Big Lead Sports Bar

9/19/2006

Reader Submission: Dwyane Wade During a Steeler Game?

While the Mondesi's House internet recovers from its outage last night, here is a reader submission on the Steeler game from frustrated Steeler fan/Mondesi Reader Cecil from Cecil Twp. My full game wrapup will be up later today. Thanks again to Atlantic Broadband for their excellent internet service.

"Dwyane Wade...During a Steeler Game?"

I cannot stand ESPN's vast over-commercialization of all things content-related. If you're gonna read an article on their web site, there's always an expandable banner ad in front of your face. If you're gonna watch something on their network, I promise you that whatever you're watching is "brought to you by Mobile ESPN."

Now they have Monday Night Football, and sadly, a captive audience of tens of millions of people were forced to sit through a commercial for ESPN/ABC's NBA broadcast package as Dwayne Wade inexplicably joined Mike Tirico and the broadcast crew in the booth during the 2nd quarter on Monday night's game.

Wade was so irrelevant a guest, he actually admitted that this Steelers-Jaguars game was the first professional football game he'd ever attended. I appreciate his honesty, but....there is no reason to have this man in the booth!

We already have to listen to one man who has no idea what's happening on the field (Kornheiser), why do we need another?

I'll tell you why. Because ESPN sees an opportunity to promote it's NBA telecasts in two non-NBA markets and across the entire country. I have no problem with such promotion occurring during a regularly scheduled commercial break. However, when I'm trying to watch Big Ben keep his bowels in proper working order against the Jaguars, I become extremely annoyed with an unwanted and unnecessary intrusion like the Dwayne Wade interview.


Yet another reason why I hate ESPN.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hate ESPN? Should I list the reasons why I hate ESPN? Here are a few-20-in no particular order.

1. Chris Berman
2. Joe Thiesman
3. Sean Salisbury
4. Neil Evert
5. Scott Walker
6. John Anderson
7. Stuart Scott
8. Michael Irvin
9. Karl Ravich
10.Dan Patrick
11. The pompous attitude of punk anchors who believe their writing is funny or cute.
12. Mark Jones
13. The guy who hosts "Around the Horn"
14. Jay Mariotti
15. Cold Pizza
16. Those clowns from Cold Pizza
17. Dan Lebatard
18. The Schwab
19. All that "Seperation Saturday" crap.
20. Anytime anyone says "Prime Time" in an attempt to immitate Deion Sanders. I really hate it when Berman says it.

Anonymous said...

here's a few you forgot..

21. Skip Bayless
22. Woody Paige
23. Budweiser Hot Seat
24. ESPN movies
25. ESPN Mobile
26. The ESPYs
27. Jason Whitlock
28. "The fusion of sports and entertainment"
29. ESPN Hollywood
30. Every segment on their show is a game: "Fact or Fiction", "5 Burning Questions", etc.

Anonymous said...

31. They cancelled "Playmakers".

Anonymous said...

I agree D Wade was not neccessary. I must admit, i was impressed by him. He was well spoken, he talked about football related stuff, {his relationship with Big Ben} and overall a gentelman.

My least favorite thing about ESPN is that they name every week of college football games, and they do this for college basketball as well. The first commentor already mentioned this as #19 on his list, but i had to second that.

Around the Horn is and has always been a terrible show.

I hate what they did to the fastest three minutes, they should go back to using regular highlights, instead of the crap from last night.

They also need to bring back NFL Prime Time on Sundays between the 4pm games and the night game.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see I'm not alone in my bitter hatred of ESPN.

Geez, I can remember a time when I absolutely LOVED to watch ESPN 24 hrs a day.

Of course, that was long before the likes of:

32. Bowling Night
33. Paintball
34. They dropped the NHL.
35. Dream Job
36. ESPN: The Weekend
37. Mike Greenberg
38. HU$TLE (though unintentionally hilarious!)
39. eoe
40. They got into bed with Jim Rome.
41. They broadcast poker 22 hrs/day.
42. Stephen A. Smith
43. Stone-Cold, Lead-Pipe Locks
44. Segments with people screaming at one another
45. John Kruk
46. The Sports Guy
47. Scoop Jackson
48. Jason Whitlock
49. Digger Phelps
50. ESPNZone

About the only thing any good on ESPN anymore is third year sideline reporter ERIN ANDREWS.

Grrrrr.....

Sean said...

I like Wade and I thought he was OK. I just didn't understand why he was there. It would make sense if the Steelers were playing at Miami, but Jacksonville is at least 6 hours from Miami.

Anonymous said...

I remember when they used to show a TON of good shit on ESPN Classic.

Now it's "Hey, let's capitalize on the Texas Hold 'Em poker craze real quick before it dies by showing non-athletes compete in a non-sport for 15 hours straight!"

That, and the fact that they sign Skip Bayless's paychecks pisses me off!

Anonymous said...

Are sideline reporters like wide receivers in that they blossom in their third year?

Anonymous said...

when i seen that dwayne wade promo i said out loud please tell me they are not going to interview him during a steelers game and sure as shit they did. why must espn shove the nba down our throats every chance they get...thank gawd i was listening to dve and just had to see wade and not here him

Anonymous said...

How much more hype can they give their pregame buildup? First you have to endure the whole computer generated piece then you have to listen to that stupid song.

Fox is no better. What in the heck is the purpose of them having that robotic looking football player jumping around all animated?

They're all trying to outglitz each other and people are sick of it. Let it be about the game!!!!

Do you know why Jaws and Vermeil were so well received by viewers? Their broadcast was about the game, not about them!!! A unique concept that ESPN has totally forgotten. Isn't it funny that this one-time team was so popular...by accident!

Anonymous said...

51. Including highlights from ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" in the nightly SportsCenter Top 10
52. The SportsCenter Top 10

As for Erin Andrews...she's been hot since Day 1. She's the "Larry Fitzgerald" of female sideline reporters.

Anonymous said...

Yes, ESPN having the elaborate pre-game animations is a bit ridiculous.

After all, ESPN Monday Night Football is really just the old crappy ESPN Sunday Night Football game package moved to one day later.

vinnie said...

ESPN is just MTV without the T & A (at least since they got rid of Body Shaping).

Speaking of which...

Check out Kiana Tom

Bert said...

On MNF, Doesn't Steve Young look like he hates being there with Irving and Berman and Jackson? They were doing that contrived "jacked up" segment and Young is sitting there with a "What the f am I doing here " look on his face.