RIP Joe McDonnell "The Big Nasty"

[Dan Druff]

In the '90s, I listened to a lot of sports talk radio. My favorite sports talk host was Joe McDonnell, aka "The Big Nasty". Unlike Jim Rome (who I also listened to), McDonnell was just a local LA personality, and his show wasn't as professional or polished as Rome's. But I liked him because he always shot from the hip and didn't give a shit about the consequences, and you knew you were always getting the guy's real, uncensored opinion. He also was very well-liked by LA area athletes, so he often got the early scoops and the good interviews.

Unfortunately for Joe, he had a lot of health problems, mostly centered around his weight. He was beyond obese, and hit 740 pounds in the early 2000s before literally falling and not being able to get up. He finally got gastric bypass surgery, and dropped like 400-500 pounds.

I believe he had already damaged his body too much by then, and had various other health issues occur over the years. In 2010, he developed a serious infection and almost died. He passed away today, though the cause was not revealed.

Sadly, my last interaction with him was a political argument on his Facebook wall about 2 months ago. But he and I weren't close friends, or anything. I just enjoyed his radio show.

The Dodgers and Lakers donated money for his funeral.

RIP Joe. He was 58.

[badguy23]

Druff there is only one female host radio announcer on the East Coast!! The Babe

[PLOL]

He must have been real small time. I did a search on youtube for Joe McDonnell and The Big Nasty and nothing popped up.

[Dan Druff]

He must have been real small time. I did a search on youtube for Joe McDonnell and The Big Nasty and nothing popped up.

He didn't have a regular show for the last several years.

Also, as his show was mostly him just going off with his opinions on LA sports, there weren't slick moments that one would want to YouTube.

He had a lot of big fans in LA. Surprised he had such a hard time getting a show at the end.

[PLOL]

He must have been real small time. I did a search on youtube for Joe McDonnell and The Big Nasty and nothing popped up.

He didn't have a regular show for the last several years.

Also, as his show was mostly him just going off with his opinions on LA sports, there weren't slick moments that one would want to YouTube.

He had a lot of big fans in LA. Surprised he had such a hard time getting a show at the end.

It's really annoying that better records aren't kept of radio shows. I was borderline obsessed with Matt Drudge's radio show when he was on the air back when I was in high school. He was broadcast to a large nationwide audience for a long period of time and yet there's almost no record of it. Just a few snippets here and there that I had to dig to find.

[vegas1369]

At one point weighing 740lbs and then living till 58 is definitely beating the odds. It's amazing someone could live that long after putting their body through that much trauma.

[Hurdleking]

I liked him as well....best of his shows was with Doug K in my opinion but this was always going to end poorly for him given his weight issues....

[Hockey Guy]

Jim Rome is a douchebag.



Why would anyone listen to that fuckhead?

[thesparten]

He didn't have a regular show for the last several years.

Also, as his show was mostly him just going off with his opinions on LA sports, there weren't slick moments that one would want to YouTube.

He had a lot of big fans in LA. Surprised he had such a hard time getting a show at the end.

It's really annoying that better records aren't kept of radio shows. I was borderline obsessed with Matt Drudge's radio show when he was on the air back when I was in high school. He was broadcast to a large nationwide audience for a long period of time and yet there's almost no record of it. Just a few snippets here and there that I had to dig to find.

I used to listen to drudge radio show too..he voluntarily quit it to focus on his website which is huge and very influential..talk radio in all its forms is good listening '.

[PLOL]

It's really annoying that better records aren't kept of radio shows. I was borderline obsessed with Matt Drudge's radio show when he was on the air back when I was in high school. He was broadcast to a large nationwide audience for a long period of time and yet there's almost no record of it. Just a few snippets here and there that I had to dig to find.

I used to listen to drudge radio show too..he voluntarily quit it to focus on his website which is huge and very influential..talk radio in all its forms is good listening '.

Pretty sure he quit because people were starting to dig in to his personal life and he's a huge recluse and wants to keep his personal life private (partially because he's gay).

[gauchojake]

Bummer. One of the pioneers of sports talk radio who really didn't give a fuck what you thought of him. It seemed like he had kind of got his shit together after the surgery. Sad for the chick who actually took a chance on him and married him.

[thesparten]

Didn't know he was gay..could care less what people do with there genitals just as long I don't hear it or pay for it or am discriminated against for being a Christian heterosexual...on one of his last broadcast he said it was the daily grind of doing a radio show and he could make more money on the website..your probably right though..every one fights dirty but PROGRESSIVES are better at it and they have the mainstream covering for them..

[jsearles22]

[gauchojake]

Keep it on topic fags. You wanna talk about conservative faggot talk shows, start a new thread.

[FPS_Russia]

RIP Joe

Never heard of em tho. I'll put the funniest Jim Rome clip ever in Joe's honor... Sales guys will love it.

[Dan Druff]

I liked him as well....best of his shows was with Doug K in my opinion but this was always going to end poorly for him given his weight issues....

Agree, his shows were best when Doug was around.

[Hozer11]

I apologize for being off topic, but that Rome Everett clip seems staged to me. I dont remember thinking that at the time but now it smells like a publicity stunt.
It just feels like Rome knew he was coming at him, plus Everett could have done whatever he wanted with him.
In pro wrestling parlance it looks like a bit of "worked shoot" similar to Andy Kaufman/ Jerry Lawler on Letterman.

Peace

Hozer11

[herbertstemple]

I apologize for being off topic, but that Rome Everett clip seems staged to me. I dont remember thinking that at the time but now it smells like a publicity stunt.
It just feels like Rome knew he was coming at him, plus Everett could have done whatever he wanted with him.
In pro wrestling parlance it looks like a bit of "worked shoot" similar to Andy Kaufman/ Jerry Lawler on Letterman.

Peace

Hozer11

What I was thinking when I saw it. Everett pushes the table to the side instead of straight into him then makes a half hearted swing at his jaw and appears to let up it on at the end. Maybe Everett just didn't want to hurt the guy.

Doubt Rome was ever in any danger. Funny him squealing like a pig.

[Dan Druff]

There is a huge outpouring of sympathy on Facebook regarding Joe over the past 2 days.

It's too bad LA radio didn't recognize what a huge following he still had until after he was gone. I always thought that it was a mistake for no sports station in LA to give him a regular show.

[Dan Druff]

BUMP

For Joe McDonnell fans (I know there are a few of you out here), here's an interesting September 2019 article from a former intern of his, who now works for the LA Times as a columnist:

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story...s-angeles-espn


Also, I wanted to mention that his wife acted really strangely on Facebook after his death. At first it seemed normal -- she took over his account and used it as a memorial for him. Standard stuff for the spouse of a deceased Facebook user (especially one with local fame).

However, as time passed, it got weirder.

She later used his account to auction off his sports memorabilia. That struck me as a little bit callous -- she didn't even say she was saving any of it in his memory. However, I figured she probably wasn't much of a sports fan, and perhaps was hurting for money, so I dismissed it as no big deal.

About a year after that, she announced that she would be closing the Facebook account because it was "time to move on". What??? It would be understandable if she announced that she wouldn't be logging into it anymore, and set it as a permanent memorial page. But why delete it? The page had all of the tributes to Joe after he died, plus all of Joe's past posts while he was alive.

People asked her to leave the page up, but her mind was made up. Shortly afterwards, she deleted the page and vanished.

Joe died at 58. I think he had been married about 10 years. He didn't marry a young hottie who was using him for money, or anything like that. His wife was probably about 10 years younger than him, but she was very overweight, and just looked like a typical heavy middle aged woman. I'm mentioning this because I assume Joe married her for love, not as a trophy wife. (He died with relatively little money, I believe, but he had decent money at one point.) No doubt Joe was moody and could clearly be an asshole sometimes, so perhaps the marriage was already in bad shape when he died.

Still, pretty cold move on her part. She could have just left the account up and abandoned the page, if she wanted to completely move on.