ESPN Is Pathetic

nattysez

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Good news -- the fact that a grand jury decides that you can't be criminally charged for something means you didn't do it. Schefter is such a piece of garbage.

This is why Deshaun Watson, from the beginning, welcomed a police investigation: He felt he knew that the truth would come out. And today, a grand jury did not charge him on any of the criminal complaints.
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View: https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1502399203007471616
 
ifmanis5

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View: https://twitter.com/ESPNPR/status/1509562684680904705

Jimmy Pitaro, Chairman, ESPN & Sports Content, on ESPN re-signing Senior #NFL Insider Adam Schefter & Senior #NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski

$10 mil each.
https://www.outkick.com/adam-schefter-adrian-wojnarowski-salary/
ESPN re-signed insiders Adam Schefter and Adrian Wojnarowski to multi-year contracts on Thursday. And according to OutKick sources, ESPN will pay each of them $10 million a year.
Schefter and Wojnarowski’s contracts both would have expired this summer, and each man had interest from several gambling companies.
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Pablo's TB Lover

Pablo's TB Lover

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At least when it comes to Schefter, in depth "reporting" (in quotes). I'm not a super diehard follower of the sports media, but if I had to rank the three in regards to best ratio of reporting vs lapdog for sources, would probably go 1.Passan, 2.Woj, 3.Schefter. But maybe with Schefter it is not as much being a lapdog as being brainwashed by the prevailing NFL culture for so long he frames things in line with Goodell/ownership on seemingly every issue.
 
ManicCompression

ManicCompression

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It's incredible that they're paying $20 Million dollars to two "reporters" who:
- Tell the audience the same information that they're going to get from a press release an hour later
- Don't break that information on TV for the most part, instead they break it on Twitter where ESPN can't monetize it
- Are pod people

If Woj went back to Yahoo and did the same job essentially, does ESPN lose any viewership or readership on the site?
 
ifmanis5

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ManicCompression said:
It's incredible that they're paying $20 Million dollars to two "reporters" who:
- Tell the audience the same information that they're going to get from a press release an hour later
- Don't break that information on TV for the most part, instead they break it on Twitter where ESPN can't monetize it
- Are pod people

If Woj went back to Yahoo and did the same job essentially, does ESPN lose any viewership or readership on the site?
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A big part of the brand is breaking news first, especially when they are in competition with other brands and platforms that are trying to do the same thing. It's a bit inside baseball but this is how media competition drives salaries up ever since the newspaper days. I'm fine with these guys getting paid instead of just the execs. That said, pod people.
 
ManicCompression

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ifmanis5 said:
A big part of the brand is breaking news first, especially when they are in competition with other brands and platforms that are trying to do the same thing. It's a bit inside baseball but this is how media competition drives salaries up ever since the newspaper days. I'm fine with these guys getting paid instead of just the execs. That said, pod people.
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Yeah, I hear you, but is it really "breaking news"? Woj is just getting the press release a half hour before Shams and spilling it on twitter. We're all going to find out that information anyway - the source is so not important. It's not like he's uncovering stuff we don't know (and if anything, he's actively obscuring things the audience should know, a la the Simmons-Harden trade).
 
B

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When they came up with this idea of the ‘kayrodcast,’ did they just think “ok we don’t care if no one in the Boston market watches it?”
 
jon abbey

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Bosoxian said:
When they came up with this idea of the ‘kayrodcast,’ did they just think “ok we don’t care if no one in the Boston market watches it?”
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No sane person anywhere would watch it, but being able to watch a Sunday night ESPN game without A-Rod, without Vasgersian (just awful) and with David Cone made for the least irritating ESPN Sunday night experience in a long time. Not a fan of Eduardo Perez, but still.
 
Red(s)HawksFan

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jon abbey said:
No sane person anywhere would watch it, but being able to watch a Sunday night ESPN game without A-Rod, without Vasgersian (just awful) and with David Cone made for the least irritating ESPN Sunday night experience in a long time. Not a fan of Eduardo Perez, but still.
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Ravech, Cone, and Perez were tolerable. I was disappointed that the second broadcast wasn't the statcast thing they did a few times last year. I didn't even bother with Kay-Rod, and I assume they're doing that because of the positive response to the ManningCast Monday night football show? Too bad, the statcast show was great.
 
jtn46

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Red(s)HawksFan said:
Ravech, Cone, and Perez were tolerable. I was disappointed that the second broadcast wasn't the statcast thing they did a few times last year. I didn't even bother with Kay-Rod, and I assume they're doing that because of the positive response to the ManningCast Monday night football show? Too bad, the statcast show was great.
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Yeah they were fine and the broadcast seemed more focused on the game we were watching than trying to be Baseball Tonight and a game simultaneously as was the case the last few years. I did not like that they put a mic on Kike, he was entertaining but they would talk to him too close to pitches/action and kept him there through a pitching change and commercial break.
 
Ale Xander

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I don't like Eduardo's frog voice and like Arod and liked some of their guests. Sue me. Kay was/is bad and talks too much but he's more a novelty than Perez so I tried it out for a game.
I can't do a season of Kay but for yesterday it worked.
 
Average Reds

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Red(s)HawksFan said:
Ravech, Cone, and Perez were tolerable.
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I’d agree if they stuck to baseball and weren’t trying to be cutesy, but they couldn’t help themselves.

The part where they played the message to Cone from Girardi and he didn’t get the joke (and didn’t seem to think it was funny after it was explained) was just flat-out awful. Cringe TV in the worst possible way. Having tuned in just a few minutes before, I immediately turned it off.
 
Van Everyman

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Yeah, I had it on in the bgd and couldn't figure out why they kept playing it. I'm assuming they won't be doing that every week.

Ravech is very good at this. Cone seems good. Agree on Perez's voice, but substantively he's good as well. Is it Jon Miller and (gah) Joe Morgan? No. But it's a decent broadcast that could become very good.

Agree that Kayrod just seems like a terrible idea on its face and marketed to a single fanbase. I'm sort of surprised they didn't throw in somebody from another market (like Eck) to make it appeal to a broader group. As it is, I find Kay such a Yankee triumphalist, it's going to be hard for me to even try.
 
Red(s)HawksFan

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jtn46 said:
Yeah they were fine and the broadcast seemed more focused on the game we were watching than trying to be Baseball Tonight and a game simultaneously as was the case the last few years. I did not like that they put a mic on Kike, he was entertaining but they would talk to him too close to pitches/action and kept him there through a pitching change and commercial break.
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I thought they missed an opportunity with Kike during the pitching change to have him "interview" Arroyo and Verdugo live, but of course bills have to be paid or something. I think the concept of miking a player and interviewing during the game is fun. Unfortunately for this one, Kike had to chase down a couple balls early and was basically winded and couldn't say much otherwise. The whole thing is chasing more moments like they had with Mookie in spring training a few years ago.

View: https://youtu.be/-RG0RGKBAkw
 
staz

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The cradle of the game.
Arod on the ESPN2 alt Sunday night MLB game eating a Peep with Michael Kay: "Do you suck it or swallow it?" Followed by one of his nervous cackles. I mean how long can they go on with this dreck?
 
edoug

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TheGazelle said:
That video kills me every time. Remy yelling "here comes the pizza" as Orsillo cackles with laughter is funny every time.
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The slow build was hilarious. Everybody was confused about what was going on. Then the replays came. Wham instant classic.
 
JOBU

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TheGazelle said:
That video kills me every time. Remy yelling "here comes the pizza" as Orsillo cackles with laughter is funny every time.
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Too bad they didn’t extend the video to show the pizza lying limp and lifeless on the Fenway rail. It’s out there somewhere, I’ve seen it.
 
shaggydog2000

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TheGazelle said:
That video kills me every time. Remy yelling "here comes the pizza" as Orsillo cackles with laughter is funny every time.
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To me "he's the Pepsi fan of the game... until he gets kicked out" is the line of the whole sequence. It's early on, but just expertly sets the table.
 
ifmanis5

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Rusty13

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ifmanis5 said:
View: https://twitter.com/JBFlint/status/1519467356359077888

ESPN anchor Sage Steele is suing the network, alleging that her right to free speech was violated and contract breached after she was benched for remarks on vaccine and Obama on Jay Cutler podcast last year. https://wsj.com/articles/espn-anchor-sage-steele-sues-network-alleging-violation-of-free-speech-rights-11651104160?st=23n4gqk7n92a8ak&reflink=desktopwebshare_twitter via @WSJ
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EDIT: never mind. It appears there is a provision in CT law that brings rise to this cause of action.

View: https://twitter.com/JBFlint/status/1519470592646270979?s=20&t=IhDGXotSEQw8UXD2yT2znw
 
A

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ESPN's front page article involves Tom Cruise and his running ability (?). I wonder how much Paramount paid for that.
 
riboflav

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I'm confused. Doesn't GS outspend every NBA team in players' salaries? I think I read that they're outspending the Celtics by 40 million. Why is his take so absurd exactly?
 
scottyno

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riboflav said:
I'm confused. Doesn't GS outspend every NBA team in players' salaries? I think I read that they're outspending the Celtics by 40 million. Why is his take so absurd exactly?
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40m is before the luxury tax bill. Because the Ws are many times repeat offenders and have such a high payroll they're spending about $340m, the nets are the only team within $100m of them. The Cs are going to spend somewhere around half of what the Ws spend this year. It's somewhat ridiculous, but it's not like they're outbidding other teams for stars, they were just able to end up with 4 max slots by paying their own guys and the Russell sign and trade that eventually became Wiggins.

The celtics could end up in a similar situation with the luxury tax in a few years if they find a way to roll the Horford $26m contract over into someone else and give Grant a decent contract, along with the big Brown raise that's coming in 2 years unless he wants to leave. The difference is most teams either aren't willing, or can't afford the crazy luxury tax penalties, so they don't re-sign everyone.
 
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nattysez

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riboflav said:
I'm confused. Doesn't GS outspend every NBA team in players' salaries? I think I read that they're outspending the Celtics by 40 million. Why is his take so absurd exactly?
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You surely know enough about sports to know that being the highest-paid team doesn't mean you win the championship. Dismissing a championship team's accomplishments because they have a high payroll is preposterous. The top 5 teams in payroll were Golden State, Brooklyn, LAC, LAL, and Milwaukee. I must've missed him calling Milwaukee a "checkbook champion" last year. He also failed to explain why Brooklyn, LAC and LAL couldn't advance in the playoffs despite having such high team salaries. Were the Red Sox "checkbook champions" in 2018? They had the highest team salary.

Anyway, I'm greatly enjoying his Twitter replies. There are not many things that can unite the country, but apparently hating on Windhorst is one of them.
 
ElUno20

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I made the mistake of watching a first take segment this morning. I want to take my life.

Can't believe espn pays Perkins and Stephen A for this "analysis". It's highway robbery
 
riboflav

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nattysez said:
You surely know enough about sports to know that being the highest-paid team doesn't mean you win the championship. Dismissing a championship team's accomplishments because they have a high payroll is preposterous. The top 5 teams in payroll were Golden State, Brooklyn, LAC, LAL, and Milwaukee. I must've missed him calling Milwaukee a "checkbook champion" last year. He also failed to explain why Brooklyn, LAC and LAL couldn't advance in the playoffs despite having such high team salaries. Were the Red Sox "checkbook champions" in 2018? They had the highest team salary.

Anyway, I'm greatly enjoying his Twitter replies. There are not many things that can unite the country, but apparently hating on Windhorst is one of them.
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Yeah, no doubt. I'm not familiar with him, not a guy I read. So yes if he's saying that that is THE (only) reason they win then yes that's a dumb take. I guess I misunderstood.
 
Kliq

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ifmanis5 said:
Windy has been seen for a long time as merely made man because of Lebron but he's getting his props today for this moment.
Bonus points later in the day as he turned out to be correct.
View: https://twitter.com/StevenCheah/status/1542879004033695746

Brian Windhorst just ran the First Take desk in circles. They were hanging on his every word for 2+ minutes
Absolute masterclass.
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Windy is consistently good on the pods I listen too and seems to have a ton of respect from other reporters. He's distanced himself from LeBron a bit and really is one of the most well sourced guys around.
 
Kliq

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Longtime betting correspondent "Hammerin'" Hank Goldberg died, 82 from kidney cancer. He was ahead of his time.
 
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