Local radio show “The Common Man and The Torg” has officially come to an end, due to an ill-advised tweet from the show’s co-host Scott “The TorgTorgerson, along with an overreaction from the powers at be, and former Ohio State quarterback and ESPN analyst, Kirk Herbstreit.

Trouble started for The Torg on Oct. 13 when he said from his Twitter account, @myguythetorg: “I wish Desmond Howard would get fired or die so I can watch game day again.” The tweet was deleted shortly after, and followed up with an apology tweet, saying that he was sorry if he offended anyone. So that should have been enough right?

He said something that he shouldn’t have said, in the name of humor, realized that he might have gone overboard, and apologized.

Unfortunately that wasn’t enough for the morality police, who immediately sprung in to action, headlined initially by Howard’s wife, Rebekah Howard. Rebekah Howard, who is a self-proclaimed “non-practicing attorney” with a “natural predisposition to incredulity and cursing,” apparently has nothing better to do than sit and read what people say to her poor husband on Twitter all day.

It’s something that is made very clear on her blog, www.whatthefunkblog.com . On the site, she had a long post on Sept. 24 showing examples of the mean things people say to her husband on a weekly basis during the show, and following them up with snarky little comments.

She says that each week she is amused and annoyed by what she calls “the slew of bitter and sometimes hateful tweets my husband receives for the unthinkable crime of *gasp* picking one team to persevere over another or *gasp* choosing as a 17-year-old to play for a hated rival.”

So from the way I take it, Rebekah Howard is saying that her husband is just doing his job and people shouldn’t be mean to him, but getting feedback from the audience is not part of the job, unless it is nice that is.

While I’m not condoning some of the terrible things that people say to Desmond Howard on Twitter, which Rebekah Howard’s blog gives some good examples of, he is a grown man. As a grown man Desmond Howard needs to learn to ignore it. I’m sure he is getting compensated well enough to deal with a couple of grumpy fans being mean to him. I’m also absolutely sure that he could get by without his wife standing up for him.

My other issue with Rebekah Howard’s response, which said “thanks for the ‘apologizes.’ Are you fortunate enough to be a father? Know who didn’t get your ‘total (dead) joke’? Our daughter.”

The message’s tone indicates that her daughter is some heartbroken young child, who doesn’t yet have an idea what sarcasm is, and was sitting at home devastated with the worry that someone is going to hurt her father.

In reality, the Howards‘ daughter is a student at the University of Michigan.

The next person to chime in was former Buckeye Herbstreit, who is a co-host of ESPN’s “College GameDay” along with Howard. Herbstreit called Torgerson’s comments “disgusting and very sad” and went on to say that The Torg had “crossed the line and was completely unacceptable.”

It seems as if Herbstreit chiming in might have been the death blow to Torgerson, when he jumped in to defend Desmond Howard it was the first sign that the Torgerson’s days may be numbered here in Columbus. Herbstreit is one of the biggest names in sports broadcasting today, so what he says is going to have a lot of pull in a station that carries his show. 

If he wanted Torgerson gone, then he was going to be gone. Herbstreit is another example of a guy who needs to let Desmond Howard defend himself.

For so many years we had the pleasure of listening in to radio’s version of Statler and Waldorf, sitting in the balcony of “The Muppet Show” mocking Fozzie Bear’s failed jokes. I guess it’s a good thing for them that Fozzie didn’t have a wife with a loud mouth, or a friend with a little too much authority. Now we are left in the aftermath, a world with “The Common Man Show” coming on each day with a rotating cast of co-hosts for the time being, none of which provide the same kind of entertainment that I had become accustomed to.

Torgerson said on his new website, www.thetorgshow.com, that he will file suit against 97.1 The Fan over his firing, so maybe one day things will be right again. But for the time being, things don’t look good.

This all could have been avoided if people would have just “let em’ live.”