Devin Gordon's Newsweek story dissing ESPN's Who's Now SportsCenter campaign pretty well summarizes what everyone is saying: "Everything about the segment is so artificial, from concept to execution, that watching it is like chewing Styrofoam."But while Newsweek and several other mainstream media outlets have given ESPN a well-deserved beating lately for the Who's Now campaign, it should be noted that the sports blogosphere was way ahead on this one. More than a month ago, Deadspin called the idea "soul-crushingly lame." And Awful Announcing said, "name me one person that cares about this."
I actually have a little bit of sympathy for ESPN on this, as it's hard to fill 24 hours of sports coverage a day between the NBA Finals and the opening of NFL training camps. But I don't have that much sympathy, because even for space-filling ideas, this one is executed so poorly that it insults the intelligence of every fan who's seen it. It's nice to see that the mainstream media and the blogs can agree on that one.
No doubt about it: Who's Erstwhile is much more now than Who's Now.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-16-2007 @ 10:57AM
T.J. said...
I think Mr. Smith is right. I've watched the segment every so often. It really isn''t very well developed. What struck me as odd was that David Beckham was a #7 seed while someone like say...Derek Jeter is ahead of him. I know it's odd to call Jeter out but who's won the more recent championship? Beckham won one barely 2 weeks ago...Whose got the biggest endorsements right now? Beckham has huge endorsements from brands like Adidas. His salary is pumped up from 32 million or so to 250 million just by adding in all his endorsements. Beckham is way more now. These improper seedings are frequent in this challenge.
On top of that. What's the significance of this competition? What does the winner get? Pride? I doubt the athletes even know or care about it. It's just a segment where three "experts" (3 pretty football biased experts)shoot the breeze.
In summary it does stink.
Crosby a 7 seed? Honestly... MVp, Endoresments galore...and he's ranked behind Chuck Liddell and Danica Patrick...
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7-16-2007 @ 11:07AM
Grer The Sarcastic Bastard said...
From the first week of July until Labor Day, SportsCenter should be a half hour long. That would eliminate a lot of shill like this. Give the people Baseball Tonight from 6:30 - 7:00. All you need to know about sports news over the summer is this is the time that the PTI crew goes on vacation.
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7-16-2007 @ 11:24AM
Chuck said...
ESPN itself is pathetic. From the overhyped, overblown, goofy "ESPY" awards - (another narcisstic exercise in exhibitionism and self congratulations) to this "Who's Now" series of B.S. Baseball tonite could go for two hours - Sportscenter for 30 minutes - and coverage of "Posh Spice Beckham" and her washed up, silk shorts wearing little buttboy soccer player hubby could get - less than 10 seconds of coverage! Only puny little panty waisted wimps get into Soccer - that or girls - after all, it is a Girls Sport adopted by guys who got hammered in Football, too short for Hoops and afraid of Fastballs coming at them. Wow..that pretty much sums up all of the men in Europe, South America and the MidEast..LOL. I'd love to see Beckham take one handoff in the NFL - or one pass of the puck on a breakaway in the NHL..
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7-16-2007 @ 1:01PM
free NFL picks said...
This whos now is a terrible campaign. What is the point and how is in charge of seeding these athletes? Can't ESPN come up with any good ideas anymore?
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7-16-2007 @ 2:40PM
Bay said...
Plus Keyshawn is always hating.
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7-16-2007 @ 5:29PM
fffghhhjjfd said...
ESPN sucks, its all comercials an their stupid announcers try to act like comedians with their stupid sound effects. I watch FSN, its more of a man show than a kiddie act like ESPN.
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7-17-2007 @ 9:29AM
CLAUDIO said...
I change the channel everytime it comes on. It's worthless,just like watching the entire network during baseball season. As if you needed more baseball when they have 182 damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!! games. There is basebalL tonight,baseball tomorrow,baseball in the morning. Hell might as well call it bspn. I can't wait till baseball is over and the real sport's like footbal and basketball start.
p.s i would rather watch a snail cross the sidwalk than to ever watch espn during baseball season!
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7-19-2007 @ 1:58AM
Alex said...
I agree with the writer on this. When they show the stupid visualizations of the random dude moving away old sports stars, he goes by the people who were the BEST ATHLETE of their time, not someone who combines great skill with headlines about things not connected to sports, which is what they say they're trying to find.
P.S. I'd like to see Chuck run 5000 meters in a row in 90 minutes. That might shut his ignorant self up. Maybe he doesn't understand that foot coordination takes as much skill as hand coordination. Or he can just live in his crazy, ethnocentric world.
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7-22-2007 @ 6:44PM
johnny said...
I love the Braves (not that any of you care) and they're pushing for the nl east. so this season is somewhat enjoyable for me. But let's all be honest with ourselves, ESPN has fallen so far, that during this time of the year the only thing worth watching on espn is Around the Horn (which used to be much better), PTI (AWESOME show), and nothing else. I don't want to hear another word about which athlete is more Now. I dont care and neither do you. Stuart Scott is the man behind all of ESPN's mistakes, their first move should be sending him to write for STAR, US Weekly, or begin his own magazine line called: Talking like a hood-rat 101 and promoting all that's wrong with sports. example: pacman jones, mike vick. gangsters that blow away prosperous lives. why cant athletes now be more like Micheal Jordan or Cal ripken. Probably because if they throw 75,000 in a strip club, they have a better chance of winning who's now. if you took time to read this, i appreciate it
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7-23-2007 @ 7:46PM
Tokes45 said...
Who's more now? Like who have I most recently seen?
Who is making more headlines? Who is better? Who cares?
What a concept...Wait till they do "Who is more yesterday"!
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7-27-2007 @ 6:21PM
john said...
"Who's Now" is everything that is WRONG about sports. Who's the broad that is doing the voice-overs in the backround? She sounds like a porn star? ESPN is actually "rebuilding". Dan Patrick was asked to leave...its well known that Bristol is the new hotbed of sexual harassament. Damn..imagine having Gammons grinding on your ass..or catching a glimpse of Shawn's penis...
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