WHAT YEAR DID ESPN FALL OFF?

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

Around the Horn was always garbage. The reporters Stat Boy used to have on were worthless and these were all local guys....

 

[Nostalgic]

Multiple things

Cold Pizza became First Take
Skip Bayless became the face of ESPN
Tebowmania
ESPN HELLA dikk riddin pointless analytics stats
ESPN shows copying the same show format as First Take (arguing about LeBron, Tebow, Cowboys, Brady all day)

 

[Cadillac]

when the views started to fall off

its really that simple

 

[El Bombi]

ESPN fell off a long time ago.

 

[Lucky_Lefty]

Pick one: getting rid of the Sports Reporters, making commercials for on-air talent, giving Bill Simmons a platform and his brand of "sports journalism", but for me its changing the format of Cold Pizza to whatever tf it is now and trying to mold every show after PTI

 

[Higher Tech]

This.

That’s why there’s so many different answers in here. As a kid I’m sure most people here watched ESPN all day, every day. But once we got older we realized there were more important things in life, and watching ESPN all day was mostly a waste of time.

That’s a good theory. A lot of guys just graduated to more complex sports analysis and ESPN went into the debate show format with First Take and it’s like TMZ for sports.

 

[Spiritual Stratocaster]

When they started reporting every TO move when he was with the Cowboys. Showing him during the game when the defense was on the field, looking for a reason to create a narrative.

Possibly before then but that's when I stopped tuning in

TO working out in his driveway

I remember that shyt..dozens of reporters there.

 

[Hey_zeus]

When they went news show arguing in boxes. Sports Reporters and PTI shouldn't have devolved to this point. They don't know how to make normal programming anymore.

 

[Spade]

It was clearly in the early or mid 2000s. Can't pinpoint the year. I'd say around when Dan Patrick left.

 

[AlbertPullhoez]

That looked bad

 

[dtownreppin214]

When they got rid of 'Did You Know?'.

 

[Ya Sinning Mane]

When Stephen a took over

 

[NYC Rebel]

When social media took over and people stopped giving a fukk about sports center

Close thread.

its been well over 20’years since Ive watched anything ESPN. I dont feel like Im missing anything

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

HELL or sports journalism in general.

I feel like when. BRON did "The decision" and Bron was made the villain that ESPN went downhill..

But then again I was in the military and not able to watch ESPN all the time..

OP this is a great question but I feel like you have to be definitive in what you mean. What was it to you before and what has has it devolved to?

 

[The Devil's Advocate]

When they got ESPN 3...


Used to be Sportscenter like 8 times a day to catch ALL the highlights. Each Sportscenter had it's own sportscasters and as new highlights came in, they'd do those ones. A few talk shows mid day and live sports.. One channel...

They added in ESPN 2 and filled it with talk shows, maybe 2 sportscenters, and secondary sports.. Then they got ESPN News.. Which was watered down Sportscenter on a loop. Then they got ESPN 3... Like what the fukk? So they shipped all the secondary sports there, made ESPN 2 all talk shows and it went downhill from there.

Eventually they'd start removing a Sportscenter, adding a talk show from ESPN 2, and slowly ESPN became ESPTalking Heads. You rarely see sports highlights anymore. Every show has the same exact people discussing the same topics making the same points. If you're going to do that, just show us the damn highlight. I already heard what Marcus Spears said at 7-10 on Getup, now I gotta hear him on First Take and NFL Live? But I don't get any NFL and NBA highlights in the 7-8 hours those 3 shows take up?