T1B

I'm old enough to remember when SC was awesome.

What the fuck have they done with a once great institution? Here is a list (partial I'm sure) of things that have ruined SC, if not the whole network.

Ultimate highlight reel- What's the point. Some big moments set to head banging music, cut together in very short bits.

Top 10 plays- WTF? These are all plays that were shown in the context of the highlight package for the game in which they occured. Recycling shit is a waste of our time.

Putting ESPN employees on the "Bud Hot Seat"- This is just plain lazy. How many ways can you package your own windbags into show segments. Don't they already cut away for bits from the NBA,NFL,NHL,MLB guys throughout the show? The Hot Seat is for people who play, coach, or own teams. Nobody wants to hear Shaun Salsbury blow himself in yet another forum. Put an athlete on there and ask him some tough questions....Hot Seat...get it?!

NFL schedule speculation- WTF!! It's April. Hockey playoffs are underway, NBA is on the home stretch, baseball is in full gear, and they waste my time selecting the best games in the last month of the NFL season, some 8 months from now. Who the fuck cares. Just because ESPN televises NFL games doesn't make it a year-round sport.

Sports writers as experts-This is just overkill. PTI, Around the horn, sports reporters, first and ten...gimme a break. They are all the same thing, just shaped different, kinda like mexican food. Local hacks from around the country spewing their opinions, like anybody gives a shit. And in the case of ATH, some assclown gives points based on how close your opinion is to his, this is just an insult to the viewer.

X-Games-These "sports" blow. The fact that some of these activities have made it into the Olympics doesn't elevate the X-Games, but rather serves to cheapen the tradition and spectacle of the Olympic games. Who cares if some long haired hippy douchebag wins 13 gold medals in snow boarding or skateboarding or motor cross, as long as it's in SF, or Philly, or wherever they hold these patchulie (sp?) festivals. No dirty birkenstock fucks should ever march in the opening ceremonies...and ESPN trying to legitimize these "sports" is an outrage.

Sorry for the rant guys, but I hate it when great things like sportscenter sell out. I'm sure it has everything to do with demographics and money. Disney ownership has alot to do with it, televising MNF means the NFL will be shoved in our faces 365 days a year, but I don't have to like it.

"sports journalist as celebrity" thinking the it's all more about them than the games on the field. Naw, i don't give a fuck about your lifestyle fantasies about being "boys" with the athletes. jock sniff issues?

any "sports journalist" douche rocket who uses the pronoun "we" as if he speaks *for the masses*.

I'm talking to you Todd Wright (now on Sporting News Radio) and Jason Smith (making ESPN all night unlistenable since day 1. atta boy Jase.**

*the most annoying person in sports media--no, Todd, i don't give a flying fuck about your trip to Vegas to to see the Killers and about how you always wear a hockey sweater to shows so all yo' boys can find you. needlessly pompous much?

** the dumbest, most cloying idiot in sports media. How this guy has a job tells me people are even dumber than i thought.


by the way, you left out Poker on 24/7. bring back Aussie football, screw poker.

King Crimson wrote:bring back Aussie football

RACK!!

King Crimson wrote:by the way, you left out Poker on 24/7. bring back Aussie football, screw poker.

Here is a list (partial I'm sure) of things that have ruined SC, if not the whole network.

I was hoping for more programming that pissed off you fellas.

For me... Soccer, Nascar, womens sports not named beach volleyball, all come to mind.

Steve, that was by far one of the best ESPN rants I have ever heard. And I'll second that notion on women's volleyball....its the only sport I'm aware women participate in.

WolverineSteve wrote:Putting ESPN employees on the "Bud Hot Seat"- This is just plain lazy. How many ways can you package your own windbags into show segments. Don't they already cut away for bits from the NBA,NFL,NHL,MLB guys throughout the show? The Hot Seat is for people who play, coach, or own teams. Nobody wants to hear Shaun Salsbury blow himself in yet another forum. Put an athlete on there and ask him some tough questions....Hot Seat...get it?!

Rack. Made me laugh. Salisbury had one of the most umremberable careers in the NFL yet he walks and talks as if he was the Tiger Woods of his day. I'm even an Oilers fan and I always hated his benchwarming ass.

WolverineSteve wrote:Sports writers as experts

Thanks for your expert opinion, John Clayton. Tell me, did you even play rocket football? A game of two hand touch in your parents' backyard even?

SC has become unwatchable. If I want to catch some scores and highlights I'll flip it to ESPNNEWS. But even most its anchors are becoming pretty tiresome.

For the love of god, stop trying to throw humor into your highlights. You're either born funny or you're not. That simple. Stop trying to force the funnay. It just becomes awkward.

About the only one I can stand is that Bill Pidto guy, because his style is pretty laid back. Basically, you've done a good job if you are hardly remembered.

Oh I love it when Salisbury bullies Clayton. Clayton is the atypical DORK who spent his entire junior high career with his underwear hoisted onto a coat hook. He's the only one in the class Salisbury could beat up and he did so over and over.

Salisbury is Chrissy Everett. Big man around pussies (see Jim Rome) but a big pussy around men (see NFL career).

Yeah his career was a joke, but at least Salisbury's got some experience to draw from. I don't understand why I'm supposed to take everything Clayton says as concrete fact just because he hangs around mini camps and gets the "inside scoop." As long as he's just sticking to player contracts and trade talk, I'm okay with the guy. Please don't tell me what YOU think teams need to do to get better.

By no means do I think Clayton knows jack shit about Xs and Os. I just can't stand Salisbury. He's a fucking never-was blowhard who thinks he was God.

Almost all of the writers turned tv personalities suck. Broads in the booth and on these opinion shows...gimme a break. I don't mind Linda Cohen, she's old school. But aside from her, anchor spots should be dudes. Women can do the odd on-site report, I really don't give a shit about those anyway. Chick sideline reporters...who needs 'em? If I want to see broads talk about shit they know nothing of I'll catch the View.

I want to bohn Linda Cohn.

One of the best gameday signs ever.

SC took it's turn for the worse when they released that book "The Big Show" in the mid to late '90's. Olberman and Patrick, working together, was the zenith of that show. No one can forget Berman (before he went Vitale on himself) and Charlie Steiner laughing his ass off during the middle of a teleast. But those two along with Kilborn, Mayne, etc. were the 90's version of SNL. They were the Sandler-Farley crew. Took the show to a new level (and fuck any of you old mother fuckers that say the early SNL's were better. They weren't, case closed), only to have it drop of a precipice when they left.

The end started to come with anchors like Larry Beal. Only thing he was useful for was to provide fodder for the stronger anchors. Once they all left, it led us to Stewart Scott. No one was there to keep him in check. Now we're left with his catch phrases that last longer than the plays. Honestly, the "And Boom goes the Dynamite" guy is easier to listen too. And I know who he's looking at when he looks in the screen.

As far as their "experts" go, give me a fucking break. Eric Young is taking the place of touchie-feely Harold Reynolds. That bitch should have taken one for the team so we still had him on baseball tonight.

The best thing that has come from ESPN in the last 10 years doesn't even have anything to do with the show, just with an anchor. You're with me, leather.

Great take Steve. I agree w/ everyone. SC has become a joke. They barely show highlights anymore. They are too busy having their talking heads breaking down who is going to the Super Bowl in April and constantly debating topics like "How good w/ Dice-K be when is career is over?"

ESPN loves to hear themselves talk. They must interview 6-7 of their own employees every episode. NO ONE GIVES A FUCK WHAT YOU THINK Salsbury, Steve Phillips, Jon Kruk, etc.

The other day they were giving updates on "Dancing w/ the Stars" like anyone who is watching SC gives a fuck. What a shameless plug for a show on your sister station.

I'll never forget that ESPN not-so-subtly accused ND of racism in connection with the firing of Willingham. Except for coverage of actual games, I'm pretty sure I haven't tuned into ESPN since that time.

Killian:

I remember that book. I loved that book, but you're right. It all happened around that time... My opinion: When all of the news stations, etc... started taking anchors from the SPORTS stations, it revealed two things...

1) Just how few great anchors there are, for ANYthing.
2) Just how GOOD those Sportscenter guys were.

Patrick is still the best thing that ESPN's got going for them... Olbermann should have never left, but he did, and he's all "big time" on MSNBC or whatever. I love when he comes back for the reunion stuff though. You can tell that he misses the Hell out of it, and that, after immersing himself in it for just a couple of weeks, he'd be as good as ever again. Kilborn was great too. He was a non-self-aware Kenny Mayne. (That's a slam on Kenny, not Kilborn... Kilborn was my favorite SC anchor of all time.) He was funny, had a TON of great catch phrases, and made sure that the show was still about the show and not about him.

Also, when they stopped doing really good "This Is Sportscenter" commercials.

Ah... the days.

the_ouskull

The early SNLs were way better.

FSN's Final Score > SportsCenter

Goober McTuber wrote:The early SNLs were way better.

Both were great in their own way. Comparing the two great eras of SNL is like comparing eras in sports. Just different and great in their own way.

Why does there always have to be a "best"???

IndyFrisco wrote:

Goober McTuber wrote:The early SNLs were way better.

Both were great in their own way. Comparing the two great eras of SNL is like comparing eras in sports. Just different and great in their own way.

Why does there always have to be a "best"???

So you’re not in favor of a college football playoff then?

haha. nice spin.

I was referring to best of this era vs. best of another era. Comparing the CFB playoff champ of today (if there was one) vs. the CFB playoff champ of 20 years from now is pointless...except for off-season fodder I guess.