ESPN -- Stop Being So "Hip"!

Precisely why I cannot watch anything on ESPN other than actual sporting events. The anchors/interviewers all think they're more important than the event/player they're covering.

And "hip/slang" type language bugs the hell out of me anyway.

Admittedly, I only see ESPN (or any sports stuff) when someone else turns it on but I find it funny that their style has been stolen but every other sports commentator on TV. It seems like every one of those guys thinks that they're doing comedy instead of reporting on a game.

You don't hear the meteorologist saying "Booyah! Rain tommorow!" or "Like Nelly says 'It's gettin hot in here' tomorrow"

Someone elsewhere said it best...ESPN is to sports what MTV is to music.

They made fun of this on SNL years ago when Ray Romano hosted. I never watch sports coverage, only the games themselves, so I had no idea they were actually like this.

Yeah, ESPN needs to cut out the BS. The only thing I can stand to watch on the network is PTI.

As for Kobe, with that team he's on, I don't mind if he keeps shooting. What other chance do they have? Besides, if he was really such a bad guy, wouldn't be have stayed in that Dallas came back in December when he had 62 after 3 quarters? If Jordan had poured in 81, we'd all be falling over ourselves to celebrate the achievement. I'm not a Kobe fan by any means and I despise the Lakers, but the hatred of Kobe is going way too far.

I kind of agree with you...but, c'mon...the second best scoring performance in the history of the game. Seems like pretty big news to me. Now, if either of the NFL conference championship games had been interesting, you may have an argument.

As for the ESPN style...that's why I gave up on Sportscenter 10 years ago. The only thing I still watch regularly besides the games is College Gameday.

"But in my book, you gotta get to Whitecastle before the weirdos show up! Tonight at the Alamodome, he gets Happy-Go-Jackie on the big white guy like a donkey eating a waffle! Sweet Sassy Molassey! Get out the checkbook and pay grandma for the rubdown!"

I think of that skit everytime I watch Sportscenter.

I watch SC every morning and agree. There is too much BS. I just want them to report the highlights/scores as is without hype.

Stuart Scott is awful. He needs to move on from ESPN. Plus, his lazy eye creepy.

I enjoy listening to Linda Cohn reporting the news.

Just like end zone celebrations, a little is amusing, too much is obnoxious. I like a little humor and enthusiasm with my highlights, but I agree it can get annoying. The fake laughing, buddy-buddy, fake goofing on each other on the network nfl pregame shows bothers me more than anything on SC. Give me more Ron Jaworski breaking down film!

Amen!

"Penguins goalie says 'Hey, don't shoot that puck in my pooper' and check out this guy on the Bruins. he says, 'I'll shoot that puck anywhere I want and if that happens to be in your pooper than so be it'"

Doug Miller,

I can understand your concerns but that's why I love Mike & Mike in the Morning (which recently switched from ESPNews to ESPN2). The bantering between the "odd couple" pairing of Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic is definitely lots of fun, especially during the football season.

Chris Berman's nicknames for players really get on my nerves. If I hear "Daylight come, you gotta Delhomme" one more time...

Also, they need to stop playing that annnoying "I Love You Too, Here's to Football" song they play with the NFL highlights. Coors Light stopped using that marketing campaign years ago.

Amen. Someone tell Kenny Mayne and the rest of his ilk, they are the equivalent of computer nerds in sports. They are not funny, their droll ultra-glib delivery is not entertaining in the least.

And I agree, its not just Stuart Scott, its all of em. Berman is not original anymore, he is redundant, unoriginal and lame. His riffs and nicknames are mostly so excruiating stupid, I can't imagine anyone laughing at them after the first 18 times he says them.

I wish I could remember the one that kept bugging me. It was like the guy's name was Hoover and Boomer would say Hoover vacuums his way down the field....as if that made sense to anyone. I mean c'mon, that is 10th grade humor and he is full of them.

Ok rant off. I do enjoy primetime because they go through all the games and there is no alternative.

Stuart's eye, and Carlin's last HBO special, are the two times I've regretted moving to HDTV.

I can't believe you guys like Mike and Mike. They've gotten better, but they are pretty awful, imo. Golic is just painful to listen to. He can't put a coherent sentence together. I was hoping their extended holiday break would be permanent. Mark Schlereth and Eric Casilias (sp?) were hands down much better. Mike and Mike do get great guests though.

Thank good for picture in picture, only look at the scores running across the bottom.. Don't have to listen to them at all....... Painful...

I agree with who ever said ESPN is to sports as MTV is to music.......

R~

SportsCenter hasn't been the same since the Olbermann/Patrick days. While they could be amusing, they were still very professional about their job. The guys since just don't do it for me.

Jason

Charlie Campisi, you wrote:



But that's half the charm of the show! Golic comes of more of a "regular guy" that way compared to the polished sounding Greenberg.

You call it charm. I wish for a ff tivo button on my car radio everytime he opens his mouth! It's the worst when he is interviewing a guest. There is a slight delay as the guest tries to understand what Golic just asked and then figure out how to answer him. Ugh.

I also have a big problem with many of their opinions. I suppose it's good that they express them. I just find them to be wrong sometimes. The initial criticism of Canseco when the book came out comes to mind. Canseco was entitled to no credit, but he also could have been right, but they refused to get past the former. Recently, they spent a whole Monday show talking about how fans could not question Palomalu's interception that was reversed because "the official got the call right." They said any complaints should be with the rule which said it was not a catch. They were dead freaking wrong. I find myself disagreeing with much of what they say, as opposed to Schlereth when he is in there.

I've given up on ESPN other than watching the sports event and college gameday for football.

I love PTI and absolutely hate the SportsCenter "interruption" at 6:00. Obviously, SportsCenter is not strong enough on its own to grab the audience -- as we've been discussing here -- so must drap the PTI fans along with them.

But I tape PTI due to my schedule. My tape time is 40 minutes instead of 30. If some breaking story hits though, the PTI segment is pushed back beyond my set time. Yep, still using the VCR.

It also seems counter to the sense of PTI. The timer and rundown makes sense in a fixed time, but falls off when the show's end isn't really the end.

Please give me back my PTI!

Travis this quote just made me crack up. Part of me wishes they'd do this for one day just so I could laugh.


Booyah...rain tomorrow .. wow .. priceless

And oh btw agreed about ESPN needing to relax ..

And Kobe's a ball hog b/c his team is garbage. They won the game, so I'm not gonna hate on them...

and PTI - GREAT programming. (ATH isn't bad either)

Weather is actually done that way here in Oklahoma.

Ha, I do the same thing with PTI since I often end up missing parts of it. Just stuck it on the Tivo and solved that problem, except I had to add 15 minutes and as you said that's sometimes not enough.

Sad that SC needs to be carried by PTI (which is clearly already carrying ATHorn just before it).


She and Fred Hickman = classic SC and exactly how it's done. Also Dan Patrick. Pretty much anyone else is terrible now.

SC is like the sequel version. They kept 1 or 2 of the original stars in bit parts or cameos, they brought in the younger "hipper" stars, and then they totally missed what drew in the original audiences and latched onto some lame gimmick aspect that got the attention but really wasn't the substance that kept viewers coming back.

Like Jaws or Rocky where you keep the shark or the big boxing match, but lose all the great character development and interaction which is what actually made the film great. People like Jaws for the "scar comparison/USS Indy story" scene, not for the shark. The shark is great, but only when placed in the context of all the deeper writing going on around it.

And that's SC, which is why Cohn is still funny without sounding like she wants to be on Pimp My Ride or MTV Cribs.


Berman's nicknames have always sucked. Just saying something that the name kinda sounds like? That's not a nickname. How about nicknames that actually sound like maybe you've see the guy play.

Which is better - Lou "Diamond Phillips" Gehrig or Lou "Iron Horse" Gehrig?


The guy on CNBC's Mad Money uses Booyah as part of his schtick.

The difference is that he is actually funny and entertaining.

Seth,

I think Mike Greenberg actually has two different on-air personalities at ESPN. If you seen him on Mike & Mike in the Morning, he banters back and forth between him and Mike Golic in almost a "schtick" style; however, when Greenberg is co-host of the 1800 hours (ET) Sportscenter he tends to be more in the Fred Hickman/Linda Cohn mode, reporting the news pretty seriously without any "schtick."

I can't stand it either this hiphop sports news cast with all the slang. They cater to who they think their audience is.

I'd like to chime in my two cents. Are all of you out of your mind? ESPN covers sports and sports only 24/7. Who cares if they use hip lingo to do it. Look at Fox Sports Net and "The Worst Damn Sports Show Period". That show rarely, if ever even covers actual sports. ESPN almost has TOO MUCH coverage of the many sports topics at hand. Don't blow the lingo angle out of proportion here.