Okay, here comes yet another one of my infamous rants.
Alright I warned you…
Here goes….
This dissing of games not covered by ESPN is nothing new. All of you Husker fans old enough to remember the 1997 season think back and take a walk down memory lane with me.
ESPN/ABC was going to air the Rose Bowl that year as well. Early in the season, Nebraska was ranked #1, but there was no chance of the Huskers ending up on ESPN/ABC. That year the Orange Bowl (Nebraska’s conference tie-in) was to be aired on CBS. So early in the year ESPN ran a hype campaign about who should be #1 between the winner of the Michigan vs. Penn State game (I am pretty sure that was the match-up). Oh, good `ol ESPN seemed to conveniently forget that there was already a #1 team that was not playing in that particular match-up. But, like I mentioned before, ESPN was not going to get a chance to air the game that Nebraska was going to play in if they won their conference and remained #1. IMO this was a blatant, purposeful, premeditated attempt to screw Nebraska for the sake of ratings. And if you all remember, lo and behold, after Michigan and Penn State played, Michigan jumped Nebraska and was crowned the new #1 team. If you don’t think that was orchestrated by ESPN, then you probably believe the Warren report’s lone gunman theory.
Another bi-product of ESPN/ABC’s shameless self-promotion was the way they screwed Peyton Manning out of the Heisman Trophy. Once again, ESPN/ABC was going to show the Rose Bowl, and Peyton Manning was going to play in the Sugar or Orange Bowl. So about mid-season ESPN began showing highlights of all of Charles Woodson’s offensive plays (they knew a pure defensive player would never win the Heisman). In contrast, whenever they showed Peyton Manning highlights, they would show him getting sacked or throwing an interception. Never mind that Manning put up incredible numbers that should have made him the clear favorite for the Heisman; ESPN/ABC wanted to hype the “National Championship game, featuring Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson.” I must have seen a hundred highlights of Woodson running back punts for TD’s. Want to know the funny thing? He only returned one. That’s right, for all the Woodson punt return highlights he only returned ONE FREAKING PUNT for a TD.
If that is not enough evidence of the ESPN/ABC self promotion, when some people had the audacity to suggest that if Nebraska won the Orange Bowl and Michigan won the Rose Bowl, perhaps they should split the national title, all of the hacks on ESPN began the mantra “If a team is #1 and they win, then you have to leave them #1.” I must have heard a dozen ESPN idiot analyst make that or similar remarks to the effect that if Michigan won out they deserved the national title. Funny thing is, where was the outcry for fairness earlier in the season when Nebraska was #1 and the sportswriters jumped Michigan over us? Oh, I forgot, that didn’t suit ESPN/ABC’s shameless attempts to bolster the ratings for the game they were going to televise.
Well, that’s my rant against ESPN/ABC…at least for now…I’ve already weighed in with my feelings about Mark May and that whining little piece of sh*t Herbstiet.
