to games and posts about it on social media, so everyone knows about her rooting interests. Luckily for her, since SportsNation is such a fun-loving show, the bias doesn't matter that much.

Linda Cohn - New York sports — Linda Cohn is one of the better anchors at ESPN, but she isn't afraid to let everyone know about her New York sports ties, especially to the Rangers. This doesn't seem to affect her everyday reporting and anchoring, but if there's a hockey discussion, you better believe she's going to throw the Rangers in the mix.

Jesse Palmer - Florida sports — Jesse Palmer used to play quarterback for the Florida Gators and he routinely mentions them during College Gameday. At least this year they're actually giving him something to talk about. It's not so much that he gives Florida more favorable coverage than other teams, but he will find a way to include Florida in segments that are completely unrelated.

Mike Ditka - Bears — Ditka was the head coach of the Bears when they won their only Super Bowl back in 1985-86, so can you really blame him for being biased toward his former team? He's very obvious about his bias, but he doesn't really care. Almost no matter what, he will pick the Bears whenever he's making his picks on ESPN. Especially nowadays, that's bold.

Kirk Herbstreit - Ohio State sports — As the former quarterback of the Buckeyes, ESPN's top college football analyst favors Ohio State over all other teams when he's talking about the landscape of the sport. He's had more reason to lately as his former squad won a national championship last year, but it still always finds a way to seep into his discussion about the sport. He's been getting better about it lately, but as the former quarterback for the team, he will never be able to fully get rid of his bias.

Bill Simmons - Boston sports — Bill Simmons is one of the best sportswriters out there today, but he is terrible on camera, mostly because of his bias. He's a Boston guy, so he's constantly talking about the Celtics, Red Sox and Patriots. As if we didn't have enough annoying people already talking about those teams, he has to add fuel to the fire.

Jay Bilas - Duke — Bilas is actually "bias" with an "l" in the middle, so he has to be biased, right? Well, something like that. The former Duke player has reverence for his Blue Devils and loves to tell everyone all about it. It's easy to bring up Duke when talking about college basketball, but he has turned it into an art form.

Joe Buck - Cardinals — While Joe Buck is overly scripted and dramatic, he is one of the best sports broadcasters out there. His father was a broadcasting legend for the Cardinals and he somewhat followed in his footsteps, announcing for several Cardinals games a year on FOX. It makes sense why he would have an affinity for the Red Birds, but it would be nice if it didn't show as much in his coverage of the team.

David Pollack - Georgia — Pollack knows his stuff, but he's one of the more annoying College Gameday analysts. That's because he will go off about Georgia left and right even when they're playing poorly. He's a big reason why people complain so much about the media's SEC bias.

Stephen A. Smith - Various NBA players — Like Chris Broussard, Stephen A. Smith's allegiances to particular players in the NBA makes him extremely biased. He will always point out how players he covers are friends of his and that's just not good reporting. You should never be reporting on people that you're "buddy-buddy" with. Apparently nobody ever told that to Stephen A.

Share On Facebook

Share