The Rush aftermath at ESPN

[oxycontinrush]

"...The man who should be under the microscope is Mark Shapiro, the 33-year-old executive wunderkind who green-lighted Limbaugh and has been remaking ESPN for the past four years because he believes the hard-core sports audience has been "capped out." The Chicago native's career skyrocketed after becoming the coordinating producer for the fine "SportsCentury" project in 1999, but it has been questionable since.

His resume includes: The profanity-laced Bob Knight movie "Season on the Brink"; the silly game show "Beg, Borrow and Deal"; the disastrous "Mohr Sports" with comedian Jay Mohr; the unwatchable "Around the Horn" shout-down; the lurid "Playmakers"; the network's critically panned NBA coverage; and starting soon, "Cold Pizza," a morning talk show on ESPN2 with a neat name but the potential to be warm beer: a combination of "The Best Damn Sports Show Period," a morning news show and a variety revue.

Not exactly stellar. How many more passes does this guy get? The thinking here and in segments of the sports TV business is that Limbaugh was aware that the Florida prescription-drug investigation was about to surface and provide even more embarrassment to ESPN, ABC and Disney. So he removed ESPN from future scrutiny of any of his self-serving commentary.

No kidding. How could Limbaugh now become involved in any discussion of comparing players' talents when black athletes comprise almost 70 percent of the NFL? And what about Limbaugh's take on stories of players caught and suspended for using drugs? In his four Sunday appearances, Limbaugh proved he didn't know more than many of us about the NFL. He foolishly declared that the Pats would beat the Bills after New England released Lawyer Milloy. The Bills won, 31-0. He said the Rams hadn't been to the Super Bowl under coach Mike Martz. They had...."

http://www.sportsbusinessnews.com/index.asp?story_id=30111

Now we know who's head to call for in our e-mail to ESPN, don't we. Hehehe...

[VolcanoJen]

1. Not LBN.. locking

This is a very interesting article; however, it appears to have been written before NFL Sunday Countdown aired this morning. The rules of the Latest Breaking News Forum require that an article or news item be no older than 12 hours at the time a thread is started.

Please feel free to start a new discussion about this article in the General Discussion Forum. In fact, I hope you do!!

Thanks! :-)
VolcanoJen
DU Moderator