Media | Sports

August 2, 2007

Lamenting SportsCenter's Baroque Period

The author of a 2000 paper praising the wit and wisdom of SportsCenter tells Gelf this decade hasn't been kind to the home of Chris Berman and Stuart Scott.

Vincent Valk

In 2000 Grant Farred, then of Williams College, wrote an article in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues entitled "Cool as the Other Side of the Pillow" (a phrase Farred borrowed from Stuart Scott). The piece praised ESPN generally, and SportsCenter in particular, for bringing sports, language, and intelligence together in an entirely new way, devoid of team provincialism. Seven years later, Scott, the man who coined the phrase that became the title of Farred's paper, is mired in the much-maligned "Who's Now?" contest, and ESPN has become the bane of sports bloggers everywhere.

Vincent Valk







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Comments

- Sports
- posted on Aug 03, 07
not stu

Holy crap. Stuart Scott most certainly did NOT coin the phrase "cooler than the other side of the pillow." 49ers broadcaster Wayne Walker was calling Joe Montana that back in the '80s.

Scott did, however, beat it until it died an unlamented death.

- Sports
- posted on Aug 03, 07
mike k

Great read, very interesting. You can only hope some ESPN Brass sees articles like this and realizes turning Sportscenter into a popularity contest isn't they way to go. Instead of gearing the program to the 14-16 year old demographic and lowering the collective viewing IQ of everyone else they should continue to strive to raise the bar. Might as well watch ESPNEWS for all my info until that is corrupted.

- Sports
- posted on Aug 03, 07
Will

ESPN has become Oprah-like in their presentation. On Oprah the issue of the day is interchangeable. Today, women who drink, tomorrow, women who have eating disorders etc. etc. Oprah helps these women and sheds some light on these issues but in the end what is most important is that OPRAH brought these stories to the masses. The subject of the day is interchangeable. What is permeant is the all knowing OPRAH.

ESPN is now like that. The sports they are covering are interchangeable but ESPN is permeant. Those idiotic Espy awards is a perfect example of that. Just what is an Espy and why does anyone care about winning one? The Espy awards may be handing out some made up award to Tiger or Peyton Manning but in the end the Espy awards is a celebration of ESPN and the athletes are just like the bulimic housewives that thank Oprah for letting them tell their stories on the air.

- Sports
- posted on Jun 08, 13
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- Sports
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Article by Vincent Valk

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