The soft spot of ESPN25's hard sell

Sporting News, The, June 14, 2004 by Fritz Quindt

It's ESPN's world. We only consume it.

Last week I bought a Happy Meal that included an ESPN25 hand-held game for dessert, hit the supermarket for ESPN25 Gatorade (limited edition--only 1.3 billion bottles produced) and deodorant (with flee ESPN25 keychain) and grabbed a sixer of ESPN25 Bud Light at the liquor store. Never mind trying to explain life before ESPN was born September 7, 1979. What happened to subliminal advertising?

Welcome to the "ESPN25 Initiative" which only sounds like a voter proposition to install 21 more ESPN channels.

(Sorry. It's easy to be cynical since ESPN Inc. ceased to be an underdog. With 90 million people weekly watching/reading/logging on/eating its products, rooting for ESPN is like rooting for the phone company. Hail the first broadcaster owning rights to the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, plus the National Spelling Bee. I find myself getting sports news more from ESPNEWS and ESPN.com and less from SportsCenter, in conscious backlash that my once-private pleasure has become a corporation-within-a-corporation.)

The Worldwide Leader's very public celebration rages on with mostly predictable anniversary-themed series, including The Moments and The Headlines--essentially SportsCentury remixes--and a countdown of the top 25 sports teams since 1979.

But Then and Now, a two-hour special hosted by Dan Patrick, expands the mind--specifically a segment plumbing the socioeconomic aspect of the first all-jocks channel that amounts to a confessional. "For all the great things ESPN has brought to sport," Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated says on camera, "one of the awful things is this culture of highlights." ESPN alum Charley Steiner testifies, "We glorify these hot dogs because it makes great video." John Wooden complains that athletes, coaches and even refs have become actors. Shaquille O'Neal admits players routinely forego fundamentals to get on SportsCenter.

Significance: After so many look-at-me productions, ESPN does a show that takes a hard look at itself, proving it's ever-capable of meaningful TV--remember, for every Jay Mohr there's an Outside the Lines. Can it be that in adulthood ESPN is living up to the responsibilities of a cultural institution? I'll buy that.

E-mail: fquindt@sportingnews.com.