Okay - I knew when I logged on today that there would be plenty of reaction to Skip Bayless and his sidekick for their ridiculous comments today but I'd like to deflect a little criticism from them and instead direct the collective anger toward the entity that pays them both (and nudges them in their respective directions) - ESPN.
ESPN is an entertainment provider posing as a sports reporting/analysis source. In the same way that MTV completely abandoned music in favor of reality t.v. and teenage drama, ESPN will also chase whatever produces the most viewers. Real NFL fans can watch NFL network (if your area provides it) or listen to sports radio (even ESPN is better in that arena) or go online where most of the good stuff is these days. Real sports analysis can be boring to the casual fan. Who wants to hear about batting averages with runners on base when you can talk about steroid needles, player negotiation tampering or ex players going bankrupt?
ESPN's main transgression in my opinion is self-promotion. Remember that they only carry one NFL game per week - that's roughly 17 days per year out of 365 that you can actually go to the network for football - only 4.6% of the year!
That being the case, they are faced with "boring" anaylsis of games that fans will watch elsewhere, something that no one outside of the hardcore center demo will watch consistently - that would keep them somewhere around the SyFy channel realm. Instead, it's much better to elicit emotional reactions by drumming up drama, creating controversy and inciting hardcore fans. Then, whether you hate it of love it, you can't wait to check in and see what those "idiots" are saying today. While this happens every week, it increases exponentially for the few games that they actually manage to carry on their network. They will say or do anything in order to get casual fans to tune in on Monday.
Which brings us to Skip and company. Skip is probably the smartest out of the ones they trot out there and he is a master manipulator. He's basically sold his journalistic/analytic soul to the ESPN devil, as he will never be taken seriously by anyone ever again, but he's wildly successful in doing so. It's a total act. He sometimes loses his point and talks himself in circles and that's probably why he's a hack with a small daytime time slot and not a bigger personality. He'd likely be a defense attorney with late night commercials if not for ESPN.
Jemel (sp?) and the 2 Stews however, are a different story... They all come across to me as a little more honestly dumb. In other words, their "act" is less of an act, albeit still manufactured to a great degree. They do a good job of whipping viewers up into a tizzy, although without playing off of the disgusting Bayless persona it wouldn't work.
All in all, this is the lowest show on the ESPN food chain and is on par with some of the drivel on the leading "news" stations these days and just a step above reality shows like Falvor of Love in my opinion.
Basically, until some new sports network comes along and seriously challenges the 4 letter network, we'll be stuck with this garbage/entertainment in place of actual analysis and reporting (Fox Sports and Yahoo sports seem the most likely challengers, albeit not strong ones). Of course, whoever rises up to challenge will likely fall into the same types of shows as ESPN over time...hell, they might even have to start with those type shows just to challenge.
Okay - my rant is over. I'm not a fan of anything ESPN but it's a necessary evil right now and they know it.
Who dat and let's at least make for an uncomfortable show for Skip and friends next Tuesday. :gosaints: