Jim Rome

Sports talk radio host Jim Rome began making headlines during the early 1990s while broadcasting a daily show from Los Angeles, his brash, cocksure style winning a cult following which rivalled Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh in local ratings. As more and more radio outlets across the U.S. began syndicating his program, he rose to even greater national prominence when his nightly TV show Talk2 debuted on ESPN-2 in October 1993; the following April, he made headlines when guest Jim Everett, then quarterback of the New Orleans Saints, overturned a table and pushed Rome to the ground over the host's insistence on calling the footballer "Chris Evert" (a reference to the women's tennis legend). The skirmish was heavily promoted on both ESPN outlets, and Rome faced some criticism that the entire melee was in fact a carefully orchestrated publicity stunt; he later hosted The Last Word for the Fox Sports Network, and in 1998 issued the album Welcome to the Jungle. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide