A column by CHUCK POLLOCK, Sun Senior Sports Columnist
Shortly after ESPN took to the air waves in September of 1979, the sports network opted for a nickname, “The Worldwide Leader.”
Of course, arrogance aside, that was the era when Sports Center actually had a significant audience. These days its viewership numbers are troubling, a victim of social media outlets which offer instantaneous scores and breaking news and the internet which presents a smorgasbord of sources for sports information.
ESPN, whose signature programming initially was an outstanding roundup of the days’ scores, breaking stories and commentary, suddenly found itself saddled with a dinosaur.
In this world of high-speed information, Sports Center became barely a survivor of the antediluvian past.
These days, ESPN is mostly talk or features about pro sports and high-level college athletics with the show that gave the network its chops pushed to oh-by-the-way status.
To be clear, for its first 30 years, I was an ESPN devotee and almost unfailingly checked in on Sports Center.
But eventually it became clear I didn’t need it.
Then there were the allegations of sexual harassment against women by some members of management and certain on-air personalities.
Suddenly, I began to see ESPN as a tarnished, behind-the-times network merely trying to stay relevant.
I BRING this up because twice in the past 13 months, my suspicions about the network’s falling standards were verified.
The first came on January 2, 2023 at Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium. During the opening quarter of ABC’s Monday Night Football game, Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed after making a tackle. In seconds it became clear this was a life-threatening situation and only the quick and professional response by the Bills’ and Bengals’ training and medical staffs saved his life.
Given the gravity of Hamlin’s injury, the NFL stopped the game and eventually decided it wouldn’t be made up.
The story was so compelling, I needed to know more. Since ESPN was part of the ABC family, I switched there sure that “The Worldwide Leader” would be all over the story.
Not even close.
Instead we got self-absorbed anchor Scott Van Pelt blathering on repetitively with an embarrassing lack of insight. Former NFL safety Ryan Clark added some perspective but it hardly offset Van Pelt’s dreadful performance before a much-larger-than-usual audience.
Disgusted, I switched to CNN which, within a half hour of the incident, had multiple cardiologists on Zoom calls speculating that Hamlin had suffered commotio cordis. It’s a totally freak injury caused by blunt force to the chest via a baseball, hockey puck, lacrosse ball or football contact etc. at precisely the wrong nanosecond in a heartbeat.
CNN’s staff might not know sports, but it knew how to cover a news story and who to call. ESPN, not so much. Having it cover a genuine “news” event is like handing a jack-hammer to a ballet dancer.
WELL, IT happened again yesterday.
This time at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade when a mass shooting broke out with one fatality and 21 injuries, 11 of them children, most of them gunshot wounds. Every major network in the country was there, including ESPN which was clearly on hand only to cover a sports-related event.
The shooting started as people were leaving after the parade a bit after 3 p.m., Eastern time, but ESPN chose to address it only after its NBA Today show ended at 4 o’clock … before that there wasn’t even a bottom-of-the-screen crawl. But even then there was no in-person reporting. Instead, it merely tapped into the coverage from KMBC, the ABC affiliate in Kansas City, and let that station do the reporting.
Twice in just over a year, in two of the sports world’s biggest stories, when faced with real news, ESPN froze up like a ventriloquist on America’s Got Talent.
Shouldn’t we expect more from “The Worldwide Leader?”
(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
Read more from Chuck:
• What to make from the Super Bowl
• A look at free agency with the Buffalo Bills
• Don’t blame Bass for the playoff loss
• St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt was right about the Atlantic 10 and the Bonnies
- Why the Bills and Steelers might be the best wild-card game this weekend
- • Bills claim the No. 2 seed
- • Pollock predicts a 35-30 Dolphins victory
- • It’s 2024 and the Bonnies season starts for real
- • The inside story on why WPIG left the Bonnies after 74 years and a Gary Nease update
- • Bonnies look sharp in tune up to season
- • Pollock’s playoff picture
- • It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win for the Bills
- • The Bills need a win, not a blowout
- • McDermott deserves praise after win vs. the Dallas Cowboys
- • On this day, the Bills manhandled the Cowboys
- • The Bills win at KC turned the heat down on McDermott and Miller
- • At last, another teams gaffe helps the Bills win
- • The Bills must beat the Chiefs and distractions
- • Who is this Ty Dunne?
- • Why Chuck Pollock returned to writing and covering the Bills after a two-week “retirement”
- • Flags? Taking a knee before the half? Buffalo Bills’ apologists are whining in the wrong place
- • Was Dorsey the latest sacrificial lamb?
- • POLLOCK PREDICTION: McDermott will fire Dorsey next
- (You can support the work of our journalists and keep this site free with a PayPal donation HERE)
- • Awkward press conference for the Bills and McDermott
- • If season ended today, the Bills are out of the playoffs
- • Are the Bills a playoff team?
- • Bills produce a third straight stinker
- • An ugly win for the Buffalo Bills
- • The AFC is wide open with Buffalo injuries
- • Injuries were worse than a loss in London
- • Bills prepare for Jacksonville
- • The passing of Russ Francis and what it was like covering the Bills in the 1970’s
- • News and notes from a costly win by the Bills over Miami
- • A look a high school, college and NFL blowouts
- • Did the Bills find a middle linebacker in win vs. Washington?
- • Pollock Predicts: Take the Bills over Washington
- • Why Week 2 has the makings of a must-win
- • The new look AFC East after one week
- • Pollock on the Week 1 loss
- • Bills season prediction
