Tag: sirius xm radio

Former SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio host Mark Lye on fallout from WNBA comments: ‘It’s really cancel culture’

“Now as I look back on it, it was a hurtful thing,” said Lye.

Mark Lye does not use Twitter very much, but he believes a movement on the social media platform led to the firing from his PGA Tour Radio show Sunday by SiriusXM.

“It’s really cancel culture,” Lye said on Tuesday.

During a weekend episode of The Scorecard, Lye, 69, said: “You know, the LPGA Tour to me is a completely different tour than it was 10 years ago … You couldn’t pay me to watch. You really couldn’t. Because I just, I couldn’t relate at all. It’s kind of like, you know, if you’re a basketball player — and I’m not trashing anybody; please, don’t take it the wrong way — but I saw some highlights of ladies’ basketball. Man, is there a gun in the house? I’ll shoot myself than watch that.

“You know, I love watching the men’s basketball. I love watching the men’s golf. I never used to like watching ladies’ golf. But I will tell you this. I’ve been up close watching these ladies play because I used to have a big function every year called the Lucas Cup and I’d have LPGA players and PGA Tour players.”

Lye said Tuesday that when the five-minute segment went to break he wanted to apologize and talked to people involved with the show.

“‘Guys, I’m not feeling good about this,’ he said to those involved with the show after it went to break, ‘I need to make an apology to all WNBA fans,’ which I did.

Mark Lye responds on Twitter

Lye also posted this explanation to Twitter: “The fact that I can’t relate to WNBA does not make me sexist in any way. All you haters should listen to the whole segment, where I completely glorified womens golf, which I love to cover. Thanks for listening.”

“I thought it was case closed,” Lyle said.

But Twitter user @jalawsons had picked up the clip with the controversial comment and shared it, and it started gaining traction.

The online comments on the social media platform created a firestorm, with many saying Lye was against women’s sports or was a sexist, and needed to be fired.

One of the quote tweets from someone who shared the clip:

“Just because no one knows who you are, Mark Lye, doesn’t mean you can go around spewing your mouth like this (on national radio) and think we won’t ruin your life. I am not one to encourage cancel culture but… Hugs and kisses to the grave, Mark!”

Some below that comment defended or agreed with Lye’s comment, and some did not.

Eventually, the original tweet of the clip was taken down by Twitter (“This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules” it now says where the original tweet is located).

“In a way to glorify women’s golf I made a comparison by comparing it to another sport that maybe isn’t so successful,” Lye said Tuesday. “Now as I look back on it, it was a hurtful thing.”

“In a way to glorify women’s golf I made a comparison by comparing it to another sport that maybe isn’t so successful,” Lye said Tuesday. “Now as I look back on it, it was a hurtful thing.”

Lye said 10 minutes before the Saturday night show he was told he couldn’t go on because of what people on Twitter were saying regarding the clip. Sunday morning, he was fired.

“The reason (the comments on Twitter were) blowing up is they took the most unflattering part of that sound bite and they cut it off in a spot that buttressed their point of view, which is that men hate women’s sports or Mark hates women’s sports,” he said.

Lye said the segment of the show talked about comparing other sports, or within sports. For example, how baseball players would feel differently who were from the New York Yankees, who have one of the highest payrolls and are among the most popular franchise, versus those in Kansas City, which has one of the lowest payrolls and don’t have the attendance or popularity that the Yankees do.

“We were cross-referencing sports,” he said. “We talked about baseball. We talked about football. We talked about some of the tough things facing those sports, the challenges, and the challenges that the PGA Tour has against (Saudi Arabia’s Super) Golf League.

“That’s what made it germane. That’s why I talked about the WNBA. It just didn’t come out of nowhere. I happened to watch WNBA highlights on ESPN. I saw nobody in the stands. I said, ‘Wow, that’s a problem.’ I was trying to make the point that the LPGA is a living, thriving, credit to women’s sports in general, and that the WNBA was at the other side of the spectrum.

“I love watching ladies tennis, ladies golf, ladies volleyball. I can’t stand men’s volleyball. There are certain ladies sports that I really like watching. I like fast pitch (softball).”

Lye played on the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions, then was an analyst for the Golf Channel. He joined SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio in 2015, and originally did a show called “Time To Let It Fly” on Wednesdays in addition to weekend pregame and postgame shows.

“They want us to be somewhat interesting,” Lye said of the weekend radio shows. “We’re on the air for a two-hour show. They pay me to be who I am and that’s why they hired me. I’m not the most politically correct guy in the world, but I try to make things interesting for the common golf fan.”

Lye made the choice himself to end the “Let It Fly” show at the end of last year but still do the weekend shows.

“I can’t let it fly anymore,” he said Tuesday about explaining to his boss why he wanted to stop the Wednesday show.  “I don’t want to get fired. Let’s cancel the show. This is not politically sound in this environment. … You can’t say just anything anymore.”

Lye coaches the girls golf team at First Baptist Academy, and his daughter, Eva, is one of the top players in the area. Mark Lye is a Type 1 diabetic, and his son Lucas is also, and he started the Lucas Cup he referenced in the clip to support the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in 2013. He also previously had a role in the Immokalee Foundation’s charity pro-am, bringing in PGA and LPGA players for that.

Coincidentally, Lye said when he was doing the show Saturday, his daughter was following LPGA Tour star Nelly Korda in the LPGA Drive On Championship at Crown Colony Golf & Country Club in Fort Myers, and he also referenced that on the show.

“My kids are going to get exposed to this today (at school) and it breaks my heart that this is happening,” he said Tuesday. “My wife is in tears. I feel awful for my family.”

Lye said he didn’t look at what people were saying on Twitter until after he’d been fired. Some defended him, but many didn’t.

“I have death threats … ‘Hope your family is protected, I tweeted out your address.’ ‘You are the scum of the earth,'” Lye said, recounting some of the comments that were made either publicly or directly messaged to his Twitter account including one that told him to kill himself.

“I’ve made maybe 10 tweets in my whole life before (Sunday), but it started getting to me. I’m not going to sit here and take this. I’m going to defend myself. I found out that people have already made up their mind.”

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SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio fires Mark Lye after host says he’d rather shoot himself than watch the WNBA

“I was terminated about comments made about the WNBA, which I apologized for starting the next segment.”

Mark Lye’s Twitter handle is @letitflye, and the former SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio host is doing just that on the social media site as he defends disparaging comments he made about the WNBA that led to his firing.

During a recent episode of The Scorecard, Lye said the following: “You know, the LPGA Tour to me is a completely different tour than it was 10 years ago … You couldn’t pay me to watch. You really couldn’t. Because I just, I couldn’t relate at all. It’s kind of like, you know, if you’re a basketball player — and I’m not trashing anybody; please, don’t take it the wrong way — but I saw some highlights of ladies’ basketball. Man, is there a gun in the house? I’ll shoot myself than watch that.”

“You know, I love watching the men’s basketball. I love watching the men’s golf. I never used to like watching ladies’ golf. But I will tell you this. I’ve been up close watching these ladies play because I used to have a big function every year called the Lucas Cup and I’d have LPGA players and PGA Tour players.”

The winner of the PGA Tour’s 1983 Bank of Boston Classic told GOLF.com on Sunday, “I was terminated about comments made about the WNBA, which I apologized for starting the next segment.”

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Bryson DeChambeau: Camera operator was ‘waiting for me to do something bad’

On Brad Faxon’s SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio show Just the Fax, Bryson DeChambeau offered further explanation on the cameraman incident.

Bryson DeChambeau made headlines heading into the Rocket Mortgage Classic for his rebuilt physique, his voracious appetite, his prodigious length and his stellar play.

He left Detroit on Sunday with his sixth PGA Tour title, a three-shot victory over Matthew Wolff which put another $1.35 million (before taxes) in his bank account.

But the moment that is sticking with many is an incident on the 7th hole, in which DeChambeau castigated a television camera operator for videotaping his mediocre bunker shot and ensuing reaction.

“He was literally watching me the whole entire way up after getting out of the bunker, walking up next to the green. And I just was like, ‘Sir, what is the need to watch me that long?’” DeChambeau told Golf Channel’s Will Gray after his round. “I mean, I understand it’s his job to video me, but at the same point, I think we need to start protecting our players out here compared to showing a potential vulnerability and hurting someone’s image.”

On Monday, during an interview on Brad Faxon’s SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio show Just the Fax, DeChambeau offered further explanation.

I was trying to show, or explain to people that I hope we all have respect for all the players out here because, you know, the guy was videoing me for over a minute after I made my shot and I didn’t understand that. I hope people realize it’s not a knock on the cameraman at all. I understand he’s doing his job. I love all the cameramen that do their jobs out there, but I just feel like, we need to have a mutual level of respect. That’s all. There’s nothing more to be said. I have the utmost respect for them. Hopefully he has the utmost respect for me and has the forethinking, the foreknowledge to be able to say ‘Hey, look, there’s no reason’ to video me for a minute and a half after I hit a shot. But I get that. We’re all entertainers. They’re doing their job, I’m doing my job the best I can. I just felt like he was videoing me, waiting for me to do something bad. But I didn’t. And so I was going, OK man, I’d really appreciate it if you’d, you know, just kind of went off on me, you know, instead of videoing me for a minute and a half after a shot that wasn’t the best.

DeChambeau is taking this week off, forgoing the Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.

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Greg Norman takes calls from fans for an hour, talks Tiger, coronavirus, his nickname

With abundant energy and enthusiasm, Greg Norman, the Great White Shark, devoured an hour’s worth of phone calls from fans on Tuesday.

With abundant energy and enthusiasm, Greg Norman, the Great White Shark, devoured an hour’s worth of phone calls from fans on Tuesday on the appropriately named Attack Life Radio Live on Sirius XM Radio.

From Tiger Woods to the COVID-19 global pandemic to fitness tips to the origin of his nickname, Norman fielded questions from all across the U.S.

“Game on,” the two-time major champion and world No. 1 for 331 weeks said at the beginning. “Bring it on.”

And on came the questions. Among the many – here’s a shocker – was one that dealt with Tiger Woods. Specifically, the first time he met and played with Woods.

“Played with Tiger down here at Old Marsh Golf Club (in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida) when I think he was 15 years old. Got a call from some people, because I was No. 1 player at the time in the world, and they wanted me to play with him and for me to give my opinion on Tiger,” Norman, 65, said. “So I played nine holes with him and I like, wow. This kid is going to go a long way.

“He was a sponge for information. He wanted to beat you, no matter if he was 15 years old. He just wanted to prove a point that no matter who you are or whether you’re No. 1, I’m going to come after you. Which was very, very positive to see.”

Who won, the follow-up question came.

“You know, I can’t remember,” Norman said. “I really can’t remember.”
Here are some of Norman’s other takes on a variety of subjects.

How he’s dealing with the COVID-19 global pandemic

“I’m dealing with it OK. The whole world is in this fight together. I’ve had businesses shut down. I feel for my people who have worked for me for years and years and years to experience this. But I’ve come out of this with a sense of calm in a lot of ways because this is a bit of a wakeup call for the whole universe to say. ‘Hey, it’s going to happen again.’ How you come out of this one is going to determine how you are going to be prepared for the next one. I don’t like anybody kicking the can down the road. From the doctors and the nurses and health care workers and first responders to the military, to every country around the world, each and everyone of these people are putting their lives on the line for us. I’m a big admirer. I’m just trying to manage the process myself, both mentally and physically, and go through it day by day and not try and get ahead of myself. I know we’ll come out of it. Humanity is much stronger and very intelligent and very resilient in a lot of ways, so we will come out of it.”

How he got his nickname

“It was 1981. My first Masters I ever played in. Lo and behold, I’m leading the Masters after two rounds. And here’s a long blonde-headed Aussie kid with the really thick Australian accent that nobody really knew who the heck he was. So I go into the press room on a Friday night and everybody wants to know where I’m from. Well, I grew up in Queensland, Australia. I grew up on the Great Barrier Reef. I’ve dived with sharks. And lo and behold, (the Great White Shark name) was in the (Atlanta-Journal Constitution the next day).

Fred Couples, Tiger Woods and Greg Norman at the 1996 Masters Tournament at the Augusta National Country Club. Photo by Stephen Munday/Allsport

Why he didn’t play much senior tour golf

“I just got sick and tired of staying in hotel rooms from a Tuesday through a Sunday and just traveling, quite honestly. When I cut playing golf out of my schedule, I actually had 50 percent more time for myself, which was a big deal. And on top of that, my business was really kicking off, my brand was kicking off, and I just wanted to focus on building that out. I didn’t want to be out there on the senior tour for another five or 10 years just going through the motions. I really lost a lot of passion to practice and to play. I still enjoyed playing, but the passion to really perform at the highest level wasn’t there. I just quietly rode off into the sunset without any fanfare.”

Fitness recommendations for someone coming out of the winter season

“Very easy. Stretching. Start getting your hamstrings stretched out, your lower back stretched out and your quads stretched out. All those things. And I would start working on squeezing a tennis ball, getting your finger strength back up. Because people forget about that when you’re hanging onto a golf club and you’re swinging, and I don’t care if your swinging it 80 mph or 120 mph, the finger strength is going to want to do it. Another great (exercise) that I used to do in my gym was I used to have a big barrel of rice that was about two feet deep and I would put both hands in there and I’d work my fingers down all the way down to the bottom of the barrel and it would just really build up your finger strength and your forearm strength. You have to elongate your muscles.”

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Michael Thomas excited to get back to work with Drew Brees

New Orleans Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas reflected on his 2019 season and his partnership with all-time great quarterback Drew Brees.

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It almost doesn’t seem to matter who’s throwing to Michael Thomas — he’s still going to catch the football. But while he’s had success when targeted by Teddy Bridgewater and Taysom Hill, Thomas does have a favorite quarterback to play with in Drew Brees.

Thomas made an appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio, where he reflected on his insane 2019 season (which earned him Offensive Player of the Year recognition) and cast an eye towards his future. While Brees has reiterated that he intends to play for the Saints in 2020, he hasn’t yet signed a contract extension ahead of the March 18 deadline (when $5.4 million accelerates onto his 2020 salary cap hit).

But Thomas isn’t worried. He’s seen the success he and Brees have had together, and he anticipates more of the same, saying, “I was a man on a mission and I am still a man on a mission.”

Hopefully the Saints can build a better supporting cast around Thomas, who paced the league last year with an NFL-record 149 receptions. While it’s great that Thomas was able to thrive under such a heavy workload, it would be great if the Saints can identify a strong number-two option to take advantage of the attention Thomas draws from defenses. Thankfully, this appears to be a draft class set up perfectly for the Saints to address that need.

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