So, I got up yesterday morning and for the first time in a month or so I turned it to ESPN’s Sportscenter. I used to leave it on throughout the morning when I was at UNCW and especially when I lived with Travis Putnam. I just wanted to look and see if they were going to talk about anything other than the Super Bowl and the NBA. If you know anything about the show, they put a list on the right of the upcoming stories and highlights. Now ESPN has never been “soccer-friendly” and if they ever do show any it’s in a small segment right after commercials to promote EPSN Deportes, the Spanish language version. Now I know all the arguments why it’s not popular in the States like “soccer’s not a real sport” or ”we already have football, basketball and baseball” or maybe from the person who’s tried to watch and says, “there’s no contact” or the soundly logical ”there’s not enough scoring”, but I love it. And even though there’s MLS (Major League Soccer) Thursday nights, ESPN has done nothing to change that sentiment.
But, when I turned yesterday morning and looked down the list, the unbelievable was in front of me. Not just a little tab that said Soccer, but a tab that said Manchester United. Yes, son! I had to read it a few times. I didn’t know if they were going to talk about AIG having to drop out of their shirt sponsorship with the club or just talk about Man United being the greatest or what? Instead, they showed highlights from the day before. West Brom v. Man United! Which means they played at West Brom because they show the teams backwards across the pond. There was little drama to the game for me, but I’m sure that they showed it because there was a lot of scoring. It was a 0-5 thumping by United. And Cristiano Ronaldo scored the last two goals of the game. That would be Cristiano, the best player in the world, Ronaldo. This is the guy who won any and every award for last season after he won the Premier League, Champions League and scored 42 goals in the process. He pisses me off, but he’s a stud. That type of high-profile player plus the abundance of goals is the only way they’ll really show soccer in the normal flow of Sportscenter. That scoreline would equate in American football to 3-59, if you gave field goals for shots on goal and touchdowns for goals. West Brom with 1 shot on goal and Man United with 8 shots on goal and 5 goals. Ok, enough of that!
Now this really is not coming as much of a surprise since the rumor has it that ESPN is putting a bid in for the TV rights to the English Premier League. They have a version of ESPN in England, but compared to SKY Sports they are virtually non-existent. So, they are putting a bid in for the rights to the local coverage to get feelers out, not really thinking they’ll get it, and then when the international rights are up for bids they are supposedly putting in a serious bid to broadcast all of the Premier League internationally, which is done by Setanta Sports who sub certain games out to Fox Soccer Channel. It’s all very confusing, but to know that ESPN would have the Premier League on Saturday and Sunday mornings would be incredible!! So, I think this is one of their pushes to prepare the American public for the idea of it.
Whether the American public gets into it or not, it would be nice for me to have a lower cable bill! Until then, I’ll keep cheering for United on Setanta, Fox Soccer and the occasional ESPN2 coverage of the Champions League.
Sorry to bore you, but I had to get it out there.
1 response so far ↓
James Derfel // January 30, 2009 at 12:51 am
C. Ronaldo is definitely the best player in the world right now. However, I would take the real Ronaldo, before he got fat, over C. Ronaldo any day of the week. Ronaldo the Real, was the greatest player I ever saw. He was amazing. Had he stayed away from the all you can eat buffett he could have been relevant much longer.
You need to do some research and write a blog about Kaka! He’s a believer and just a notch below C. Ronaldo as far as being a soccer player.