I don't know if I've just avoided this all these years because I've never been that into traditional sports, but punditry fucking sucks. Maybe it sucked less in former years but hearing people idly joke around about starting fights on twitter with their takes, the assumption being that's just a normal part of the job being a sports journalist, was kinda gross to me.
But, yeah it really is just "say some shit that some people will love and some will hate, and watch the engagement flow" as a profession. And, to my horror, it probably does date back deep into the radio days.
Womp.