This is Rich: Kornheiser Calls Hank Steinbrenner “Spoiled Rich Gasbag”

"This guy [Hank Steinbrenner] is a gasbag. And he erupts every so often. He’s not his father. He’s one of those sons who inherited everything and accomplished very little on his own but thinks he can talk the talk the way his father, who made something of himself, used to do."

You know what I heard there? About as much as I heard with the Kornheiser’s Monday Night broadcasts on mute. Nothing.

On a sports owner’s bad move scale of 1 to “hiring Steve Spurrier to replace Schottenheimer”, Steinbrenner’s gaffe would have to rate at about a 3. It will be completely forgotten 10 years from now, and Derek Jeter will manage to utter a prayer of forgiveness every time he cashes a check that is part of that 17 million he will be getting at age 39.

So the story is not Steinbrenner’s shot at Jeter now, but Kornheiser’s lack of a credibility in calling out another lightning rod sports owner. I know that writers have sources and favorites. We can’t pretend that some of the angles chosen or pursued by those in the media is not tinged by outside influences, positive and negative, from teams and owners. Still, when you take a shot at an owner for something like Steinbrenner’s boneheaded comment about Jeter, you have to call out more serious and douchebag-ish behavior like that of Daniel Snyder with his lawsuit against the City Paper for this article last season. If you are going to criticize, you probably need to do it upstream, by criticizing the bigger issues, and not some comment about a mansion.

[photo via Getty, caption via Sports Hernia]