Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Free Tony Kornheiser

 
ESPN, which lost its way about ten years ago, suspended Tony Kornheiser from the only watchable program it airs, PTI aka "Pardon the Interruption."  On his radio show that airs in Washington, DC Kornheiser rightfully took major shots at Hannah Storm for the way she was dressed in the photo you see above.  I happened to be watching myself that day and thought, does she want to look like a teenage hooker or what?!?  Kornheiser apologized for his snarky remarks but that didn't stop ESPN from suspending him for two weeks.

Storm's outfit is inappropriate.  She's a good sportscaster but her taste in clothing is questionable at best.  I'm in shock by what she wears about half the time.  As a news manager I've been faced with the difficult task of dealing with inappropriate clothing.  I've had to tell men to dump horrible jackets and women to cover up.  As big as ESPN is you would think they would have consultants that would make sure their talent look professional.  

This isn't my only bone to pick with ESPN.  SportsCenter jumped the shark a long, long, time ago.  If I turn it on it's usually as background noise.  Besides PTI I do enjoy Colin Cowherd's radio show which they air on ESPNU.  But the other burr up my butt is the decision to replace Ron Franklin and Fran Fraschilla on its Big Monday basketball coverage of the Big 12.  I've always liked Franklin and I got used to Fraschilla because you could tell he did his homework.

Now broadcasting legend Brent Musburger and coaching curmudgeon Bobby Knight are calling the Monday night Big 12 games.  Knight is atrocious.  The game passed him by 15 years ago and it shows in his analysis.  Musburger seems lost and clueless in dealing with Knight as his broadcast partner.  It's almost as if Brent is on the Curt Gowdy downslide.  

Gowdy was a play-by-play legend who completely fell apart in his fifth decade of broadcasting.  His crowning moment was his horrific call of an NCAA tournament game between UCLA and Kansas in 1978.  Gowdy continually missed pronounced the names of the KU players or flat out called them by wrong names.  He passed from the scene quickly after that.

Musburger's performances on Big Monday are bordering on horrible.  He's giving old Curt a run for his money and while that may not be fair he's hurting out there.  ESPN needs to admit it made a monumental mistake in hiring Knight and dump him.  The World Wide Leader in sports needs to pull its collective head out of its huge ass.

1 comment:

  1. As a News Director, my favorite conversation with anchors were about hair. Ug. Nothing like sending someone home in tears to get a new hairdo. There used to be standards for dress on television, but I often look at local and national anchors now and go WTH. It's crazy.

    Ha. I've always wondered what happened to Curt Gowdy. I was a huge Wide World of Sports fan.

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