Forget The Miguel Tejada Interview, Bill Simmons Is Going To North Dakota!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
I would call for a boycott of ESPN's E:60 tonight given the nature in which they ambushed Miguel Tejada, but I don't think many people will be watching anyway. I don't mean that in a bad way, but there's just too much going on tonight (Game 7s, NBA Playoffs) to take the time to watch the show. The one thing I'm (sort of) looking forward to though is Bill Simmons' trip to North Dakota to hang with Yahoo Sports blogger Rod Benson.
One of Simmons' best storylines in his career was the exchange he started with another up-and-coming player by the name of Paul Shirley, and I'd love for this to blossom into one of those relationships. Here's the info on the piece tonight if you care via Too Much Rod Benson.....
I'm pretty sure that there will be a ridiculous amount of hype for the movement coming soon. This is what I've been holding onto for the past few days. Last week, Bill Simmons came out to North Dakota to visit me. With him came Jamie Horowitz, a senior producer with ESPN Original Entertainment, two cameramen, one sound guy, and one video editor.Bill Simmons in a Wal-Mart?!?! He hasn't had to shop since Jimmy Kimmel lent him his personal assistant to go buy his groceries and clothes for him! I kid, I kid. Sounds like an interesting look into an interesting person. The EXACT opposite of the Miguel Tejada piece!
We spent two days going around my favorite North Dakota hot spots like Wal-Mart and the Capitol building. We watched the NCAA title game and played various games, most of which I dominated Bill in. While filming, I discovered that the sound and cameramen could always hear me because I was mic'd up. So, instead of talking to other people around me, I would talk trash about the camera and sound guys into my mic. In case you couldn't tell, I really enjoy being mic'd up.
Too much Rod Benson: Boom Tho movement gains momentum (Ball Don't Lie: Too Much Rod Benson)
7 Comments:
Completely OT, but I felt the need to break this; as of May 1, Tirico will be doing his show with just SVP, and the 3-4:00 hour will be Van Pelt by himself.
Awww, poor Miguel. How dare ESPN treat a jock like the rest of society. Don't they know better? Jocks have special rights which cannot be applied to the rest of us.
Personally, if you're going to boycott, boycotting for because of the overexposure of Simmons makes more sense.
Actually, Simmons hanging out with the only black man to ever live in North Dakota sounds pretty funny.
I'm not so much against the Miguel Tejada segment as I am against the ridiculous way in which they are promoting it in the commercials. "A trip to the Dominican Republic reveals a life of deception" - are you kidding me?
It'd be nice to be able to give ESPN the benefit of the doubt and assume that they have some greater news to break than the relatively insignificant story we already know, but that's not very likely.
Agreed with omdq. Who cares that he lied about his age. Most people who came to America from that area don't know if the age on their birth certificate in 100% accurate.
I have boycotted E:60 since its inception because the whole concept is the typical ESPN overkill. Let's take Outside The Lines and sensationalize it. Wonderful.
However, I've got this DVR'd. I have been reading Rod's blog for some time now and he's hilarious. I just hope this is more about Rod than it is about "I'm Bill Simmons! I'm in North Dakota! Isn't that wacky?!"
In the E:60 commercial, they had Bill Simmons shooting hoops with the townies. Does he get any bars in that place? He could be missing out on basketball tickets.
Oh, and AA, ESPN chickened out on Ric Bucher; he switched places with Homer's Vegas Wife.
http://espnmediazone.com/thiswk_midwk/thisweek.html#D