ESPN sucks, so do thread closers

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Still nothing official for a Dan Patrick replacement. Names that are supposedly in the running:

 

Cowherd

Tirico

Van Pelt

Screamin A.

Brian Kenny

Dan Lebetard

 

Out of that group, I'd be most happy with Kenny or Lebetard, altough I've never heard Lebetard on the radio.

[MrRant 0]

I'd be ok with Cowherd. Suprisingly Eric Eselias (I can't be bothered to look up his name right now) is much better in the morning filling in for Colin.

[Timmy8271 0]

I wouldn't mind Van Pelt, Kenny or Danny boy. Anybody but Cowheard. He's fucking horrible.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I'd be ok with Cowherd. Suprisingly Eric Eselias (I can't be bothered to look up his name right now) is much better in the morning filling in for Colin.

 

 

Kuselias was awesome on the Sports Bash, but they seem content with keeping him on that stupid NASCAR show. And as much as I do like him, he might not be good for the mass audience that DP appealed to.

 

Cowherd, on the other hand, is awful. He seems to have very limited knowledge of sports outside of college football so he tries to fill time with jokes and pop culture talk. The problem is he's not very funny or capable of sounding socially relevant. It just seems like he's trying too hard and it's extremely annoying.

 

Kenny would be the best if they are trying to keep the flavor of Dan's show. He's knowledgeable and good with guests. Would probably need a good co-host (re: not Screamin A.) to get him through three hours as he can meander a bit.

[Guest]

I want Brian Kenny to get the job. He's not afraid to play hardball with guests, has no problem with being on the "unpopular" side of issues, and he'd probably talk about boxing half the time. I'd listen.

[fazzle 0]

What about Jason Smith? He seemed to fill in for Dan enough anyways.

[JustJoe2k5 0]

The duo of Michael Kay and Steve Phillips wasn't too bad Monday afternoon in the timeslot. Of course, if they were the choices, you would be hard-pressed to hear about anything outside of baseball.

[Vern Gagne 0]

I say they go with the safe choice, and pick Mike Tirico.

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

More importantly, how is Vitale on Mike & Mike every week doing general sports when he barely knows much beyond the Yankees and Duke basketball?

Edited for accuracy.

 

He still has a job for the same reason Screaming A. Smith has a job -- they're very loud and very opinionated. Never mind whether their opinions are worth anything or not.

 

[Dukie V]Well you can say "Oh that Vitale, he's such a Duke homer" all you want. But let me tell you something, NOBODY runs a program that produces so many shinning examples of how an athlete SHOULD be than Coach K and Duke Basketball. They are trained to do things the right way, the say the right things, and act like professional men. Hey if every program was run as well as Coach K's, then the NBA wouldn't be in the mess they are in with the gangster rap lifestyle and all the other nonsense. Duke produces not just athletes, but men! [/Dukie V]

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

From biglead.com:

 

As for his replacement, we’ve now been assured from multiple sources that it will not be the guy that blew up our website, Colin Cowherd. Apparently, he had the job if he wanted it (!!), but ESPN notified him there would have to be some minor tweaks, such as less college football and less in-your-face feather-ruffling, and Cowherd balked. So does this make the leader Mike Tirico?

[Vern Gagne 0]

Not surprising they wanted the worst option.

 

 

[Vampiro69 0]

I say give it to Brian Kenny. Very Knowledgeble and possesses an engaging personality.

[Vern Gagne 0]

Why does ESPN have a comments section?

 

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

... Cowherd, on the other hand, is awful. He seems to have very limited knowledge of sports outside of college football so he tries to fill time with jokes and pop culture talk. The problem is he's not very funny or capable of sounding socially relevant. It just seems like he's trying too hard and it's extremely annoying...

To paraphrase Bobby Heenan, Cowherd needs to go back to being a second-rate Mike Golic, instead of a third-rate Jim Rome, which he is now.

 

The problem with sports talk radio personalities talking about pop culture is that most of the people who tune in to sports talk radio don't want to hear it. For reasons that totally escape me on a personal level, they actually want to hear about what Jeter hit against the Orioles last night, and whether the host thinks the Packers will make the playoffs this year...

 

The only guy that has ever really pulled that off is Kornheiser (and goddamn if I can't wait until the personal hell that is MNF is over so that he goes back on the radio), and the only reason that he can make it work is that the overwhelming majority of people that tune in to Kornheiser's radio program, like me, are people that aren't particularly diehard sports fans, anyway, and just want to listen to Kornheiser babble for 2-3 hours a day.

[Timmy8271 0]

Was it really necessary to have Michael Vick coverage on both ESPN and ESPN2 this afternoon?

[Just John 0]

Reason ESPN sucks: Kornheiser is still announcing MNF. He hasn't gotten any better since last season.

 

Although, the crew did manage to make me laugh when they were ripping Eli Manning for no reason. They were talking about Grossman being in Peyton's shadow, then someone brought up how Eli must feel, and Tirico said "Well, at least Eli gets to be in Peyton's commercials sometimes."

[Guest Soriano's Torn Quad]

The problem with sports talk radio personalities talking about pop culture is that most of the people who tune in to sports talk radio don't want to hear it. For reasons that totally escape me on a personal level, they actually want to hear about what Jeter hit against the Orioles last night, and whether the host thinks the Packers will make the playoffs this year...

 

If your hosts can bring more to the table than yelling about college football, they should, especially in your drive time slots, when you want to capture the most listeners. Sports talk radio is very much a niche format, so you need to find more listeners than your diehard sports nerds if you want to get your ratings up and bill higher. Except for WEEI in Boston, which inexplicably ranks second in the market among AM stations, your sports talk stations generally have middling to low ratings, and if they're on 50,000-watt blowtorches, as they are in Chicago (two of them!), they're underachieving for their signals. Four hours of "You guys think Kyle Orton should start?" is bad radio. There's no problem with going beyond sports in morning or afternoon drive, as long as they can. Cowherd isn't available here (maybe he is in Rockford?), so I can't judge him.

[fairtoflair7 0]

Is it me or does anyone feel like ESPN doctors the comments sections? Like on the front page, they post a comment from a user that I feel like half the time is completely fabricated and made up for show by a mod or an employee of ESPN... I find it funny.

[The Niggardly King 0]

GET THESE SHITHEAD KIDS OF MY SCREEN I WANNA SEE AROUND THE HORN

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

I hate the LLWS. Rather, I hate it's coverage on national TV. I saw it on at the gym before, yuck.

[Matt Young 0]

GET THESE SHITHEAD KIDS OF MY SCREEN I WANNA SEE AROUND THE HORN

 

I was thinking the same thing. Thankfully, it's on now.

[Smartly Pretty 0]

Greatest moment in ATH History today? I say yes.

 

Paige: No one will remember the 30 run game. does anyone remember the time the lakers won by 84!?

 

Mariotti: Yes!

 

Paige: No you don't it never happened.

[Matt Young 0]

Woody Paige > all.

[KingPK 0]

Dan Patrick was on the morning show on WEEI today. Since there's apparently a contract dispute with the current hosts (John Dennis and Gerry Callahan; their contract expires in a few weeks, IIRC), I wonder if they aren't considering him for the spot and syndicating his show across the country.

[Guest Soriano's Torn Quad]

I heard that Patrick would be syndicated too, but based out of Chicago, and possibly syndicated by CBS. I don't know if I want this. Boston makes more sense, though, because he wouldn't have to change his focus.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Greatest moment in ATH History today?

 

Not sure about that, but it's right up there. Funny stuff.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Woody choking on the confetti from one of his milestone victories was up there as well.

 

Edit: I found the

[2GOLD 0]

Woody choking on the confetti from one of his milestone victories was up there as well.

 

Edit: I found the

 

Thank goodness for youtube, I forgot all about the Woody Paige cussing moment. That was classic as well.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Can anybody tell me how to download the ESPN radio podcasts? All I can do on this site is stream them.

[Timmy8271 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CW8uUJJJcI...;watch_response

 

This is better.