About That Whole ESPN Radio/Scott Van Pelt Thing

Monday, July 16, 2007



Thanks to commenter Bruce I learned that AA was mentioned on The Dan Patrick The Scott Van Peezy Show on Friday. And while I wasn't going to throw up a post just for that audio I think I need to convey something to Scott Van Pelt and others at ESPN (since I know they're reading).

The reason SVP mentioned AA (and KSK) was a tease for his next guest, Will Leitch. Will did an excellent job on an interview that wasn't exactly a "comfortable situation". There was one part of the conversation that struck me as odd, and it was right near the beginning of their talk.

Here are the two clips. The Blog talk (AA and KSK) comes at the end of a Jim Rome like rant on Soccer and the first clip, and the Deadspin interview is the 2nd.

ESPN Radio #1 and ESPN Radio #2

"...I don't mind being poked fun at, and I have been and that's okay. At the end of the day we're still trying to do our job, and we think we represent the fans and do the best job we can. Could we be better...absolutely we could be better. But I guess the question I'd ask to you and your commenters that just fire away as if they...they act as if they would be better off if there were no ESPN. I just don't see how they would be better served with some place to tune in and find out something that happened in the Sports World."- SVP
First of all, Will had to of loved the intro via the band Boston....that's just good music there.

Second....Scotty, the reason you are one of the more liked people on the network is because you don't mind being poked fun at. You took the whole "Phone Call" fiasco in stride and are brave enough to talk about it on National Radio. We've ALL done something like that before....hell I asked out the Awful GF with a text message. You just laugh at yourself and then move on. It sucks to be a guy at times, and that girl is a _______ (fill in the blank) for releasing the message to the masses.

Third, and most importantly...this is what you MSMers (Mainstream Media) don't get about our hatred/disdain/anger towards ESPN. It's not because if there were no ESPN as you rhetorically asked we'd be essentially lost without it. Of course we would....you show probably over 50% of the games on television. It's because you make yourself and your network come first over everything. The game, the coaches, the players....and now....every other Sports Medium.

What you don't understand is that we're not making fun or getting angry at the games you cover (for the most part). Well I do, but I have a special sort of niche. It's all of the extracurricular crap that goes along with the network. It's the Budweiser Hot Seat, it's Who's Now, it's the Desperate Housewives interviews in the booth, it's the Stu Scotts and Chris Bermans, it's well....the list goes on and on. It's all of that nonsense that makes some of your programming unwatchable.

People of the Blogging Generation grew up with ESPN being a pioneer in the Sports World. SportsCenter was a half an hour and gave you all the news for that day in a nice little package. You smiled, ate dinner, and watched a good sitcom before you went to bed. It was wonderful.

Now the ESPN Brand and it's subsidiaries go before the players and the game. That's what makes the blogging world stand up and scream. And while I know that you've just copied the MTV model, money runs the world, and you're probably not changing back....it just....to use your wording....sucks. It sucks to know that the best show on television ever will never be the same again. It sucks that I have to listen to Chris Berman do games when he hasn't said something about the ACTUAL game in 10 years.

That's why we get upset. Not everything you do is terrible and I try to bring those things to light as well. There's an ESPN Fantasy Football post coming later today that will be a positive one for ESPN. Keep doing what you're doing though Scott....you seem to "get it" (at least somewhat). Thanks for reading ESPN and read the comments......maybe once and awhile you will learn what fans really do enjoy.

P.S.- I disagree with Will on the Dump Truck and Squirrel Analogy.....what does that even mean?

Posted by Awful Announcing- at 9:20 AM

26 Comments:

Well spoken, I agree 100%.

Bitterwhiteguy said...
Jul 16, 2007, 10:40:00 AM  

Good post.

My disdain goes back to 911 and Berman showing up on ESPN not to say anything about what happened or to talk about the people that died that day or heroism, but to pimp the shit out sports (ESPN) and to ensure that we don't forget sports (ESPN) and remember to value sports (ESPN) at the time where we were all questioning the place meaningless fluff (ESPN) and loudmouth opinion bullshit (ESPN) like sports (ESPN) and some network's terrible programming (ESPN) had in our lives.

Can't wait for those guests on MNF that fill time over the football game. Should be fuckin great.

E Buzz said...
Jul 16, 2007, 11:13:00 AM  

Took a lot of your-know-what to ask the question to Will at what they are doing wrong....Will blew it he had a chance to respond but did not only to make jokes. Have recently emailed Scott and he replied immediately, no big time here he is one of the real good guys at the company he reached out to you how many others have?

Anonymous said...
Jul 16, 2007, 11:16:00 AM  

I love the worldwide leader. Well, the worldwide leader of 10-15 years ago. I used to have dinner with Charley Steiner every night, and when I hit the sack, I'd turn on the Big Show. It was automatic. A no-brainer.

Now? I could give a shit about ESPN, for all the reasons mentioned.I rarely watch Sportscenter, as it's just a shadow of it's formerly great self.

As for "Who's Now," who gives a shit. It's become the poster child of all that is wrong with Sportscenter, their talking heads, and the dumbing down of ESPN in general.

Boo-fuckin-ya.

Big Al said...
Jul 16, 2007, 11:46:00 AM  

What ESPN needs to understand is that there is in fact a tipping point that exists when sports fans will gravitate to the Sky Sports News model over ESPN. Sure, we like a certain amount of flair in any kind of news, be it politics, finance, sports, or even the weather. But nobody is going to continue watching the weather channel if you can't get the forecast because of a Storm Stories marathon.

Fox Sports failed because they were trying to out-ESPN ESPN. Eventually, there will be Deadspin TV or something that will succeed being the anti-ESPN.

Trader Rick said...
Jul 16, 2007, 12:00:00 PM  

Honestly, I think that SVP is the one guy at ESPN who would address this topic in a straight, frank manner, at least within the completely understandable context that He Remembers Who He Works For.

Scrappled said...
Jul 16, 2007, 1:10:00 PM  

ESPN officially jumped the shark for me when they were the only people hyping Christian Slater. Christian fucking KUFFS Slater!!! He was shown at The ESPYS in the nieghborhood of twenty times and he has done NOTHING in 15 years!!!

GMoney said...
Jul 16, 2007, 3:46:00 PM  

i actually did not grow up in the blogging generation (im 16). But i started watching sc at 4 and it started sucking when i was 10. Since then it has become the dumb and pointless.

I am at a summer program at columbia u (bragging) and i have found the people who enjoy WHOS NOW. I hate them!!

Anonymous said...
Jul 16, 2007, 4:04:00 PM  

dear awful chief/will leitch.

Do this, make a deadspin network, have like cuban pay for it. and just have like daulerio and someone else do a sportsnews of every game in the mroning and afternoon and see if you can get ratings/make sports shows not NOW anymore.

Anonymous said...
Jul 16, 2007, 4:08:00 PM  

i actually agree that will dropped the ball here. maybe the fact that i am not him changes my pov but he had a good chance to say thigns and as anon said he just made jokes.

Anonymous said...
Jul 16, 2007, 4:16:00 PM  

Will wasn't on to get over, and he wasn't on to make some sort of Braveheart speech to rally all us poor downtrodden nerds. He was a guest brought on to have a breezy 8 minute talk about the medium. Besides, had he gone on some Olbermannesque rant don't you think someone would have pulled the plug? Deadspin is a hell of a blog, but it's not like Leitch is looking to lead a revolution.

Jul 16, 2007, 11:16:00 PM  

ed.

Will is the leader of the revolution.

http://cache.spreadshirt.com/users/255000/254228/motives/254228_1366426_big.gif

Ian said...
Jul 17, 2007, 12:19:00 AM  

i agree with Awful Chief with the fact that FSN could have trumped ESPN if it was a way different model then it is now. The "Beyond the Glory" and Best Damn shows were even worse then EOE programming. They are moving in the right direction with Final score, a thirty minute highlight show with no commentary, but they don't promote it or show it enough times during the day.

Anonymous said...
Jul 17, 2007, 1:32:00 PM  

For me the turning point in ESPN and SC as a whole was during the hype up to draft coverage when Patrick and Olbermann were still together. They had been mocking Mel Kiper Jr. pretty hard with the "Draft Expert" label and one time with Keith went to say it on air, it came out as if they turned his mike off. I don't know if they did, but the show didn't have the same edge after that and it's rapidly spiraled down ever since.

Anonymous said...
Jul 17, 2007, 2:51:00 PM  

Awesome. I can feel those fumes coming out your ears a little as the post goes along.

Jul 17, 2007, 2:54:00 PM  

While I have my own thoughts about the bloated monster of commercialism that Disney's ESPN has become, I'd just be repeating a different version of the more thought-out and well-written diatribes already voiced (here and elsewhere).

I will say, however, that I'm absolutely tickled with the idea that SVP (amongst others, no doubt) cruise the comments on Deadspin to 'take the temperature' of the viewers.

That's with a rectal thermometer, right?

Anonymous said...
Jul 17, 2007, 4:58:00 PM  

The time I decided I was through with ESPN was when I was subscribing to the magazine and the week Darryl Kile died, he got one sentence in the editor's intro, and the forthcoming ESPYs got, I don't know, eight pages or something.

That said, I still tune in to Baseball Tonight from time to time.

Anonymous said...
Jul 18, 2007, 2:22:00 AM  

I quit watching ESPN regularly quite a while ago and pieces such as the in-game celebrity interviews during MNF made it hit home what has changed.

When ESPN first started, you really got the impression that the sportscasters loved the sports they were talking about. That passion really came through. It even seemed that their passion and knowledge were big reasons they were behind the desk (not their looks or hipness -- that's for sure). As a viewer, you were spending time with people who shared your love of sports and who would even teach you a little something.

It was very sad when the whole atmosphere changed. A sports network run by people who don't actually seem to like sports...

Anonymous said...
Jul 18, 2007, 10:50:00 AM  

My #1 beef with ESPN is that they care more about stars than teams. They spend most of their time covering individuals instead of doing any kind of analysis. In fact, the only show on there that remotely resembles what you'd call sports journalism is the NFL show with Jaws and Hoge and Sal Pal that they show at 4 am. That shows you where their priorities are.

Anonymous said...
Jul 18, 2007, 11:57:00 AM  

If you all hate ESPN now and loved it back in the day then go watch Versus. Sucks right?
I don't like Around the Horn so you know what I don't watch it. I like PTI so I watch that. I don't bitch day after day about it. Berman blows, Boo Ya blows but I'm not going to watch the network becuase of it.
This site is good when they aren't constantly killing ESPN. It's like Opie and Anthony, they used to have a good show until the daily Howard Stern bashing. I left them like I'm close to doing to this site. Bashing who's on top... how fun.

Anonymous said...
Jul 19, 2007, 7:58:00 AM  

Later Anon...It was nice having you. You're always welcome back.

Jul 19, 2007, 9:22:00 AM  

I remember watching duos like these on Sportscenter, Bob Ley/Charlie Steiner, Dan Patrick/Keith Olbermann, Stuart Scott/Rich Eisen, Kenny Mayne/whoever. I guess my distaste became about when they started showing and promoting the World Series of Poker during the flagship-cast (circa 2002). I counted one night and out of 47 minutes air-time, they only did about 15 minutes of highlights. I also hate when they'll do "Sportscenter at the ____________" and try to re brand the program. Its just disgusting, and I drank a couple of more shots when I heard they re-signed a deal with the NBA.

Anonymous said...
Jul 19, 2007, 11:29:00 PM  

and i'm a different anon. btw

Anonymous said...
Jul 19, 2007, 11:30:00 PM  

GMoney,

The reason Christian Slater got so much face time at the ESPYS wasn't because they were trying to hype him, but because besides Sam Jackson and Ashley Judd, he was the biggest name they had there!! Blame the producers of the show for not getting better talent there, not the network. Plus, I heard they were desperate to get someone to do the voice over he did, so that was probably part of the bargain.

Anonymous said...
Jul 23, 2007, 4:04:00 PM  

I actually have a tape of the last time Olberman was on SC. Yea, I was always a huge sports nerd. For some reason when I was like 12 (no clue how long it's been actually) I thought this was like some monumental occasion that I needed to be able to remember for the rest of my life. Anyways, it's amazing to actually be able to see the difference between the show from then to now. I wish I knew how to upload a VHS to the computer just to be able to show it.

Anonymous said...
Nov 21, 2007, 12:04:00 AM  

The thing is, there is a world where you can get everything you need in 30 minutes, and it's on ESPN. ESPN News that is. All you need without the fluff.

Anonymous said...
Nov 21, 2007, 12:07:00 AM  

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