So, Is ESPN Sports Or Entertainment?

"They-they have a good run. Uh, they run the ball with power and ease"

When ESPN started getting bad, I think I can almost pinpoint the moment it happened. I remember the day when I was still in middle school, faking sick for the umpteenth time. They had Sportscenter on all day back then, with the usual teams of Scott/Cohen-Patrick/Mayne-Eisen/Mayne-Scott/Patrick, etc. First, they started to add music to the highlights, which I noticed instantly. After that, the clips for games seemed to be getting smaller and smaller; some got to the point where the clips were about 5 seconds long with just the score as the box score. Later on, however, it all came crashing down.

They just kept coming up with more and more crap. "Hey, we need to tap that Morning Wake-up show market! How about something sports related in the morning!?!?" Hense we are left with "Cold Pizza'', which is more of a car-wreck than a watchable show. Did you ever wonder where Tony Gonzalez relaxes after a football game? Neither did I. Did you ever think to youself "Damn, I wish I knew how to make a delicious angus burger!" WELL! They'll just get Vikings DT John Randle to show you how to use a BBQ!! This clash of sports and fluff was only the beginning. Thankfully, they've gone back to Sportscenter on ESPN while ESPN2 gets the crap.
Next was reality shows. Wanna be an ESPN journalist? YOU GOTTA MAKE IT THROUGH THE GAUNTLET, BROTHA! Just like real life! How about teams of nobodies that compete in obsticles all around the country with the chance to win another dumb prize? GO BEAT AVERY JOHNSON IN HORSE AND WE'LL TALK!

If only it stopped there. Now ESPN is filled with nothing but round-table discussions, fan polls, Stuart Scott poem pieces (I believe one of the circles of hell), and hours upon hours of bad announcing. When Scott Van Pelt is the lone source of sanity, you have a problem. Now it's all about some dumb catch phrase some noob can throw out there every time Dirk hits a three, or LT runs for a touchdown.

Is it any surprise that ESPN has three of the top ten worst announcers in sports? Joe Morgan can't put together a coherant sentence together "consistently" (Shouts out to FireJoeMorgan.com), Skip Bayless may just be insane and a baby-eater, and Emmitt Smith needs to be fired-now. Lets go to Awful-announcing.com for this piece on Emmitt:

Yea...it's sad. One could even make the case that either Stuart Scott, Steve Young, Chris Berman, Keyshawn, or Tony Kornheiser could be in this group. I for one, am set on the group of Skip, Morgan, Buck, McCarver, Emmitt, Tony Gwynn, Michael Kay, Suzyn Waldmun, Statboy, and Bryant Gumbel are the worst personalities in the sports world media wise. I'm flexable on the last two, but the first eight are set in stone.

What was once a sports network that made sports entertainment has turned into an entertainment network with sport leanings. The typical ESPN schedule:

Sportscenter until 2 pm
Best of Mike and Mike in the morning (Radio? On TV?! BRILLIANT!)
1st and 10 repeat
Outside the lines
College Football Live
NFL Live
Jim Rome is Burning
Around the Horn
Pardon the Interruption
Sportscenter
Hopefully an actual game
Sportscenter
NFL Live
NFL Live
Sportscenter until 2 the next day

It may not look that bad written down, but since ESPN is owned by Disney, which also owns ABC, we're subjected to countless ABC sitcom tie-ins, plugs, and "stars" in the booth for MNF for scrapy movies or new shows on ABC. Also, ESPN has become way too interested in involving the public on every little discussion. It always sickens me to see the newest fan poll ("Who will win the Cowboys, Patriots game?!" witht the state-by-state break down) and the garbage quotes on their website, called the "Featured Comments", where some fan gives us such insight as "The Patriots are unstoppable!" or "Weis should be fired!".

Unfortunately, FOX Sports is so off the radar that I can't even get it on my cable package. Does anyone watch "Best Damn Sports Show, Period"? I haven't heard of one person even appearing on this show, let alone anyone talking about it the next day at school or work. We need a real Sports station, so the sane portion of America doesn't have to keep going to ESPN for it's New England bias-spin on sports. We can only go to Deadspin, FireJoeMorgan, AwfulAnnouncing, and NoMaas for so long.