I have a lot on my mind outside of the Wisconsin Sports at all times so here are just some random thoughts I felt like sharing.
1. I don't know if anyone watched the San Francisco/Arizona game last night but what a fun game that was. Arizona has some serious playmakers on the offensive side of the ball. I'm still not sold on Hightower as a starting running back, but other than that they have Fitzgerald, Breaston and Boldin who might be the best recieving corps in the NFL. Kurt Warner is playing out of his mind. I don't think there is a quarterback playing better in the NFL than he is. He'd half to be considered the MVP to this point.
2. NBA TV should do a nightly, "you pick em" game on their network. Something where you can go online and pick any of the NBA games on the schedule and get their local broadcast. I think it would really give the league a chance for people to see more teams than you do now. I can only watch so many Los Angeles Lakers vs. San Antonio Spurs games. Most of the young, exciting stars are on teams that aren't being televised nationally. Wouldn't it be fun to see Kevin Durant, OJ Mayo, Rudy Gay and some of those guys whenever you wanted to? It seems something simple enough to do. Go online, choose your game, flip to the NBA TV and boom. Your very own game of the night
3. If I had to rate the top 5 shows that we hear on ESPN Radio in our area, they would no doubt go in this order. 1. Dan Patrick Show 2. The Herd 3. Mike and Mike in the Morning 4. Tirico and Van Pelt (Very Distant 5.) Jim Rome Show. Dan Patrick gets the best guests, his supporting cast is entertaining and his interviews are the most interesting. The Herd is a close second. He is very opinionated, but backs them up with facts. Mike and Mike are an entertaining way to start the morning. I think where they lack is their coverage of other sports. They are very football orientated and while I love the NFL, I like to hear about the NBA and MLB as well. Tirico and Van Pelt aren't together enough. They aren't terrible edgy or exciting, but a good listen nonetheless. Rome is lame. If you click over in the middle of the show, it often takes 10 minutes to figure out what the heck he is even talking about. Plus, to me, he seems stuck on himself.
4. Teams should hire official "clock managers" in both the NFL and major college football. As good as these guys are at coaching, very few of them can manage a clock. And let's face it, what do they do during a game if not that? They don't call plays, on offense or defense, they don't go to the bench and X and O during timeouts. They are out their to yell at the officials, talk to players as they come off the field (sometimes), be on camera a lot, decide whether to punt or go for it on 4th down and MANAGE THE CLOCK. I will offer my services to any coach who wants to start that position. If you've been watching a lot of football lately you've seen Bielma, McCarthy, Les Miles (LSU), and Mike Singletary (49ers) struggle with clock management and timeouts the last couple of weeks. And that's just naming a couple
5. Why in the world are the Padres so intent on trading Jake Peavy? He's rather affordable for an ace pitcher for one. Secondly, anything can happen year to year in baseball. You can be awful one year and competitive the next. The Rays are a pretty extreme case, but it's possible to have some degree of a turnover. The Padres made the playoffs (one game playoff at least) two years ago and struggled through injuries this year. Who's to say they wouldn't rebound next year. If they do, it sure would be nice to have an ace like Peavy out there. Peavy is young, cheap (relatively) speaking and perfect guy to rebuild AROUND. Don't use him to rebuild.
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15 comments:
I agree with #1 on your list, but not the rest. Mine would go:
1. DP
2. Rome
3. Tirico/Van Pelt
4. Mikes
5. Herd
Mike and Mike like themselves too much. They think people want to hear about what Greenie is wearing or what Golic is eating. And Cowherd, what a blowhard. He doesn't back anything with facts, he backs it with his opinion. He is like the Limbaugh of sports radio. If you don't agree with him you are a moron. And yes, I know Rome is a love him or hate him type of guy, but I personally like listening to him or Fox over the ESPN propaganda machine.
And if you can't say Rome is stuck on himself and not think the same thing about Collin.
I like the NBA TV idea. I would much rather watch a Memphis vs. Portland game or Atlanta vs. OK City game to see some of the young talent than watch the Spurs vs. the Suns, Heat vs. Celtics or Lakers vs. anybody for the millionth time.
I agree with you about the ESPN Machine comment. I can't even watch Sportscenter anymore. I liked it better when it was a highlight show. Now it's Coors this and Budweiser that. It's annoying.
How about rank the big four sports websites.... Sportsline, ESPN, Fox, SI.
I have cried about this to K many-a-times. The four-letter network is a joke, except for Gameday. Their radio shows are even worse. Mike & Mike make me wanna bash my head against the stearing wheel.
That's why I subscribe to XM Radio to get FSR (142). Sad I have to pay for decent radio talk.
As for your NBA suggestion...people would have to actually watch the NBA channel in order to vote. That poses a problem. Good idea though.
I am watching the Ball State vs Miami (OH) game. Ball St is a fun team to watch.
I like Sportsline and SI, although I don't care for Sportsline's columnits like Doyel and Judge and SI's fantasy content is a joke. I don't go to Fox that much and really I only to go to ESPN to read Simmons even though he gets a little annoying sometimes too. It just seems like ESPN's site pushes whatever they have on TV that night, not the top story. An athlete could die and they would have a story on the Monday night game between San Fran and Arizona as the lead story. So I guess it would be:
1. Sportsline
2. CnnSI
3. ESPN
4. Fox (although if I went there this could easily jump passed ESPN)
You don't go to Fox because of the FOXNEWS channel. That's my feeling. Despite their fair & balance reporting...their sports is bar none the best.
I'm getting sick of headlines on these sites being things like...
"Brady shows up at Patriots Workout Facility"... How is that news? He plays for the Patriots. He should be there
or
"TO says 2008 Cowboys should look at 2007 Cowboys for help" That's not news!!!
If I ran ESPN, I would try to keep my entities seperate. Right now, the radio, the internet and the TV all do the same thing, every program repeats another program. Sportscenter should be a hightlight show, it can include features on stories like the autistic manager who went off a couple years and ago and stuff like that. Then it can have it's in depth reporting shows like E:60 and OTL (which I'm not sure aren't the same anyway). Save the analysis for NFL Life, NBA Fastbreak, Baseball Tonight, etc.
The internet should be where the Buster Olneys of the world speculate on who is going to go where, or what trades might go down, or the top 10 players under the age of 25 things.
The radio should be guests, commentary, analysis, opinions and arguments.
Right now you can hear Chris Mortensen on Mike and Mike, see him on NFL Live, watch him on Sportscenter and read the column on ESPN.com and they all say the same thing
I agree with you, unfortunately I think they put those stupid headlines out there because people click on them. It's kind of like the stupidity behind the celebrity craze. Should people care that Lindsay Lohan ate a banana and then flipped off a camerman? No, but this is obviously what people click on because it's what the websites put out there. People are stupid.
I would compare ESPN to the WWE. A lack of competition causes laziness. They know they are the only option so they coast.
And Scott, you are probably right about the Fox/Fox News corrolation.
How does Jocko from 7 rank?
I don't know who Jocko is. MTJ I think you forgot one thing in your TV/Web/Radio analysis although I guess this could fit under the TV heading: the ESPN crawl line. Remember when that thing used to just have scores on it. Now I have to wait 20 minutes while the thing tells me that Charlie Weis is calling plays this weekend (who gives a shit!) to see the NBA scores from last night. This morning, Mike and Mike were talking about Weis's job security and at the same time the scroll was giving the quote from the AD at ND.
That's a fantastic point. I think ESPN News kind of took the place of the crawl thing anyway. If you want to know what's going on, flip to that, or sign online and check it out. It's straight from the department of redundancy department.
Do you guys remember the good ol' days when SC was actually fun to watch? No segments on NASCAR, or the funny looking guy who speaks broken english about soccer for the Deportes slot. I wish SI would have station and compete with ESPN. Never happen, but someone needs to take on the ABC-ESPN bully. FSN can't do it by itself.
And do you remember when each segment didn't have a sponsor, like the Coors Light Six Pack of Questions or the Budweiser Hot Seat... Their highlight packages are what takes the hit when they put all that other crap in. I remember when highlights told the story of the game... focus on that when you make your station SI
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