A Kansas City sports radio host is unhappy with OutKick’s coverage of the Chiefs. He says he doesn’t disagree with anything we’ve written or reported, however. Instead, he claims he doesn’t like that we’re allowed to talk about his team while holding different views than he does.
On Tuesday, Carrington Harrison criticized members of the Kansas City sports media for “spending any part of [their] day arguing with Bobby Burack about any subject.” In doing so, he spent part of his day posting about me on social media – and discussing OutKick and me on his radio show.
“I wouldn’t get my [Chiefs] stories from OutKick,” he said. “They are an underling of Clay Travis.”
He then said he doesn’t “respect OutKick.”
Harrison later asked to appear on the conservative radio show Mundo in the Morning on KCMO in Kansas City. He claimed his issue with OutKick stemmed from a story we published last week about Chiefs left tackle Josh Simmons, who has yet to play this season.
In our story, we mentioned that ESPN had reported several “red flags” about Simmons’ character and maturity before the 2024 draft. We also cited a Sports Illustrated report that Simmons left the team unannounced the night before a game last season, was unresponsive, and left the team unaware of his whereabouts for a period of time. Simmons then missed a month of games for what the team described as “personal” reasons.
This season, Simmons has missed all four of the Chiefs’ games. The team says he has a back injury, one that team sources told multiple reporters was a non-issue in August. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler has since described the injury as “mysterious.” Most other national insiders won’t discuss the injury, even during injury roundup segments in which they cover minor ailments involving players of far less consequence.
We pointed out how the situation is unusual, that the team’s lack of transparency is generating online theories, and that the secrecy suggests something more complicated than a simple back injury.
So, what exactly does a radio host on the Kansas City Chiefs’ official station dispute about our analysis?
Well, nothing.
“I don’t fundamentally disagree with Bobby Burack,” Harrison told a perplexed Pete Mundo on Wednesday. “I would define someone who is a hater, who is someone who is incapable of giving credit when credit should be due.”
Uh, okay.
“The truth doesn’t matter who says the truth. It’s still the truth regardless of who says it,” he added.
So why the tweets, radio segments, and name-calling?
According to Harrison, he doesn’t like that OutKick told the truth. What does that mean? Didn’t he just say the opposite? We’ll let him explain.
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“I don’t respect Bobby Burack’s reporting,” he said. “I don’t respect the platform that he has created for himself. I believe that he is somebody who has cultivated an audience and a brand around insects, bots, trolls and racists. That’s not someone that I’m super interested in getting on the internet and having to tussle with and going back and forth with.”
To recap, Carrington Harrison says he agrees with my reporting but doesn’t respect it. He says he doesn’t want to get into a back-and-forth with me, despite initiating a back-and-forth with me on X, his radio show, and another radio show.
At this point, you have to wonder if there is something seriously wrong with this guy. He certainly doesn’t appear to be operating with the highest IQ.
Befuddled by Harrison’s contradictions, Mundo questioned his premise.
“But you are saying that he is absolutely onto something there with this Josh Simmons thing, but then saying on the other hand, he’s not credible on this situation,” Mundo said.
“I’ve seen, I mean, I never said he’s not credible on this situation. I’ve seen his work in reporting in other situations. That’s just not somebody that I would align myself with,” Harrison responded.
Huh?
Who asked him to align himself with anyone? He began by saying OutKick is not credible when it comes to the Chiefs, a point he now claims wasn’t his intention.
He then reiterated exactly what we wrote last week.
“So in this situation, is there something greater going on with Josh Simmons? Yes, I 100% agree with that. Yes, I absolutely think there is something going on.”
Mundo again questioned why Harrison had made a point of telling his listeners not to trust OutKick when he now confirmed that he agreed with exactly what we had reported about the subject.
“My sense of it is that you don’t really disagree with Bobby. And I’ve only got about a minute here. You don’t disagree with Bobby, but you kind of don’t like Bobby and that’s fine.”
“That’s your prerogative. I’m not saying you have to like him or not, but because you don’t like him, you kind of want to twist them here or tweak them a little bit here in this whole deal. Is that a fair analysis of this situation?”
Harrison didn’t deny it. Instead, he took more personal shots.
“I mean, I wouldn’t say that I want to tweak him a little bit, but I think Bobby’s problem is, I think Bobby has stood on the shoulder of giants and thinks that he’s now tall. Bobby Burack has never done anything outside of the success of Clay Travis. So I don’t want him to come on here and on your show and act like he is a top-notch investigator or reporter. That’s definitely not true.”
For the record, I did not claim to be an investigative reporter. My coverage of Josh Simmons is actually quite benign. I simply said the situation doesn’t make much sense. I said that because the people covering the Chiefs daily, like Harrison, have been too afraid to do so at the risk of upsetting team public relations.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, Harrison’s comments raise a broader issue.
Why would a sports station in Kansas City tied to an NFL franchise want a host on the air who openly admits that he cannot tolerate the sports opinions of people who disagree with him politically?
Harrison confirmed on multiple occasions since Tuesday that he told his listeners to ignore OutKick’s accurate information because he thinks our readers are racist and because of our association with Clay Travis, one of the country’s most prominent conservative radio talk show hosts.
Imagine hosting a sports show in another city and saying something similar about a liberal outlet, while acknowledging their information is accurate.
Harrison sent a message to sports fans across Kansas and Missouri: If you are not as liberal as he is, you are not welcome to listen to his show.
Two points on that.
One, based on his numbers, most people aren’t listening to his show anyway.
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Two, OutKick asked the program director of his station, Steven Spector, whether Harrison’s views about conservatives and OutKick represent the views of 96.5 The Fan.
Spector did not return our email in time for publication. We will update this story if he does. We also reached out to Harrison to see if he stands by his bizarre commentary.
Anyway, we at OutKick do not believe you have to vote a certain way to have an opinion about sports. We also stand by our coverage of Josh Simmons.
The starting left tackle for the NFL’s most valuable asset playing in just eight games over two years, under two different sets of mysterious circumstances, is a story worth covering.
According to one Kansas City radio host, however, such coverage is only worthwhile if it comes from someone with the proper political leanings.