ESPN -- Stop Being So "Hip"! (1 Viewer)

[Jim_C]

Old thread but I'll chime in just in case some decision maker at ESPN ever reads it... me and a lot of my friends won't watch SC anymore because of the self-promotion and all the garbage that goes with it. You and your anchors are not the story, the sports you cover are. You seem to have forgotten that.

 

[Jason Seaver]

I wonder if this is dictated by local competition. A lot of regional sports networks have SportsCenter knockoffs that are more locally focused; I'll tend to check out NESN's SportsDesk first because I know it's going to go into detail on Red Sox, Celtics, etc. stuff. So ESPN plays up personalities and catchphrases because they have a hard time competing with the local stations.

 

[Doug Miller]

Wow! Way to revive the 3yr old thread!

I still love my "Kobe takes the ball, and drives the lane, someone call the cops then my momma because there's been a mugging out front! Booyah, slams the rock down like a dog biting the mailman! Let me holla at a playa cause your sista ain't home!" Alas, it's still relevant today as it was 3yrs ago.

I used to watch Sportscenter religiously, but now it's to a casual view at best. If I'm in a hotel I'll check it out before heading out to a meeting -- I actually like the synergy between Hannah Storm and that guy. In terms of daily though, not really. I will still watch Baseball Tonight, but only because I don't have MLB Network. If my cable company carried it, I wouldn't watch that either. I will still give the thumbs up to College Football Gameday. The trio has never gotten old for me and I still get a kick out of the mascot head before every game (and seeing the WSU Cougar flag flying before every game - Go Cougs!)

Doug

 

[Raasean Asaad]

I have found that ESPNews is what Sportenter used to be or at least as close as they can get, far less antics.

 

[Mark_B]

I don't watch ESPN at all anymore, except for the occasional game. I cannot stand the constant scroll of scores along the bottom. It used to be, only ESPN2 had the scroll. Now it is both stations, ALL the time. Not just twice an hour, but ALL the time. The Sunday night baseball, thank God, takes it off, but watch a game any other time and there it is. When watching a game for a team I want to see, I have attached Velcro to the sides of my set and have made a piece of cloth that runs along the bottom and blocks it all out. I use the same cloth for CBS football games because they do the same thing. I just don't understand why they feel we need to see ALL the scores ALL the time. It takes away so much from the enjoyment of the game.

 

[Hanson]

Well... it's important if you're a degenerate gambler. That's their demo!

 

[Mark_B]

You're exactly right. I wonder how many complaints they would get if they stopped? It reminds me of a bit I saw Seinfeld do where he talks about the scrolling stuff on news channels like msnbc or CNN. What do you watch? The talking head or the scrolling or the pop up message or the split screen. It was a funny bit because it was so on target. They make sports events look like video games where you need all that stuff to control your player. There is so much info displayed you can't watch the game.

 

[Brent M]

I vote to change the title of this thread to "ESPN -- stop talking about Brett Farve every f***ing second of the day"!!!

 

[Hanson]

I forgive ESPN for all their sins because they replaced Tony Kornheiser on MNF.

By god, the game is listenable again! I don't even care of Gruden just sits there mute.

I can't even watch PTI anymore. Kornheiser is a blathering idiot to me now.

The complaints would be legion, but I think ESPN's issue is that they don't want these people tuning out to track the scores online.

ESPN: Enabling degenerate gamblers to multi-task since 1979.

 

[Brent M]

To each their own. I find him and Wilbon to be very funny together and as I said before, PTI is the only thing on ESPN worth watching.

 

[Hanson]

I used to like PTI and actually didn't mind it when they first put Kornheiser in the MNF booth, but it took all of one quarter in game for me to realize it was a mistake. That led to a 3 year nightmare -- because I watched on delay and skipped through commercials, I couldn't even synch up to a radio broadcast. It was worse -- way worse -- than Dennis Miller. Kornheiser had no idea how football worked and when he wasn't saying dumb things to irritate Jaws (you could practically hear his eyes rolling), he was beating the stories du jour like the dead horses they were. Tirico could barely get his play by play in as Kornheiser insisted on discussing, say, Brett Favre for the umpteenth time.

Kornheiser was such a disruptive force in the booth, I can't stand to look at or listen to him anymore. He's dead to me now. I don't know much about other sports outside of football, but I suspect he doesn't know much about any other sport either. He's a poor humor writer who was labeled a sports writer because that's where he found his niche, but as an analyst, he's the absolute pits.

 

[Brent M]

Never watched him on MNF so I have no idea about his abilities(or lack thereof) as an analyst. I do, however, find him to be very quick witted and he & Wilbon play well off of each other on PTI.

As for labeling him a poor writer that may be your opinion, but it's very far from the truth. He was a successful columnist for decades before getting an opportunity on TV.

 

[Marty M]

IMO, the worst offender of all the BS is Chris Berman. He has to give a nickname for every sports person he talks about. He is trying to be exactly like Howard Cosell when he is describing a home run in baseball or a touchdown run in football. He drives me so crazy I turn the channel anytime he is on the air. PTI is the only show on ESPN I watch.

 

[Brent M]

Totally agree. I can't stand Chris Berman!!!

 

[Greg_R]

Completely and totally agree. I used to watch MNF every week (even when Dennis Miller was on) and had to stop... I could not stand hearing Tony blather on about things he knew nothing about. I really wish Ron J. would have completely shot him down a few times each game, that would have at least made things entertaining.

ESPN is going with a crazy new concept this year... have people in the booth who know what they are talking about!