Thread: What are your Pet Peeves with ESPN?

I don't know whether this network is even watched or available in the UK.... but it certainly has grown quite a bit over the years in the U.S. So to those familiar with the network and its programming (ahem.... Lyle), what are some of your pet peeves with the network or any of its programs or personalities? I've got a small list started, and thought this as good a place as any to put some of them down. So..... in no particular order......


1. Neil Everett and his sidekick clown.

Who the f*ck decided that ESPN needed clowns to do the sports?? I used to like to watch SportsCenter. Now I cringe every time I have to look at Neil's ridiculously smug face. Is it just me? Or is he trying to emulate Will Ferrell? Seems like in every show they try to outdo the last show with the cracks and very unfunny jokes. If I want standup, I'll tune into Comedy Central. I wish they'd kick Everett out on his lame ass.

2. Stephen A. Smith and his endless rants.

I posted on this on another thread. Who the f*ck does this guy think he is? He constantly ratchets up the volume on his rants and it won't be long before he starts calling people stupid and morons on the air. I can see the fellow sportscasters cringe when he takes the mike. Fool thinks he's the show, and is sadly mistaken. I think Paxtom nailed it on the head when he quipped that he goes by Stephen A. Smith, 'cause he'd sound less important if he went by Stevie Smith. I've had the chance to watch a little more of Stevie with Mayweather and the only remaining question on my mind is........... Does he spit? Or swallow?

3. Skip Bayless.

Where do they dredge UP these characters? This guy looks and talks like a cartoon character, complete with tinted hair, and wannabe boyish looks and expressions. He likes to play the foil to Stevie, and together it's enough to make a viewer chuck his lunch.

4. Hyping the "unhypable".

I'm all for sports. I love sports. But I like to watch sporting competitions, not boring trash. Whose bright idea was it to start televising the....... (cough)........ "World Series of Poker"?? Take that man out behind the barn and execute the shit out of him. Poker?? FFS. Now they're hyping the crap out of the NFL draft (coming up tomorrow night). Really? Team X picks Player Y. And so on and so forth. I love football and the NFL. But believe me.... I can wait until the next day and read about it in the news. Every year they want to make the event bigger and bigger. What's next..... walks on the red carpet, Oscars-style? Bah! Not too big on weigh-ins, either. But that's just my opinion. I'm sure watching two grown men strip down to their skivvies and stepping on a scale, and then standing a few inches from each other's faces is exciting to some, but again..... I can read about it later, or maybe even watch a highlight or two if there was some pushing and shoving.

5. Tony Kornheiser in Pardon the Interruption crazily waving the Canadian flag.

While the program itself is borderline obnoxious, I can sort of put up with it for a few minutes. But what's with the frantic flag waving at the end of the segment? I'd like to take the flag and shove it up the guy's ass.



I'm sure there's plenty more..... but those are off the top of my head.

...... and now Skip and Stevie are together on First Take.

If that alone doesn't peg out the nausea meter, I don't know what does.

I don't watch a lot of it up here in Canada, mostly TSN and Sportsnet, but what I do see of ESPN I have to say Skip Bayless is a cunt.

The perpetually jerking off of the Texas Longhorns

Oh where oh where to begin?

(takes out notes from coat pocket, and puts on reading glasses)

1. They bring the SMUG, all of their anchors have had it some worse than others (cough cough Britt McHenry cough cough Keith Olbermann). As bad as the anchors are, the fucking "pundits" are even WORSE!

2. They put politics in sports....two things that should forever and always remain separate. Why is the President of the United States now obligated to fill out an NCAA Basketball bracket? Again, why does the FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN President of the United States have to do that? Why would I bring up race Why would THEY?!?!? It's all they ever want to mention: There's no black owners, no black coaches, not enough this race, not enough that race, NASCAR needs to appeal to black people (which it does to some, to others it doesn't they don't all think alike! I'm white I could give 2 shits about NASCAR)...ever ask about white guys in the NBA or NFL

3. They give full coverage to and endlessly debate disgusting events while telling you how disgusting that/those event(s) is/are. See 'The Malace at the Palace', Clemens hitting Piazza in the head, Todd Bertuzzi vs Steve Moore, McSorley vs Brashear, anything Mike Tyson has done, anything Dennis Rodman has done, anything Ron Artest/Meta World Peace has done.

4. They don't cover ice hockey......EVER (though they do have the coverage for the World Cup of Hockey which I'm sure they'll fuck up). They also like to mock both hockey and soccer like they aren't sports for some reason.

5. They like to build up and tear down: Tim Tebow, Jeremy Lin, Tiger Woods, Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, Lance Armstrong....I could go on.

6. They like to strong arm teams/leagues into decisions: LA Clippers sale, trying to change the name of the Washington Redskins, keeping Rush Limbaugh from buying part of the St. Louis Rams, trying to get an NFL team in LA again.

7. They are blatantly biased, I'm a Red Sox fan have been my entire life but these ESPN newbie bandwagon jumpers are horrible. They LOVE the Yankees, Lakers, Celtics, Duke Basketball, Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers, Texas Longhorn Football, USC football, Notre Dame football (for what reason, they haven't won a title in ages!), Alabama football, Pete Carroll, Bill Belicheck, Coach K, Nick Saban, Joe Girardi, Lebron James, James Hardin, Kevin Durant, Tiger Woods, etc.

8. They'll cheer domination (sometimes) and then they'll turn around and talk about a bunch of bullshit like: running up the score, fairness, equality, self esteem....GIGANTIC double standard.

9. They push for changes in sports which they'll end up debating and explaining how those changes have destroyed the game.

10. There are no more rational debates anymore, the station has become Crossfire. 1 person may actually believe in their view but there's always always ALWAYS a Devil's Advocate who surely can't believe the bullshit they are spewing whether it's Skip Bayliss, Woody Paige, Jemelle Hill, whoever somebody will spout some absolute nonsense and they're taken at their word rather than taken out back and hit over the head with a shovel.

Originally Posted by El Kabong

6. They like to strong arm teams/leagues into decisions: LA Clippers sale, trying to change the name of the Washington Redskins, keeping Rush Limbaugh from buying part of the St. Louis Rams, trying to get an NFL team in LA again.

Good points all, Lyle. I highlighted one that has pissed me off to no end. The ridiculousness of trying to change the name of an iconic team in a major sport in America is beyond comprehension. After many glorious decades of history of the Washington Redskins.... now the PC police, supported by the numbskulls at ESPN..... have decided it's racist to continue with the traditional name. Never mind that the Redskins' logo is much more dignified than the Cleveland Indians' Chief Wahoo in baseball. Never mind that there isn't any racist intent on the continued use of the name... just tradition and history. No. Let's pressure owner Dan Snyder to change the name of the team. To what...... the Washington Native Americans?? F*ck all of 'em. I hope Snyder forever stands his ground.

Here's another HUGE pet peeve of mine.

Why in the name of holy hell is the one-billionth slam dunk in basketball a better play than a bicycle kick into the top corner of the goal?? The Top Ten Plays segment in SportsCenter is a joke. To get into the top plays while playing soccer you have to practically weave through the entire defense..... hurdle the goalkeeper..... and score while taking a selfie. Meanwhile, a 7-footer in the NBA decides to slam the basketball through the rim as opposed to using real skill and shoot it from considerable distance..... and it gets ooohs and aaahs on the top plays. Ridiculous.

On the Redskins... I'm anti PC as anyone, but I think the name should be changed given the fact that "redskin" is a true majority consensus racial slur. Compared to other minority groups, Natives seem to get the shitty end of the stick and their issues and concerns seem to go unheard. Can you imagine if there was a team in the nation's capital with a name that was disparaging to black people, and how fast that would be changed with very little opposition?

On the slam dunk thing... couldn't agree more and that's an issue that goes beyond ESPN. I'll watch an end of the year countdown and see a guy bicycle kick a ball into the net, an NFL running back break 4 tackles and run 90 yards for a touchdown, an NHL forward deke and embarrass two defencemen and score a beautiful goal on the goalie, a golfer hit a hole-in-one, ect... and then among those is a 7-foot giant jumping up and stuffing a ball into an unguarded hoop. Who cares?

The Washington Redskins name non-troversy (hehehe, look I'm like Jon Stewart) has been ginned up by guilty white liberals who are apparently not content with their ancestors wiping Indians off the map, they want to apologize by removing anything Indian/Native American from any sports team and SOME bed wetting liberals want the removal of ALL mascots and the ending of sport entirely.

Sure, there have been poor portrayals of Indians/Native Americans Chief Wahoo ain't the best look for a team mascot, but Chief Osceola is brilliantly portrayed, the Chicago Blackhawks have one of the best logos in all of sports! And in those cases Indians/Native Americans are respected, honored, and REMEMBERED....imagine a land with no Florida State Seminoles, no Blackhawks, no nothing....would we even care about Indians/Native Americans if they were less at the forefront, if they were less likely to be seen or heard from? Schools and professional teams with Indians/Native Americans as mascots are in a great position to provide a voice, aid, special scholarships, jobs, etc to those communities....but naaaaah let's just continue erasing them from history

Stanford used to be The Stanford Indian until 1970 and then it became The Stanford Cardinal....not like the bird, like the fucking color ditto Syracuse Orange. Marquette University changed it's name from "The Warriors" ooooh how evil and controversial to the Golden Eagles ....allow me to look in the dictionary right quick

Warrior: noun, a brave or experienced soldier or fighter.

.....just like I thought, fucking RACIST!


And these name changes in the name of being PC absolutely suck, Washington's NBA team went from "The Bullets" (quite appropriate if you ask me) to "The Wizards".....sparking a small little worry that Wizard is apparently a rank in the Ku Klux Klan.....are people that thin skinned AND stupid to boot?



I hate that ESPN simply doesn't get or isn't willing to understand "unwritten rules" in sports. YES a bat flip WILL incite a bean ball. YES hitting a star in hockey WILL cause a fight! YES blind siding a player in football is completely 100% legal because the player that is doing the hitting this time might be on the receiving end next time!

Originally Posted by Beanflicker

On the Redskins... I'm anti PC as anyone, but I think the name should be changed given the fact that "redskin" is a true majority consensus racial slur. Compared to other minority groups, Natives seem to get the shitty end of the stick and their issues and concerns seem to go unheard. Can you imagine if there was a team in the nation's capital with a name that was disparaging to black people, and how fast that would be changed with very little opposition?

There are plenty of people who like and support the name Redskins....among those people are many Indians/Native Americans and many people just don't fucking care. The loud vocal minority of SOME Indians/Native Americans and majority of the White Guilt Tribe can get bent because people aren't buying what they are selling.

I don't buy into the Native anger about any use of their culture. I don't see any problem with the Atlanta Braves (although Chief Noc-A-Homa was probably a bit much) or Chicago Blackhawks, I think that's more of a homage to the courage of the Natives. A lot of people find these offensive, I think they're just being overly sensitive.

I think the Redskins name is an entirely different argument though because it's universally recognized as a derogatory term. Keep the native imagery, change the name to something more respectful IMO. It's the Fighting Irish, not the Fighting Micks or Fighting Bog Trotters.

Maybe I'm in the minority (no pun intended), but I don't even see Native American Indians when I say the name Washington Redskins. It's just a team name. A very old, storied, traditional team name. Much like the Green Bay Packers, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants. Maybe back then a few narrow minds intended for the name to be offensive. But that was back then. Nowadays I seriously doubt anything offensive is intended by keeping the name. Where's it all gonna stop? I hear you Bean.... but I for one would be against changing the name.

Racism is something that goes beyond a team name. It has to do with attitudes, behavior toward others, prejudices, etc. Once we open that Pandora's box and yield to the special interest groups Lyle alluded to, it's open season on every frigging name, logo, slogan, whatever that people want to change just for the hell of it.

These young ladies constantly delaying FNF I mean I don't really mind if I miss the 4 round opening mismatch but please ladies, run faster .

Holyshit its huge

Originally Posted by Spicoli

Holyshit its huge

....well they ARE softball players