Question about ESPN and Jets camp

[Boom_70]

Does ESPN push Tebow because he guarantees numbers or does Tebow do big numbers because he gets covered all the time?

I think you'll find it's the former. In which case it's a tough spot to be in. Cover someone who draws eyeballs of both his supporters and his detractors, or cover someone the public is much more ambivalent about.

Coming up next: A two-hour special on Joe Flacco!

Zzzzzzzz.

Why not protect the public from itself and not cover.

 

[Riptide]

No shocker that the Dolphins wound up on HBO this year. That team is run by complete idiots.

So true. ... So horribly, painfully true.
Joe Robbie has been spinning in his grave for years now.

 

[HanSenSE]

I'd rather watch daily footage from the Jets cafeteria than listen to another inane debate about LeBron James.

And what storyline do you suggest they push now that camps have opened. It's Manning and Tebow/New York. That's it.

Uh ... getting your ass out of the studio and covering the rest of the league?

 

[bpoindexter]

Does ESPN push Tebow because he guarantees numbers or does Tebow do big numbers because he gets covered all the time?

I think you'll find it's the former. ...

I kinda agree and disagree because if ESPN were to cold-turkey quit blowing Tebow 24/7, I'd bet a fair amount of money there wouldn't be an outcry: "HEY, WHERE'S MY TIM TEBOW COVERAGE?!?!?" People wouldn't give a crap. It's ESPN that likes the story.

 

[YGBFKM]

I'd rather watch daily footage from the Jets cafeteria than listen to another inane debate about LeBron James.

And what storyline do you suggest they push now that camps have opened. It's Manning and Tebow/New York. That's it.

Uh ... getting your ass out of the studio and covering the rest of the league?

They're covering the Jets and the Broncos from the studio?

 

[HanSenSE]

I'd rather watch daily footage from the Jets cafeteria than listen to another inane debate about LeBron James.

And what storyline do you suggest they push now that camps have opened. It's Manning and Tebow/New York. That's it.

Uh ... getting your ass out of the studio and covering the rest of the league?

They're covering the Jets and the Broncos from the studio?

OK, tripped up by lousy sentence structure. But are you really serving a national audience by covering two teams?

 

[Double Down]

Does ESPN push Tebow because he guarantees numbers or does Tebow do big numbers because he gets covered all the time?

I think you'll find it's the former. ...

I kinda agree and disagree because if ESPN were to cold-turkey quit blowing Tebow 24/7, I'd bet a fair amount of money there wouldn't be an outcry: "HEY, WHERE'S MY TIM TEBOW COVERAGE?!?!?" People wouldn't give a crap. It's ESPN that likes the story.

There is a major difference between "outcry" and "change the channel." ESPN is hoping people won't change the channel. And as much as you might be sick and tired of hearing about Tim Tebow, the general public as a whole is not. If you want to argue that ESPN should make a editorial decision and talk about Tebow less, that's a reasonable argument to make. But the idea that people are only watching daily dispatches of "As The Tebow Turns" because it's all that's on, and it's only on because someone at ESPN is in love with Tim Tebow, is false.

Again, he is the rare athlete who is polarizing enough that the people who love him and the people who hate him have a hard time looking away. There is a reason we have 60-page thread on here debating his abilities as a quarterback. Is ESPN using its invisible by powerful influence to make those threads some of the most popular on this site? Or is it because, no matter how you feel about him, he makes for popular debate? There is a reason we don't have 60-page threads about Cam Newton or Christian Ponder.

 

[zagoshe]

Rumor has it that the Steelers PR guy was fired (I think a year ago or maybe two) by Mike Tomlin in large part because he allowed an ESPN reporter into practice and the guy went on Sportscenter and was talking about trick plays the Steelers were practicing.

And if you read the memo to the media about covering practices, national guys, including ESPN, are not allowed to observe practice.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

The Jets are a perfect storm for ESPN at this point...

It's a NY team...

As DD said, it's the league's most polarizing and one of the most popular players. He's also extremely media friendly.

It's one of the few teams where there is, I don't want to say QB controversy, but where a lot of attention is being paid to more than one QB.

You also have a media friendly HC who fills notebooks like no other coach in the league.

 

[YGBFKM]

ESPN did the 30 teams in 30 days thing a few years back. I'll take Rex Ryan, Tim Tebow and the mess that is the New York Jets any day over a month of Chris Mortensen sitting in a team bus asking dumb questions of dumber players.

 

[Mark2010]

It does make for good comedy, better than Seinfeld, even.

 

[bpoindexter]

Does ESPN push Tebow because he guarantees numbers or does Tebow do big numbers because he gets covered all the time?

I think you'll find it's the former. ...

I kinda agree and disagree because if ESPN were to cold-turkey quit blowing Tebow 24/7, I'd bet a fair amount of money there wouldn't be an outcry: "HEY, WHERE'S MY TIM TEBOW COVERAGE?!?!?" People wouldn't give a crap. It's ESPN that likes the story.

There is a major difference between "outcry" and "change the channel." ESPN is hoping people won't change the channel. And as much as you might be sick and tired of hearing about Tim Tebow, the general public as a whole is not. If you want to argue that ESPN should make a editorial decision and talk about Tebow less, that's a reasonable argument to make. But the idea that people are only watching daily dispatches of "As The Tebow Turns" because it's all that's on, and it's only on because someone at ESPN is in love with Tim Tebow, is false.

Again, he is the rare athlete who is polarizing enough that the people who love him and the people who hate him have a hard time looking away. There is a reason we have 60-page thread on here debating his abilities as a quarterback. Is ESPN using its invisible by powerful influence to make those threads some of the most popular on this site? Or is it because, no matter how you feel about him, he makes for popular debate? There is a reason we don't have 60-page threads about Cam Newton or Christian Ponder.

I still disagree Double, but it's cool; we've all made good points here. Debates like this one are what I love about SportsJournalists.com.