‘Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time’ also gave us GOAT-level trash talk

Until Tuesday night, Brad Rutter had a legitimate claim to being the best Jeopardy! player of all time. No one in game show history has won more money than him. The player who had perhaps the next best claim to being the greatest ever, Ken Jennings, had lost to Rutter three times in Jeopardy!’s tournament of champions format.

But during the show’s Greatest of All Time event, Rutter never even became a factor in the competition. He flubbed some early Daily Doubles that put him in point deficits from which he never recovered, and he also seemed slow on the buzzer until there were only lower value clues left. He didn’t win a single game in the first-to-three-wins tournament.

Rutter’s performance in a primetime event was embarrassing on its own, but perhaps no moment was as humiliating — as utterly cruel, gleefully savage, or gut-punchingly funny — as when the third competitor, James Holzhauer, sent this barb at Rutter between the first and second halves of Tuesday’s tournament finale.

A big part of Rutter’s struggles throughout the competition might have been Holzhauer, who is arguably the most impressive (if not quite the “greatest”) player in Jeopardy! history. He owns every record that Kennings or Rutter don’t, including the highest single-game winnings of $131,127. Holzhauer is a professional sports gambler, and is known for his hyper-aggressive strategies, which include selecting high-value clues first and betting big whenever he has an opportunity to wage on a Daily Double.

In short: He was Rutter’s kryptonite. Rutter, a mild-mannered former quiz bowl savant from Pennsylvania, admitted in a taped segment that he was worried that he might be past his trivia prime. Holzhauer did everything to confirm those fears, repeatedly shit-talking the distant third-place finisher both during the tournament and online.

I’m of two minds on this.

The first is, how dare Holzhauer? Rutter had four bad days of trivia, but some of that was due to dumb luck. And Holzhauer didn’t have to kick the man when he was down. For example, Jennings gave Rutter a gracious shoutout on Twitter, pointing out that “for over a decade, [Rutter has] really had the only credible claim as the Jeopardy GOAT.” Holzhauer, who was the tournament’s first loser, doesn’t really have any right to comment on another player’s performance.

On the other hand: LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL TALK THAT SHIT DORK. Something like the Greatest of All Time tournament may never happen again, so why put on airs? Why be anything other than wholly yourself? Great competitors taunt, and there’s no question that Holzhauer is one of the best, even if Tuesday proved that he isn’t the best. Even Jennings, the newly-crowned GOAT, laid down some vicious smack.

Rutter has been doing game shows for a long time, and has been in Holzhauer’s position far more often than not. He should be able to take trash talk in stride. And if he was seething on the inside, then that’s his fault for not building up the callous layer around his heart that all true champions have.

(And for the record: Rutter did get in a decent, though understandably less pointed, clap back at Holzhauer on Twitter.)

In a way, the moment was a perfect encapsulation of the Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time tournament itself: the inherent silliness and fun of playing trivia for money, and the seriousness and competitiveness one needs to be that good at it. And at the very least, Rutter can take umbrage in the fact that Holzhauer felt he was worth the breath. Among the best, wanting to humiliate your opponent is maybe the truest sign of respect.