Another Random Rant

On NFL last night, the analyst team spent a good ten minutes of their twenty minute segment talking about the apocalyptic (or insignificant?) ramifications of the infamous SPYGATE case. Midway through their crucially important analysis, the cast played an audio clip from Tom Brady, sharing his comments about the investigation:
(I was watching on an analogue TV, so this is very paraphrased)

"This is not that big of a deal to me or any of the players. I feel that ESPN has spun this issue way out of proportion; it's getting to the point now where ESPN is spending about as much time covering sports as MTV is covering music"

I was personally very surprised that ESPN would allow such brand bashing material on the air; it was fresh to hear a voice challenging the system. Of course, however, Trey Wingo was there to back the network as soon as the audio clip had finished:

"The first question that [the radio network] asked Brady was if he had seen any of the ESPN coverage and he said that he hadn't"

That seemed fair for Wingo to put Brady's perspective in context, but before the end of NFL Live's spygate segment, Wingo went off on a pretty half hearted quasi rant that inspired this post, saying something along the lines of:

"ESPN didn't accuse the Patriots of cheating, ESPN didn't take the tapes from them after the Jets game, the NFL did. So if you have a beef, Tom Brady, take it up with the League, not ESPN."

Immediately after Trey finished that sentence, network programming irony seemed to back Brady when Wingo's sidekicks began to lead into the next 'sports story' about some retired athlete's most recent performance on Dancing With The Stars.

Trey, I understand that ESPN is just the messenger, but as a monopolistic television network, ESPN does control how its messages are delivered. The truth is that ESPN has become very watered down; for every time an analyst takes the time to break down film and reveal something meaningful, there are twice as many squirrels on waterskies as there were before ESPN joined the Disney family. Is it wrong that I prefer Bob Knight boldly talking basketball instead of cracking superficial jokes about how bad his bracket is or what he shot on the golf course last week? I'm tired of ESPN cutting away from the Cavs game to tell the viewers what is playing on their family of networks. I'm tired of announcers taking time away from the game to talk about things more people can relate to.

The truth is, Trey, that while you may not personally be responsible for forcing the Patriots organization to deal with the plethora of media attention that they are receiving now, the ESPN network has given the issue much more coverage than it needs. Was the punishment just? Should congress get involved? Take two minutes to update the viewers on what is happening and let them fight it out in bars and message boards. Don't cut time from game highlights to rattle off opinions that normal people can come up with themselves.

Currently, basketball and hockey are in the middle of the playoffs, interleague play is about to start in baseball, and OTAs are starting all over the NFL, so (while it may be so in the college football world) it is inexcusable to play the "there's nothing else to cover" card. Brady didn't have to watch any of the ESPN coverage to comment on it. He knows that the network is milking the issue for all that it is worth because that's what ESPN does.

Please, CSTV or someone, grow enough so that people who want to watch sports coverage for coverage on the games have an alternate station to turn to.

In closing, and in order to relate this article to Irish football, when asked to comment on spygate, Weis declined to comment, justifying his decision by explaining that "the issue does not involve Notre Dame," which in my opinion, is the way ESPN should approach the issue. Tell us if the Pats get punished, let us know if they are under federal investigation, but don't spend time on it to the point that it cuts into real sports coverage.