Dave Sez

ESPN has been going downhill fast ever since Disney bought them. The success of Olberman and Patrick (which was well deserved) brought on a slew of pathetically bad imitations. Add to that all the game shows, Stephen A. Smith, Trev Alberts (so bad that replacing him with Lou Holtz was an upgrade), and all the product endorsements. It's so nauseatingly bad that I can't remember the last time I watched (looked forward to!) Sportscenter. It might have been in the 90s!

Oh yeah one more: Hank Williams Jr. and all the other "musical intros" they had on MNF. Technically ABC, but the same entity ruining a sports product.

And they merged one of my favorite shows, (product placement) Monday Night Matchup into the rest of the NFL pregame show, which meant I had to watch all of the crappy preview to get to the good parts. So I stopped.

Is a sports channel that doesn't suck too much to ask?

Lee J. Cockrell wrote:

Is a sports channel that doesn't suck too much to ask?

Evidently. It's amazing how universal the antipathy is toward ESPN. I'm guessing they just ignore all the hate because they know that there is no real competition.

I miss the days when CNN still had their show with Nick Charles and Fred Hickman. That was a great show that had me flipping back and forth with SportsCenter - and that was in SC's heyday!

With all the damn scrawls, constant self-promotion, inane talking heads and product placement, I basically watch as little ESPN as possible now. If it's not showing a live game that I care about, I'm probably not watching. Way back in the day, before ESPN turned them all into celebrities, The Sports Reporters was a great show. Now it's completely unwatchable.

Dave,
I've been thinking about forming a one man attack on ESPN for quite a while. They're to be attacked as the MSM has been attacked by the political bloggers. And we should all hat tip each other about those attacks -- technical, substantive and editorial.

We should also push each other to provide better content on-line.

Thoughts or suggestions about that?

Birkel of the ACC Basketblog

E-mail me your thoughts.

birkelc at juno dot com

Birkel wrote:

Dave, I've been thinking about forming a one man attack on ESPN for quite a while. They're to be attacked as the MSM has been attacked by the political bloggers. And we should all hat tip each other about those attacks -- technical, substantive and editorial. We should also push each other to provide better content on-line. Thoughts or suggestions about that? Birkel of the ACC Basketblog

I think right now, short of a major new network rising up to challenge them, the best thing we can all do is continue to blog and read other blogs. I know that I almost never go directly to espn.com or any other traditional media website directly anymore. If I go there at all, it's usually because I followed a link from a blog. Blogs serve as de-facto ombudsmen by immediately pointing out the flaws of the MSM and more importantly, offering better content. Obviously, most blogs don't really offer better content, but many do. Guys (and gals, I'm sure) who write their own sites very often have better insight, better writing ability and a much better sense of humor than the folks who are getting paid. And the professionals who truly are good, and there are plenty, benefit from added publicity gained by blog links.

Just today I ventured over to everydayshouldbesaturday.com (http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com) for the first time in a while, and that site's fantastic. The guy who writes it (and calls himself Orson Swindle) is extremely knowledgeable and funny. It's a rare combo and I had more fun reading his site today than I ever have at espn.com, outside of Bill Simmons' best work.

All that said, I truly wish I had the time to make my site better. I have so many ideas, but so little gets implemented. I probably write about a quarter of the articles I plot out in my head. Fortunately there are many others who do seem to find the time. While ESPN may suck now, I still have places to get my sports fix.

I do love their poker coverage. Norman Chad is phenomenal, and has been since I first heard of him (NFL betting column in The Washington Post as "The Man").

I can't even watch SportsCenter anymore. But ESPN Radio is still mostly solid (Cowherd and Kuselias, especially).

I'm not sure I fit the normal ESPN demographic, but I have gotten weary of them, too, although maybe for different reasons. Maybe I've just gotten older, but the only things I really like about the network are some live games and PTI sometimes. Even the Sportscenter commercials are not as good as they used to be. Isn't it supposed to be a sports network, though? Card games? Darts? All nice, but no more sports than contract bridge or horseshoes. I watched a lot of the Tour de France on OLN, which is set to change to Versus in a couple of months. They carry some tennis and some other things. Maybe there is some hope there.