I Don’t Watch SportsCenter Anymore
Remember when SportsCenter used to be a show about sports news
and highlights?
At the time when the Monica Lewinsky scandal was robbing our kids
of their innocence and the television had to be turned off whenever children
entered the room the SportsCenter host opened the show with the line, “Welcome
to SportsCenter, the only news show left on television that does not have an R
rating.” For those who did not want
images placed in their minds by the sensational American television media at
that time watching NBA highlights on SportsCenter was an escape .
Fast-forward 15 years.
SportsCenter has become the exact opposite, it has turned into a
show where sensational news stories have become an escape from watching sports
highlights and hearing sports news.
The last couple of weeks have been a perfect example of what
SportsCenter has become. An extremely
high percentage of SC’s airtime has been devoted to Tiger’s drop, a
light-in-newsworthy-stories NFL draft, the release of the NFL schedule, the
Boston bombings, and, I didn’t watch much SC this week but I am just assuming
here – Tim Tebow. Let’s break it down
story by story:
The Masters – Poor Adam Scott.
In one of the greatest finishes in a major golf tournament ever, him
winning the Masters was not even the top story, or second story. Tiger’s drop ruled the tournament. Tiger’s almost Sunday run got the 2nd
most play. If you were to ask the
average non-golf enthusiast SC viewer 2 questions about the Masters you would
definitely get one correct answer. 1) Q:
How many strokes was Tiger penalized?
A: 2. 2) Who won the 2013 Masters? A: Um…somebody
from Australia…I think.
The NFL Draft – I know a lot of guys love the NFL draft. I don’t watch it and I hate the hype. Mel Kyper breaths more hot air than anyone
else at that station. But this year’s
draft speaks more to my point than anything else – there is an absence of news
so news has to be created. Last year we
had RG3, Russell Wilson, Andrew Luck, et. al.
This year’s Geno Smith and Matt Barkley aren’t getting anyone excited
(especially us Cardinal fans who have a serious fear that one of these guys is
going to be added to our cornucopia of C- quarterbacks competing for the
starting job). So what is the lead? Manti Te’o, and the Honey Badger. One of which may be a first round draft pick, and the other didn’t even play
football last year, and both of them being lead stories for reasons having
nothing to do with sports.
The NFL Schedule – Maybe I am missing something here. The NBA playoffs are about to start, MLB is
underway and has a full slate of games, the NHL playoff hunt is really heating
up, and I have to watch NFL experts with bad fashion and even worse camera
presence talk about football games that will happen 6 months from now? I think I even saw Jason Taylor breaking down
the Patriots schedule and calling wins and losses. I realize that this speaks to the popularity
of the NFL but for me this is another case of SC manufacturing news instead of reporting
it.
Boston – I certainly do not want to downplay the horror of what
happened at the Boston Marathon. It was
another reminder of this brutal world in which we live. That’s why we love sports, to get away from
the weight and stress of life and immerse ourselves in something that doesn’t
matter yet still stirs our passions. SC
has been wall-to-wall Boston this week.
That’s not why I watch SC, I watch SC to get away from that sort of thing. If I want to follow the overzealous media
making speculations and releasing false reports I will turn on CNN, I just want
to watch baseball.
Tim Tebow – If you don’t know me personally then you don’t know
that I lived in China for years so I watched very little ESPN from early 2009
until last summer, or in SportsCenter years – Tebow’s arrival in New York. I don’t know what happened in the 4 years I
was tuned out, or maybe Tim Tebow changed SC irreparably for all time, but
since August it is a show that I can no longer watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment