ESPN Is Pathetic

notmannysfault

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From the article above about Tim Kurkjian

His love, knowledge and writing skills for the game of baseball was -- and still is -- an admirable quality among peers and players alike.
They're trolling him right? Who wrote this sentence? About winning a lifetime achievement award in writing?

Who is this "Jesse Rogers" avatar? Is he real?
 

E5 Yaz

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From the article above about Tim Kurkjian



They're trolling him right? Who wrote this sentence? About winning a lifetime achievement award in writing?

Who is this "Jesse Rogers" avatar? Is he real?
I'm not sure of the point(s) you're trying to make here
 

cromulence

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I think his point is that it's a very poorly written sentence that happens to be about Kurkjian's writing skills.
 

notmannysfault

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I think his point is that it's a very poorly written sentence that happens to be about Kurkjian's writing skills.
This, yes.

I usually notice grammatical mistakes on tv and in writing but it seems like this guy blew a gasket trying to make the sentence work...I imagine him still seated, hunched over the typewriter with steam coming out of his ears, and he will remain so until the crew stops by his cubicle for regularly scheduled maintenance.

I can't imagine any writer allowing that combination of words to remain in any "piece" that is scheduled for publication. Sports or otherwise.

But it made me chuckle again because it was featured in an article about a writer being given the single highest honor in his specific field of work, and it was described with such...I don't know...disregard maybe (?)...for properly written language. But that's just how it hit me, personally, in real time.
 

soxhop411

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Humphrey

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Concerning Anthony Davis' injury on their site today:

"Davis suffered the injury in the third quarter of Friday's loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, when Wolves forward Jaden McDaniels lost his balance and tumbled into the knee."

Lebron pushed McDaniels out of the way, so hard that McDaniels stumbled back into Davis. Not intentional to hurt Davis of course, but preventable.

And Lebron was outraged that a foul was called on him.
 

soxhop411

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This isn’t a good look for ESPN
ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit doesn't think players love football as much as they did decades ago.

Herbstreit criticized players who opt out of bowl games during ESPN's "College GameDay" show on Saturday morning. The network's top analyst openly wondered why non-playoff bowl games were "meaningless" to players who opted to skip the games to prepare for their NFL careers and said he didn't think that expanding the College Football Playoff to include more teams and more games would prevent players on top teams from opting out of games in the future.

"Isn't that what we do as football players, we compete? I don't know if changing it, expanding it is going to change anything, I really don't," Herbstreit said. "I think this era of player just doesn't love football."
View: https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1477302609790869504

https://sports.yahoo.com/esp-ns-kirk-herbstreit-on-players-opting-out-of-bowl-games-i-think-this-era-of-player-just-doesnt-love-football-173929216.html
More a the link.
But yah. This is old man yells at cloud type stuff.

players have been opting out of bowl games for years, so I don’t know why they are complaining about this now. These players are protecting their future earnings, rather than play in some random bowl game that they could get injured in.
 
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Red(s)HawksFan

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Why isn’t it a good look? They air plenty more stupid takes than that one.
I think the "they don't care about football" part is the bad look. It's bullshit age-ism. The reason players seem to be opting out more is because there are more bowl games to opt out of in the first place. 10-15 years ago, the best player on the fourth best team in the MAC (or the sixth best team in the ACC or whatever) wasn't opting out of a bowl game because that team wasn't making a bowl game in the first place. Now they are, and players are wisely skipping out of utterly meaningless games because they don't want to do any harm to their draft status. Player value is increasing and the significance of a Bowl win is decreasing as they continue to add more games so more 6-6 teams can participate. It's fucking stupid.

I also think Herbstreit has it totally backwards on expanding the playoff. If there was a 16-team playoff and Ohio State and Utah were contending for a national title rather than playing the Rose Bowl for nothing but bragging rights, they wouldn't have any opt-outs.
 

kenneycb

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I think the "they don't care about football" part is the bad look. It's bullshit age-ism. The reason players seem to be opting out more is because there are more bowl games to opt out of in the first place. 10-15 years ago, the best player on the fourth best team in the MAC (or the sixth best team in the ACC or whatever) wasn't opting out of a bowl game because that team wasn't making a bowl game in the first place. Now they are, and players are wisely skipping out of utterly meaningless games because they don't want to do any harm to their draft status. Player value is increasing and the significance of a Bowl win is decreasing as they continue to add more games so more 6-6 teams can participate. It's fucking stupid.

I also think Herbstreit has it totally backwards on expanding the playoff. If there was a 16-team playoff and Ohio State and Utah were contending for a national title rather than playing the Rose Bowl for nothing but bragging rights, they wouldn't have any opt-outs.
But some of the kids dropping out are like 3rd / 4th round projections. I reject the notion that playing in a bowl game can only hurt a player’s status. If you’re a surefire 1st rounder, I’m all for dropping out given injury risk. If you’re not, the calculus IMO isn’t as cut and dry as you mention above as I believe a big game certainly can help. You have to balance that against injury risk but the margin between a 4th rounder and a 6th rounder typically isn’t that great to begin with.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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But some of the kids dropping out are like 3rd / 4th round projections. I reject the notion that playing in a bowl game can only hurt a player’s status. If you’re a surefire 1st rounder, I’m all for dropping out given injury risk. If you’re not, the calculus IMO isn’t as cut and dry as you mention above as I believe a big game certainly can help. You have to balance that against injury risk but the margin between a 4th rounder and a 6th rounder typically isn’t that great to begin with.
I'm not saying that some of the players opting out are doing it for rational reasons. But if for whatever reason they don't see a ton of benefit to hanging around campus for a few extra weeks of practice and a meaningless game if they have other priorities, I don't see that as something to get worked up over. If this were a once in a lifetime thing, that'd be different. A bowl game is no longer an exclusive thing for a precious few teams that were truly excellent all year. It's an extra game earned by simply being a hair better than mediocre.
 

soxhop411

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I'm not saying that some of the players opting out are doing it for rational reasons. But if for whatever reason they don't see a ton of benefit to hanging around campus for a few extra weeks of practice and a meaningless game if they have other priorities, I don't see that as something to get worked up over. If this were a once in a lifetime thing, that'd be different. A bowl game is no longer an exclusive thing for a precious few teams that were truly excellent all year. It's an extra game earned by simply being a hair better than mediocre.
Also. It’s disingenuous. Brian Kelly abandoned his team in the middle of a playoff race, because another college offered him more $$$ to be their head coach. That seems like someone who is entitled and not someone who actually cares about CFB. So if you (ESPN) are going to attack players for caring more about money then the game, you (ESPN) should also say that about college football coaches in the same breath/segment as this.

edited my post to clarify who I am talking about in regards to being disingenuous
 
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DJnVa

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Also. It’s disingenuous. Brian Kelly abandoned his team in the middle of a playoff race, because another college offered him more $$$ to be their head coach. That seems like someone who is entitled and not someone who actually cares about CFB. So if you are going to attack players for caring more about money then the game, you should also say that about college football coaches in the same breath/segment as this.
Brian Kelly and other coaches get a lot of shit dumped on them and rightfully so. There's no need to litigate every topic when making comments about this particular one.
 

soxhop411

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Brian Kelly and other coaches get a lot of shit dumped on them and rightfully so. There's no need to litigate every topic when making comments about this particular one.
Apologies. I edited my post to clarify I was referring to ESPN being disingenuous. Not @Red(s)HawksFan.

if ESPN is going to spend an entire segment shitting on players for not caring about CFB, then you need to do the same for coaches who leave their Teams halfway thru the season because they got more money elsewhere
 
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grsharky7

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Herbie and ESPN can look in the mirror for that one. ESPN has gone to great length to make CFP the only thing that matters now, bowl games outside of that are a total afterthought. The bowls used to mean something to the players, but now nobody cares if you aren't in the playoff. Look at the Fiesta Bowl today, thousands of empty seats and this is a game that involves Notre Dame. The past few years (outside of 2020) the Sugar Bowl has really lacked juice since the SEC team that makes it there usually lost in the SEC title game and therefore just missed the playoff. ESPN plays God and caters to the SEC and a few other select programs, and then can't understand why nobody is jazzed about the games, it's kind of laughable.
 

johnmd20

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Apologies. I edited my post to clarify I was referring to ESPN being disingenuous. Not @Red(s)HawksFan.

if ESPN is going to spend an entire segment shitting on players for not caring about CFB, then you need to do the same for coaches who leave their Teams halfway thru the season because they got more money elsewhere
Brian Kelly was pounded on for making this move and abandoning his team and adopting a silly southern accent while doing so. And that will pass and Kelly will be judged on how he does at LSU. The same will occur for players who opt out.
 

DJnVa

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Apologies. I edited my post to clarify I was referring to ESPN being disingenuous. Not @Red(s)HawksFan.

if ESPN is going to spend an entire segment shitting on players for not caring about CFB, then you need to do the same for coaches who leave their Teams halfway thru the season because they got more money elsewhere
Well, my point holds. If ESPN is criticizing one group, they don't need to criticize every single group every time.

If I say Urban Meyer is a shitty coach and a shittier person, I don't have to list every other coach that also sucks.
 

lars10

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Well, my point holds. If ESPN is criticizing one group, they don't need to criticize every single group every time.

If I say Urban Meyer is a shitty coach and a shittier person, I don't have to list every other coach that also sucks.
But the point I think you're missing is that Herbstreet is saying the younger generation of players doesn't care about football because they're sitting out meaningless bowl games.. when there's plenty of examples of older people doing the exact same thing... so the point they think they're making about one group simply isn't true.
 

DJnVa

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But the point I think you're missing is that Herbstreet is saying the younger generation of players doesn't care about football because they're sitting out meaningless bowl games.. when there's plenty of examples of older people doing the exact same thing... so the point they think they're making about one group simply isn't true.
Ah, see the issue is you think I'm responding to Herbstreit's opinion. I am not.

So let's be clear what I'm responding to. I am NOT responding to Herbstreit's opinion, because he's kind of a dope. I am responding to soxhop's post which said it's disingenuous to call out players for opting out because Brian Kelly left Notre Dame and looked like an idiot doing so and didn't mention it.
 
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lars10

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Ah, see the issue is you think I'm responding to Herbstreit's opinion. I am not.

So let's be clear what I'm responding to. I am NOT responding to Herbstreit's opinion, because he's kind of a dope. I am responding to soxhop's post which said it's disingenuous to call out players for opting out because Brian Kelly left Notre Dame and looked like an idiot doing so.
“Well, my point holds. If ESPN is criticizing one group, they don't need to criticize every single group every time.”

I think the point is that the reason they’re criticizing one group is because they think they’re acting differently than others or those that came before, no?

anyway.. we can agree Herbstreet sucks as a broadcaster.. absolute milquetoast that ESPN has to put on every big game.. especially if Ohio State is playing… it’s like when they put Jay Bills on every Duke game.
 

DJnVa

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“Well, my point holds. If ESPN is criticizing one group, they don't need to criticize every single group every time.”
Yes.

Group 1: players
Group 2: coaches

I think the point is that the reason they’re criticizing one group is because they think they’re acting differently than others or those that came before, no?
Again, you're arguing against a point I'm not making. You are 100% correct that older players should have been brought up. But I was responding to this: "So if you are going to attack players for caring more about money then the game, you should also say that about college football coaches in the same breath/segment as this. "

My one and only point is it's fine to criticize players without criticizing coaches. That was not a value judgment on the specific opinion and in no way means coaches should not be criticized.
 
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dirtynine

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I'm out of the loop - why is ESPN pushing the Miami Hurricanes so hard? There are two stories that allude to them on the homepage right now, I can't figure out why. Is there a 30 for 30 on them coming out or something?
 

kenneycb

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20 year anniversary of the '01 team winning beating Nebraska is my I guess. And the 19 year anniversary of the Ohio State robbery is today.
 

dirtynine

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20 year anniversary of the '01 team winning beating Nebraska is my I guess. And the 19 year anniversary of the Ohio State robbery is today.
OK - thanks, that makes sense. I never thought of that team as more or less special than other champs, but maybe I'll dive into some ESPN content and change my mind!
 

kenneycb

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They had 17 first round round picks. Their RBs, for example, were Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee, Frank Gore, and Najeh Davenport.
 

Kliq

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They had 17 first round round picks. Their RBs, for example, were Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee, Frank Gore, and Najeh Davenport.
With Andre Johnson and Jeremy Shockey as receiving options. Defense included Ed Reed, Antrel Rolle, Jonthan Vilma, young Vince Wilfork,

I always thought that team stood out for it's talent, but the 2019 LSU team looks pretty comparable. Burrow, CEH, Chase and Jefferson on offense, alouth right now Patrick Queen is the only person on defense from that team who looks like a good NFL player.
 

moondog80

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With Andre Johnson and Jeremy Shockey as receiving options. Defense included Ed Reed, Antrel Rolle, Jonthan Vilma, young Vince Wilfork,

I always thought that team stood out for it's talent, but the 2019 LSU team looks pretty comparable. Burrow, CEH, Chase and Jefferson on offense, alouth right now Patrick Queen is the only person on defense from that team who looks like a good NFL player.
Derek Stingley is likely going to be a top 5 pick. But still a ways to go before they catch Miami IMO, at least in terms of NFL talent.
 

soxhop411

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ESPN will have a “manning cast” for its SNB games.

those two will be. Arod and Kay
The complete shake-up of “Sunday Night Baseball” will end with the TV voice of the Yankees, Michael Kay, being a part of the Alex Rodriguez “Manningcast” on ESPN, according to sources.
The creation of Kay-Rod means that Rodriguez will not be on weekly “Sunday Night Baseball” telecasts anymore.

The new SNB team will consist of YES’ David Cone and Eduardo Perez as analysts, while Karl Ravech will be the play-by-player. Cone is expected to stay at YES, though his schedule will be reduced.

Meanwhile, longtime ESPN SNB reporter Buster Olney’s role on the main telecast is in question, The Post has learned.

ESPN declined to comment.
https://nypost.com/2022/01/06/michael-kay-alex-rodriguez-to-team-up-for-espn-manningcast/
 

Ale Xander

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A shame ESPN lost John Kruk to local tv, he would be perfect for this role

I don’t mind Arod
Kay is a much different story
 

DJnVa

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A shame ESPN lost John Kruk to local tv, he would be perfect for this role

I don’t mind Arod
Kay is a much different story
The whole point, I thought, of the Manning Cast thing was 2 former players with good chemistry. This....isn't that.
 

nattysez

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I don't think Kay being exposed to a national audience is the great idea ESPN thinks it is. If that experiment lasts half the season, I'll be shocked.
 

Ale Xander

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The whole point, I thought, of the Manning Cast thing was 2 former players with good chemistry. This....isn't that.
Yeah

You could pair Kruk with Daulton or Murphy perhaps?

Or Arod with a mirror. With Ortiz maybe?
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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Kruk would need to use a Ouija board with Darren Daulton (which is a much better idea than ARod/Kay). Dude died in 2017.
To be fair, the Weekend at Bernie's films totaled around 3 hours and grossed $42 million at the box office. I see a lane here: <Kruk watching an unnecessary pitching change during a 12-1 game> 'Man, I'm kind of jealous of my partner right about now.'
 

joe dokes

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Kruk would need to use a Ouija board with Darren Daulton (which is a much better idea than ARod/Kay). Dude died in 2017.
To be fair, the Weekend at Bernie's films totaled around 3 hours and grossed $42 million at the box office. I see a lane here: <Kruk watching an unnecessary pitching change during a 12-1 game> 'Man, I'm kind of jealous of my partner right about now.'
Too bad "deadcast" is already taken.
48092
 

Mugsy's Jock

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The thread title here bugs me… not that ESPN doesn’t have its share of corporate and strategic missteps and bloviating talent, but there is also a shit ton of world class work done there that deserves to have a light thrown on it. I think “ESPN is Pathetic” is a little overripe at this point. And not really up to SoSH creative standards.

Hit home for me this morning as I was reflecting on another Sunday notes column from Mike Reiss. Man, that guy is a treasure. He has as good a pipeline as anyone into the Pats inner circle, appears to have earned BB’s respect… and yet is still willing to ask questions that need to be asked. Throw in his remarkable humility (I can think of no other Boston sports media personality who shows a little ego as Mike) and his talent as a clear writer — he’s just great.

One thing that undoubtedly caps his potential for a bigger national spot is that he’s not continually trying to show that’s he’s the funniest guy around. Probably a good move, because I’m pretty sure he isn’t. But what he is is reliable and always worth reading/listening to.
 

tims4wins

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The thread title here bugs me… not that ESPN doesn’t have its share of corporate and strategic missteps and blockading talent, but there is also a shit ton of world class work done there that deserves to have a light thrown on it.

Hit home For me this morning as I was reflecting on another Sunday notes column from Mike Reiss. Man, that guy is a treasure. He has as good a pipeline as anyone into the Pats inner circle, appears to have earned BB’s respect… and yet is still willing to ask questions that need to be asked. Throw in his remarkable humility (I can think of no other Boston sports media personality who shows a little ego as Mike) and his talent as a clear writer — he’s just great.

One thing that undoubtedly caps his potential for a bigger national spot is that he’s not continually trying to show that’s he’s the funniest guy around. Probably a good move, because I’m pretty sure he isn’t. But what he is is reliable and always worth reading/listening to.
Reiss is a gem. He’s not a good X’s and O’s guy but he calls it like he sees it and focuses mainly on reporting facts, not speculation or opinion. And yes his lack of ego is so endearing and contrasting to basically every other member of the Boston media.
 

Average Reds

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The thread title here bugs me… not that ESPN doesn’t have its share of corporate and strategic missteps and bloviating talent, but there is also a shit ton of world class work done there that deserves to have a light thrown on it. I think “ESPN is Pathetic” is a little overripe at this point. And not really up to SoSH creative standards.

Hit home for me this morning as I was reflecting on another Sunday notes column from Mike Reiss. Man, that guy is a treasure. He has as good a pipeline as anyone into the Pats inner circle, appears to have earned BB’s respect… and yet is still willing to ask questions that need to be asked. Throw in his remarkable humility (I can think of no other Boston sports media personality who shows a little ego as Mike) and his talent as a clear writer — he’s just great.

One thing that undoubtedly caps his potential for a bigger national spot is that he’s not continually trying to show that’s he’s the funniest guy around. Probably a good move, because I’m pretty sure he isn’t. But what he is is reliable and always worth reading/listening to.
As detailed in a series of posts right before yours, the latest ESPN baseball-related move is to pair Michael Kay and A-Rod as a "Manningcast" team for Sunday Night baseball while moving David Cone into the actual booth. Hard to argue that the thread title isn't accurate.

I'm glad that Mike Reiss doesn't suck.

Edit: I should be clear that I am posting as a member, since I don't mod this forum.
 
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