I'm not particularly a fan of Green but given the question I have to at least golf clap for him here.

Well done sir.

I might be able to watch MNF with the sound on again...

Report: Monday Night Football announcer Mike Tirico leaving for NBC

Skip Bayless is leaving ESPN. Seems to be headed to FS1.

So its a great day all around huh? :)

Nope!

FS1 is doing a great job of helping ESPN get rid of their awful talent.

Hopefully Stephen A. Smith is next.

The Webster to PTI's Different Strokes

News on a smaller scale, in DC Czaban and Pollin are back together for The Sports Reporters. Happy about this (Chris Cooley now has morning drive time).

At least now if a large piece falls off the ISS and crashes through the atmosphere, we all have a landing spot to root for

I miss Czaban on a national show. Kornheiser too.

Kornheiser streams and you can get the podcast on iTunes

im confident ESPN can find brand new awful talent to fill in the holes

ESPN dropping Cris Carter and hiring Randy Moss.

What are thoughts on Cris Carter? I've always liked him and think this is a dumb move by ESPN.

Ray Lewis also out thankfully. I liked Carter-was a mainstay on Mike and Mike, so not sure what they will do now. Haven't really seen Moss on TV yet, but not generally a fan of him on the field. ESPN also added Matthew Hasselbeck and Charles Woodson.

I like C.C. and I think it's a poor choice to have him move on. Surprisingly, I found Keyshawn Johnson to be better than I expected. Further, I was surprised that Randy Moss was better than I expected when I heard him on something or other. Lest you think I just like everyone, Ditka was terrible. Stephen A. is abysmal. Skip Bayless is unwatchable.

I never really cared for Chris Carter. I agree with the rest.

ESPN has so much unwatchable "talent" that my time watching ESPN has dwindled to almost nothing. Berman, Vitale, Stephen A., Ditka, Corso, Broussard, and Holtz (and probably more) give me no reason to watch their shows anymore.

Bill Simmons' "The Ringer" site went live today:

https://theringer.com/

I don't read a lot of really, really, really long articles unless I'm very interested in the topic already, but I look forward to the podcasts and HBO show. Though I don't think I need to hear Andrew Luck analyze Game of Thrones.

I don't know I feel about a "Joe Buck is Underrated" article on the first day...

Hmm... Are podcasts monetized enough to pay for him and his staff? I really have no clue.

I know one of his issues with ESPN 980 is the lack of pay for guests, which meant certain long time guests stopped coming on.

Some are wondering if this was more Red Zebra wanting him to go, that he didn't fit with the general All Redskins slant that the station has. No idea how much that might be the case.

I checked it out. I liked Grantland more or less. There were a few people there that I really liked to read and none of them seemed to have made the jump to The Ringer with Simmons. I really liked a lot of their longer pieces and found most of the TV/movie reviews to be pretty in depth and intelligent.

Based on an early review, I'm not sure The Ringer is quite there yet. Not too many of the sports related stories were that interesting. The movie reviews were short and very bleh. And, while I've been huge "Game of Thrones" fan since 1999, there's just waaaaay too much Game of Thrones stuff on there. I get it. The website is related to HBO and "Game of Thrones" is HBO's only relevant show right now, but still. It's a bit much. Though, that could be said of most of the internet and "Game of Thrones."

To be fair, there has been a lot more sports articles since Day 1. A whole host of basketball ones came up before the NBA Finals. There was one on the NFL's failure to embrace technology, one about how the Dodgers are overthinking things, and one about the future star midfielders in European soccer: Pogba and Alaba. There is a good one on Julio Jones today.

So did anyone watch "All Takes Matter" or whatever the hell it's actually called on FS1 yesterday? The Cowherd-Whitlock show? Anything noteworthy about it other than it being another "guys yelling at each other" show, only this one with bigger idiots?

It would probably be good for them to get 10% of First Take numbers, but even with that low bar, I can't imagine how it could draw that large of an audience.

Never underestimate the number of hate watchers?

I saw it's called Speak for Yourself. A number of commentators on Deadspin were rightly pointing out this is terrible timing to debut a hot take show, middle of summer.

Not far off. First episode had 94K viewers, or 11.6% of yesterday's PTI audience.

I originally posted this in the Joe Buck thread but it is stuck in the archive...

This felt like the appropriate thread to ask if anyone saw Bill Simmons new HBO show?

I'm a fan of some of Simmons stuff... Love the NFL podcasts especially the cousin Sal, like his takes on sports stuff on Twitter, ignore NBA and Boston rants. All that said what a heap of shit that first show was. It's like he has wanted to cuss for so many years that he just let it all loose like a freshman girl at her first frat party. The bits were terrible, the cussing was out of place, the set was just odd, and I stopped the Afflack thing about twenty seconds in. Anyone enjoy this?

I'd call myself a fan of Simmons and agree that show was awful. I'll still watch another couple episodes to let them hit their stride but otherwise I will stick to the Channel 33 podcasts which I have been really enjoying.

I did not see it.

There's good Simmons, and there's annoying Simmons.

Simmons and Ben Afleck going off on how unfair the world has been to poor Tom Brady? That is some nuclear-weapons grade annoying Simmons right there.

Hopefully, with some of that out of his system, the show will pick up.

His real talent seems to be in attracting and leading talented people. You can't pay him as much as HBO is paying him and not give him a show. But I think that his real value to HBO in not in front of a camera.

I caught the first episode, I thought it was reasonably entertaining. I agree that the swearing seemed unnecessary. I thought the 'bits' were basically lame, but those might improve over time (or get scrapped for something else). I really enjoyed the Barkley interview. Affleck was silly, but I found it enjoyable enough in a 'good grief this is so over the top' kind of way.

I agree with albion's last point. Whether that is $7MM-9MM in value, who knows. Obviously they're paying him a ton but the rest of the costs associated with it would be pretty low. I don't think they'd let him do it forever if it sucks, but they're not risking much by giving him a half hour on a Wednesday night.

I consider myself a fan even though I now find him more annoying than anything. I think it's based on being "with him" forever and now I laugh at (laugh at him, not with him) how his current mindset in his mid 40s and as a multimillionaire still matches his mindset back in the day - which at the time matched my mindset as an 18-22 year old.

It's just entertainment. It's why I like him on podcasts 95% of the time still, because I'm doing something else while listening - exercising, commuting, food shopping, etc. But I have no real desire to sit and watch him be himself for a half hour on a Wednesday night.

I just can't believe those topics are how he chose to launch his show. If it was someone else hosting, he would have KILLED the guy for coming out with a take that already had been beaten to hell two days later. Much less, another segment focusing on something that the country has been sick of for months.

He got a lot of rough reviews and I can imagine it would have been much worse if everyone wasn't as focused on Affleck coming across as such a nut.

Affleck had to be drunk while that interview was going on.

The ESPN:The Body issue is really getting annoying. I'm not a prude, but I also don't want to login and see Connor MacGregor's bare ass in the middle of the page FFS.

some of us might :)

:thumbsup:

Would you be complaining if it was a hot woman?

Would you be complaining if it was Vince Wilfork. Cause I am.

Which also brings up the point of why does SI do a "Body Issue" or "Swimsuit Issue"? Is it a sports magazine or a men's life magazine which mostly talks about sports?

Hey, why Bill Gates still making magazines?

My issue is that every picture and portfolio is essentially the same 3 or 4 poses, which just adds to the redundancy. If you want to show the human body, show the human body. Lemme see Mike Trout in a wide open stance about to hammer a fastball with his dingle hanging out. Lemme see Paige Van Zant trying to lock in an anaconda vice with the groceries on display.

Haha I was going to post about the body issue stuff. I don't care if it's men or women, but when I want to spend a few minutes on break at work looking at some news, don't really want those showing up.

It is a "begging anybody to click on this link or {gasp} buy a hard copy" magazine. A bunch of people are going to complain about it and two hundred more are going to look to see what all the fuss is about.:D

hxxp://www.espn.com/blog/ombudsman/post/_/id/723/espn-loosens-standards-with-treatment-of-body-issue-photos

I guess we are all oldies cause we object to seeing nudity where you wouldn't expect to see it.

Flipping through the channels today, I passed through FS1 and saw Colin Cowherd doing his radio show. This is the first time I heard or saw his radio show since he left ESPN. It is also the first time I noticed Cowherd at all since the opening of the college football season last year when I saw him on the pre game show. To be fair, I was not a big Herd fan when he was at ESPN, so I would not go out of my way to find him like say Bill Simmons or Dan Patrick among ESPN alums. Just a bit surprised at my "Oh yeah, he does do a radio show" reaction.

Add Chris Broussard to the list...word is he's leaving for FS1.

Yea Cowherd moved to LA and now does a morning show for one of LA's biggest sports channels. He follows former direct competitor DP here. I think his show is also played in other markets (like DP), but probably nowhere near as numerous.

According to Sauces

HBO is cancelling Simmons' show. One more is airing Wednesday.

I feel like a dick for smiling when I read that. But not too much.

Not really surprised. It was kind of a snooze fest without anything all that interesting going on.

I outright smirked, so I figure you're good.

I straight up laughed and have no regrets over it.

*shrugs* he doesn't play well with the camera. He plays well with the instant take, like you're talking to your "Boston-sports-loving pop-culture-obsessed friend on the next barstool over".. (and that got watered down a bit when he made it so big)

Or he's a fairly shitty journalist who's style was endearing to the right group at the right time and he rode that popularity with the help of a cavalcade of people more insightful and interesting than himself.

Six of one, half dozen of the other. :)

Ditto.

Maybe ESPN was not the #1 problem in that relationship.

ANNOUNCER BEEF!

Cris Collinsworth Laid Into Bill Simmons On Twitter | The Big Lead

What is funny there is I think Simmons is actually right.

Simmons actually seems like a pretty big Collinsworth fan. And that tweet didn't seem that offensive at all. Surprised that Collinsworth felt the need to respond like that. Maybe it's just a "no publicity is bad publicity" sort of thing.

I sure hope ESPN gets over their fascination with politics & controversy sooner than later. Their web page front/headlines has more drama than sports for the past several weeks and it's really getting past tedious.

Several major sports are already barely interesting enough for me to even follow by checking scores, the last thing that behooves me OR the sports OR ESPN is for me to find even more characters that I find utterly unlikable.

Well, these days it's pretty easy to check scores on an app, so they are likely doing what they can to get page clicks to make money.

Not from my #$%@#$ desktop while working it ain't.

(not bitching at you, just at them)

edit to add: Plus, I'm not looking for scores by & large at 2pm on a Tuesday. But I'd like to able to check the headlines (the modern equivalent of the old morning sports page) without being forced to deal with the urge to strangle people for something that has no bearing on actual sports.

I have to say - I haven't checked ESPN for any headlines for a few years now. Typically I'll go there on Saturday/Sunday to get caught up on football scores, and that's about it.

I think I'll be the last person in the world willing to admit I like both ESPN.com and Bill Simmons. Not the Ringer though. That place is a little much. But I still find the blog-style format of the individual ESPN.com sports section the easiest way to keep up with things casually in the shortest amount of time. I've never adapted to twitter, I don't want to hear about all things all day, I want to mostly have my little 10-minute sports breaks and 10-minute news breaks.

I'm with cuervo. I go just to look for scores. I'm sure there are some folks who go for headlines, but I think that's a shrinking breed. I wonder if folks like you, Jon, are just too small for ESPN to cater to these days.

If anyone needs a good app, I highly recommend theScore. Easy to get scores/stats from games and their headlines are much more sports oriented.

+1

+2. ESPN tends to freeze on my phone, theScore works without incident.

It's certainly a possibility.

In which case I'll shake my fist at them.

I am with you with ESPN and Simmons in general. There are just times when he gets a bit too sensitive for a guy who takes a lot of shots at others.

Barstool Sports may be off the radar for many here but they seem to be exploding as a brand. This is following their launch of a daily 2 hour Sirius show this week:

PRESS – Comedy Central and Barstool Sports Greenlight The Barstool Rundown Live From Houston Nightly Telecast Week | Comedy Central Press

Checked in on the Herd show. Rob Parker is on FS1 now. Who knew?

Not me. Then again I don't know who Rob Parker is.

Time to officially shut down Deadspin when they get worked by Ted Cruz and it forces their EIC into a Twitter meltdown.

Ted Cruz told to eat shit despite Grayson Allen joke

The Deadspin EIC Challenging Twitter Haters To Fights In The Octagon Is An Incredible Internet Moment - Barstool Sports

I thought whoever was running the Ted Cruz account made a pretty funny joke... Deadspin would've been wise to just let it go.

Brent Musberger's final play by play duties will be Jan 31, UGA vs Kentucky basketball.

His best work is certainly behind him but his part in the groundbreaking NFL Today would have made him part of sports broadcasting history if he'd done nothing else.

Really? Surprising since his firing came after comments involving your former starting QB.

Rob Parker fired by ESPN after RG3 comments | NFL | Sporting News

Well they're not my team, I'm an Eagles fan. And while I try to listen to DC radio as I'm more or less in that market, I can't pick up 980 after dark, which means I can't really listen in the car during the winter.

And I pretty much never watch any of the ESPN shoutfests.

When Ted Cruz hands you your ass on social media, you are best to just let it die quietly.

Before going to ESPN Rob Parker worked for the Detroit News for 8 years. He got fired from that gig after asking then Lions head coach Rod Marinelli whether he wished his daughter had married "a better defensive coordinator." The Lions defensive coordinator was Rod Marinelli's son-in-law.

Rob Parker is, always has been, and likely always will be, an ass.

Does anybody watch any of these?

I mean, I don't mind PTI from time to time, but that's it. I find the rest of these shows completely unwatchable.

I am incredibly annoyed that the new Stephen A Smith and Max Whoever show is on ESPN at 11 am. That's when I go to the gym. I don't want to watch them when I on the treadmill, or whatever similar shit show is on FS1 at that time. And I don't have that many viewing options.

I think that's a perfectly fine call out.

The 30 Most Powerful Talents in Sports Media Today | The Big Lead

Perfect for this thread.

The top three of that list... smdh.

Jim Rome not even being mentioned seems pretty laughable.

I was standing behind Bill Simmons in line to get concessions at a Clippers game last week. He was dressed like a 40-year-old guy trying to get into a club. I think California's changed him.

I've always given him credit for not pretending he isn't famous and that he does not enjoy being famous. His persona started with the whole I'm-just-a-common-fan-like-the-rest-of-you. And I can see that there would be a temptation to try and continue that persona even as he started hanging out with people like Tom Brady and Magic Johnson. Kind of a Jenny from the Block sort of thing.

But he didn't. He still has that highly autobiographical style, but now it's things like "Me and Tony Kornheiser were trying to decide whether to invite Jon Hamm or Mike Tyson to come to dinner with us last night." So he's going to dress like a California rich guy at the Clippers game. But, since he is a California rich guy, it all kind of makes sense.

Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless have their own show, I see. If they would add Broussard and Adam Shefter to it, they could really call it the Shit Show.

In unsurprising news:

Brent Musburger admits he once bet on a game he broadcasted

He told that story on Pardon My Take a couple weeks ago.

edit: Damn it. I mean, "Pardon My Take had this two weeks ago".

Sportsdigs had it two weeks before Pardon My Take.
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Come on, you knew that was coming.

http://deadspin.com/report-radio-hos...-2m-1800675539

NY radio host and partner of Boomer Esiason arrested for multi-million dollar fake ticket scam.

Some big local news:

WFAN’s Craig Carton arrested on federal charges, official says | Newsday

Ha beat out.

I noticed he wasn't on this morning, but they didn't mention anything about this. Given this is the FBI and likely federal charges, he's pretty well fucked.