I had to mention that ESPN’s piece on NBA players visiting the Great Wall of China failed to mention that the Washington Bullets were the first team to do so back in 1979, which was very significant at the time. If any other NBA team had been there, ESPN would have mentioned it. It’s a shame that they have forgotten the Washington Bullets.
Never been busier in my life but I felt I had to post this.
Today’s NFL Blitz on ESPN – they showed one highlight – that’s right, one highlight – from the Redskins – Rams game. Pathetic. What used to be the greatest highlight show of all time has completely jumped the shark. Go back to the old one-hour show in which you show highlights from all games.
Until a few years ago, NFL Primetime, an hour-long Sunday night highlight show of NFL action hosted by Chris Berman and Tom Jackson, was one of the greatest shows in TV history. Not sports history, TV history. They covered most games with a series of highlights over inspiring music, and they showed more than any other network. Now it’s done in bits and pieces. It feels like Berman and T.J. have been demoted. While Trent Dilfer is a nice addition, they only show a few games in depth, and today they actually showed just one highlight each from several games. It’s terrible.
The NBC show starts too early, so a lot of the games are still in progress, and the cast of characters act like deer in headlights, while Dan Patrick thinks he’s too smooth. The NFL Network is ok but it doesn’t have the music and it doesn’t have Berman and T.J. Plus the NFL Network is dominated by far too many Cowboys. Maybe ESPN isn’t allowed to do an hour long highlight show because of NBC or the NFL Network holding the rights, but either way, the Blitz is lacking.
Is Michael Wilbon going the way of Keith Olbermann? With his fame he has become progressively more arrogant on the air. Today on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, he told Tony Kornheiser, “How pathetic. A New Yorker slurping a five-year old Washington D.C. franchise? Pathetic.” Wait, what? Both Wilbon and Kornheiser have spent more than 30 years in D.C. and are constantly disassociating themselves from the city and talking about how they love their hometowns, Chicago and New York. But at what point do you become a Washingtonian? Kornheiser has spent more than half his sports fan life in D.C., because you don’t really become a fan until you’re at least around 7. Wilbon has spent about 30 of his 45 years as a sports fan in D.C. Wilbon, you have it wrong. Anyone can like the Yankees (i.e. fair weather fans). You get more respect when you root for a perennial loser rather than jumping on bandwagons. And all Kornheiser did was mention that it was the anniversary of Stephen Strasburg’s major league debut. It’s weird seeing Wilbon up there on NBA panels with experts like Jon Barry and Magic Johnson. Why isn’t Jalen Rose up there instead of Wilbon? He thinks the more you yell, the more accurate your opinions are. It’s a shame, because Wilbon and Kornheiser both used to be good writers. June 9, 2011 – Wilbon jumps the shark.
Tomorrow night at 9 on ESPN Michael Wilbon will be part of LeBron James’ hour-long special on where James will play. It’s a conflict of interest because Wilbon has campaigned for LeBron to go to Chicago or New York. Wilbon says LeBron doesn’t have a good chance to win titles in Cleveland, but that’s not true at all. He has just as good a chance there as anywhere else. The Cavs have won an average of 63 games the past two seasons and even if they have the same team as last year, they’d be the second best team in the east, with Orlando barely edging them out. LeBron’s best chance to win is in Cleveland and they’ll surely add another good free agent or two. They won’t have Shaq anymore – that will immediately make them better.
Another thing about Wilbon is he’s constantly talking about Chicago, where he lived more than 30 years ago. Who cares? The answer is nobody, outside of those in Chicago. Wilbon is a good writer, but I’d rather see the Post hire someone who isn’t constantly talking about where he lived as a kid. At least Mike Wise doesn’t constantly talk about Hawaii or New York where he worked previously. It’s bad enough we have to listen to Kornheiser constantly crowing about New York.
I’m not sure why ESPN had Jon Gruden hog so much coverage last night in the NFL draft. We hear enough of Gruden monday nights — this was supposed to be Mel Kiper Jr.’s day. ESPN blew it. They should’ve had Kiper doing a summary of each player right after they were picked. Who cares what Gruden thinks? Kiper is the draft guru.
I have to give kudos to ESPN for its coverage of the Australian Open. Chris Fowler, Patrick McEnroe, Brad Gilbert, Pam Shriver, Darren Cahill, and Cliff Drysdale all do an excellent job. Even Tom Rinaldi is there doing features.
Mary Carillo is a little annoying to me, but a lot of people like her. I’ve never liked Dick Enberg for tennis because he feels he has to constantly compare it to baseball or fooball — “like a pitcher changing speeds” or “like an outfielder looking up at the ball” — as if tennis is a completely foreign sport and people won’t understand it unless you make those comparisons.
But I’m nitpicking. They do the tournament great justice by doing their homework and conducting good interviews. It’s just too bad that the time difference precludes a lot of people from seeing the tennis.
We even got a shot of Chris McKendry in the crowd. I guess they’re getting her used to the sport and letting her do a few interviews. (By the way, years ago I watched McKendry on the local affiliate in Washington. I couldn’t believe she was on because she spoke so slowly, as if she were a kindergarten teacher. I didn’t think she knew sports either. Boy, was I wrong. She is great on ESPN. Absolutely great).
So Kornheiser and Wilbon can continue to mock every sport other than football, basketball and baseball by asking each other, “Do you care about this? Will you watch it?” “No.” I can’t wait to see them ridicule next month’s Olympics.
Ironically, Terrell Owens and Steve Smith of the NFL are both at the tournament. Owens is there to watch his friend Andy Roddick, and Smith of the Carolina Panthers was watching friend John Isner defeat Gael Monfils.
It’s funny, ESPN talks of great rivalries like Magic-Bird and Crosby-Ovechkin, but they never mention the great ones in tennis — Borg – McEnroe, Sampras – Agassi, or Federer – Nadal.
Anyway, great job, ESPN, on the coverage of the Australian.
So Vince Young is now 7-1 this year as a starting QB for the Tennessee Titans. He replaced Kerry Collins, who was 0-6 as a starter. Vince Young’s career record as a starter is 25-12. Oh, by the way, at Texas he won a national championship and was 30-2. He’s a winner. Yet after he took over and started winning for the Titans this year, ESPN’s Merril Hoge said that Titans RB Chris Johnson had to do more for his team than any other player in the league. Well, Johnson was playing when the Titans were 0-6.
A couple of weeks ago Hoge said he was going to “bury the hatchet.” Why the need to bury the hatchet if you didn’t have an axe to grind? Why not just be objective and unbiased? Why the animosity against Young? Earlier this year, Ron Jaworski, Trent Dilfer, Tim Hasselbeck, Mark Schlereth, Steve Young and other ESPN commentators talked about how Young was a bad QB and how he could only play outside the pocket. The disdain they had for him was apparent. They mocked him. But eight games is enough of a sample to realize that Young winning isn’t a fluke.
It’s true that Johnson is the best running back in the league, but it’s not as if Young has great receivers. Nate Washington, Justin Gage, and Kenny Britt aren’t bad, but DBs don’t especially fear them. Maybe Young has improved his ability to make decisions and work habits. But even before this season he was 18-11. He’s only in his fourth year, and he hardly played last year.
I think we have to raise the question: was the media biased against Young because he is black? Young isn’t the first black quarterback to be mocked by members of the white media. Michael Vick has a career record of 38-28-1 as a starter, but the criticism about his ability as a QB has been unrelenting. Take away the dogfighting controversy — that’s a separate issue. You would think that Vick can’t read a defense by listening to some of the comments about him. I have a pretty good idea that if a white quarterback was 25-12 or 38-28-1, he’d be getting a lot more praise. The standard is much higher for black quarterbacks.
At the same time, white quarterbacks are allowed to make mistakes. Look at Jay Cutler. Basically, if you had listened to the media reaction, Cutler was the second coming when he was traded from the Broncos to the Bears. He has a career record of 22-28. (He did have a winning record in high school, though). I suggested earlier this year that he be the first player ever to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame while still playing: 2009/11/12/should-jay-cutler-be-immediately-put-in-the-nfl-hall-of-fame/
Interestingly, in that same blog, I talked about the fact that the Cleveland Browns needed to give Joshua Cribbs more playing time including at QB. Cribbs was a QB in college and set all kinds of records at Kent State, but was never given the chance to be a QB in the NFL. He had two 100-yard kickoff returns for TDs today, and eight for his career — an NFL record. He also runs for six yards a carry. He also threw a perfect pass in the end zone that was dropped. I suggested that the Redskins trade for him earlier this year. Cribbs is clearly one of the 10 best players in the NFL.
Anyway, another possibility of why ESPN hated Young so much was because he had depression earlier in his career. Hoge and the others may have been discriminating against Young because of this. They may have equated depression with weakness. If someone has a concussion you don’t laugh at them for it.
Sorry, Hoge. Young has won more than twice as many games as he has lost. But I guess you don’t like winners.
I recently wrote a blog that said that sports analysis has overtaken news analysis in terms of objectivity and professionalism. Not so for ESPN’s Merril Hoge. He continues his hatred of Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young.
Today on NFL Countdown he said of Young: “It’s easy to play offense when this guy (Chris Johnson) is the guy you can give the ball to… Is there any running back that has to do more for his offense than Chris Johnson? No.” Then why is Young 3-0 this year and Kerry Collins was 0-6 with the same players? Why is Young 21-11 as a starter?
Now Hoge says that Patriots coach Bill Belichick made the right call last night by going for it on 4th and 2 from the Pats’ 28 yard line, up by 6 points, giving Peyton Manning a short field to win the game.
What a fool.
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