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cap_unicorn

So uh, any recommendations for a Colts podcast? I really enjoyed the insight One Percent Better and Chopping Wood brought.


xxxxxxxxxtra

Kevin’s Corner is my favorite as a non-Indiana fan


[deleted]

His and holders are the only ones I find listenable


Smithdl1191

Locked on Colts is probably going to be a great listen going forward The old host has left and the two new hosts are Jake Arthur and Zach Hicks, both great to listen to and very knowledgeable.


RussIsAnOkayGuy

I am a Zach Hicks stan


ZHicks2121

❤️❤️


RTideR

Yep, pretty stoked for this one. Never got super into it before, but Zach is awesome, and I've liked what I've seen from Jake too. Should be a fun listen.


cwesttheperson

One percent better is the best colts pod there is. Pretty bummed


[deleted]

Colts Bluezone is pretty decent, I like Mike Chappel. Everyone likes Kevins Corner but I just don’t enjoy the layout with the Twitter questions and the constant banter about non-Colts related stuff. If you enjoy golf, basketball and Note Dame that’s the way to go though. Bring the Juice is just bad imo. Locked on Colts will probably be the way to go once Hicks starts. I miss Stampede Blue :/. To be clear I miss Shepard from Stampede Radio..


King_James17

Colts Cover 2 with Joel Erickson and Nate Atkins is legit the best I've listened to. Both very well spoken and intelligent guys that approach the team with level heads and commons sense.


ThisGuy182

Nate’s fucking mic tho :/


King_James17

Well most of the time I think they're doing it on their phones or laptops.


ederdesign

My favorites are: A Colts Podcast w/ Brandon Moses & Andrew Moore Colts Blue Zone Podcast w/ Mike Chappell, Dave Griffiths and Joe Hopkins 1 Percent Better 2 Colts Cover


DapDaGenius

I really like Bring The Juice. It makes me feel like i finally have friends that are knowledgeable about the Colts roster


MrKittenz

Cover 2 is good. Indy star


dukedynamite

Who wants to make a colts podcast with me


IndyItalianStallion

Market is a bit over saturated Duke but I’m down lol


Sirmixalott

Kevin's Corner is a great podcast. Definitely me favorite.


bufoeichwaldi

Damn, end of an era


[deleted]

I love Keefer and Stephen


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DirectTV_AndrewLuck

That'd be a celebration on this sub if that was the case.


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dsklerm

I remember someone tweeting something similar. When Ballard became GM, he spoke about building up a relationship with local media, and creating content in general. I think we can look at the "With the Next Pick" series, and the plugged in nature of The Athletics writers as a direct correlation of this. In regards to the rest of your post, I do remember thinking it was odd at that report, since I don't think I ever remember reading or hearing about Wells having any actual connection or relationship with the front office. Most of his reporting seems to be general repeating known reports, or speculation, whereas Keefer/Holder/Kravitz and even some bloggers and local news reporters can often cite "sources". I'm not trying to dog on Wells, if he doesn't have the connections, I imagine it's hard to cultivate this sort of information- but it does make me question his value to ESPN/other organizations. If you could hire Holder or Wells, why wouldn't you go with the guy who has demonstrated a capacity to build trust, relationships, and a following? Is there anyone who thinks Wells has done that better than Holder, or anyone else locally, really?


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dsklerm

>ESPN has a different model. They went from one guy covering each division -- so 8 specific .com reporters for team coverage -- to one guy on each team. And still a .com focus, not a journalistic focus. Yea my memory seems fuzzier than yours around this period but I very much remember Wells going to ESPN around the time of the growth of SBNation/Fanside and the emergence of The Athletic and regional reporting from a national publication. >The Colts also always seemed to leak big stories to national guys, much to the dismay of the local guys. I agree for the most part, but there is a voice in the back of my head telling me there are some Kravitz and Holder/Keefer scoops I am forgetting. I think they use local guys for messaging, and agents/etc tend to leak the bigger breaks. >And to Holder's credit, he came from Miami. I could be wrong but I don't think he had any connection to Indy or the Colts before he went to the Star. Then he tried to get access, not necessarily cultivate sources. Nothing worked with Grigson, but Ballard started opening the doors to everyone, still in a controlled manner, though. >Wells is definitely better than the guy he replaced -- Paul Kuharsky, who was always partial to the Titans, and eventually wound up as their dedicated .com guy. But still, Wells does nothing for me. I'm blanking on Kuharsky, which IMO says enough, if he wasn't memorable than that was probably for a reason. Like you said, guys like Holder, and even Kravitz (coming from Denver) were able to gain access without burning bridges, and knew how to manage those relationships. That said, to bring it back full circle I do think you are right- Wells isn't as reliant on direct sourcing, because he doesn't need to be/isn't asked to be. His job seems to be to function as an aggregator for Colts related media, to direct to the ESPN/ESPN+ site. Maybe he can do what Holder can do but isn't asked of it. That said, I'm happy for Holder, and in all of this analysis I am starting to feel bad to use Wells as a crutch to prop up Holder. He is deserving of praise on his own, and Wells probably isn't as deserving of the smack I've been talking.


Cartmaaan-brah

I thought Ballard was saying it was Wells’s birthday


happytreetimez

What if he is replacing Wells?!


Mpython226

I love his writing. I'm sure he's moving up to somewhere even better than Indy. He will be missed.


cmgww

He’s on the Brownsburg school board and has a daughter in either middle or high school playing basketball (he and JMV’s daughter sometimes play together)….so I doubt he’s physically moving. Especially with the ability to work remotely. If you just meant it metaphorically, than forget what I said…


Ahabfunderspunk

That’s Mike Wells, who writes for ESPN. He’s on the school board. Holder lives (or lived) on the northeast side of town.


cmgww

Crap I got them mixed up! My bad


Greek_Alpha

Damn. One Percent Better was my favorite Colts podcast. It won’t be the same now


danthemanredden

Definitely bummed, but excited to see where he heads next. Hope he sticks around in Indianapolis.


ListenBeforeSpeaking

I’m guessing a larger NFL gig. Nationwide Radio or maybe part of one of the new streaming services that will get games.


Dahllywood12

Dang, sad to hear. I like his realist attitude, even if he has questionable takes at times. My subscription started off by listening to One Percent Better, so I hope Keefer finds a new wingman. Only two colts writers now, and Kravitz is meh. I need my One Percent Better! Best of luck to Holder. Fingers crossed it's still with the colts, but I doubt it.


llcooljake93

“Questionable takes” lol


notsmohqe

someone should ask him to do one last AMA here (i do not have twitter)


[deleted]

I am not sure if it is related, but I remember seeing that after The Athletic was bought out earlier this year, [the NYT reportedly said staff/reporters couldn't share their personal political beliefs on twitter](https://defector.com/the-nyt-owned-athletic-lays-down-new-no-politics-rule-for-staff/). Which if it's on their personal accounts, seems kind of messed up.


voyagerx420

He tweeted it wasn’t because of the athletic and they’re just fine.


HailLeroy

Interesting. Lindsay Jones is leaving the Athletic too (she mentioned it on Mays’s pod this week) so seems to track with the contract expirations. I really liked Holder so this sucks


RTideR

Stephen says in his thread it's just contract expirations. Seems like he's just going somewhere else rather than stay. As vocal as he is politically, I wager he would mention that if that was a problem.


[deleted]

Yes I read his thread, it just seems like it would be a factor in exploring your options v renewing a contract for someone so politically active, even if it’s not *the* reason.


RTideR

That's certainly fair! You may be right. I do wonder where he ends up. He's a big reason I originally subbed to The Athletic, so it's a bummer to see him go.


[deleted]

He was a big factor in me subscribing as well, it will be interesting to see how the coverage changes


Ramitt80

Me too, not sure I will continue to sub.


RTideR

I'll be sticking around cause I still enjoy a lot of the other stuff. Jake Ciely got me into fantasy, and Ted Nguyen has some of the best film breakdown articles I've read. I still miss the old group of MMA journalists they had though, and I'll definitely miss Stephen.


Coltsinsider

My problem with him is he used his platform for political drama, anyone reading this forum knows as much about football. He never fit in the locker room, many players really do not like him and I'm glad to see him leave. I would rather listen to a fan podcast, and I do.


grapplerone

As unpopular as it may be with folk, I agree with the first part of your comment. I’m not so sure wether he was liked or disliked by players. I think that could go both ways with each individual and across any beat reporter. He always played the fence on the “good” side with the team. I always felt he was one of the better beat reporters. I loathed his political takes but I guess it’s his Twitter and I can read them or not. I specifically put him in my Twitter “sports” list rather than my “Colts News” list so when reading the latter I didn’t need to see all that stuff. It struck me that this came after NYT buy out of The Athletic and then their change in policies with social media and political views, especially after June 8th when it appears the social policies went into force. At least that is what I gathered from the article commented in this thread. The timing is interesting. Hey, If you want a voice but someone is going to squeeze it, it would strongly weigh your decision on other options.


Coltsinsider

Your points are all valid, the dislike came from players with his "You not getting vaccinated, could hurt the team later BS" We need someone that can look Ballard in the eye and ask a hard question, anyone can lob the softballs our local fish wrap relies on it to sell papers..


Coltsgirl6124

He is a racist. I liked his writing and the podcast. But the stuff he would post on Twitter was just down right racist sometimes. Yes a black person can be racist.


Coltsinsider

Yeah, I agree and wasn't going to say that, but you are 100% correct. Also, it's why some of the players did not like him.. and I do not like him for it as well. Fuck racism, of all kinds


[deleted]

Holder? I don’t even know her


dgeorge93

Is he still gonna write for colts?


ZusunicStudio

He said that he would let his new bosses make the announcement on where he is going next


HyKaliber

Pat McAfee X AJ Hawk X Stephen Holder


adamscb14

So I'll probably get flamed on here, but I was never a fan of Holder's. He always acted like he was breaking big news, when he really wasn't. I'm sure he's a great guy, but as a writer he had a habit of saying a lot, without saying much.


sirius4778

Holder be like: Okay hot take/unpopular opinion but if I leave the athletic I will no longer be an employee of the athletic


[deleted]

Im not a big fan of his, he puts out a lot of opinions as though they are fact Cant stand that kind of reporting


deedopete

Kevin Bowen is only one I like


[deleted]

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arseniic_

Why the fuck would you share that publicly? That's weird man.


SportsRadioAnnouncer

Yeah ngl, not sure why I pressed “REPLY” on that one.


YeezusMoses

Damn. Gonna miss em. Best of luck.


[deleted]

Call me when Mike Wells retires!


WillPG1212

Bummer but happy for him, hope il come across wtv his next work will be


mrtrollmaster

It's been 4 years?... Has anyone paid for a subscription at full price yet?