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Who's Now?!

Snapshot_2008-05-09_03-11-55_tiny by SMQ on in News Comment 8 comments

Nixon nostalgia or the Stanford Tree?

vs.

Debate!

Actually, the moment is increasingly dominated by the spirit of the revolt, as the much-loved, quasi-subversive art of ESPN broadsiding appears to be reaching its critical mass, its "tipping point," if you will, highlighted this weekend in fine snipes by the grassroots and Southern and the mainstream and metropolitan alike (two guesses which makes the more eloquent, deep-thinking case).

I had the opportunity Monday to watch the debut of the Leader's new college football show, one I've cynically previewed before, but I forgot about it until a blog reminded me it was on. That pretty much sums up the situation: outside of actual games, ESPN is dead to me.

So much so, in fact, the blog's laying down its first hard vow of the season:

I, Sunday Morning Quarterback, do herewith resolve to avoid all programming on the Worldwide Leader, aka ESPN, and its affiliates, up to and including ESPN the Magazine, ESPN Mobile and any of its various ESPN Zone bazaars, excepting the broadcast of actual sporting events presented live! or in the nostalgic "classic" format.  Games are cool, even old games.

Yes, the 2007 season shall be Leader-free. That means no SportsCenter, no NFL Live, no Pardon the Interruption, no Stump the Schwab, no Sports Reporters and, most painfully, no Edge EA Sports NFL Matchup, all regular viewing in my quarters. These are the sacrifices one must make for the greater good.

One question I do put to readers: is an exception allowed for Gameday and other college football studio shows? I'm thinking especially here of the highlights from Gameday Final. Would extending the boycott to college football paraphernalia undermine SMQ's ability to cover the sport's hidden gems and idiosyncratic glories? I'm  committed to cutting the Leader's banal influence from my own to the greatest extent possible, but what do you think?

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Gameday Final ought to be exempt
There's certainly no merit, whether artistic or intellectual, to any pre-game college football shows. As the Saturday studio shows go, since they feature a significant amount of gameday action that you'd be otherwise unable to access, they ought to be exempt. You could provide a rule that there will be no WWL except for games and highlight shows between 12:00 PM Saturday and, oh, 2:00 AM Sunday.

You will definitely not miss SportsCenter and the related shows.

by Oops Pow Surprise on Jul 24, 2007 12:38 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Exempt...
...it can be an essential source of highlights and a place to take notes about stuff that'll appear shortly on YouTube.
Roll Tide

by Roll Bama Roll on Jul 24, 2007 1:07 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Have fun with the Big Ten Network and the mtn
What about when Southern Miss is on the WWL channels?  Is that exempt?

by Coke Zero on Jul 24, 2007 1:12 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Highlight shows
You could still get all your highlights from other networks such as the various RSN's and, um, well, that may be it.

Also, Coke Zero, he specifically mentioned that the games themselves are allowed.  Maybe he should turn his head and plug his ears during 30 at 30 and SportsCenter In-Game updates though.

by CStiger on Jul 24, 2007 2:34 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Yes: actual games are exempt
Halftime will be a killer, though. Maybe there's a compromise, like I have to turn the sound off, or put it on closed captioning.

And YouTube should be in high gear this season, RBR. I expect to use it a lot, if fans are as upload-happy as I expect them to be.

by SMQ on Jul 24, 2007 3:00 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Oh, not Matchup!
I fully support your movement to divest yourself from the worthless fluff that the WWL fills its airwaves with... um, with which its airwaves are filled... but you absolutely cannot include Matchup in that list. If you're going to watch the games, you ought to also watch the only substantive program that the WWL produces. And the fact that it's only on at 5am Sundays should be proof enough that it's a product the WWL (is trying to kill) would rather go without, and we should therefore give it all the support we can muster.

Again, watch the games. Check out the highlights shows. Put your fingers in your ears and sing the 'LA LA LA' song whenever they go back to the studio. But you absolutely must NOT give up on the only program of any value on the channel.

by r3 on Jul 24, 2007 5:29 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Who does it hurt to not watch the GOOD stuff?
No offense, but PTI is probably the best show out there.  Granted, it spawned a host of shoody imitators and further fueled the WWL's idea that it should be pushing loud arguments down our throats, when they completely misjudged the reason why the show is good, but that said...Wilbon and Kornheiser have easily the most genuine sports show going.  And stuff like OTL or Edge -- oops -- EA NFL Matchup -- are fortunately largely exempt from the nonsense that populates most of the rest of the network.  Do we really want to encourage people to even turn off even the rare shining lights on ESPN?

by Beatuofa on Jul 24, 2007 8:30 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

ESPN Boycott
The 6 o'clock Sportscenter is unbareable.  Horrible, terrible, atrocious, awful, horrendous, and horrid.  I can't put up with their crap.

I think SMQ is doing the right thing.  I think I'm going to follow suit since I'm so sick of the World Wide Leader.  Although Saturday college football games, College Football Live, College Gameday, and College Football Final are all exempt for me.

Go BLUE!

by Eric080 on Jul 29, 2007 9:49 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

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