|
What happened to the sports? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Written by asap
|
|
Thursday, 06 July 2006 |
|
|
|
|
 Imagine you’ve just come home from a long day of riding the cubicle. All you want to do is unwind with a frosty beverage, a tasty snack and some sports television.
In this era of ubiquitous media, your choices are vast. If you have cable or satellite television, you can watch the hometown team from anywhere in the world. Entire television networks are devoted to your sport of choice.
Like college sports? Order CSTV.
Football? NFL network won’t let you down.
Golf? The Golf Channel is a click away.
Curling? Well... maybe in Canada.
I know what you are thinking: Isn’t he leaving out the most obvious sports channel? What about ESPN, the giant that seems to control all we hear and see related to the world of sports?
I must have forgotten about them, right?
WRONG.
Other than its broadcast coverage of professional sporting events -- World Series of Poker, World’s Strongest Man, and bass fishing not withstanding -- ESPN has become repetitive, bland and irrelevant. It no longer focuses on the wealth of games, replays and brief insightful commentary that were its calling cards throughout the 1990s.
PARDON MY YAMMERING
ESPN is now beleaguered by shows with a Crossfire-like, talking heads format. Shows like “Pardon the Interruption” and “Around the Horn” feature sports journalists relentlessly bickering about the highjinks of the sports world, such as Matt Leinart’s relationship with Paris Hilton.
Often they are centered on so-called debates fraught with unanswerable questions like: “Is LeBron the next Jordan?” or “Is Tiger Woods the greatest golfer ever?” In “Horn,” the host awards points to the panel based on whose opinion he agrees with. This format, more verbal pingpong than intelligent sports commentary, has mired a once-proud sports network in sensationalist redundancy.
Even the crown jewel of ESPN, “SportsCenter,” has become a hodgepodge of overblown reporting and unnecessary statistical comparisons. A few highlights are followed by several minutes of superfluous conversation. The relentless coverage of Terrell Owens over the past two years, which focused on his personal dramas rather than his play, is an example of this. At one point in the summer of 2005, the broadcast featured more clips of Owens doing sit-ups on his lawn than playing football.
For years during the 1990s ESPN was considered the standard in sports television, delivering cutting-edge commentary, sports events and recaps on “SportsCenter.” So what has changed from the glory days of Craig Kilborn and Keith Olbermann?
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SPORTS?
In 2002, former ESPN producer Robert Weintraub wrote in Slate: “Like another cable giant, MTV, ESPN seems to have forgotten its original mandate. ... (Now) ESPN is far more interested in showing you people talking about sports rather than the sports. ... The network has become the Worldwide Leader in Hot Air.”
Four years later, ESPN continues this shameful tradition by subjecting viewers to a litany of “original” shows that are big on talk and small on sports broadcasting.
Perhaps the influx of these programs can be attributed to the suits at ABC/Disney who bring over major-network style programming formulas. ESPN2’s “Cold Pizza” is a sports-focused replication of ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Other copycats include: “Dream Job” (“America Idol”), “Bonds on Bonds/Knight School” (reality TV), “The Sports Reporters” (“Meet the Press”), “Stump the Schwab” (game show), “Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith” (late night TV, minus the comedy) and “Outside the Lines” (a sports-focused news magazine).
Executives green-light these shows because the format has been successful at attracting viewers. “The ratings for shows like Around the Horn are through the roof,” says Washington Post sports columnist Mike Wise. “As disturbing as arguing abortion rights as sports is, (ESPN) caught that wave and it gets the ratings.”
When asked about the changes in cable sports broadcasting, George Michael, host of NBC’s “The George Michael Sports Machine,” emphasized survival tactics. “The way you report the highlights has become more important than the highlights themselves. To survive on TV you have to do more than just give the score. In this business, if you just give results you are going to die.”
For fear of proverbial “death,” ESPN has sold its soul to the three-piece-suit-wearing devil. The price of this sale is the quality sports television that used to be the standard.
So, to all of you true sports-loving cubicle jockeys, exercise your right to choose. Don’t worry about who is dating Paris Hilton, or how many sit-ups T.O. can do. Change the channel and enjoy watching your team play.
———
asap contributor Dan Simon is a freelance writer based in Washington.
———
Want to comment? Sound off at mailto:soundoffasapap.org. | Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. |
|
|  | "Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only truth." | |
|  | We're not that bright, even though in our own little world, we're geniuses. We like 80s hair bands and one-hit wonders, but among us we have respectable tastes, too. Metallica, Iron Maiden, U2. Pursuit of all things trivial is a lifestyle, not just a game. We like some sports, love other sports, and can find something to say about anything. We watch TV and movies and we've read a book or two, even a few classics (Yes, Classic Comics count!)
We call it insight, you call it what you will. | |
|  | Felix Wong is an outdoor enthusiast living in Fort Collins. A mechanical engineer by day, he is especially passionate about bicycling, running, and backpacking. | |
|  | Hola Amigos! I'm Sandra. I like to believe that people are 70 percent good and 30 percent dumb. I'm stickin to that story. Reading this blog might make you want to be good, but probably just dumb. | |
|  | Donovan Henderson is editor of NEXTnc. | |
|  | Here at Nextnc we have some characters. Get a sneak peak behind the curtain and find out what amusing antics our staffers get themselves into on a weekly basis. | |
|  | What is up FoCo?
I am a recent college graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead. After recieving my B.A. in English and Mass Communications this past August I moved down to Colorado.
I enjoy long walks on the beach, candlelight dinners, and heavy metal. My hobbies include reading and writing, music, movies, and getting drunk. Some of my favorite contemporary authors include Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, and Kurt Vonnegut. My top movies are anything directed by Kubrick. I enjoy listening to anything that rocks.
Right now I am just trying to get to know Colorado and FoCo better. Mostly in order to find the best drink specials on each day that ends in Y. So if you know where I can get a cheap drunk on, let me know!
--Drew | |
|  | Life's little morsels of inspiration, observation and encouragement seen through the eyes of the Nextnc reporter.
| |
|  | Ms. Giles currently lives in Colorado where she stars in her own private reality show. She writes aphoristic accounts of her life, taken completely out of context, and embellished with characters and situations disguised to resemble something close to interesting. | |
|  | over and out | |
| | My name is Michelle Turley and I'm 28 years old. I live in Severance with my hubbie, Brandon. We have 2 dogs and a cat. We enjoy camping, four-wheeling, and just being in the mountains. I like to cook, clean (go figure), flea market, and play poker. I have so much to say about poker... | |
|
|
| |
