The Josh Innes Show - Gus Johnson: Big Ten Shill?

Episode Date: December 9, 2025

A writer from USA Today is angry with Guys Johnson for saying the Big 10 Title Game was also the battle to see who would win the Heisman. First off, I don't like Gus Johnson. Second, he works for Fox who basically works for the Big 10. What do you expect? People need to stop acting as if they want "fair and balanced" coverage. We are in the golden era of biased/specialty news coverage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Headline reads, oh wait, I lost it. There we go. Gus Johnson should stick to calling games instead of disrespecting the Heisman race, says Blake Topmire of USA Today. I will preface all this by saying I don't know what he's referring to because I try not to read these stories until I read them on air with you so we, you know, can share it together and you get an instant reaction from it. But I will preface all of this by saying that I despise Gus Johnson and I think he's a clown. I don't think he was always a clown. I think that there was a time that his kind of

over-the-top thing felt authentic and you felt like he was a guy that was genuinely in the moment and his reactions were genuine. I think what's happened since he left CBS, first of all, you never really hear him doing NFL games anymore and he used to be on the CBS NFL games and you'd hear him on the NCAA tournament on March Madness. And like that was what lended itself. Like that event lends itself to a guy having that kind of reaction because a buzzer beaters, like awesome stuff, right? And then he kind of went out of sight out of mind, and he calls these random college games now for Fox.

And every now and then you'll get a game like this. That's the conference championship game that people are watching. But for the most part, nobody really gives a shit about the Big Ten game of the week. Because for every Ohio State versus Oregon you get in the Big Ten game of the week, you might also get, you know, Purdue versus Indiana that no one on the planet's going to watch, right? So Gus Johnson has fallen out of the zeitgeist. He has fallen out of sight, out of mind. He's not at the top of mind.

Like the apex for Gus Johnson would have probably been early mid-2000s NCAA tournament voice of the Madden game, right? Like, he's got getting away from the cop speed, like all that shit, you know. And now he just kind of collects a big check and kind of like they roll him out there to say these wacky things even though like they're. You're not really interesting and they feel forced, right? First off, let me play a couple commercials and we'll dive into this. So, yeah, when I hear Gus Johnson now and he does like a wacky call, it just feels like he's trying to make the call wacky because that's what people expect of him. You know, like if you're some guy who's like whole bit is farting, like you have to find a way to fart. So like no matter what happens, that's your bit.

Like he's got one bit. He's got one angle. He's got one gear, right? And that one angle, that one gear, is that he's the guy that's wacky and loud and so, like, he has to force it and nothing about it feels authentic. He just feels, I'm trying to think of an example of it. Like, it's kind of like, it's like his get or done, you know, like it feels force, but you got to do it.

It's his, here's your sign. It's here's, it's his, you know, you might be a redneck. Like people go in expecting him to get wacky and wild, so he has to get wacky and wild. Anyway, I say that to say that I hate Gus Johnson. I didn't used to hate Gus Johnson, but then the whole world fell in love with Gus Johnson. Because, oh, my God, can you believe how wacky Gus Johnson was? And then you realize it's forced to. You know what he is?

I've got it. Gus Johnson is the other dufous Kelsey brother. He's Jason Kelsey, right? Like there's an expectation that, like, the dufous brother has to go out and, like, take his shirt off and chug beers with people out in the parking lot. I think a couple weeks ago I saw that he did that, maybe in Buffalo or somewhere. Like, Kelsey goes out and takes off his shirt and chugs a beer because, like, that's the expectation of Jason Kelsey. Like, you have no other option but to have Jason Kelsey go out and chug a lug and that's the way

it goes. Like, that's the, like, he has to be a doofus. Like, that's the expectation is he's a doof or he puts on a mummer's costume or whatever. Like, that's your expectation. And that's what it is for Gus Johnson. Like the expectation is that he's on the broadcast. He yells and says something stupid. It goes viral because, oh, my God, did you hear how excited Gus Johnson was?

And none of it feels authentic. Like nothing Jason Kelsey does feels authentic. He feels like a character and he feels like he has to play this character because that's the expectation. Gus Johnson is Jason Kelsey. There, we've solved it. Now, Gus Johnson should stick to calling games instead of disrespecting Heisman race. When your favorite team scores the winning touchdown or drains the buzzer-beating jumper, you want Fox's Gus Johnson on the call.

Honestly, I don't. He'll make you feel like you've conquered life vicariously through Fernando Mendoza's arm or that glass slipper resides on your literal foot. It's intoxicating. He's locked in and screaming for every single moment. It's not intoxicating. It's not a good drunk. It's an angry drunk.

If I'm intoxicated by Gus Johnson, it's a super angry drunk. But anyway, Johnson makes viewers feel as a. If nothing that's ever happened or will happen has mattered more than what's happening right now. I disagree with that, too. Okay, my guy must have to hit a word quota because he's spending so much time building up Gus Johnson. Johnson could call a game during an earthquake and as the city crumbled from the magnitude, he'd euphorically scream amid a gust gasm, this place is rocking. Like, cool.

My God. Johnson's style paired with the clash of number one Ohio State versus number two, Indiana. He reminded viewers at every turn the game would decide a conference championship and determine the playoffs number one seed. Every play mattered. Johnson's tunnel vision, though, comes with a side dish of willful obliviousness for anything happening outside his field of view. He incessantly insisted that not only was a number one seat in the conference hardware on the line, but so too was the Heisman trophy. If he didn't know better, you might have thought Heisman voters would be compelled to cast their ballot for the quarterback of the Big Tinge champion and that the

trophy would be awarded during a post-game ceremony at Lucas Oil Stadium. Of course, that's not how it works. Johnson's framing of the Heisman race being down to Mendoza and Ohio State's Julian Sayan came off shamelessly short-sighted and borderline disrespectful to the other worthy contenders such as Diego Pavia, Jeremiah Love, and Texas Tech's Jacob Rodriguez. I anticipate Mendoza will win the award beating out Pavia. Johnson's persistent pumping up of Indiana's quarterback didn't hurt his chances. In that way, I suppose he's a useful shill for the Big Ten, but his persistent framing of this award as a two-person race exclusive to Big Ten combatants was annoyingly disingenuous and insular.

Okay. First of all, that's everything that happens. That's not just that. That's ESPN. That's these SEC Network shills. I don't disagree with you. But there are four people nominated for the Heisman. Now, on Saturday, we didn't know who they would be.

Come to find out, Mendoza is one of them, and Julian Sayan is one of them, and Diego Pavia is one of them. and Diego Pavia is one of them. And so is Jeremiah Love, four people nominated for the Heisman. 50% of the people nominated for the Heisman that eventually became nominated for the Heisman, guys that we knew would be nominated, were playing in that game. And it was for a conference championship. And it was in prime fucking time. And he's trying to sell the game a little bit.

Who cares? Who gives a shit? You know what I'm saying? Like people that get all worked up over people being disingenuous or shilling for. a league. We are a world of shills. People are employed by leagues. They're employed by networks. They're employed by teams. And their job is to shill. There is no objectivity. There is no balance. There is nothing fair. Once you accept that, you just view it for what it is. I used to be someone that tried to fight these things. Can you believe how hypocritical it is?

Can you believe the Texans took me off of the interview with the coach so the play-by-play guy could interview them? Oh, because there's shills. All that shit. you at one point realize that none of this matters. A, because it's fucking sports. Who cares? It's the toy box of the world. And second of all, everyone is bought and paid for, particularly in the sports media world. What is Gus Johnson going to do in that spot? As it turns out, 50% of the people nominated for the Heisman Trophy were playing in that game.

And Mendoza, with the number one team in the country, just might fucking win it. So blowing him and blowing Julian saying, who cares? Who cares? Like, this is what you're angry about. This is me saying this. I'm angry about everything. I'm like the angriest dude ever. This is what you're mad about?

Like, I would get it if Diego Pavia were watching that and decided to tweet like, damn, Gus, you forgot that I'm still around. Or Vanderbilt tweeted that. Like, I'd get that. Who gives a shit? Like, this is your angle dude from USA today? This is what we're angry. about. This is what we're yelling about, yelling at the clouds over the fact that some dudes who work

for Fox who has the deal with the Big Ten covering the Big Ten championship game. We're shilling for teams from the Big Ten. No way. There is no such thing as unbiased coverage of anything anymore. People are all bought and paid for and full of shit. Like online, I'm watching Tim Brando fight with SEC people about how they're overrated. Tim Brando works for Fox. They don't have the SEC. So, of course, he's going to stump and say the SEC sucks. Guess what? Tim Brando used to work for CBS and was the studio host for the SEC football game of the week. Do you think he was shitting on the SEC at that point, too? I'm going to guess not. When you accept that everybody is full of shit and that everybody works for someone, like when I was a younger dude,

that shit used to bother me a lot more than it does now. I told you, when I worked at 6'10, I would constantly be angry about that. Like, what? What do you mean? I can't interview the coach. I'm asking the real questions. Like, aren't people smart enough to know that the guy asking the questions is the play-by-play guy, and he's not going to ask anything? Fun fact, they're not. People don't give a shit. Especially if the team's winning. Now, if the team's losing and they feel like you should be asking tougher questions, that's when they say, we need a real guy like Josh Ennis in there to ask the tough questions. But when the team's playing well, they don't want the guy like Josh

inis asking the tough questions. You know what they want the play-by-play going, well, you guys are great. Let me wash your balls. Nobody actually wants unbiased views on shit. We are in the most biased universe of news ever. Like this era of news is the most biased, more biased than it's ever been. And it's the biggest group of people who want to consume biased news, all while claiming they want fair news. CNN people that watch people that watch MSNBC and CNN don't want fair news. They just want shit on Trump news. People that watch Fox or listen to Clay Travis, They don't want fair news. They want blow Trump news.

People that listen to sports radio in Houston just want, or Philadelphia, they just want their thoughts verified or just not justified. What's the word I'm looking? Validated. They want their views validated. That's all. We're in a world of validation. We're in a validation universe.

And that's what people want to consume now. So to get on here and act like, oh my God, can you believe that the guy that works for Fox who has a giant billion dollar deal with the Big Ten was blow? the two quarterbacks in the Big Ten championship game saying that this could determine the Heisman? Like, are you shocked? Is this like a giant surprise to you? Is this something worth writing a whole story, which basically half this fucking story is just blowing Gus Johnson for being a great play-by-play guy? And then the other half is saying, oh, it's completely disingenuous and insular.

You know what else is disingenuous and insular? All news. There is no balance. There is no unbiased coverage of anything. so again this is coming from me now who used to really bitch about this kind of stuff like i've heard people like about the NFL deal with ESPN like how do you watch the ESPN and think they're giving you real stories about the NFL you know what i don't give a shit it's football my life will go on like who gives a shit like i tune in and i feel like i'm getting lied to you are deal

with it or don't watch fucking football like that's the world we've created people don't want fair balance shit they just like especially with like football people just want their fucking football lie to them they don't care just give them the football but i heard people bitching about that like oh my god can you believe that ESPN is now like part owner or uh or the NFL is part owner of ESPN sure ESPN's probably hurting financially this helps them out does this mean they might bury a couple of stories about the NFL sure most of them are stories that would not impact the on the field and that's what people care about anyway so who gives a shit like a Oh, no. Can you believe ESPN might have covered up some collective bargaining agreement players union story?

Don't give a fuck. I really don't. Who gives a shit? Are you Woodward and Bernstein? Is this is this Watergate? Anyway, more to come.