-- ESPN - what do they do right? what do they do wrong?

[Simply Red]

Anything regarding ESPN (the channel) - marketing, stories, reporters, etc. etc...

but,

What do you like about the Network and what do you not like about them?

... discuss


Thanks in advance.

[cdcox]

Right: They show football games.

[Hammock Parties]

Wrong: They employ Herm.

[RealSNR]

Wrong: Jim Rome is Burning

[KcKing]

Right: They gave my brother a job.

Wrong: I didn't get one.

[Hammock Parties]

Right: The best NFL pregame show, hands down.

Right: They dumped Emmitt Smiff.

Wrong: They got rid of NFL primetime.

[DaneMcCloud]

They're a necessary evil.

Outside of actual sporting event broadcasts, they're essentially Talk Soup for sports.

In another word, worthless.

[CoMoChief]

Right: Sports 24/7

Wrong: Outrageously east coast biased media

[RealSNR]

I'm going to point out Jim Rome's show again as a wrong. That is the worst pile of shit I've ever seen broadcasted in my entire life. My question is why the FUCK is it still on? Who watches that retard?

[JuicesFlowing]

Wrong: Mortimer
Wrong: Chris Berman
Wrong: Their absolute and sickly love affair with the Dallas Cowboys

[BWillie]

Right: They have a billion networks. ESPN1, ESPN 2, ESPN U, ESPN Classic, ESPN News, ESPN Deportes...I'm sure I'm missing some like ESPN Tom Brady or something. They do a great job of hyping games and marketing sports in general. They have a few really good analysts like Peter Gammons, Doug Gottlieb, Jay Bilas, Kirk Herbstreit, Ron Jaworski, Tim Legler, etc.

Wrong: They employ to many ex-jocks with not enough broadcasting experience. With that said, because ESPN has so much power to nap many NFL legends, the ex-jocks attract ratings because you want to know what they have to say.

[Silock]

The only thing they do right is show games.

What they do wrong is everything else. They cater to only Northeast teams, suck the dick of anyone that's remotely popular, and bottle entertainment and sell it as news.

They just need to stick to showing games and forget the stupid hyping they do. They won't, though.

[BWillie]

The only thing they do right is show games.

What they do wrong is everything else. They cater to only Northeast teams, suck the dick of anyone that's remotely popular, and bottle entertainment and sell it as news.

They just need to stick to showing games and forget the stupid hyping they do. They won't, though.

Well, the east coast bias is true - they hype games in the midwest and pacific coast too. Have you ever watched Fox Sports edition of sportscenter? It is the worst piece of shit I have ever seen.

[Mecca]

It's not because it's Northeast that it gets hyped more...they cover the teams that have the most fans it's about ratings. The Northeast has a giant population.

[Friendo]

I'm going to point out Jim Rome's show again as a wrong. That is the worst pile of shit I've ever seen broadcasted in my entire life. My question is why the **** is it still on? Who watches that retard?

agreed!

casting couch? gotta be...

[MichaelH]

Right- They show sports. Sometimes I even watch them. Erin Andrews

Wrong- They have the most irritating announcers for every sport. Besides football, I love baseball. I simply cannot watch a baseball game that has Jon Miller in the booth. He can make the most exciting game unwatchable. He flip flops between teams and drools on players worse than Madden could ever dream of doing.

[LaChapelle]

Right-scrolling. The rest is back ground noise most the time.
Wrong-movie and series production was a disaster.

[TrickyNicky]

Right - Their NCAA Football and Basketball coverage is the best. If you love the Red Sox or Yankees, you probably love their Baseball coverage. Their MNF crew improved with the subtraction of Kornheiser. PTi is good at times and he should have just stayed there.

Wrong - The NFL pregame show sucks. Too many personalities that I don't care about and it just seems over-crowded. They could do with a bit of streamlining. They got rid of Max Kellerman, who is now on HBO. They continue to give air time to Stephen A Smith. No MMA show on the main channel and barely any coverage. They need to combine their boxing and MMA programming, but the boxing elitists probably campaign against it.

[Bugeater]

Other than the football games and Neckcar races they televise, I have no use for them.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Right: The Erin Andrews peephole show

[Chiefnj2]

Good - College football coverage.

Bad - Turned sports into People magazine. Too much attention to guys like Favre, TO, Chad, etc. Horrible decision not to report the Roethlisberger incident and send out a memo to all ESPN radio stations instructing them not to talk about it. Whether the allegations were true or not, it was newsworthy to mention it. They reported on Merriman's "attack". Conflict of interests with athletes and reporting, IMO.

[GoHuge]

Right-They have by far the best NASCAR coverage and reporters. No boogity, boogity, boogity or Digger is worth the price of admission. When they are getting owned by someone rather than just take it, they hire them. PTI, OTL, E60, WSOP, college basketball broadcasts, current MNF crew, Triple Crown broadcasts, and sunday Sportscenter (once). Schefter, Mike Tirico, Gottleib, Jay Bilas, Mike Green, Jayson Stark, Trey Wingo, Bob Globber, Marty Smith, Ron Jaworski, Michael Smith, Wilbon, and Chris Berman.

Wrong- ESPN Yankees, ESPN Red Sox, ESPN Patriots, ESPN Cowboys. I understand they have to play to their audience, but please! MLB Tonight and everyone on it. Jim Rome and anything he does. Stuart Scott' isms, Lame halfass attempts to cover MMA, Dickie V, (sorry) Mort, Kiper, McShay, Erin Andrews(over it), Ed Werder, Kornheiser doing anythng but reading a prompter on PTI, all guest on Around the Horn except JA Adande, continued coverage of Kimbo Slice, and the gold medal dart thrower John Clayton.

[Bearcat]

Right: Their coverage on gameday is unbeatable... games on several stations, constant updates, etc.

Right: On-campus coverage of college football & basketball with College Gameday.

Right: They easily have the best college basketball coverage, from broadcasts to Bracketology and Selection Sunday. When does CBS' contract expire? :Lin:

Wrong: Like others have said, it's the gossip column of sports. With PTI, Rome is Burning, and Around the Horn, they basically have 3 shows that spew the same information in 3 different formats... all before Sportscenter, which does it a 4th time.

Wrong: Segmenting their shows between 400 commercial breaks per hour... no more College Gameday, no more NFL Countdown (which is probably the worst), no more SportsCenter. Of course, it's a problem with many television networks, but still, it's probably the biggest reason I don't watch any longer.

Wrong: It's all about ratings, not that it's unique to ESPN, but it makes what used to be great shows like College Gameday unwatchable due to their constant coverage of Notre Dame, Michigan, and Ohio State. It makes SportsCenter unwatchable due to their coverage of a select few athletes/attention whores.

Wrong: Their Big Televen contract for college football.... nothing gets you going on those Saturday chores like having to choose between Indiana/Purdue and Michigan State/Northwestern.

Wrong: Herm Edwards. Run into a burning AIDS tree.

[Frazod]

Biggest problem is their love affairs with certain athletes which cause them to become basically unwatchable if anything even remotely newsworthy happens to one of them. They cover that prick Favre like he's the President, Princess Diana and Michael Jackson rolled into a single person. If Favre farts they need 15 fucking people to analyze the smell and tonal quality.

And I don't know how anybody outside of a 100% Notre Dame homer can stand Lou Holtz. Fuck I hate that rotten old bastard. All he does is suck off ND and the Big 10/11/Whatever, pay lip service to the major programs and disrespect everbody else. Absolutely ruins the college show, which is too bad, because the other guys are pretty good.

Other than that there's the obvious big city/coastal bias, but you get that from all of them so there's not much that can be done about it, other than to hope your non-coastal/big city team does well enough to merit their notice. The Cardinals generally do, and Mizzou occasionally does, so I guess I'm better off than most here.

I haven't watched their pregame show so far this year, so I'm not even sure who's on it at the moment. I do kind of like Berman, though.

Way too much coverage for shit like racing and golf, too.

[jidar]

I liked ESPN but they killed a man in Reno

[Bearcat]

Before the Thursday night NFL game last week and then a couple hours on Saturday, I don't remember the last time I watched anything on ESPN/2/U/Classic.... probably not since March Madness.

:shrug:

[Buehler445]

Fuck. Every morning I sit on the couch mostly dead and watch Mike and Mike in the morning. It is mindless noise to wake me up some.

Today Greenburg put in a plug for ESPN BOSTON

You have got to be fist fucking me.

Outside of any actual sporting event and mindless Mike and Mike, I don't watch ESPN. I used to watch NFL live and Sunday countdown when Jaws was doing both, now... Not so much. I used to try to catch college gameday, but ever since the "ZOMG TEH NASHIONUL CHAMPINCHIP SHULD BEZ MICHIGAN AND OHIO STATEZ!!!!1!!one" bullshit I'm friggin done. Oh and fuck doctor lou. Does ANYONE take this guy seriously?

I used to try to catch PTI when I was in college, but it's not worth working around my work schedule.

Occasionally I'll turn on Sports Center for noise but have to change it for their half ass attempts at a catch phrase. That shit drives me crazy.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Brock]

Chris Berman sucks. Badly.

[Tribal Warfare]

Sports Center has turned into Good Morning America now, but at least it's better than it use to be from 2000-2006

[BigChiefFan]

Their problem is they are always looking for stories about players with attitudes. I prefer SPORTS from a sports channel, not bullshit T.O. every hour on the hour, especially, when T.O. says nothing and they still go after him. Too much drama these days.

[rambleonthruthefog]

the sportscenter commercials are almost always funny. other than that, they show a lot of sports, and have a pretty good NFL pregameshow. used to like watching poker. they do a few other things right.

[Frazod]

the sportscenter commercials are almost always funny. other than that, they show a lot of sports, and have a pretty good NFL pregameshow. used to like watching poker. they do a few other things right.

How the fuck is poker a sport? That's like putting that stupid ice road trucker show on History Channel.

[Simply Red]

the sportscenter commercials are almost always funny. other than that, they show a lot of sports, and have a pretty good NFL pregameshow. used to like watching poker. they do a few other things right.

pretty much 'dead-on'

[Buck]

Wrong: Every once in a while they have a woman announcing a College Football or Basketball game.

I know this is probably sexist, but I don't really want to hear a woman doing play by play.

[Dallas Chief]

Wrong- That garbage they call The NFL on ESPN Radio. They have just the most inane conversations with Eric Allen and whoever else on Sunday. About 3 minutes of every 30are game updates and the rest is just a bunch of blah blah blah. Sporting News Radio does a much better job IMO.

[Fairplay]

I liked the little league world series.


I didn't catch the MNF games the other day. How was the ESPN announcing on that?

[Simply Red]

I liked the little league world series.


I didn't catch the MNF games the other day. How was the ESPN announcing on that?

Didn't mike n mike do one of them? Seems like they did. They're terrible.

[Fairplay]

Didn't mike n mike do one of them? Seems like they did. They're terrible.



I only got to see about 20 minutes of the game and Mike and Mike kept talking over each other. It sounded like confusion and chaos.

[Macroach]

Wrong: Hero worship of certain athletes (see Brett Favre), 24/7 coverage means they have to fill the time by re-hashing the same story lines ad nauseum. (See Brett Favre). Overdone special-effects and the rapid-cut video editing. Berman's shtick is tired and Stuart Scott is horrific.

Right: 24/7 coverage means they are always there. English Premier League Soccer coverage. NFL pregame.

[RJ]

Right: Sunday Night Baseball (I like Miller and Morgan), Sunday pre-game, college BB.

Wrong: Their infatuation with the AL East, NFC East and Brett mf'ing Favre. And btw, their infatuation with east coast teams was equally annoying when I lived there.

Yin - Yang: Dick Vitale.

[RJ]

Oh, and I really like their commercials.

[shitgoose]

Right: They have a billion networks. ESPN1, ESPN 2, ESPN U, ESPN Classic, ESPN News, ESPN Deportes...I'm sure I'm missing some like ESPN Tom Brady or something. They do a great job of hyping games and marketing sports in general. They have a few really good analysts like Peter Gammons, Doug Gottlieb, Jay Bilas, Kirk Herbstreit, Ron Jaworski, Tim Legler, etc.

Wrong: They employ to many ex-jocks with not enough broadcasting experience. With that said, because ESPN has so much power to nap many NFL legends, the ex-jocks attract ratings because you want to know what they have to say.

Jay Bilas is the biggest ACC/DUKE/East Coast homer in the world. He is everything that is wrong with ESPN and I would pay good money to see him punched in the face.

[DJJasonp]

Right: college basketball coverage

Wrong: made-up "stories" that are presented to be relevant (who is the best athlete under pressure?....and then a 1/2 hour discussion on the meaningless topic).....meanwhile, there are countless stories that COULD be told about small market athletes doing GOOD things.....or better yet...maybe just INTRODUCING small market teams/players to the world???

Wrong: any "highlight", clip, or story that is "Brought to you by....." it seems they cant get through a story without it being sponsored by some company...

Wrong: A huge pet-peeve of mine....stop calling it ESPN2 Hi-Def when over half of what you broadcast on the channel is not in hi-def!!!!

Wrong: Either A) reset the college basketball start times for big monday.....or B) stop having the shi**y big east play right before the Big 12 game on Big Mondays.......because the hack-a-shack big east always runs late, you routinely miss several minutes of the Big 12 game.