Stewart Goes Off On ESPN Again (So Does Everyone Else)
Sunday, August 05, 2007
I really tried to watch NASCAR on ESPN today, but the commercials kept getting in the way. I would change the channel and start to get into the race, but talk of "Dirty Air" would lead into one of what seemed like 8 million commercial breaks.
I thought I was just being an ESPN hater until my Inbox started getting flooded with anti-ESPN sentiment. And just like Tony Stewart's (2nd) jab at ESPN the other day, people are pretty upset with the coverage....
There's many more that I couldn't put up because of very strong language, but you get the idea. And say what you will about NBC's coverage....at least they get viewers. Last week's ESPN telecast got 24% less viewers than last year's NBC broadcast from the Brickyard."Every time we've got to deal with somebody from ESPN it's a sharp knife trying to dig for dirt. I'm not saying they're not fair questions. Do we always have to leave with a dagger on our back from ESPN? That's all I'm curious about."- Tony Stewart
They talk about "dirty air" every 5 minutes. Its like they were told "listen we have these cool graphics ... lets keep the dirty air talk up so we can keep using there". Ive never heard the term dirty air so much in a race ever.- BG
I watched the entire race and saw when Dale Jr. spun out. The thing is, he spun out because of a bad suspension set up, not because of a "blown tire" as every single mention of it on ESPN's Sportcenter and ESPN News has described it. They then show the tire, which amazingly is not "blown out" or even flat.....it had a flat spot from the from the subsequent sliding sideways. Rusty Wallace and the other announcers pegged it during the race; it's officially called a "flat spot" from going sideways, which of course was a result of the bad suspension and shocks setup. But ESPN constantly stated that his spin was because of a "tire problem", even when, during the race, it was plainly clear that Jr. was unhappy with the shocks so much that they had to take out some springs during a yellow flag pit stop. Why does ESPN misinform and misrepresent what the problem really was after the race?- WC
NASCAR on ESPN sucks! Fox does the best job covering NASCAR. The coverage on ESPN stinks, too many comercials, too many past race film clips, poor choice of commentators. I want NASCAR on FOX all season long.- BS
Suzy Kolber has an annoying voice and she doesnt know s*** about nascar. she should stick to football.- AN
I'll tell you what Double A, I caught the last half hour of coverage on ESPN, and I'll tell you what, that was some of the WORST announcing ever, I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what, Rusty Wallace is a complete moron. I'll tell you what, there would be a huge wreck on the track and he wouldn't break off his verbal diarrhea to comment about it, said that Montoya had never driven at Indy before (he won the goddam Indy 500), added a "I'll tell you what" to every single comment.- HW
The ESPN Nascar A-Team has been awful since the start of the Busch season. Punch is a boring play-by-play guy and Wallace talks to the audience like we're children. Also, anyone else notice how much they kept hyping the airflow on the cars just because they had that awful Fox/NHL-esque Draft track stuff?- JW
Not a good start at all for the "Leader".
Tony Stewart Goes Off On ESPN's NASCAR Coverage (Awful Announcing)
Not Since The Invention Of The Glow Puck, Has A Graphic Been This Distracting (Awful Announcing)
Stewart rips ESPN over NASCAR coverage (MSNBC)
6 Comments:
Well, part of the reason the race ratings fell is because ESPN is cable, NBC is braodcast, so less potential viewers. Still, I think ESPN reaches 90% of households with a TV, so a 25% drop is pretty steep.
And ESPN has once again gone and ruined a perfectly good sport like they did with the NBA. I'm surprised they haven't tried putting a camera in Barry Bonds' hat...
I am liking Stewart more and more. Not only is he a very good driver, he isn't afraid to speak his mind. I hope he keeps tweeking them. He doesn't give a shit.
That's something in the corporate world of NASCOR where if you get air time, you'd better talk about Juicy Fruit or UPS or some other suckass product.
Brad Daugherty is worthless. Why is he on the air? Cuz he's black? What about Willy T. Ribbs? He's black, and he's driven a race car.
NASCAR fans are getting a taste of the "dumbing down" of their sport for mass consumption. It's the exact same crap ESPN did in regards to soccer. The suits assume that there is a new large fanbase being introduced to the product and literally watching for the first time, so they have to "speak slowly" like we're all 2nd graders.
Hey ESPN, the people watching NASCAR on ESPN are probably already familiar with auto racing. Just a guess. You don't dumb down Sunday Night Football Disguised As Monday Night Football to appeal to novices, so don't do it for other sports!
they dumb down football...I mean, Kornheiser...
ESPN has to search for that dirt because they have to find any way to get the general sporting public interested in football.
For the second week in a row, ESPN spiked up the crowd noise when Junior (temporarily) took the lead. God, they want him to make the Chase soooooooo badly. And they're making it sound like everyone in the stands is pulling for him.
This is probably the kind of bullsh*t Tony Stewart is in part talking about