Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Over the last few weeks, there have been more problems than solutions it appears with ESPN. The announcers and communicators on the network are getting so much negative attention that it takes away from other good things with the network. You can start with Rob Parker’s comments about Robert Griffin III and Brent Musburger basically drooling over A.J. McCarron’s girlfriend during the BCS Championship Game.
Parker claimed that ESPN knew what he was going to say about Griffin and suspended him anyway before firing Parker this week. Even if ESPN knew what Parker was going to say, it shouldn’t have been said in the first place. This seems to be a trend though of odd and idiotic things said by people like Parker or Skip Bayless or anything to do with First Take. In the end, Parker deserved the fate he got and he can go back to his roots in Detroit and start again.
Musburger though has to have higher standards for what he said. There was no place for it and while all men will ogle a beautiful woman, there is no reason to come right out on national television and make it even clearer. Musburger really showed his age in that case and while he has apologized, it doesn’t reflect well on ESPN. The shock jock mentality has to stop and actually spending time analyzing the professional sports or the game that is being covered at that present time would be a welcome refresher. Hopefully, the other all-sports networks have seen the crack in the dominance of ESPN and can use it to get analysts who don’t want to spend their time drooling or saying really stupid things.
Andy Schmidt is a columnist/writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ASchmidtSports or like his Facebook page.
