Sign That the Apocalypse Is Upon Us

[Will Lavender]

ESPN's front page story today is on...

...the release of John Madden Football.

Yes, that John Madden Football. The video game.

Sheesh. :?

[boomdaddy]

The "real" sports magazine has always been :The Sporting News". Nothing else even comes close.

[MudCat]

Eh, that doesn't bother me much.

"Madden" is a phenomenon. It's "all NFL all the time" on ESPN lately, which I love. The NFL players play it, people sit out all night to get a copy, it's a legitimate sports story.

I'm more concerned that they (ESPN) have so much time to fill, I've seen the following repeatedly on their networks over the last several months:

-World Series of Poker (Yawn)

-World Series of Darts (Double-yawn)

-Professional Paintball (You could probably get a contact buzz from the players, based on their looks)

-Competitive eating (Strangely intriguing, and where else could you potentially watch someone actually eat themselves to death?)

-Sumo Wrestling (EGAD! :shock:Plus, I don't buy a 210-pound sumo wrestler from Holland)

-Competive stacking (just shakes head......)

Oh, how I pine for the days of TimberSports and field hockey........

And a personal gripe:

When ESPN Classic shows boxing, for example, tonight at 8:30, they have Muhammad Ali versus Ernie Terrell (who?). Here's the screen blurb:

"From 1967: Muhammad Ali vs. Ernie Terrell for Ali's world heavyweight title. Ali won a 15-round decision."

Well, good. Now I don't have to watch it, since I know how it ends.

I'm amazed HBO doesn't present 'Saving Private Ryan' like this:

"Tom Hanks leads an all-star cast portraying an Army Ranger and hissquadordered to find and return home a soldier who's three brothers all died on the same day during WWII. Tom Hanks dies."

End of rant. Sorry.