Posted July 3, 2007
Like any true sports fan, I love ESPN.
Like any sane 19-year old male, I grew up on Sportscenter. Keith Olberman, Dan Patrick and Stuart Scott were just as much of my idols as were the athletes they reported on.
Over the years, ESPN has developed its product with the broad changes in communication. They created ESPN: The Magazine and ESPN.com, which happens to be my home page.
Regardless of the medium, however, the product has always been reliable, complete and entertaining. There’s a reason why ESPN is the world-wide leader in sports, the way that they claim.
Which is why I was so abhorred at the recent interactive series Who's Now: Determine the Ultimate Sports Star. Infusing the worlds of pop culture and sports even more, the ESPN mini-series intends to determine who the hottest athlete in
The judging standards are vague and ambiguous—in watching the inaugural episode on a recent of edition of Sportscenter, considerations such as who showed up at whose party and who had made headlines in the news recently were at the center of the discussion.
A 32-person tournament composed of sports stars was drawn up, and in the process, committing blasphemy toward the NCAA Tournament with mentions of 1 vs. 8 match-ups and 4 vs. 5 battles.
For one reason or another, some executives thought that it would be cool to literally have a popularity contest between the likes of Tiger Woods and Matt Leinart, Kobe Bryant and Ronaldinho and Maria Sharapova and Vince Young.
It sounds kind of cool on paper, but come on. Does anyone actually care?
But that’s not even the worst part. ESPN hired many of its respected journalists and writers such as Michael Smith, Michael Wilbon and Kirk Herbstreit (well, not him so much) to debate the question that people have pondered for ages: Who’s hotter? Reggie Bush or Danica Patrick?
Please excuse me while I go puke.
And I understand that this kind of stuff is commonplace in the 21st century. With shows like Dancing With The Stars and The Bachelor making up some of the “best” that television has to offer, this recent ESPN series doesn’t seem all that bad.
The digital revolution has made means of communication more accessible and ready. As a result, the several realms of pop culture have a tendency to converge.
Heck, even Sports Illustrated, the king of sports writing since the beginning of time, has sections entitled Who’s Hot, Who’s Not and athlete factoids gauging their pop culture tastes.
But something needs to change. If we don’t stop stunts like this now, Shaquille O’Neal will be appearing in Avril Lavigne music videos and Matt Leinart will be dating Paris Hilton (oh, wait).
We need to stop this. Because unlike many other forms of entertainment, sports have never completely relied on pop culture and the media. The world of sports doesn’t need to associate itself on a basis of popularity and “hotness”—and shouldn’t.
A football game can captivate millions of people with its own raw energy and sheer human emotion. A walk-off home run will cause several thousands to rise to their feet not because the first baseman was dating Lindsay Lohan, but because walk-off home runs are probably the best thing since sliced bread. A buzzer beater can excite the masses not because of its implications on a cultural level, but because buzzer beaters appeal to some of the simplest human instincts: surprise and elation.
I understand that it’s inevitable for the worlds of pop culture and sports to collide—but media outlets like ESPN don’t need to force it upon the fans with a joke of a series called Who’s Now. It’s not necessary. And I’m pretty sure that any sports fan over the age of 8 years old isn’t going to appreciate it.
I’ve been watching ESPN since I was five years old and have rarely, if ever, been disappointed. The company has stood for both excellence and entertainment in the sports media industry since the day it was created.
But after viewing this debacle on Sportcenter a few days ago, the only thought that crossed my mind was: Et tu, Brute?
