The Rant seems to have a problem with ESPN and I can totally agree with some of his points. Read the full story after the jump.
My Problem With ESPN
I first started watching the
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) way back in 2002. I
remember channel surfing, looking for something to watch and I stumbled across
it when I saw a glimpse of an NBA highlight. ESPN soon became my favorite channel.
I would wake up every Saturday morning, lay in bed and watch SportsCenter for
hours at a time. I would catch the radio shows that were featured on Tv every
morning before school. I thought it was the best thing in the world.
Now I can't stand it.
What happened? I noticed that real
news turned into speculation. I noticed that ESPN would spend several months at
a time on topics that were NOT newsworthy. They would dedicate their entire
programs to irrelevant players or to players that just flat out sucked. Look, I
understand everything is about ratings. High ratings bring in sponsorships and
sponsorships bring in money. But ESPN is just downright unwatchable these days.
1) ESPN's decline (from my perception) started during Brett
Favre's retirement drama. Every offseason for about 3 straight years he
would waffle between retiring and coming back to play. He was a big name back
then, I get it. But what I will never understand is why ESPN reporters had to
camp out on Favre's front lawn, waiting for him to come out to give them an
answer. That is just ridiculous to me. You have to beat out the competition,
fine. Why don't you just have them call you when he's ready to give you his
decision?
2) I remember during the summer of 2010, about a year
after the Favre drama ended, the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl (in
2010, but it was the 2009 season) and my Los Angeles Lakers won their 2nd
consecutive NBA title. Who had ESPN's attention? Normally it would've been
those two teams. But ESPN couldn't stop talking about LeBron's Free Agency
decision. I understand LeBron is the best player in the league but ESPN
speculated that ENTIRE SEASON on where he was going to go. It was a major
distraction for him and I felt like it was disrespectful to shrug off the
champions for that year. The next summer (2011), when he lost against the
Dallas Mavericks, ESPN almost gave them no credit for winning their 1st ever
NBA championship and spent most of that summer talking about LeBron's legacy
(at the time).
3) I remember the Tim Tebow "era" when he
was a Denver Bronco (2009-12). He was a high profile QB from Florida who was a
devoted Christian and was very outspoken about it. I respect him because he
isn't ashamed of his faith. I don't respect his skills as a quarterback. He is
THE WORST NFL quarterback I have ever seen and yet ESPN (mainly Stephen A.
Smith and Skip Bayless) spent all day, everyday talking about him, his faith,
how he's winning games, is God a Broncos fan?, is it all a fluke?, ENOUGH. The
worst of it when the Broncos kept stringing together come-from-behind wins
against good teams. ESPN barely gave credit to the defense and praised Tebow
for the wins. More times than not Tebow was GARBAGE for the 1st 55 minutes of
the game before he somehow dramatically became Tom Brady in the last 5 minutes.
If it wasn't for the defense, Denver would not have been in those games to
begin with. When Tebow was traded to the New York Jets in the 2012 offseason, I
remember ESPN camped out at the Jets training camp.. even though the crosstown
rivals, New York Giants, had won the Super Bowl a month before Tebow was
traded.
4) And now its Michael Sam. Look, Im not
homophobic and I have no issue with him being gay (if you have an issue, fine..
just keep reading). I just have a problem with ESPN promoting the gay
stereotype. All Michael Sam has asked for is to be judged as a football player
and by what he does on the field. I respect him for this because he doesn't
want the distraction and wants to be treated the same. But ESPN did the COMPLETE
OPPOSITE during the weekend. While everyone was waiting to see if he would get
drafted or not, ESPN's Shelley Smith tweeted these pictures..
This is what I mean by
stereotypical behavior. I get he's popular in the LBGT community. But Michael
Sam's fanbase isn't all just gay people. Im pretty sure for certain that he has
fans who are straight (I'll be a fan because he's actually a good dude).
Shelley Smith could've done her research and gone to a restaurant in a town
where being gay isn't a big deal to prove her point. Her pictures enforce the
stereotype that people who are gay dress up in different colors and wear
makeup. In fact, people who are gay sometimes blend into the crowd so well that
you cant even tell unless you ask them straight up. Also, what has been
forgotten is that he was a SEVENTH ROUND PICK. He had a horrible combine
and is small for his position. I hear he's a hard worker and can prove that the
combine was a fluke but he's being talked about more than #1 overall pick,
Jadeveon Clowney or high-profile QB Johnny Manziel. I have a feeling that
ESPN is going to play the discrimination card if the St. Louis Rams decide to
cut him this offseason because they feel like he isn't good enough (hypothetically,
like all other draft picks I hope he makes the squad).
Well those are MY issues
with ESPN. There are others such as the Donald Sterling saga, LeBron
(continued), soon-to-be Kevin Durant (when he's the face of the league),
the NBA Countdown Crew, Magic Johnson's analysis (he's
"Captain Obvious"), the NBA commentating (mainly Jeff Van
Gundy), former NBA coach George Karl listing his top 5 favorite rappers and many others. But the 4 I listed above were my
biggest issues. The only times I watch ESPN on Tv is when an NFL/NBA draft/game
is on (I watch on mute) or if it's a 30-for-30. ESPN radio (depends on the
city) and online isn't so bad but on Tv it's horrible. Hopefully they will go
back to covering REAL news instead of non-stop speculation and bad analysis.
Thanks for reading!
Twitter: @the_rANT_
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