ESPN: The Problem

I said yesterday I was going to discuss the over-hyping of athletes, so that is precisely what I am going to do today. Obviously many factors go into the marketing of an athlete; the school he or she attends getting the name out, local media picking up stories about the player and trying to get regional and natioanl attention, and finally national media discovering the player and forcing the name of the player on everyone they can. While any media exposure to athletes begins with local papers or television covering the player, the problem begins when the national press decides this athlete is the "next big thing".

The biggest problem with the over-hyping of athletes are the networks of ESPN. I like the programming on ESPN as much as anybody and try not to miss any episodes of Around the Horn and PTI, but I absolutely HATE when those shows as well as Sportscenter do nothing but pump up athletes who haven't proven anything yet to be the best at his or her respective sport. The problem is that instead of just telling us, "Hey here's something amazing this person has been doing in (insert sport here), keep an eye on this person, they could be really special in a few years", they tell us over and over again about the person, and try to get us to believe this athlete is the second coming.

For a few examples we will look at two men and one girl; LeBron James, Michael Vick, and Michelle Wie. First of all, to the over-hyped athlete who has actually lived up to and surpased the early expectations placed on him. James was first put on the cover of Sports Illustrated when he was 17 and a JUNIOR in high school in Ohio. During his senior year; ESPN.com had a James watch to keep track of which team had the best chance of drafting him in the NBA draft, ESPN had a game of his on national television, and kept forcing him down our throats, telling everyone he is the best high school basketball player ever (probably true) and had all of the tools to be the best NBA player ever (probably will happen).

Even though he has overcome the hype which came with him, it was still too much to take when he hadn't done anything yet. He led his team to a high school state championship in basketball and people were ready to put him in the Hall of Fame (I believe his high school jersey is already there). In his rookie season, people were saying he couldn't shoot the ball very well (41% from the field including only 29% from three point range), but he has taken that one point of concern and turned it into 49% from the field and 35% from the three point line. As many people have already said, he combines Magic's vision with Michael's ability to take over a game. Not only that, but he is leading his team to the thick of a division race, being only 1/2 game behind Detroit right now. James is playing very well and is an outstanding basketball player, but even a casual fan would have noticed this even without the marketing mackine that ESPN has turned into. Anyone can see LeBron is a special player. We didn't need him on the cover of SI as a Junior, a high school game on ESPN as a senior, or constant comparisons to the best players ever (even though I just did that also). The fact remains he still hasn't lived up to all of the hype he has received and won't unless he gets into the Hall of Fame.

Antoher player who is being marketed very well by ESPN is Michael Vick. If ESPN and it's Sunday Night Football crew and NFL Countdown crew were in charge of things, Michael Vick would be in the Hall of Fame right now, next to Peyton Manning. I have already discussed Vick to some extent, so this won't take very long. Not many people probably knew about who he was until he led Virginia Tech to the Sugar Bowl against Florida State in 2000. He was a great COLLEGE quarterback because of the style of play. A running quarterback in college is just as dangerous as a pure passer. Look at Navy back in the 50's and Nebraska in the 80's and 90's. In the NFL, this just isn't so. You must have a passing attack to be effective in the NFL. Sure Vick takes what defenses give to him, but how does a guy with so much speed and supposedly an underrated offensive line get sacked (are you ready for this?) 46 times? He needs to learn how to be a quarterback in the NFL before he will win a title, if he ever does. He should be able to outrun any defensive player. Granted someone might sneak in on his backside, but 46 sacks, he either needs to get rid of the ball or run away from sacks. He may one day realize he needs to look to pass out of some situations he trys to run out of, win a title, and get to Canton, but until then he hasn't justified the hype. For more proof, here are his career stats; 512 of 955 (53.6%), 6,619 yards, 36 touchdowns, 26 interceptions, 302 rushes for 2,234 yards and 13 touchdowns. He is not great yet, so Joe Thiesmann can keep preaching it, just don't listen.

Finally we come to Michelle Wie, the 14 year old golfing phenom. Sure it's nice she competes on the LPGA Tour and plays in some PGA Tour events, but someone call me when she makes a cut or wins a tournament. Yeah, she can hit the ball farther and better than I can, but can we please stop hearing about her playing in PGA events. This has been done before by Annika Sorrenstam and even Wie herself! Why is this still such a big deal? It will be a huge story if she makes a cut in a men's tournament, much less wins one, but until then, ESPN needs to stop marketing these tournaments just because she is in them. The Sony Open last weekend featured something Tiger hasn't even enjoyed and that is shot-by-shot coverage of Michelle Wie in the FIRST TWO ROUNDS. If you watched any of the tournament like I did, you were probably sick of Wie by her third hole. We saw EVERY shot she played including any putt she had no matter how close it was and no matter if it was for bogey. God forbid we miss her stroke a two foot bogey putt to see someone with a chance to win the tournament (or even make the cut) play a shot that matters. ESPN pumped up this tournament and told people to watch just to watch Wie. Little did I know all we could watch was Wie. It doesn't seem to me she's even that good of a golfer. I mean as a professional golfer (which she isn't yet). But, she wasn't making shots she needed to make and looked quite disturbed after she would have a bad shot or hole. Her pouting, sulking, mug when things aren't going as well as she thinks they should could soon join the pantheon of "faces". Maybe the pressure to win is too great for her, maybe all of the endorsements she is undoubtedly getting because of ESPN coverage are starting to wear on her with commitments, maybe she's getting sick of playing golf all of the time at the age of 14. Any of these things are possible, or maybe, just maybe she's not as good as ESPN and other people hope she is.

To me right now, she is like the short-lived FOX series Skin. We heard all about Skin during the 2003 MLB playoffs. You couldn't watch a game without hearing, "HIS FATHER IS THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY!" at least four times. The show only lasted 4 episodes after all of the hype. This is kind of where Michelle Wie is right now in her career. We have heard everything we need or care to hear about her. She needs to last more than four episodes now so we can see if she develops into anything close to being worthy of all of the hype.

ESPN is a huge problem with the over-hyping of athletes, but so are all of the sports magazines and papers which cover these young, unproven athletes ad nauseam (and I didn't even mention Freddy Adu or Sebastian Telfair). Now with ESPN unveiling an entirely new network called ESPNU which will cover college sports 24/7, we can only imagine where all of the hype will go. It's a sad day for the innocence and beauty of sports, if there is any left.

-Until next time...