So I take it everyone here has woken up to what the rest of the world has yet to figure out: ESPN sucks ass. The only things they can successfully produce these days are smug, full-of-themselves asshole anchors and announcers. Sportscenter used to be the highlight show of record; now it’s an unwatchable abortion comprised mostly of preening, incessantly babbling idiots. They keep giving work to a host of grating, annoying and sometimes downright incompetent commentators (Berman, Morgan, Thiesmann, etc.). And yes, since being swallowed by the Disney Reich, they’re more about cross-promotion than covering sports, giving ridiculous coverage and/or plugs to some wretched ABC show…unless, that is, there’s a cell phone they can pimp between plays/highlights.
As for MNF specifically, Tirico is competent but bland, Thiesmann is Thiesmann (that’s been pretty well covered here), and Kornheiser is funny and insightful in the right context–which is PTI (one of the few things ESPN does right these days), not MNF. Sideline reporters are utterly worthless and annoying, so naturally ESPN has not one but TWO of them for MNF broadcasts. Wonderful. And the production is so busy trying to squeeze every promo in, along with trying to find the “storyline,” that they can’t be bothered with letting THE GAME be the storyline.
It’s amazing to me that so many people continue to slurp ESPN, despite the fact that it has clearly gone right into the toilet, and has been there for years. People need to wake up to the truth: the Emperor isn’t even wearing no clothes–he’s wearing an adult diaper, and he’s shit himself.
As long as we’re bashing sports coverage in general: ABC’s Sat Night college game on Oct 14, Cal vs Oregon. ABC spent 15 minutes of game time – midway through the 3rd quarter, to midway through the 4th quarter – talking to Kirk Herbstreit in Florida, so he could yammer about that day’s action in the SEC. In the meantime, the game – the game that ABC spent good money to send their cameras ‘n’ stuff to – is relegated to a box in the corner of the screen.
Uh, guys? I’m trying to watch the game in Berkeley? Could you move the talking head out of the way?
And how, exactly, does that stop a drive to the goal line? In the middle of a drive? To show a car commercial? Oh, wait…
Then I guess my personal bitch about the NFL (and, increasingly, college ball) doesn’t bother you, but if you prefer commecials to action that’s your bag, not mine.
I have digital cable. Last time I tried to do it was a couple years ago, and the delay was similar to how you describe. But this past Monday the sync was less than a second off.
It does bring up the one failing of advanced VCR usage compared to DVR; I can’t watch the beginning of what I’m taping. If I had DVR, since the radio is slightly ahead, I could and would absolutely mess with the DVR until the sync was perfect.
Uh, what now? Last time I checked WWOR (which may have changed with the CW deal) simply pipes in the ESPN feed wholesale. It would be AWESOME if they just showed the game with the radio audio, but I can’t even figure how that would be workable. What camera feeds would they be using while the ESPN feed – which has exclusive rights – was showing the guys in the booth interviewing some schmoe?
Ugh, that was hard to watch. Kornholio sounded wouldn’t accept his place as a guy who announces sports, and decided he was going to go for nobel prize for sappy journalism instead, or something. Every 30 seconds, he’d try to give a new, rousing, deeply emotional speech, up playing a football game like it was the most significant event in human history. Ugh.
Why did I just spend 20 minutes listening to Christian Slater’s pathetic attempt at football commentary? He was not even promoting a sports movie so why the hell was he in the booth?! ESPN has officially lost me. I only have one more painful MNF experience to sit through on the 20th. After that Giants game, I am done with this horrible adaptation.
I’m a huge football fan, but I’ve been watching Heroes the last 4 weeks or so for the first quarter and a half, then tuning in off and on solely for the profootballtalk.com live blog, which is absolutely hilarious, absolutely brutal on everyone involved except maybe Steve Young.
I went to see the Borat movie tonight at the local theater - and I discovered they show Monday Night Football in a huge room on a 40 foot screen. Pretty cool - I’ve never seen a movie theather do that. The quality of the image was surprisingly good, probably due to the HDTV, because on non-HDTV stuff like commercials it looked crappyish.
I sat and watched for a half hour just to check it out, but there was nothing worth watching so I left at halftime.
I’ve been watching Heroes during the first quarter and a half, and then turning off the TV for the night. I feel so much more alive!! (Especially compared to the near-suicidal depression I felt during that Emmit Smith interview that pre-empted half a quarter of the Cowboys/Giants game.)