The ESPYs: A Critique
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by Rawbeezeitz
I just watched The ESPYs. I missed the original broadcast, but was able to catch one of the 10,000 upcoming rebroadcasts on the ESPN Empire of networks. Just a few thoughts:
Jimmy Kimmel WAS the show. Lebron did a good job of co-hosting, as well. The pair were funny and kept the pace of the show going. This was a stark contrast to the presenters and award winners. Here was a basic award winner's speech:
1. Thank God or family for supporting you
2. Thank teammates, if any
3. Extend some sort of gratitude to the fans
4. Be boring, uninteresting, simple, polite, unoriginal
5. Smile, and leave
Maybe the athletes get nervous when they know they have to say something. Maybe they have little to no experience making speeches. It isn't that they don't care about the ESPYs. Hell, Kevin Durant skipped a summer league game to attend. Whatever the reason is, these guys (and gals) are cardboard cutouts on stage. They need to hire some speechwriters to help them say something original or clever, or at least say "thank you" in an interesting way.
I wasn't a fan of the cutaway reaction shots. Kimmel would say something about the Cincinnati Bengals and they'd show Dallas Clark giggling. Then they'd instantly cut to Lisa Leslie smiling, then quickly cut to Jimmie Johnson sternly disapproving. Some of the reaction shots made sense, like when Kimmel cracked jokes about Kobe, they cut to Shaq. But 99% of them were pointless. Most of the time, the people shown weren't even reacting to anything, they were just sitting and smiling. And the reaction shots would last for half a second before cutting to another one. It was like watching Fox baseball. Very nauseating and jarring.
Why is there an award for best MLS player? I'm a soccer fan, and I could care less. But maybe it has something to do with ESPN's coverage of the MLS and soccer in general. Don't be shocked if next year, there is an award for Arena Football.
I felt like Ryan Howard should have gotten Best Breakthrough Performance instead of Devin Hester. Howard already has over 100 HRs. Hester, on the other hand, was a backup cornerback. He was a phenomenal returner last year, but he was still A BACKUP CB! This just shows how sports fans emphasize the big highlight play as opposed to long term consistent play. Kickoff return TDs always make SportsCenter, and they always look sensational. However, they're also team plays, not individual plays. But ESPN, The ESPYs, and sports fans in general only seem to care about individuals and individual plays.
Why wasn't Rutgers football nominated for Best Upset for beating Louisville? Did the people who came up with nominations really think the Rutgers women's team has a shot at winning Best Upset? And wasn't Boise State-Oklahoma an upset?
Why did Lebron get a nomination for Best Championship Performance? His team didn't win a championship, right? Or did I miss something?
I don't get why Tony Dungee won or was even nominated for Best Coach. Was it hard to coach Peyton Manning and Dwight Freeney? Did he take a team of unknowns to levels nobody expected they would reach? No! He led a team somewhere where they had been expected to be 3 seasons ago.
I'm not a big fan of all the individual awards. It seems like everything in sports revolves around individuals, and not teams, or even groups on teams. There were 15 awards given to individual athletes, and 1 award given to a team. How about awards like best college team, best pro team, best combo (think: Ravens defense, or best hitters in a lineup), most exciting team, and things like that. But you won't see these things. Sports are like movies, they rely on individual star power and big action sequences. But that's what the people want, so that's what we got.
