Boycott ESPN

[The Ancient Enemy]

I've said before a few times how bad ESPN.com is for reporting nothing but arrests when it comes to college football. Yes, it is worth saying if someone gets kicked off the team, but every time you go to the ESPN.com college page, all you see is garbage. I've about had enough of it, personally.

Here's today's articles:

* Ohio St.'s Clifford charged with punching 2 in bar
* San Jose State LB sentenced to 45 days in jail
* Tennessee punter pleads guilty to drunken driving
* Louisville WR Guy still hospitalized, in good spirits
* Indiana reinstates QB Lewis after suspension
* Florida State's Bellamy (blood clot) out for season
* Louisville WR Spillman dismissed from team

Here's some suggestions for ESPN.com.

1. Ohio State returns 9 on both sides of the ball, has been embarassed twice in a row by an SEC team with speed, how about an article on how they've tweaked their offseason training to incorporate more speed?

2. SJSU missed bowl eligibility last year by 1 game and return the best WR corps they've had in probably 30 years. No article on this?

3. What measures has Tennessee taken to get back into the top of the SEC East?

4. New coach Steve Kragthorpe was embarrassed last season as Louisville played like crap all year. How have the recent WR problems affected the gameplan for new QB Hunter Cantwell, as Kragthorpe is already on the hot seat?

5. How has Bobby Bowden reacted to the suspensions and offseason losses knowing this is his final season?

[deliverance]

TAE, you know that will never happen. Too many people seek bad things about a team. Not enough people want to know the actual information. If they do, they sign up for Rivals or Scourts.

[abpk2903]

Great post TAE.

Also to go along with the ESPN sucks topic. The Pittsburgh Steelers, one of if not the most prestige football francises, is being sold. What does SportsCenter spend 60 minutes of a 90 minute episode on? A 40 year old quarterback's decision on whether to sail off into the sunset or come back and lead the league in interceptions next year. I was watching Around the Horn and PTI the other night and over half the topics were on the NBA, who cares. The season starts 5 months from now. ESPN, promotes what they cover. Hockey is getting some of the best ratings they got in decades and ESPN acts like they are a dead sport. NASCAR was not covered worth a dang until two years ago when they got a contract to televise NASCAR and now it is the lead on a Monday morning sportscenter. I wish someone would really try to make a run at competition for ESPN, maybe a channel like Versus because ESPN decides what sports deserve to be covered and which one's don't.

[The Ancient Enemy]

Excellent, excellent, excellent points and I am really glad I am not the only person who realizes how they do things, because I was just about to post how they only cover sports they have contracts with.

This Favre garbage is maybe the most pathetic stuff I have seen in awhile on there. I can't believe people actually are arguing that the Packers should let him be the starting QB. This guy has held that franchise hostage for years. I like Favre as a player, I really do, but I could not possibly care any less about this recent drama.

Two things I saw on NFL Live a few days ago. This was the first time I watched an ESPN show in weeks because I hate the station. But I stopped down on NFL Live and here is what I saw:

1. Claims that Lions' LB Ernie Sims went to the University of Tennessee. Sorry, that kid def. went to Florida State.
2. Misuse of the term "gel". They actually had something to this effect on screen: "Trent Edwards Jells with New Receivers". What the hell is "jells"?

Oh wait, I have another.

Jim Rome was absent that day on his show and was replaced by whatever female they shoehorn into their broadcasts, even though they are all idiots. By no means am I sexist, but these women are seriously clueless. I'm okay with bad broadcasting for the most part (Tirico and Musberger have beaten me into submission) but here is what happened: Rome is absent, and instead of changing the dialogue for the girl, they honest to Christ let her read the same script that Jim Rome would have read!!! I was laughing out loud at how bad this was. It was seriously like she was doing an impression of him, reading all the jokes that were obviously written in his language. It was completely pathetic.

I hate to use pro wrestling as a point of reference, but ESPN is right now going through a similar situation as to what the WWF went through when they bought WCW. When there is no competition, you get lazy, and you get comfortable. ESPN's shows and web articles are worse now than ever, and with Bill Curry taking that job at Georgia State, the only credible college football voice on that whole site is now gone. I like Forde and Maisel sometimes, both of them have written amazing articles and also garbage articles, but Bill Curry, even though I dont agree with everything he says, is a football genius and I love that dude's writing and insight. Go Georgia State.

In closing, ESPN sucks.

[deliverance]

If you like baseball, Baseball Tonight on there is pretty good. My Mets should be getting more love, though.

[abpk2903]

Can't agree more with you here TAE,

A decade ago I would turn on the TV and immediately go to ESPN if I wanted to watch some sports. Now, I turn on the TV and turn to CBS College Sports (used to be CSTV), Versus, Fox Sports Net, and the Big Ten Network. If nothing is on any them then I may venture over to ESPN for a few minutes.

Another thing that pisses me off with ESPN is the bottom line (where they scroll the scores). If I want to see if a certain team won or lost, I might as well watch an entire SportsCenter. It takes 45 minutes to just scroll through the NL. They used to just give scores and scroll on, then they started to scroll the winning and losing pitchers, now they scroll dang near everyone who played in the game stats. It takes like 5 minutes a game.
The other day they actually the topics being scrolled on the bottomline was NL, AL, NBA, NFL, and Favre. What the hell is he his own sport now?

I agree with the example that they got lazy. They do not even go out and hire their own analyists now. What do they do? They go to the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Sun, and every other major newspaper in the country and hire thier sports writers. What is the problem with this? Bob Ryan and Michael Smith are pro-Boston, Woody Paige is pro-Denver, Jay Mariatti is pro-Chicago, and so on. What the consumer (us) ends up getting is biased reporting and opinions on sports. That is what sports are, opinion. If every baseball anaylist tomorrow said that they think the Dodgers are going to make a playoff push, guess what the Dodgers attendance would go up, simply because people believe what these people tell you and 95% of the time they are wrong.

[abpk2903]

Today's ESPN college football headlines:

-Georgia suspends 5th player from season opener
-Washington's Savannah is acedemically ineligable
-Nebraska kicks reserved defensive tackle off the team
-Ex-Gators star QB charged with drug possession
-Coaches speak: Georgia Pre-season number 1
-OU fallout: Stoops dismisses prized recruit Jarboe
-Lawmakers spend thousands on Ohio State tickets
-Army football coach Brock has prostate cancer
-Feldman: Mailbag on K-State, South Carolina

Absolutely rediculous and the last time I will visit the ESPN college football website.

[colonelsanders]

Where do they find all these nonsense stories?

[deliverance]

The front page of ESPN today was all about the upcoming College Football season, so it's not all bad. Sometimes you have to go to more than just the College Football section to find things on the site. I agree they point out more bad than good and I like some other sites much better for College Football information, but they have at least started talking about the upcoming season.

[The Ancient Enemy]

Ya know, I hate to sound arrogant, but to be perfectly honest with you, there's probably 5-10 people on this site who can give you a better breakdown of the upcoming season than espn can. There's no doubt in my mind that many of us know more than these idiots on TV claim to know.