Bloggolalia: ESPN Dilemma Solved!

The good folks over at Awful Announcing are still in shock over the top ESPN features this year. Specifically, Who's Now, the ESPN summer tournament used to vote for the most "now" athlete of the year, was the most searched-for item on ESPN.com's web-site. AA isn't the only one confused and/or annoyed by ESPN. Will Leitch of deadspin.com wrote a 304 page book titled "God Save the Fan" that describes ESPN as thinking its viewers are stupid. And many other bloggers have opined on ESPN's supposed stupidity, mediocrity, or poor taste.

I think the answer to all this blogger angst is quite simple. Before bloggers complain about ESPN, most of them begin by telling us how much they liked ESPN from 1994-1998 or so. Doing a little fancy math on my fellow bloggers, that was when they were teenagers or early college students. And that right there may be the answer: ESPN's content, outside of its live sports announcing perhaps, is mainly FOR TEENAGERS AND COLLEGE STUDENTS. Look at the Who's Now voters; it's the young folk that loved that topic. Neil Best sums it up nicely here. So what does that say about your ESPN angst, fellow bloggers? It appears that what we have is a bunch of elderly blogger 20-somethings and 30-somethings telling the kids to get off their lawn and stop playing their loud music on them there I-Pods, heh. I wonder, is ESPN that different from a decade ago? Or is it you who changed and got older? Yes, I'm baiting you, but prove me wrong.

Bryant Young's Last Play

Did anyone else see Bryant Young, the San Francisco 49'er, play his final down ever against the Browns? He got hurt and fell to his hands and knees...and then tried to crawl on his hands and knees toward Derek Anderson to sack him! This in a game where the 49'ers had nothing to play for, where the Browns had already all but clinched the game.
Bryant Young didn't sack Derek, but I was affected by his effort. I would love to be that kind of finisher in life. Even if I can't walk any more, still being on my hands and knees, crawling toward the target...it's a great inspiration for 2008. Bryant, even if the announcers didn't really notice, and no one replayed the highlight on ESPN, I saw it. Way to finish your 14-year career strong!

Linkstigation: SportsAgentBlog.com

The SportsAgentBlog.com site turns two today, and I wanted to give them some credit. Darren Heitner had the goal of wanting to be a sports agent, and he fiercely pursued increasing his knowledge of that career via his blog. Now, he's attracted quite a following and become an authority on the topic. That's the type of independent blogging I like to see, so I recommend you go check out his site.

While I'm naming names, don't forget about some of my favorites this year as you set your blog-reading habits of 2008:
http://www.theserioustip.blogspot.com
http://www.stopmikelupica.com
http://www.cobrabrigade.com
http://www.yaysports.com (now with Who Shot Mamba trailers!)
http://www.babeslovebaseball.com
http://dwil.wordpress.com
http://thestartingfive.wordpress.com
There are many more I could link to (look on the right at my links), but that's a good start! I have accumulated some new blogs I want to link to as well in the future: for now, check out http://kluvsthisgame.blogspot.com/, featuring lots of West Coast sports and entertainment pictures and video.

MCBiasInterviews: The 2 Michelles

For a while now, I've admired the work of The 2 Michelles , two ladies named Michelle and Michelle who are enthusiastic fans of the Miami Dolphins. They had the idea to attend EVERY Dolphins' road game this year, and posted videos from each game on the Miami Dolphins web-site! Sadly, they picked a year where the Dolphins team has struggled to win games. But the ladies still cheer vigorously for their team, and it's fun to watch.

Anyway, I thought it was great that some bloggers were actually (1) producing quality sports videos and (2) getting those videos posted to an NFL team's site--impressive! I asked these superfans for an interview, and got 30 minutes of video-tastic goodness for my interview questions. I decided to just post a shortened 7 minute version for now, and post the full version at a later date. See below for the video and a guide for what's on the video!




Video Guide
0-1:56 How the 2 Michelles got the idea to go to all the Miami Dolphins’ road games.
1:56-3:32 How do the 2 Michelles stay excited about the Dolphins even while the team is 1-14? Plus their favorite traditions and cheers.
3:33-4:32 Which NFL team’s fans treat visitors the worst? Sadly, my suspicions were confirmed on this one.
4:33-6:38 Do other fans hit on the 2 Michelles? This answer surprised me; let me know what you think in the comment section.
6:39-7:17 Ending

Thanks 2 Michelles!

Class Bias: Derek Anderson Gets Coal for Christmas

I am annoyed by how yesterday's Browns loss is being spun by several writers to suggest that Brady Quinn should be starting instead of Derek Anderson, or that Brady Quinn is the QB of the future. Derek came from Oregon State as a low draft pick. Brady came from Notre Dame as a high draft pick. Thus, it seems to me that writers will always support Brady first. It's class bias; the blue-collar guy will always come up short compared to the big name from a big school.

The article that most annoyed me is the normally very well-informedMichael David Smith from the Fanhouse. He starts the article by stating

In the Browns' first nine games, quarterback Derek Anderson had 20 touchdowns and nine interceptions. In the last six games, Anderson has eight touchdowns and nine interceptions.

There's no question that Derek Anderson, like many first-year starters, has gotten a little less effective as the league got used to him. But the numbers that MDS presents are biased. Before the Bengals' game, if you took Derek Anderson's numbers from the last 6 games, Derek had 9 TD's and 5 interceptions. Those are not the numbers of a struggling QB! But toss in Derek's awful game from yesterday, and now MDS can write a post about how Derek is struggling and how the Browns should look at Brady Quinn. This is only possible because of MDS's cherry-picking statistics.

And what about that terrible loss to the Bengals' yesterday? Lost in all the boo-hoo-ing about Derek Anderson was the performance of Carson Palmer. Buried deep in the ESPN.com recap, here's what Carson Palmer had to say:

Like Anderson, Carson Palmer also struggled with the gusting wind, going 11-of-21 for 115 yards with two interceptions and one touchdown.

"I never really got a good sense of which way it was blowing," Palmer said. "It was really swirling. It was an ugly game, and a tough one to play in if you're trying to throw the football."

Where was that quote in stories about DA's poor performance? How about mentioning that the conditions were so bad that a Pro Bowler like Carson Palmer, playing with a lead the whole game, couldn't complete 50% of his passes on the same field? (For the record, Derek Anderson completed 60% of his passes on Sunday). How about mentioning that Carson Palmer turned in a QB rating of 44.8, the second-worst of his career according to Bengals.com? And that he put up these poor numbers against a suspect Browns defense? No, that shouldn't be mentioned in stories about Derek Anderson; that might give the stories context! That would take away opportunities to post pictures of Brady Quinn!

All right, I know it's Christmas Eve, and I should go easy on my blogger brethren. MDS is usually an excellent blogger, and he certainly isn't the only one to take the "Derek sucks" approach to the story. Munilot.com took a similar angle, as did the ESPN write-up and Mary Cabot Lodge of the PD in a radio interview. And yes, Derek did have a terrible game. But I hate the implications that the last 14 weeks, in which Derek played well, are worthless just because of one bad game. Here's the stat that matters to me about Derek Anderson. In the second half of games this year, he has thrown for 13 TD's and 4 INT's. And that includes yesterday's game! Think about that, Browns fans and sports writers, before you start calling for Brady Quinn.

Bill Simmons Week: Who's the Next Bill Simmons?

Wait, let me first gargle with Draino for the similarity of that title to AJ Daulerio's work on Deadspin. It's not like I needed my taste buds anyway. I was wondering the other day, are there any sports bloggers who, like Simmons, could come off the Internet bench and immediately gain a large following at ESPN? I put together a top 3 list.
1. The Cavalier from Yaysports.com ESPN loves cartoons and multimedia in general, and The Cavalier's humor is PG, so it would be a great fit. Plus, The Cavalier's essays are pretty funny, too. I could see this working, as long as they didn't force The Cavalier to hit a certain word count.
2. Matt Ufford from The Prelude. Yes, I picked that particular site on purpose. Although some of the humor on WL and KSK would be banned at ESPN, I've been quite impressed with the football column he has on AOL's Fanhouse. I think he could balance the funny and serious nicely.
3. NOIS Sports Blog. Oh, I know, you're already telling me he'd be too controversial because of the race issue. But why should he just limit his gifts to race topics? I'd love to see a serious-sounding editorial about whether Romo's dating of hot women makes him less able to properly throw a football, or claiming that George Mitchell's report is biased against baseball players.
What's your list? By the way, Bill Simmons Week dies a terrible death today; let's not talk about my sense of timing in programming this against Christmas, ok? Check back tomorrow for a video interview.

Bill Simmons Week: Yup, this is our Bill Simmons!

For years, I wondered why Bill Simmons' writing can switch from bad to good and back again so quickly. Then I realized that the same trend repeats itself year after year. Here's your Bill Simmons Popularity Scale; does it look right to you? Click to enlarge.