Cowherd, who hosts an ESPN Radio show and co-hosts ESPN2's weekday SportsNation, says the main character might not even be a sports guy: "He'll probably be just a talk show host. Like Frasier, with his dad, brother, the dog. My relationships are with females."

In an as-yet unnamed show he hopes will launch this spring, those relationships will be based on his wife, ex-wife and SportsNation co-host Michelle Beadle — "three smart independent women." He'll be a producer, but has "no interest" in appearing in it. He's worked with Eric Tannenbaum, executive producer of the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Menwho also has that title on Cowherd's show, and now sends in "show ideas on a weekly basis." What he offers: "I want stories on relationships that are authentic. I give them real situations I live through."

But why would mass audiences care about the relationships of a caustic, even annoying, sports talker? Cowherd was talking to a script writer about the online criticism he gets — SI.com says Cowherd was "reckless and unfair" in a recent rant in which he called NBA star rookie John Wall "an idiot" — when the writer cleared things: "He said, 'That's why we (got) a show.' "

Meaning, Cowherd gets noticed. At ESPN, "my job is to have opinions, fast and furious." But not about life-or-death yak: "People think I'm trying to be controversial. … But I don't think I'm controversial. Howard Stern talks about body parts. Rush Limbaugh talks about Obama. I'm just talking about sports."

Cowherd, who says he's also almost done with a book of "little vignettes" he compiled only while flying — "every time I get on a plane, I write" — that will give him another spinoff. And knows such opportunities don't come from being universally admired: "I'm not delusional. I know I'm not loved everywhere."