I was amazed recently when I heard that COX cable may have to start charging for ESPN. They can have it. I thought the S stood for Sports. Apparently not. I know as an endurance athlete that I am biased in my desire to see endurance sports coverage on ESPN. Maybe nobody else is interested but some of the so called “sports” that have been aired on ESPN lately is ridiculous. I thought it was bad when they started covering billiards. Billiards is not a sport. Bowling, maybe, but that is pushing it also. The other day they were airing the world series of poker! There is notihing even remotely approaching “sports” there. A bunch of guys smoking cigars and playing cards?? The worst yet was (…and I would not have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes…), a spelling bee!!! Can you believe it? Was there not at least 1 soccer game, tennis match, gymnastics meet, track meet, road race…something approaching sports going on somewhere in the world? Apparently not… the closest thing they could find was a spelling bee!!! I’m not paying for ESPN.
There is notihing even remotely approaching “sports” there. A bunch of guys smoking cigars and playing cards??
You forgot Westminster, although I like watching dog shows.
And on ESPN2 there’s hunting and fishing. Before long, it’ll be Hands on a Hardbody. I would say that ESPN2 is worth it for the World’s Strongest Man alone. I can watch that anytime. It facinates me. I’ve always thought it would be cool to compete in one of those, only scaled down for us mortals. Maybe one for triathletes - instead of pulling planes and semi’s we could pull motorcycles. Lumberjack sports can be fun to watch sometimes, too.
What’s the worst? World Series of Poker Bowling Billiards Spelling Bee Dog show Fishing Hunting
Most boring for me to watch would be hunting, probably because it’s the only one in which I haven’t participated.
Watched the world darts championships from Britain awhile back. Portly types who play darts in the pub nightly with one hand throwing the dart and a pint in the other hand. Must admit I did enjoy it and was in absolute awe of their dart throwing skills and accuracy. But not really sport as we think of it.
For me also, but living in rural eastern Ontario saying so is considered as a sacrilege. People in this area consider shooting a deer a rite of passage and define the four seasons in the year as deer, moose, bear and patridge.
I just don’t get it. Much rather go for a bike ride than go huntin’ or fishin’.
I think the World Series of Poker was the best thing I’ve seen on ESPN recently…because I find virtually every other, uh, sport they do show to be a completele waste of time.
Disclaimer: I grew up watching Tuesday night poker games at my dad’s side.
ESPN - Everything Sucks, Pay Now
*edited to drop the “uh” in
Anyone else get sucked into becoming a fan of bull riding because it came on after the Tour on OLN???
If you watch those dog shows you realize that “Best in Show” is not really satire. GREAT entertainment value.
I heard the CEO of Comcast speak on the subject of ESPN. That network has more power than any other cable network and they 1) require the cable companies to include ESPN in their basic packages, and, 2) are hitting the cable companies with huge price increases.
Vote with your feet and send ESPN an email to let them know why!!!
I love the WSOP. The lumberjack stuff is awesome, etc.
jaylew … you just got bonus points for hyping the WSM comps. That is what most of my friends do. Here in Ill/Mich/Ill area Strongman comps (and Highland Games) stuff is getting more attention all the time. I tell these guys I could race in the clydesdale division (I weight right at 200 pounds) and they fall over laughing. To say I’m the runt of the litter is an understatement.
What’s worse than ESPN showing a spelling bee? The fact that some other station isn’t. As a teacher, I have to applaud ESPN for putting kids on tv for something other than making 25 straight free throws (or whatever), or being scouted in seventh grade. It’s embarassing that some other station doesn’t show it.
If I had to bet money, I’d bet lots of people feel the same way … but staying true to American form, they’ll bitch quite a bit, and then pay it up, b/c we cannot live without our sports. Americans … we bitch, we bend over and take it in the tailpipe, and we still pay. The cycle repeats with the “next thing” to come along.
People will complain about something like that and then go buy a $2 bottle of water. We are a funny bunch for certain.
To those that have been in triathlon so long that they cannot remember how the rest of the world thinks. Tris are boring. I don’t mean golf or world series of poker boring, I mean worse than that. Bad … like “I’d rather watch tennis” bad. The racing is horrifically boring. The human interest stories make it tolerable. It’s all about who will watch. Triathletes won’t watch, they’re out training. The Poker fans will watch. Why do they put women’s fitness compas on at noon? Because that’s when guys go eat lunch at restaurants, bars, etc … and they’ll watch.
I love triathlon training, but I tried to watch the Accenture Chi Tri, and I almost died. It didn’t have half the interesting IM footage that NBC had, and the race coverage was Zzzzzzz. It made me pray for NASCAR to come on. That’s how bad it was.
