ESPN: Turn off the AFL hype already
I love to listen to ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike In The Morning show, hosted by Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic. But the duo is driving me crazy lately with their constant references to ESPN's upcoming Arena Football League coverage, for which Mike & Mike will be the No. 1 broadcast team.
Every damn day it seems that one way or another Greenberg and Golic find ways to bring the conversation around to the AFL, and make sure they remind listeners that they will be broadcasting the games.
Interviewing John Elway, theoretically, about the Super Bowl, they begin by talking about Elways co-ownership of an Arena team. Same with a recent chat with Ron Jaworski, who also co-owns a team. A couple of days ago we were subjected to a long dissertation about how AFL officials had hosted an event honoring ESPN, and specifically Greenie and Golic, for their role in the league. Even Wednesday, talking to Boomer Esiason about the Super Bowl, Greenberg plugged ESPN's upcoming AFL preview special.
Enough already! Except for ESPN and officials of the various Arena teams, nobody gives a damn! I know Mike & Mike are probably being told by ESPN's marketing gurus that they need to pump up ESPN's Arena commitment whenever possible, but enough is enough. Can we please get through at least one show without talking about the AFL?
Truth is, Mike & Mike aren't really promoting the Arena League. They are promoting themselves, basically screaming at us every day -- 'Watch the games because you will hear us!' Unfortunately, I know it's only going to get worse as the season approaches. The ESPN hype machine won't have it any other way.
It's just a shame that Greenberg and Golic are compromising a terrific show with such pompous self promotion.
technorati tags: ESPN, Arena Football, Mike Greenberg, Mike Golic
3 comments:
A "terrific" show? Please, please, please tell me you're being facetious. They're absolutely atrocious... how do I know this? I listen every morning? Why? Because there's no other sports talk in the AM and they have terrific guests, mostly mandated by ESPN... but terrific regular guests, nonetheless.
But Greenburg and Golic? Blech. The best week of the year is the week when they're off between xmas and New Year's and the show is hosted by someone else, usually paired with Mark Schlereth, who's far better than he gets credit for. No nonsense, no stupid jokes, no painfully obvious prescripted "arguments"... just good, solid sports talk.
You almost got me with that "terrific show". Not only are the arguments painful, but the "he eats a lot, he's kind of girly" banter drives one insane as well. Fortunately there's other options in DC, but I still wander over sometimes during commercials ...
More to the point the AFL isn't a real sport.
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