Why I hope the NHL doesn't go back to ESPN
by ievans on Jul 9, 2010 12:24 PM PDT
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PrintLeBron James and the cult of the superstar
Well, I didn't watch LeBron's infomercial last night. Apparently it was something about expanding the LeBron James brand (something very, very important to everyone). And ESPN was right there, agreeing to, and relishing, every degrading act they were asked to perform, like a BDSM sub. This is what modern big-time sports looks like.
I'm surprised there wasn't a sideline interview afterward, given by a 23 year old hottie with a BA in communications from USC, with questions like, "King James, what emotions went through your head as you became even more wealthy than any of the people watching will ever hope to be?" Maybe there was. I didn't watch.
Who here is sick of the way Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are the only players the NHL consistently promotes? Well, if the NHL ever moves back to ESPN, guess which two players are going to be even more relentlessly promoted? That's what ESPN does. Stuart Scott will quickly go through the highlights before putting SidCros on the Budweiser Hot Seat and then counting down Alexander the Great's 10 best goal reactions. They're less about sports journalism and more about sports PR and marketing. It gets viewers, I guess, but, to me, makes the whole undertaking so hollow and unenjoyable I just can't watch SportsCenter any longer.
I mean, sports is meaningless enough without having the utter vapidity of it all rubbed in your face. Big time sports coverage now is millionaires hundreds of times over preening and mugging for the cameras, and sycophants hanging on their every word and facial reaction. It's a convention of self-important assholes of the type I can't stand in real life. I have no idea why this makes as much money as it does, but all I know is that the NHL's virtue has been being incompetent enough to avoid becoming another Gigantic Douche like the NFL, MLB, and NBA.
So, stay boring, NHL! Keep that TV contract on Vs. or Lifetime or that channel that's just footage of the space shuttle orbiting earth. At least you won't turn into a narcissist factory.
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of the 2.9 million raised by advertisment revenue...
he donated 2.5 million to Boys and Girls Club… So, it was more like a Lebronathon…
Statistics are like a girl in a bikini. They show a lot, but not everything.
The thing about an athlete making a self-produced infomercial about choosing which team gets to pay him even more money is that he’s TOO selfless. Geez, LeBron, you ever think about some me-time?
[He could have had a press conference and also donated 2.5 million to the Boys and Girls Club. What am I talking about? Of course he couldn’t have done that!]
I do sense Sarcasm...
and I do not disagree that the “decison” was totally lame. However, During all of this. He managed to donate money. He seems to be making business decisons. Something, that Fans dont do very often.
I would spend all my paycheck to drive down to the tank, and get drunk… my girlfriend would say, “not a wise business move” and the next few days I would realize she was right… because I now am eating PB&J Sandwhiches for the next week.
Statistics are like a girl in a bikini. They show a lot, but not everything.
I’m not trying to bust your balls here. But the charity thing is, to me, pretty transparently an attempt to buy sympathy. Narco syndicates in Mexico are GREAT givers to charity. That just makes everyone complicit, though.
But all that aside, LeBron James is a monster, and just a gigantic asshole. But he was created, by us, and by ESPN. You reward someone who happens to posses a meaningless skill with tens of millions of dollars as a teenager, you’re gonna inevitably have a egomaniacal fuckwit.
More like, a big f*** you to Cleveland
They like, never mentioned the Boys and Girls Club. That was used as a decoy to avoid the obvious.
Chris Andersen could be in a porno with his 'stache. Too bad he still wouldn't know how to box out.
Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy.
Quitter's Proud United Member #11
I do like this line
They’re less about sports journalism and more about sports PR and marketing
Your right about that.
Statistics are like a girl in a bikini. They show a lot, but not everything.
I do miss Ray Ferraro and John Buccigross banter on NHL 2 Night. Although even towards the end of the NHL’s contract with ESPN, hockey could barely be found.
Patty Marleau lives an erotic life.
I can’t be the only one who misses this
That and old-school Buccigross when he wore glasses. He looks smarter that way.
NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Dan Ellis
There's one mistake you're making
You’re assuming ESPN would give a damn about the NHL if they ever came back. I imagine the NHL would get shuffled to ESPN Classic or ESPN Deportes to make room for more LeBron and Brett Favre coverage.
"Playing Detroit in the playoffs is like paying your taxes. You either pay now or pay later." - Suisun Dan
Probably true.
Casual sports fans, ESPN’s bread and butter, are basically the worst. They, with the prodding of ESPN programming execs, want to see nothing but Yankees/Red Sox, or Lakers/Celtics, or Penguins/Capitals (alternately, Rangers/Flyers) games. Or literally anything about the NFL, even if it’s May and nothing is happening. They don’t care about the game itself, but the Big Names and their stupid rivalries and dramas.
V.S. isn't worse?!?!
"You can't spell Ovechkin without CHOKE!"
Vs. is absolutely better than ESPN on this front, if only because they’re not the 800 pound gorilla of sports broadcasting. There’s a lot to hate about how Vs. broadcasts the games, and which ones they chose to broadcast, and which players they promote. But they cater to hockey fans with their hockey coverage, not generic sports fans who prefer watching 60 seconds of highlights on SportsCenter to actually watching the games.
The moment Vs. can create and then “cover” a sports controversy is the day I eat my hat. ESPN does this on the regular.
Jaysus.
When it comes to cycling coverage, Vs. has tried to create controversies & then cover them in the past but then when it comes to actually addressing some very legitimate concerns re. doping that have been raised by people who don’t enjoy the mantle of Vs. approval (e.g. the ratings riders).
But, Vs. covers cycling, even if it is heavy on the “USA! USA! USA!” chest thumping. And they are starting to show more than just the friggen Tour. So, good for them. For ages cycling coverage was limited to somat like 30 minute recaps for a 3 week race or trying to live stream Rai or whatnot (although the Italian commentators are my absolute favorite).
by marian on Jul 11, 2010 9:22 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
Whoops...
“but then when it comes to actually addressing some very legitimate concerns re. doping that have been raised by people who don’t enjoy the mantle of Vs. approval (e.g. the ratings riders)”
they have really dropped the ball, pulled punches, avoided asking hard questions, etc.
I’d say everyone has dropped the ball re: doping.
But I still don’t think Vs. has anywhere near the clout of ESPN, or the sheer number of conflicts of interest. If Vs. isn’t at the forefront of doping investigations, that’s more a reflection of the sport (riders, team directors, cycling journalists, fans) as a whole.
Frankly, I have no idea who to believe any longer. It’s obvious that doping has been a huge problem in cycling, and maybe still is. Take Floyd Landis, who now is asking us to believe everything he says, after a few years of categorically denying he was doping during his (now revoked) Tour win. But also take Bjarne Riis, who admitted to doping during HIS win, but wasn’t stripped of his title. Who do you kick out and who do you allow to manage a major cycling team?
UCI should just declare an amnesty for all current and former riders to find out the extent of the problem, how the dopers managed to not get caught, and how much the team management was involved. Then decide on how and whether to control doping in pro cycling.
UCI should just declare an amnesty for all current and former riders to find out the extent of the problem, how the dopers managed to not get caught, and how much the team management was involved. Then decide on how and whether to control doping in pro cycling.
Even if they were to take this route, I doubt many cyclists would take them up on that offer. Seeing as to how the names in the Mitchell Report got leaked, even when it was supposed to be random and confidential, whoever’s doping will likely see no benefit to fess up, even if provided amnesty.
Maybe I’m just assuming people have a similar opinion on the matter, but I don’t think Americans in general who don’t follow cycling (and I don’t) would give a crap to know if anyone’s juiced. Take Landis in point: He got caught, confessed, but really… meh. Only if a certain someone gets caught will the casual sports fan actually take note. He’s been accused already, but unless there’s actual hard evidence of him cheating, I’m sure he’s taking that to his grave. No way he’s gonna fess up, amnesty or no amnesty.
NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Dan Ellis
I have to think that there is still doping going on in cycling, but I think that it’s probably less of a problem than it is in other mainstream sports (Soccer, ‘merican football, baseball, etc.) but the doping issue in cycling has been covered to death to the point that when ’mericans think profesh cycling they think doping. I don’t think this is the case for Euro fans, who benefit from broader coverage of cycling & who therefore have a little more nuanced appreciation of cycling.
And DownRUpLYB has a point: most ‘mericans probably don’t care who is doping or not and they have now just assumed/taken for granted that a certain percentage of cyclists are on the juice. The exception being his holiness because he’s “never tested positive” & he’s made kind of a big deal about all the times the UCI has knocked on his door at 6am for a special sample.
And, just so we all are clear, there’s a big difference between “never testing positive” and actually being clean.
There’s all kinds of coverage (biased though it may be) at Cycling Fans Anonymous.
And, just so we all are clear, there’s a big difference between "never testing positive" and actually being clean.
And there’s the problem, in a nutshell, with all of this. I don’t particularly want to watch guys pumped full of enhanced cow plasma blasting up the Galibier like an on-ramp, but if, at this point, there’s still doping, and anybody good is just “never tested positive” instead of clean, then drop the whole thing. Just stop policing it. It’s as unwinnable as our own War On Drugs, and a phenomenal waste of time, money, energy, and passion.
I just browsed through Cycling Fans Anonymous, and it’s depressing to see someone who cares about a sport become so disillusioned. Someone should remind him that all his cycling heroes were likely on meth, so this is all nothing new.
+1
I miss Ligget.
Now I just turn the volume down and watch.
Heartbreaking, as I used to race in College, but these guys sound like they read a book of cycling terms 10 minutes before the show, then pepper them into their “banter” to make it sound like they know what they are talking about.
Case-in-point: Muh boy Cavendish. Best sprinter in the world. Period. He says as much, then they call him out, and he replies “I haven’t said anything that isn’t the truth.”
Funnier still is when they interview other riders and they say “I don’t get what this controversy is about. I only hear it from you. So far, he’s backed up everything he says.”
OK, semi-OT Vs. TDF coverage rage-a-thon is over now ;-)
"Never start a fight, but ALWAYS finish it."
Bleeding teal since 1997
Meh. I tuned in to the Lebron thing
I don’t really care for basketball that much (pretty much just catch the finals if anything at all). I watched the first 15mins or so on espn3.com until he announced the Heat and then I promptly turned it off.
Just as Cable news has turned into the same stories being blasted non-stop and much ado over little things, ESPN has done much the same. The downfalls of trying to fill 24hrs with limited stories kinda gets you the results we have. I don’t know that you can fault ESPN for the LeBron hour. It obviously is the biggest story of the NBA offseason, and if LeBron came to them of course they are going to jump at the opportunity.
I, personally, could care less about egomaina in sports. I watch for the athletic achievements, the physical poetry, and intensity that top tier sports can showcase. I don’t particularly need athletes to be role models and amazing human beings. I just want them to be talented and play hard and with passion. Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate when athletes do demonstrate integrity, kindness, and overall good humor (which the NHL for the most part seems to be chalk full of). If an athlete is going to be a giant douche, he is going to be one on a national/worldwide stage for everyone to see.
All that being said I have mixed feelings about the NHL on ESPN. I don’t think their coverage is going to do anything to the egos of players as the NHL is a distant 4th on the totem pole of US sports. I just worry that we would get even less coverage that Vs provides. On the other side: the production value and on air talent that ESPN could provide would be far superior to Vs. coverage. Seriously, a JC student could put together a better production than Vs. NHL coverage. Ah god their analysts are about the least interesting people to listen to.
I would be for whatever grows the game of hockey.
Also I personally think it was a pretty nice move to donate $2.5 to Boys and Girls foundation
He didn’t have to do that. He could have pocketed it all (though I am pretty sure there are some solid tax benefits for him by donating the money – but the bottom line is B&Gs foundation just got $2.5mil and that’s a pretty nice takeaway)
Everything in this original post
has been admitted by Collin Cowherd on his radio show. The saddest part is that he even goes as far as to say that no one at ESPN gives a shit because they are making so much money. Deep down though, if I were on Sportscenter doing a show, I would think to myself, “Wow, I used to be going through football/hockey formations and strategies and debating with my buddies, now I’m asking Tom Cruise who his favorite NBA team (this year) is,” and I would throw up a little, regardless of the paycheck.
My first thought was...
…“because it’s ESPN?”
;-)
"Never start a fight, but ALWAYS finish it."
Bleeding teal since 1997
poor argument
every time im in a hotel and want to watch a game on VS — which i can’t get – i wish espn showed the nhl – which everybody gets.
so get over the overexposure of sid and ovie and think about the people who want to watch the nhl but cant because it’s on vs
plus the vs pre and between period in studio stuff is crap
love them or hate them, due to its availability, get the games back on espn
Thats kind of how a feel too. I would prefer the games back on ESPN if only for the availability when I’m not at my home with the luxury of my full array of channels.
Churning and burning, they yearn for the cup.
Twitter! rmorse05
by sharks in oc on Jul 13, 2010 11:31 AM PDT up reply actions
It would be sweet if they could get the games on ESPN3 too
like they do for the English Premier League, that would be so sick.
I just wished that VS. was listed with the other sports channels
At least in Comcast in SJ: ESPN, ESPN2, CSNBA, CSNCA…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………then VS.
If it was bunched together, then at least those who don’t know the location of VS. by memory would at least be able to find it through a simple flipthrough of the related channels.
IDK why this hasn’t happened yet, VS. has been around forever. My guess is probably all the bass-fishing.
NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Dan Ellis
Our Mistake
is to believe that, even with all of the information out there, we can find programming that meets our unique needs. Fact is, that is what networks are desperate for, and why they provide 800 channels. The problem is most people are cattle and so the programming reflects that…oooh Lebron..you either get a boner or get pissed as a basketball fan. same thing for Kobe, Sid, Brett etc. Boner or pissed. Cattle.
Can’t even click a single button on direct tv so I ONLY SEE THE PROGRAMMING IN MY PACKAGE!
As soon as you accept that traffic sucks, people are mean and selfish and rude, and that sports are just entertainment, the easier it will be on your blood pressure!
Now please please DW, make a trade so I can focus on that!
'It's amazing the clarity that comes with psychotic jealousy.'
I don’t think the NHL is very condusive to the star prima donna culture of the NBA. At least not yet. With the exception of Brian Burke, Pronger and Sean Avery, when do you really hear flamboyant or “controversial” sound bites? And seriously, Avery is the worst and he doesn’t even remotely compare to a lot of NFL or NBA players.
Some of you might point to Crosby and Ovechkin. Sid is actually pretty quiet and comes off as uncomfortable and stiff most of the time in front of the cameras when he’s not playing hockey. He’s also turned down appearances on Letterman.
Ovechkin might SEEM closer to the other leagues promotion of stardom but what makes Ovechkin unique is not that he’s a glory hound. The guy just LOVES scoring. Not just when he does it, but he’s also happy when his teammates score. And his exuberance is infectious. That’s why Capitals games have almost every single person in the stands wearing a jersey. I live in Montreal and you won’t see as high a percentage of fans wearing jerseys during games.
by BruinsSelectSeguin on Jul 17, 2010 8:11 AM PDT reply actions
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