Breaking Big Blue with Jordan Raanan

Today’s was probably my favorite from you. You’ve been doing this long enough to connect some dots. Nothing sounded far fetched. Good look of your view of the inside.

I’ve been listening to Jordan’s podcast basically for as long as he’s been covering the Giants. I was tempted to write reviews in the past but withheld until now. Here’s my honest review of how Jordan covers the Giants and his podcast. To start with the good, Jordan does a nice job creating content for fans to consume. He’s pretty consistent with how often he publishes podcasts, has quality guests from current/former players to other media pundits. His “Jordan on the beat” segment can be fun and insightful too. My issue with Jordan is what he does that is blatantly obvious but he entirely plays dumb to. Jordan is not a fan of the Giants like his listeners are nor does he have to be. That’s not his job. He does however thrive on the negativity. That’s where Jordan shows his most excitement and loves to really kick the fans when they’re down. You can tell through what he writes along with his words and tone on his podcast. Sometimes it’s subtle other times not. He loves to bring on guests who he feels confident will be critical of the Giants and when they aren’t, he’ll try to pull it out of them. His classic defense is along the lines of “well the Giants have been terrible! How can I say anything positive?!”. True fans are looking not for a cheerleader or a homer. They know more than anyone that the Giants are bad…reasonable ones at least. It is however annoying to listen to someone who is always glass half full, constantly instigating and pouring cold water on anything remotely positive. His tweets or posts are a strong indicator. For example, often when a player or personnel comes to the Giants, Jordan will report it and include some little tidbit to downplay or pour cold water on it. He’ll reference a lackluster stat, age, starts, injuries etc and entirely leave out anything positive. In the reverse, Jordan will add a little tidbit to instill regret when someone leaves. A recent example was his shout out to Bobby Johnson, the Giants former offensive line coach who now seems to have his unit performing well in Washington. Does Jordan honestly think the fans buy his defense that he was genuinely giving credit to a former member of the Giants coaching staff? Bobby Johnson’s unit was an ongoing nightmare for the Giants and their fans. Jordan darn well knows this and clearly wanted to stoke the fan base with that shout out. He gets off on it. It’s obvious. I can imagine a thrill he gets especially when many attack him via social media. That’s what happens with fans of a terrible team. I listen to many other Giants podcasts. The hosts can spend an entire hour ripping the Giants. The difference is, there’s no feeling of enjoyment of doing so. They aren’t getting off on it and instigating… adding fuel to an already burning wildfire. To add even further clarity to Jordan’s personality type, listen to the questions he asks the coaching staff and personnel. None of them are productive. They are all TMZ level gossip questions. He wants the juice, something to create controversy, something to instigate so he can post and write an article about. Other members of the media will ask fair football questions even if it puts heat on the person they are asking. From Jerry Reese to Ben Mcadoo, Pat Shurmer and now Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll. None of these guys can stand Jordan. It’s in their eyes, their tone and his reactions to his gossip fueled questions. Jordan is the only member I’m aware of that triggered a player to get physical with him. Not claiming its right, but it takes a special guy to do that. Maybe that’s what his employer ESPN asks of him. Can’t rule that out. Bottom line is, Jordan isn’t fooling many. He has fun with the negativity especially at the Giants fan’s expense. Fair to ask me why I still listen to him. I do because I appreciate Giants content and Jordan does a nice job of bringing it on a consistent basis. I’m interested to hear insight he provides that’s not available through other channels. I enjoy the guest appearances…most of the time. Overall, it’s a good podcast it’s just a matter of tolerating what Jordan blatantly does on a routine basis.

Just weak… brags about his contacts all the time and yet seldom has information to speak of.

Jordan Raanan’s content may be great. It’s not so great that I need to hear the same point repeated 5-6x in eight minutes.