ESPN's MNF embarrasses the NFL

by tommasse on Dec 4, 2007 8:04 PM EST in News Comment 19 comments

Embrace the Hate
Classlessness and ESPN's Disgusting Display

I'd never seen it before. Sure, we've seen dozens of games with Jim Nantz and Phil Simms fawning over one team or another like the other team didn't exist. We've seen countless games where John Madden or any number of others make you think Brett Favre is the only player on the field. But we've never seen this.

Last night, the thin veils were torched during the pregame. An entire broadcast team outwardly and blatantly rooted for one team to lose.

Not only were Mike Tirico, Tony Kornheiser and Ron Jaworski rooting for New England to lose, they invited in an obviously biased guest when the entire rest of the season they brought in a mindless celebrity with whom to mindlessly banter.

But last night, ESPN brought in former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula specifically to rail against the Patriots, and Shula was all-too-happy to oblige.

They cheered loudly when bad things happened to New England. Shula was pounding Kornheiser on the back. But when the tide started to turn, Shula grumbled and then "had to catch a plane."

The Patriots were 11-0 coming into this game. Other teams have been 11-0 or better in recent years. Were any of them or their fans subjected to such insulting national broadcasts like that?

It was a disgusting display from an organization that clearly no longer pretends to have journalistic integrity of any kind. Otherwise, it would be SJPN. It's all about the E.

For all the talk dating back to the 2006 playoffs about the Patriots and Bill Belichick being "classless," the true definition of classlessness was demonstrated by four buffoons in the ESPN broadcast booth last night.

The frustrating aspect is that honest, hard-working journalists like me can't get media credentials because "we're just bloggers," while impostors inhabit the priceless real estate and embarrass themselves and the great game of football.

As disgusting as it was, what really counts is that the greatest team ever won the game. Let them keep hating as long as your New England Patriots keep winning. Because in 5, 10, 20 years, all anyone will remember about Tony Kornheiser is that he was the worst Monday Night Football experiment ever.

The good news is we're the New England Patriots. We're 12-0, and you're not.

Poll

Who was the worst Monday Night Football 'personality' ever?

John Madden

4 votes

Howard Cosell

3 votes

Tony Kornheiser

85 votes

Dennis Miller

66 votes

158 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs | Comment 19 comments

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Comments

That was an extremely embarassing

display by Shula, a Hall of Fame coach. His standing as an ambassador of football took a big hit and I lost a lot of respect for him.

by scsatr on Dec 4, 2007 8:35 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

commentating

The worst part was how those idiots tried to sell that Jab's TD catch was questionable. He did not bobble the ball one inch.

And if it were the Colts who were playing the Ravens last night, About 6 pass interference calls would have been levied against the Patriots!

by SiriSPatriot on Dec 4, 2007 8:48 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

correction

called on the Ravens

by SiriSPatriot on Dec 4, 2007 8:49 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

agreed

Our receivers were held all game in a rather disgusting manner. Watching Moss get tackled in a rout was getting pretty old. Or Watson towing the other team's linebacker 15 yards into the endzone before the flag finally was thrown.

I'm glad Rodney has promised that the defense will look to its problems. It's an intensity problem and if their is one thing I think that Rodney can help with, it's intensity. That man would be intense if he were picking flowers and I'd feel terribly for the weeds. Imagine having no arms and only little roots and Rodney being angry at you.

by PaulRevere on Dec 4, 2007 9:04 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I laughed so hard I cried....

"Imagine having no arms and only little roots and Rodney being angry at you."

Damn that is just funny....

by Ogor on Dec 5, 2007 10:29 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

also

Someone needs to write a letter of complaint to ESPN because that commentating was, indeed, disgusting. Who the ** is Kornholer errrr, Kornheiser anyways? He's a complete jerk and actually, I think I'm going to write to ESPN about it. I'd encourage anyone else who was aggravated by the commentary to do the same.

"Brady just doesn't have the arm." --Tony Kornheiser

What PLANET is he from? Has he been watching the games? The man hurled a ball 60 yards into a 30 mph head wind and the only reason it wasn't caught was because Moss was tackled before it got there.

by PaulRevere on Dec 4, 2007 9:08 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I think we've peaked!

Greatest team ever? Please refrain from such nonsense, it's bad karma. Now the Chargers just manhandled these Ravens last week & won by 18. We needed last minute heroics to beat them! Never mind the lowly Eagles that almost took us down.
The defense is getting riddled by below average teams and the Pats are fading in all phases of the game. We've peaked weeks ago and now it's time to see if it can be re-gained before the playoff push.
Yeah we might go undefeated if we get by the Steelers with the leagues worst teams coming to Foxboro in Wk15, Wk16 but this is not the greatest team ever. You must not have seen the '85 Bears play back in the day. They would have killed this season's version of our Pats.

fudgepats

by fudgepats on Dec 4, 2007 9:11 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Um .. 'karma'?

A good chunk of people hate the Patriots, a majority want them to lose, there was that display on ESPN last night, and me calling them the greatest team ever is bad karma?

I did in fact see the '85 Bears. They had a great defense, but they were far from a complete team. And if they were so great, why wasn't "The Super Bowl Shuffle" bad karma?

Talk some sense, please.

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by tommasse on Dec 4, 2007 9:26 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

You clearly

don't know anything about football. The Bears played the '46 defense and had their personnel geared towards that. The quick release of Dan Marino ate them alive. Well, what the Hell do you think would happen when they played New England who has better defense and passing (particularly quick release with Faulk and Welker) offense than those Dolphins did by a long shot? They would have been picked clean like a chicken wing in a crowd of pigeons. Don't ask where I come up with these analogies, I have no idea.

The Patriots defense has looked sloppy the last week as it has lacked intensity relative to our opponents who view us as their 'Super Bowl' game. I wouldn't worry too much about it. This New England team is the greatest team of all times, and you'll probably see that next week when they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers more decisively.

by PaulRevere on Dec 4, 2007 10:39 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Amen Brother!

Keep the faith!

by Marima on Dec 5, 2007 12:29 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Sock puppet

FudgePats? Yeah. You're a Pats fan.

by 6thround on Dec 5, 2007 9:08 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

umm...

You do know that even Ditka said that Brady would have picked that 85 Bear's defense. If their own coach thought they would get beat....

by Ogor on Dec 5, 2007 10:36 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Email...

Email the ESPN Ombudsman.. she seems to be on top of these types of things. If the outcry is loud enough, ESPN will have to respond.

by MattMiller on Dec 4, 2007 9:12 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

not the first

ESPN butchered the Broncos-Packers MNF game by inviting Favre's wife to the booth as the only guest. So, at least you guys aren't the only ones who got screwed by a completely biased interview guest.

-kmonty
-BroncoTalk.net

by kmonty on Dec 5, 2007 3:48 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Now that you mention it

You are correct. That was brutal. But that whole game is also part of the aforementioned "Favre is the only player on the field" phenomenon. They weren't necessarily rooting for Denver to lose. (And I think Mike Shanahan really blew a few calls at the end of regulation.) Still, point taken.

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by tommasse on Dec 5, 2007 10:59 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

wow

that's borderline absurd. I did send a message to the ESPN Ombudsman.

by PaulRevere on Dec 5, 2007 3:49 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

it is crazy

I have always felt that there has been a general dislike of the Patriots, even before the birth of the dynasty, but I kind of felt maybe I was just over-sensitive.

But this is getting ridiculous with Shula in the booth and I guarantee you there was a champagne bottle back there somewhere just waiting to go off.

I seem to recall in the past teams like the cowboys, broncos, packers, colts, the media was always falling all over those teams (of course, I hated those teams.. ha). I guess I don't understand why they hate the Pats so much. But like you said in the end who cares!! 12-0 and I'll take it, by one point or 50 points. GO PATS!

by mrbandw on Dec 5, 2007 9:58 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

the dislike

I felt mostly pity before Brady came along...I think what's frustrated people about the previous 6 years is that we won 3 superbowls without being flashy. People hate to lose to a team when they can't understand why, and it's easier to see physical dominance over intellectual dominance.

Unfortunately spygate has made them feel justified.

by Mainiac on Dec 5, 2007 2:44 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I've commented on this

before... this was the story back in 2001, every single game, if someone lost to the patriots, it was "the best team didn't win that game..."

this year the pats can't win either way... if they beat you big, they're classless, if they beat you small, "they're not really that great..."

and this is with randy moss, who is causing disgust amongst some by not being the star power 'character' that people want to see in a 'sports hero'

I just want to see well played football, (with my team winning!)

on a side note did anyone else hear that comment from a raven's player, along the lines of: "you don't make that kind of call in a game like this... you should just let the players play."

I may have that backwards, but that has to be one of the funniest things I've ever heard from the game so far... anyone know who said it?

on a further side note, it may just be that it is distant in my memory, but I sort of like howard cosell. and at least madden has genuine insight into the game, though I think he's been phoning it in for some time now. the thing about cosell was that he really wasn't a fan of the game, so he went looking for other interesting things to talk about, he had no particular care for any team/league/organization in particular. madden is only really interested in the game/players. the problem with kornheiser and miller, (well one of their (many) problems) is that they are fans of the game, and have prejudices because of that. neither one was ever a participant, and neither one is particularly interesting outside of a fairly narrow avenue of conversation. (and debatably within it.)

it would be nice if whoever is doing the hiring on MNF in the future would just choose someone who is actually interesting to listen to, and is somewhat interested in the game, to be there.

by circusboy on Dec 5, 2007 3:46 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs