Warning: rant follows
I really can't understand why we debate the opinions of these "sports journalists". I had lunch last week with someone intimately connected to one of the ESPN announcers. He indicated to my friend over dinner a few weeks ago that his "part" on ESPN is totally scripted and that he has almost no room to give any personal opinion. He is angry about being made to look like a fool all the time but gets paid so much to do it that he feels it would be crazy to quit. When I rolled my eyes, my friend told me that he'd known the announcer for more than twenty years and considered him one of the most intelligent people he ever met. My friend is a fellow professor who is internationally known for his work on corporate governance.
Guys, take a step back for a couple of days and just listen to the stereotypical roles these jackasses play. It is so bloody transparent that it becomes funny.
Team X doesn't deserve to be there. Ohio State officially blew its coaching search. USC is dirty as hell and someone must pay (i.e., methomps, hand them over now). Kirk Ferentz is civilization's most misunderstood genius. Charlie Weis is God's gift to schematic advantages, then, whoopsie, he's an idiot.
They crap on a team to make all its foes feel great and then give that team a little love to bring their fans back in when the market research shows that they are starting to resent the crap so much they are tuning out.
Last year, I sat in the live marketing research operations at major theme parks in California and Florida as they showed fans alternative plots of TV programs, which included sports. And they are doing live marketing research every day as they monitor how fans are reacting to these scripted morons.
ESPN is part of Disney, for goodness sakes. It is not about journalism or serious analysis, it is about scripted entertainment.
They don't care if people are tuning in to love or hate them. The more that they get people like us to talk about the stupid things they say, the higher their ratings. The higher their ratings the more money they make.
So, who cares if Mark May picks eight teams in a fictional playoff or has an affair with Trev Alberts or Lou Holtz? May is a highly paid shill whose job is to stick to a script that is designed to keep all the suckers coming back for more. The opinions he expresses show less than one-tenth of the insight that leading BP posters share on a frequent basis.
Thank you. I feel better now for having said that.