Gobs of money aside, ESPN is the Republican Party - in short, an arrogant organization that no longer thinks it needs its constituents' input to remain in power.
It just takes a keen eye to recognize it.
In addition to its daily broadcasts, ESPN's supplementary online coverage has crippled and essentially stamped out real sports journalism. The Worldwide Leader has more fluff than New York cheesecake.
As an organization, it's absent of talented analysts, yet it fails to recognize the bankrupt qualifications of its so-called experts and prognosticators.
This column came to me after reading Jason Whitlock's riveting piece about rookie analyst and former NFL head coach Herm Edwards. Whitlock underscores exactly what's wrong with the way ESPN conducts business.
"Herm spent two days on air making damn sure he didn't offer one opinion that could potentially put him at odds with an NFL owner, general manager or remotely talented player," Whitlock wrote. "Edwards isn't the first former coach to hit the television airwaves determined to pick up an easy paycheck and protect his future coaching prospects."
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Herm is a prototype, the standard model for what ESPN looks for in prospective employees. Edwards won't endanger the Worldwide Leader's bottom line.
The dramatic irony in all of this is, of course, in decapitating its analysts and censoring their opinions, ESPN has lost viewers who look for that type of entertainment. It's why I will forever be enamored with Jim Rome. His show, "Rome is Burning," is juicy. He offers constructive, thoughtful criticism, which is scant these days. More often, analysts are too concerned about golfing with professional athletes than offering enlightening opinions.
Why do you think Yahoo Sports, not ESPN, exposed Connecticut's blatant disregard for NCAA recruiting regulations? Possibly because ESPN has rights to broadcast select college basketball featuring the Big East?
Sound familiar? Bush slackened taxes for oil companies because he was an interested party. Years before he was sworn in as the 43rd president, Bush founded Arbusto Energy. The company later merged with Spectrum-7 in 1984, of which Bush was named chairman.
The comparisons are all there.
Take, for example, ESPN's recent coverage of the Mel Kiper Jr. draft. It was much less about the NFL than it was Kiper's ascension and coronation as NFL King (don't try crowning him with that set of hair).
You can almost hear the thunderous applause of earthly tree-huggers serenading Kiper. Dude is green - all his lines are recycled from an encyclopedia of already-been-said. I hear he's teaming up with Wiley Publishing Company on the soon-to-be-released, "How To Be an ESPN Analyst for Dummies" handbook.
Not only that, but Kiper's never suited up in an NFL uniform. He isn't an "expert." But ESPN portrays him as this all-knowledgeable oracle. I don't know what he contributes to the Worldwide Leader. His post-draft grading system is arbitrary. At the very least, come up with a rubric, Mel.
It's embarrassing.
Giving Kiper the type of platform he has is like allowing Sarah Palin to speak at the Republican National Convention. Kiper is about as qualified as Palin is suited to run for president in 2012.
Heck, even putting Palin in the studio would be a better decision. Have her be an on-deck reporter during those marvelous, revelatory NBA sideline reports we get at the beginning of quarters. Who knows? Palin might ask a question that rouses Greg Popovich into developing another pockmark.
Something has to change. (And no, that isn't a loose reference to President Obama's Barackatology.)
I don't care that Kiper correctly predicted that Matthew Stafford would be selected No. 1 overall three years ago. I predicted the Cowboys were going to win the Super Bowl, and I'll continue that this year. One of these days, they actually might. Everybody gets lucky once in a while.
If I ruled the World (-wide Leader), I'd invest every dollar I had in one delegate: Bill Simmons. Because, come 2010, when Simmons' contract expires, if he decides to pull an Arlen Spector - swap parties and head to Sports Illustrated or Fox Sports - ESPN will become less relevant than the GOP.
ESPN has already lost my vote. If the network's not careful, one day it might be replaced in the White House of sports.
