Blue Noses
Posted: May 1, 2005 @ 8:15 pm
This is off topic, but it’s Cowboys-related and it irked me.
ESPN was running its review of the Cowboys’ mini camp today. It showed excerpts from Bill Parcells’ press conference Friday afternoon. When they got to the money quote about how fear motives him, ESPN bleeped his self-analysis of himself. It bleeped the word Parcells used which refers to the way you draw soda through a straw. That word which you can find in the title two posts down on this blog.
Let’s keep score here. ESPN won’t air the word “suck.” It refused to air Randy Moss simulating pulling his pants down and mooning somebody because it was “indecent.” But it aired the video of Todd Bertuzzi beating a Colorado Avalanche player within an inch of his life on an endless loop. More recently, it ran video of the Pistons-Pacers free-for- all as many times as it could.
I understand why ESPN is being skittish. The fines and moving FCC standards after the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” have left many radio and TV stations guessing where the lines should be drawn, and most if not all are erring on the side of caution. But when a cable channel thinks cracked vertebrae and riots are good programming but PG-13-level language and pantomime are obscene, I have to wonder what the stardards and practices in Brisol, Connecticut look like.
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It was a Colorado Avalanche player (Steve Moore)
i dont think “suck” is pg-13 more like g rating, espn is an awesome channel but thats just dumb.
any word on 7th round draft choice rob petite handle this weekends mini camp?
Sounds lik good old George Bush “Repubilcan values” kinda thinking to me.
don’t bring politics into this
Espn and their TOP TEN highlights is part of why europeans are taking over the NBA. The americans are all learning how to tomahawk dunk or dance in the end zone……….the europeans are shooting foul shots and dropping 20′ jump shots.
I do not care for the way they always tease you with a Dallas Cowboys or Bill Parcells highlight and then by the time they show it…….they already showed it.
It is just the media trying to make sure you stick around thru all their stupid commercials.
Jon,
While I agree with you the American basketball game is different, and less fundamentally sound than Europes, I wouldn’t say they are taking over the NBA. The vast majority of NBA players are still homegrown. And don’t confuse our recent losses on the national scence as a sign of anything else, other than we don’t always get our best players on the court year in year out.
Sound like a Disney directive to me.
But I agree about the obvious hypocrisy of serious violence being glorified on the loop, ad nauseam, while generally innocuous expressions and gestures are censored and ridiculed. On Joe Buck sounding off about Moss during coverage of the Vikings game: Methinks the lady dost protesteth too much!
When I was in high school (early 90s), I watched ESPN religiously. One difference … every day was Sunday. Now I think their journalism is aweful.
Take for example right before last season’s NBA championship. Steven A. Smith guaranteed another L.A. Lakers’ title, and did it in way that if you disagreed with him, you were simply stupid and knew nothing about basketball. Of course they lost, but did it stop Steven A. from preaching the laws of basketball to us again? Certainly not!!
ESPN also has too many ex-players (sorry Michael) that simply aren’t good broadcasters. During the draft, Merril Hodge, in his ongoing dispute with Mel Kiper about how Mike Williams projects into the NFL, praised Williams’ former teammate at USC Kerry Colbert. Hodge stated something like, “Colbert was the best WR on that team, and he was a 3rd rounder.” Well, Colbert was a 2nd round selection and Mike Williams had way better numbers than Colbert ever did. In Williams two years at USC he just about averaged a 100 yards per game and over a TD per game (30 TDs in 26 games). Even I knew that Williams out performed Colbert! .. and I am a Notre Dame fan.
ESPN is now my outlet for watching The World Series of Poker. A far cry from what it use to be. I think a part of the problem there is they don’t have good journalism consistantly, and the Stewart Scott want to bees create news. In between the great ones you have anchors trying way too hard for the next catch phrase, …. and trying to make a big deal about a Bill Parcells’ press conference. Just report the news and be accountable for what you say.
Again take a look at this year’s draft. ESPN’s NFL Draft preview was aweful. How many times is Sal Polintonio going to report that Alex Smith’s agent is asking the 49ers for more money? And jeez it’s only an hour show. How many times did they report that the Bills were shopping Travis Henry, or Minnesota might move up to get Edwards? Just repeating 3 or 4 stories, with out much meat, over and over again. They were much better off, as I had stated early on this site, to show highlights of these future NFLers. Why not take an hour of breaking down film of players at each position!
I think ESPN might be loosing their fan base that was rapidly growing in the 90s. Maybe they feel that “indecent” acts, like the “full moon at Lambeau” are turning fans away. The reality is fans want the meat. Like that old Wendy’s commercial “Where’s the beef?”. Chris Berman keeps it simple, show the highlights that the fans want to see, be enthusiastic, and be creative. It’s quick, informative, and entertaining. Who wants to listen to John Kruk’s opinion about the “Gary Sheffield incodent” for 10 minutes? That’s the turn off!!
How true. Good post.
Ok.. This is something that is pissing me off to the enth degree.. I cannot stand this crap. American values? My ass. We are headed straight for 1948… lets go back in time. Leave it to Beaver. We might as well take the color out of our tv sets too. The American right and the religous right is trying to reel it in, and its working. Europe is so far ahead of us… they have sex in their commercials, only 20% go to church. Americans, 65% of us go to church every Sunday. I say what’s wrong with this, it might be the fact that we are losing our freedom each and every day. 911 sure did open the door for the suffication of our rights. They are now going after cable tv in the House of Reps and the legislation will go through, no more cuss words on HBO. I’m going to cuss and show my tits everywhere I go….
Eric,
I agree with every word. And I now love you a little bit
One thing I can’t stand from ESPN analysts are the “next Ronnie Lott” comparisons. When the Cowboys drafted Roy Williams, everyone said he is going to be the next Ronnie Lott. Last year, though Williams has been great, they say Sean Taylor is the next Ronnie Lott. This year, they said Thomas Davis is the next Ronnie Lott. I read a article on there about the 2006 NFL Draft Class, and they have another S/LB projected to be a 2nd coming of Ronnie Lott. Its just stupid.
Eric,
It’s a 24hr sports channel. Things have to be repeated to assure enough content.
I too was surprised they bleeped the “suck”. Totally unnecessary - -even from a G Bushy, Michael Powell perspective. Definitely looking to entice the audience. Cheap.
i didn’t see the interview with parcells but to bleep out “suck” come on. the environment they work in with the fcc being all over the map on how and who it goes after i can understand being cautious about showing violence or nudity but not over a word i can hear uttered by a priest. espn does have it’s problems being part of the disney family. bigger is not always better. now they are in fear of another monday night football backlash when what they should be in fear of is decreasing market share. the lack of live sports on the sports network is disturbing. i agree with eric the trained broadcasters want to be stuart scott and the ex athletes sometimes have more ego than game knowledge. i felt like i was watching fox news cover john kerry when i was listening to merril hodge talk about mike williams today’s media person is no longer an unbiased reporter of facts they are now supposed to be divisive i guess it’s supposed to engage the viewer more by bring up topics or covering topics and players in a way that makes your gut clench. i can’t get mad. these guys are mostly professional teleprompter readers trying to be comedians. i just loose interest when a reporter is interjecting his own personal opinion on a story then letting the story tell itself. i don’t need some guy with too much make up on to tell me what my opinion is. it was mentioned earlier about cowboy coverage on espn and how they tease us at the beginnnig of sportscenter and then 58 minutes later you get 30 seconds of news that really wasn’t that big of a story. it’s like we’re crack heads that will endure anything for a fix.
thanks for giving me a place to vent.
let’s hope saner heads prevail the next time a for letter non curse word is used on tv
Mike, if you love Europe so much, go there. Get politics out of this. There is a reason we are here and Europe is there. A difference in politics. Becoming more deviant and saying eat, drink, and be merry is not progress. In reality, it is regression. Damn that Bill Parcells for actually telling his players to be of high character! Damn him for telling them to keep out of trouble! How dare he? They don’t do that in NFL Europe! Stop being a moron!
That being said, ESPN are morons for bleeping the word “suck”. That is really all that needs to be said about it.
How exactly do you consider Europe “ahead”? A low church-going percentage and sex in commercials is “ahead”. Sounds a bit subjective. It must be horrible to live in a society that follows a religion that teaches love and tolerance. And to imagine, you can’t even see sex in a soap commercial! I say we start a petition, I will be the first to sign. I will be chartering a boat and we can all go to France.
The Web has plenty of political blogs, but this is the only great Cowboys blog. I hope it stays that way.
Good call cooper!
Josh,
I guess you didn’t read what I wrote. “Where’s the beef?” ESPN wants to have round table discusions. Basesball Tonight - Peter Gammons, Harald Renalds, and John Kruk will sit for 5-10 giving their “insite”. Well, I don’t want their insite, I want to see Carlos Beltran stealing a homer, or Ken Griffey smashing an upper deck shot. Repeat the highlights over and over again, that’s what brought the fans there in the first place. Sportcenter has a bunch of want-to-bees that try WAY TOO HARD to find the new catch phrase or put their little twist on things to create news stories that just aren’t there. How many times is an ESPN analyst going to report about the fragile relationship between Jerry Jones and Bill Parcells? Once again, as I have stated on this web site, Keyshawn, Ferguson, Glenn, Vinny, and now the 3-4 defense tells us who is calling the shots here in Dallas. That’s just bad journalism!! ESPN’s basketball show, once again has a round table meeting, and they have horrible newscasters (Greg Anthony, Steven A., Bill Walton), but they will sit and give their “expert” opinions. Show the damn highlights!! …. You can’t tell me that after the Boys drafted Demarcus Ware, you didn’t want to get a look at what we are getting. Berman did a nice job of reporting Dallas’ evident move to the 3-4, but I wanted more!! I wanted to see the kid on the field. We heard he did well at the Senior Bowl, well let us see some damn highlights. … This year I had to go to the NFL Network to get a nice 5-15 minute highlight reel of most of the players that participated at the combine. That’s what I wanted to see! ESPN failed to deliver it! … In the 90s ESPN made sports highlights accessable. We all didn’t have to wait ’til 20 minutes into our regular news cast to get the news and highlights we wanted of our favorite team. The early morning news paper wasn’t our source for our out of town favorite team. If you were a Dodger fan living in Atlanta, ESPN gave you the highlights you wanted to see. Now they have more experts than the O.J. Simpson trial, and they all love to hear themselves talk. … Like I said I watched Sportscenter religiously, I’d even watch it a second and 3rd time. When Julius Jones breaks an 80 yard run, I want to see it … again and again … sure I’ll like to see the blocking scheme broken down with the tape of the game. When Demarcus Ware sacks Donivan McNabb and jars the ball lose, and Marcus Spears scoops it up and runs it in for a TD …. I want to see it … over and over again!!
ESPN is loosing fans because of their inability to connect with what the fan wants. Highlights!! Most sports fans I know like see the spectacular catch, the high flying dunk, the Roy Williams’ type hits. Opinions are great, but sports radio call in shows and blogs like this are much better forums for the fan, because we too have a voice here.
btw. i’m just KIDDING about the abortion/gay marriage thing.
really guys. new rule? no religion. no politics.
Just COWBOYS, COWBOYS, COWBOYS!!!
This site is suppossed to be an escape from all that other crap. (Can I say “crap”?)
Richard
ESPN should add another channel. Something like ESPN-LAL. Non-stop Lakers news. I wish I could go one day without hearing about the Lakers Saga. If the Lakers are winning or losing, ESPN always has to have a five part series about them.
Another thing that kills me about ESPN is the darn ESPN spots they run. Why do I have to see an advertisement aimed at making me watch the channel I’m already watching!
And what about those stupid-lame-ass ESPN shorts/skits. I’m getting ready to leave for work, so for a few precious minutes I turn on ESPN. While putting on my socks I get watch a stupid budwiser hot seat segment. Geessshh!
How I miss SI!
The real problem with ESPN. amd cable news generally, is they are on 24/7. There is simply not enough news to fill that much time so they all want to use “talking heads” to analyze stuff to death. Doesn’t cost much and consumes a lot of air time. Add to this that ESPN has more channels than I can keep up with. Wish it would go back to one channel.
Espn has had it in for Parcells for the last two years .They have gone out of
their way to lie and distort “news” about Dallas and in particular Bill Parcells.The bleeping of word suck is just another attempt to make B.P. look bad in front of a national audience…Why? I don’t know maybe because he left ESPN to take over the Dallas job?
Here are a just a few of their “stories”:
Ed Werner last piece about Keyshawn holding out for a new contract…
..hey Ed maybe you need to spend sometime in eastern P.A.
Big ED again that B.P. and J.J. are fighting over the signing of Drew B. because B.P. is leaving and J.J. doesn’t want to stuck with a quaterback
with any NFL experience…Blah, Blah ,blah,…….. Hit that one on the head
This leads to the main thesis of ESPN for the past several years that B.P.
is leaving Dallas for a variety of reasons the most recent being that B.P.
has never “gone backwards” i.e. had a losing season after a winning one
This lie has been repeat by alot of idiots at Espn from L.Cohen to M. Lupica.
At his last three teams n.y.,pats ,jets he had winning then losing seasons!!!
But why let the facts cloud a vendetta…..
ESPN has fallen so far THAT CBS SCOOPED THEM ON THE PANTHER STEROID STORY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With Anderson COOPER NO Less!!!!!
And ESPN HAS BEEN WHERE? AS THE REDSKINS have Imploded???
becker,
I don’t know its a vendetta more than bad journalism.
Just like the Mike Williams arguement between Kiper and Hodge. Show some highlights and stats to back up your points!! Kiper would have burried Hodge’s arguements if he did the research. 2,579 yards and 30 TDs in 26 games … nough said.
ESPN reporters repeatedly call Bill Belichick a “genious”, but they always fail to recognize that Parcells drafted a large part of the heart of the Patriot’s championship teams. If I asked the everyday sports fan, name the 15 biggest contributors on New England’s 3 Super Bowl teams. Most are shocked at the number of Parcells’ guys that played on those teams, most count 10-13 players that came in during Parcells’ reign in New England. The Jets too would be right there with the Patriots, if they kept the team that Parcells built together. 36-44, that was the “genious”‘ record in 5 years with the Browns, including 4 loosing seasons. Go look at the no names he drafted during that time … a bunch of nobodies!!! Like I said, its bad journalism!! The fact is when Belichick “cooked” with “his own groceries”, he was a loser!!
Can the “A-Train” boost our running game more than Eddie George? Who else is disappointed with the release of Lee?
eric,
Great post!! I agree with you that a large part of the situation at ESPN is
bad journalism but there something more at work here.
The sux quote is a good example.Why is this even news??It had no revelance to mini-camp or the draft .It was more of a personal self critical observation by B.P.
The same goes for the chubby checker comment.ESPN played it as “FIND OUT WHO B.P. CALLED C.C.” when that was not the case.
The signing of woody dantzler was reported by ESPN as dallas signs a QB(this was prior to D.B. signing)this after everyone knew they trying
W.D. at safety.
Listen if they want to pound B.P. thanks ok just treat all the coaches the
same.
Why does D. Green get a free pass with the josh mcnowan situation.The cards had a good shot at the playoffs and then he benches the guy for 3 games over what? Espn has yet to tell us…..could you see B.P. getting
away with that?
MikeA … Hear, hear! To quote one of my favorite comedians, “When did this entire country become f**king Utah?” (And I’m pissed that I had to put asterisks in that quote.)
The ‘Moral Values’ crowd in this country is absolutely out of control. I used to take the attitude of “live and let live” with regard to these people, but now they’re throwing the weight of their extra chromosomes around, swinging important elections and generally infringing upon my rights as a thinking adult. Now I’m ready to declare a culture war.
Heathens of the world, unite! We’ve been complacent far too long. Reason is on our side. This is a fight we can win. After all, these are the same people who burned witches and feared eclipses a few hundred years ago. Let’s grow some cajones and call them for the ignorant frauds they are…
… and oh, by the way, go Cowboys.
Well … OK … maybe you do have a point, and Parcells may have a target on his chest. The “we suck” thing … and “Jap plays” thing … heck you can turn on the radio and hear a heck of a lot worse. ESPN will run reel after reel of Tyson telling someone that he will “eat their children”, but “we suck” is too harsh? …… He may be a victim, but I still think it’s a product of poor ratings. Parcells is a big seller, so any news with him attracts fans. ESPN’s reporters create a buzz, so people listen, but they have had other victims too. I think it’s not a matter of people turning off their sets disappointed, its a matter of whether they watched it in the first place. Show some clips of a Parcells “cursing?”, with the cloud of assumption that he may be leaving Big D … and people stay tuned! … But like I said, its like that vintage Wendy’s commercial were the old woman looks at the burger and asks, “Where’s the beef?”
Eric,
Part of the problem is you are to smart for Espn(I’m not being sarcastic).
The show/network has been redone over the last several years to appeal to the very casual sports fan or non sports fan.With the coming of quasi sports-reality shows, remember the fishing one several years ago … a
sort of MTV Real world meets fishing/sports. And its only getting worse: 1) COLDPizza,2)Stump the BOOHEY oh I mean the schwab,3) Roomates,
4)Become sportcenter host contest…etc.etc.It is what i call the MTVING of a network.The key is very , very cheap shows (to produce) with minimal content and like you said alot of smoke and mirrors.
You make anexcellent point about the draft coverage being terrible.I
thought it (as B.P. would say ) suxed.Bermann looked as if he had just woken up from a coma,the show had zero content or depth except for the five or six players that were in the studio.Again cheap and easy.
Oh my god ……..Can you bowl?????? someone please shoot me … here the
gun …the decline of espn and espn2 is too much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!