New Podcast

The return of the Flex Podcast comes to Hard Hits Network. Derek Flex Felix gives his thoughts on the Knicks hire of Tom Thibodeau, the Jets finally trading disgruntled safety Jamal Adams and hits hard at the New York Liberty and Seattle Storm of the WNBA for an unnecessary act that won't help their cause. 

The Chatroom Brigade

Who is Kovy274Hart? Someone who perseveres despite the easily triggered. Derek is a former employee of ESPN having worked in a statistical research capacity by providing graphic ideas for national broadcasts for both NHL and WNBA games. 

Moving on from life in Bristol, Connecticut, he would work in Jersey City in the Garden State while beginning to provide sports columns for a  cool site NY SportsDay. Derek covered consecutive Staten Island Yankees New York-Penn League Championships. Those teams that won at Richmond County Bank Ball Park in St. George over by the Ferry terminal, featured future major leaguers Brett Gardner, Eduardo Nunez,  Francisco Cervelli and Eduardo Nunez. 

All four came up with the Yankees with Gardner and Cervelli playing roles on the 2009 World Series Championship team. In fact, both Nunez and Kontos played roles in World Series Titles elsewhere. Nunez with the 2018 Red Sox and Kontos with the 2012 Giants. 

Derek also covered future ace reliever Dellin Betances, who is a local product from Grand Street High School. After spending over a decade in the Yankee organization, he will move to the other New York local in the Mets. It'll be a interesting transition for the flamethrower who is looking to successfully come back from a torn Achilles tendon last year. He's a four-time American League All-Star who's recorded 100 strikeouts or more in five consecutive seasons (2014-18). With a career 2.36 earned run average (ERA), 36 career saves and 621 K's in 381 and two-thirds innings, the 32-year old should play a key role in the Mets bullpen. 

Derek has also hosted his own show on the internet. Hard Hits primarily focuses on daily sports happenings and hot topics. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting so many, it's been expanded to music and important current issues. The show is hard hitting and opinionated. It frequently features guests such as Colin, Nate, Justin, Dan, Brian and Madison. All are valued members of the Chatroom Brigade. A group formulated at the turn of the 21st century.

The Brigade included originators Colin, Nate, Justin, John, Corey, Greg, Mike and Rob. A unique blend of humor due to a penchant for wrestling during the height of the Monday Night Wars between WWE Raw and WCW Nitro, the cohesive original eight used their sarcasm to take over chat rooms while being in character. They were creative in their unique setting. Better known as Vanwarinator, NASIllmatic, NYYNYRS94, JPG915, Whipwrecker, TheGreatGQ, Metallica36883 and KrAzE96, they delivered their own promos, shoots and no sold everyone. And by the Colin rule, No Side comments please. 

Between their epic battles with Eugine, they recruited Derek as Kovy274Hart in 2002. While he had no idea what he got himself into, eventually he became trusted. But for a while, they mocked him for not staying on topic with mastermind Rob floating the theory that Justin was Derek. That he didn't have a older brother. It took some time for them to prove the untrustworthy Kraze wrong. Once they did, chaos ensued. 

Following Derek's successful recruitment of longtime St. John's college friend Brian, it would only become even more unpredictable. Pretty soon, the Brigade was having interesting battles with Eugine, who had a habit of creating imitation screen names to message each member. War (Colin) was only too happy to oblige. He even successfully swerved Eugine as another character called ConfirmationDale on the old AOL messenger.

It only motivated Eugine to go further. With unique terms like piggy, oh fick, oh shoot, I cry and my hobbies are kicking ur ooses, he continued to harass the brigade. However, some were wiling participants like Kovy (Derek) and Brian (Sambone). They enjoyed having bizarre chats with Eric  (Eugine). Pretty soon, Kovy was known as a hockey oos while he mistook Brian for the strange Chris (Stevens8204). 

Derek and Justin also had to contend with the odd RVD, who was from the same area and paraded around in a van with his girlfriend, smoking bowls and hoping to meet them. They feared this loose cannon. 

Another member is Dan. Originally WCWIcon24 (later NCIcon24), he was a interesting character whose love for WCW was his calling card. Having epic battles with various Brigade participants including Whip (Corey), he often feuded with Eugine and Jeff (MeccaOfManhoood). These were classic times for the Brigade. 

Graduating to form his original show All Sports Radio on the airwaves of Blogtalk Radio, Dan would frequently invite the Brigade to be part of the fun. He also featured a co-host when times became chaotic due to ring leader Derek. A button pusher by nature, Kovy took it to a new level with JPG. Their intense rivalry still exists today with nerdy scienterrific stats and strange graphs being the focus. John's insistence on Wins Above Replacement (WAR) being the be all for determining how great a baseball player is has never agreed with Derek. 

They've clashed over WAR, Stanford, JPG turning on hometown teams the Da Bears and Bulls, Kovy's Core Four (Cahr Fahr) in MLB, polarizing NBA superstar LeBron James and Derrick Knee Rose, they have continued to feud like classic rivals. Think Randy Orton and Edge.

Greg (GQ) had his own show in the old Chatroom. Appropriately called, The GQ Show, it never drew ratings. However, despite his contemporaries mocking his show including Rob using his Opposite Rawb gimmick that has made him famous, GQ remained undeterred. He always entertained and even guested on Hard Hits with former co-host JPG. Now that the well traveled John is free from the corrupt United States that is in danger due to progressive liberals, he's embraced Taiwan life with his girlfriend. 

A unique character who is originally from Illinois, his best sports moment came in 2016 when the Cubs finally won their first World Series in 108 years to end the Billy Goat curse. They came back to defeat the Indians (soon to be canceled by left wing nuts) in seven games winning the final two games in Cleveland. Having turned on both his basketball and football teams, he no longer watches sports. But he's always there to make commentary, which nemesis Derek finds ironic. 

Unique rivalries exist including Rob vs Nate with sister trash talk. Brian vs Derek despite 25 years of friendship due to strange accusations made by the Big Man that his friend openly roots for his Buffalo Bills and Sabres (HAWAB) to lose. Kovy has always denied the charges and has supported Sambone's teams in the past. But that's not good enough.

There have also been the Chatroom Brigade version of leaks with members Rob and John logging and saving Derek quotes and sending them to Dan or others as ammunition.  An illegal tactic. They've even corrupted newest addition Madison into it. She hosts her own sports podcast on Anchor and has been a guest on other shows including Hard Hits and What's BREWIN', the latter hosted by converted and confused Vegas Brew. Formerly a Yankee fan, he now fully supports two Boston teams including the Red Sox (Saaahhxx) and Bruins. However, he's now also a Golden Knights fan. Maybe he's going through a midlife crisis. It's all very confusing. 

There will be more details added as we go on. Stay tuned. The show must go on.