First Things First - We’ve Gone Too Far With the G.O.A.T.

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

Kevin Wildes discusses the importance of using the word G.O.A.T. He cites the most famous G.O.A.T.’s in sports history to explain why he was outraged by an email he received from the New York Times. The subject? “Goat cheese is the GOAT Cheese.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Kevin Wilde's podcast network. You would think I would be happy. The snow is melting, spring is around the corner, but instead, I saw an email that made my blood boil. As a society, please stop eroding the term goat. It needs to mean something. And I know sometimes the conversation around who's the goat can get a little passionate. Jordan versus LeBron. Throw a little Kareem in there to be interesting.

Babe Ruth and Willie Mays and Otani and Barry Bonds. How do you figure out who's the goat? You can go after it. Tiger Woods and Tom Brady. The goats' conversation, the Mount Rushmore conversation, they're fun to have and they can be passionate. But they're treated, even when they get super passionate and a little bit even mean-spirited,

they're treated with a responsibility. and a sanctity that because of the passion, it matters. We're not just throwing it around. And I'm an understanding guy. Okay? Gianna wants us to get younger as a show.

I'm maxing on fair maxing. Is that right? I'm fair maxing. When Brandon Miller said, Paul George is my goat, the whole world erupted. Not old KW. O KW said, I get it.

He's your fear. favorite. There's plenty of things that I like that is my favorite that I view as my goat. But I don't really throw it around, but I understand. I understand goat clothing brand. Every one of my socks for my kids, goat, sweatshirts, goats, sweatpants goats, everything's the goat now for everybody. I get it. And I'm fine with it. It's been largely treated responsibly, but we've gone too far. You can't use the term goat if you don't mean it. Don't use it because it's a clever play on words.

It ends up taking down everybody. You end up insulting Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods, Tom Brady, This is the email that I found In my email inbox, Gianna, Do you want me to show it to you? Goat cheese is the goat cheese it says.

No, it's not. And you know it's not. No one thinks goat cheese is the goat cheese. It is a clever play on words. And when you typed it, I can't even believe that your fingers would allow you to type it. As soon as you hit caps lock on goat,

you believe, You didn't believe it. No one believes it. It's been there for the taking. It's not clever. You don't think a sports fan has ever been to a farm and seen a handsome goat that just looked bigger and more strong than the other ones,

head button them. Of course. And every sports fan could point out at the alpha goat and say, and hit their buddy, say, that's the goat. have a few guffaws, but you know what? They don't do it. Why?

Because it's irresponsible. Because if you love sport, if you love icons, if you care about the order of the world, you don't throw around the term goat. Goat cheese is not the goat cheese, and you know it's not. But let's play it out, because I'm an understanding. guy. You want to be the goat cheese? Okay. You think you're built for it? Sure. Let's run the NFL

combine on the goat cheese, okay? You want to be the goat? First thing you need, versatility. Jordan, 10-time scoring champ, nine-time first team all defense. O'Tani hits 50 home runs, steals 50 bases, is in running for the Cy Young, can do it all. Okay. Parmesan. You can eat it raw. You can melt it. You can shred it.

You can cube it. You can have her breakfast. You can have her lunch. You can have it for dinner. You can have them just for a snack. You can make it into crisps like it's a gosh darn potato. You do that? Can you do that, goat cheese?

You want to be the goat? You're the goat cheese. Hey, I'm playing by your rules. You want to be the goat cheese. dominate, dominate the other cheeses, head to head. Tom Brady won seven Super Bowls. That's one way to judge. Here's another way to judge.

He won the AFC East 17 times. He went 33 and 3 against the bills. He went 30 and 7 against the Jets, head to head. Goat cheese in a tournament. You draw Gorgonzola. How do you feel? good about your chances? I don't. You got greyer head-to-head. Problems. Immediately. Problems. Eggs? You're out. Ricotta. Maybe, but maybe not. And no one thinks ricotta is the goat. The biggest ricotta fans,

George Ricotta, is like, you know, I made a good cheese, but he's not walking around saying it should be on the Mount Rushmore of Cheeses. You want to be the goat? Let me see the hardware. Brady, seven Super Bowl. Tigers, 15 majors. What are you doing? You move and merch? I don't think so.

Cheese market size and share. I think we're just talking about cash money. Mozilla. $29 billion last year. Get out of town. Cheddar. Cheddar. 16.8 billion.

Where are you at? This has to be a misprint or something. Maybe the market cap research for cheddar and and mozzarella, maybe these are accurate, but this has to be a mistake because this says you're moving $8.2 billion a goat cheese a year. Mozilla is almost quadrupling what you're doing

and you're telling me you're the goat. Cultural impact. There's lots of ways to eat a chicken. What's the best? You could say, I like a fried. That's totally fair. Oh, I like it baked. Totally fair.

I like chicken parm. Wow. I took one of the world's most popular meats. Boom. Now I'm the star. I show up at the club. Chicken parm. I'm just parm.

I'm not even chicken. I'm just parm. It's like the scene from Goodfellas. I'm walking through the kitchen. There's furniture. are moving for me. I sit down. A bunch of chicken cutlets there. Um, Parm, hello, all eyes on me.

Goat cheese. Uh, I have some of artichokes. They ever, ever have, ever had me of strawberries and a real go of delicious. Stop eroding the term goat no matter what you're using it. Have a real case. If you're writing recipes, just call Parm the goat.

Call mozzarella the goat. call cheddar the goat, but typing those words means something to a lot of people and I'm one of them. Stop playing with me.