New ESPN book goes public.

Re: New ESPN book--a big secret.

Should be a good read, but Albom misquotes Olbermann's espn2 debut. It was, "Good evening, and welcome to the end of our careers."

 

Re: New ESPN book--a big secret.

Absolutely.

 

Re: New ESPN book--a big secret.

I hit 50 about a year ago, but the last straw for me was a few years ago with the Favre-to-Minnesota saga. Every other damn story every day.

 

Re: New ESPN book--a big secret.

That's when I became a Keith Olbermann fan. I had known of him a little bit from his work at CNN, but KTLA really gave him a lot of creativity to do what he wanted in his segment, and his style that everyone later watched on ESPN was being developed.

 

Re: New ESPN book--a big secret.

My main memories of Olbermann were on CBS with Jim Lampley and his wife, Bree Walker and her Webbed Hands. Thought he was an ass. But he was better than Fred Roggin by a mile, and I can't even remember who ABC had at 11 p.m. at the time.

I believe it was also around this time that Vic "The Brick" brought his special brand of idiocy to KCOP. Not exactly halcyon days for L.A. sportscasting.

 

Re: New ESPN book--a big secret.

For as horrible of a rep as Olbermann has in broadcasting, that stretch, from 1992 to 1997, was a "golden era" of TV sports anchoring at ESPN.

You had: Olbermann/Patrick, Charley Steiner, Craig Kilborn on the "feel good" edition of SportsCenter - the ultimate 1 AM watch when viewing at a bar with 4 Long Island Teas in you.

That stretch was also the reason I became a TV sportscaster and did it for many years. It was a blast, developing a following in the cities I worked in with my own style, chock full of edge and humor.

Yet, around 2000, ESPN-style sportscasters became what disco was in 1980. So last decade.

TV stations then wanted vanilla sportscasters so they wouldn't alienate whatever viewers remained. And ESPN, for the most part, became a parody of itself. Also, by the late-1990s, the word was out in the TV world that ESPN is a horrible place to work. Soul-crushing.

 

Re: New ESPN book--a big secret.

That GQ excerpt was outstanding

 

Re: New ESPN book--a big secret.

Does anyone under the age of 30 remember the "Did You Know" segments at the end of each Sportscenter? I miss those.

 

Re: New ESPN book--a big secret.

That was about the time gthe first ESPN tell-all came out.

 

Re: New ESPN book--a big secret.

I just could never take Olbermann seriously when he was here on the local news. His smirk or whatever. I just thought he was going to lean toward the camera, take off his glasses and the nose, eyebrows and moustache were going to come off, too.

 

Re: New ESPN book--a big secret.

I'm 27 and remember them fondly.

The problem is, if I'm recalling correctly from the other book already out there on ESPN, is that they shifted from stronger behind the scenes personalities because of the problems they had dealing with Olbermann. Much like the WWE and professional sports owners, they figured out that people are more into watching the laundry than any individual talent, and everyone is expendable.

Heck, look at what's happened to their NBA coverage. There is no real reason why TNT should be killing them so much from year to year, given that ESPN pays a ridiculous amount for their access. Their studio crew is bad, and outside of the main broadcast team (Breen, Jackson and Van Gundy) and Hubie Brown, there isn't much there there. But because it's ESPN, the ratings are probably good enough that they don't care. Same with many of their horrible NFL shows (Jaws and Merrill excluded), and baseball, and all the NCAA hacks they have doing football and basketball.

 

Re: New ESPN book--a big secret.

Knowing that ESPN backs up the Brinks truck for whoever out there is kicking their ass, I wonder if Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith have been given a 7 figure offer yet.