Football season is finally back after the NFL kicked off its season on Thursday. That also means that ESPN is back to reminding the country that it destroys everything it touches.
The big sports media news this past week centered on NFL RedZone, a channel that cuts to scoring opportunities and shows every touchdown and big play from the Sunday morning and afternoon slates of games. The show’s tagline had been “seven hours of commercial-free football.” In August, ESPN purchased NFL Network, which includes RedZone.
STEPHEN A. SMITH IS THE NEXT MICHAEL AVENATTI
RedZone host Scott Hanson admitted earlier this week that RedZone would now include commercials. This is not necessarily ESPN’s fault, as RedZone experimented with commercials the last week or two of the NFL season last year, and ESPN won’t officially take control of RedZone until next year. But there is no denying that ESPN is backing the imposition of commercials on that formerly commercial-free program, as prominent ESPN host Pat McAfee and ESPN’s NFL insider Adam Schefter both took to X to portray people opposing more commercials as overreacting complainers.
Meanwhile, ESPN welcomed the NFL season with some delusional analysis from its flagship show, First Take. NFL “analyst” Ryan Clark declared that the NFL’s three career leaders in passing yards, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees, were not “generational” talents. Clark’s argument could maybe be defended if he was referring to when those players were drafted, but then he said that Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is a generational talent, despite Mahomes not even being the first quarterback selected in his own draft class. (Manning, in contrast, was a number one overall pick).
ESPN HAS BUILT A CULTURE OF RACISM
You may recall Clark as the same man who implied that former ESPN personality Robert Griffin III wasn’t black enough because he married a white woman. In June, another ESPN host said on First Take that top NBA prospect Cooper Flagg and Caitlin Clark, the best women’s college basketball player in history, were only popular because they are white. ESPN also continues to reach into politics, with its much-hyped host and analyst Mina Kimes regularly weighing in on political issues in Los Angeles with whatever the Democratic Party’s talking points are at the time.
ESPN ruins everything it touches. That will include RedZone and the NFL Network’s superior NFL draft coverage, just as it includes social issues and politics. ESPN is a politically toxic company that has contempt for sports fans who simply want to enjoy sports, rather than whatever four blowhards the outlet wants to sit around a table to yell about racism or sports legacy debates that have been beaten to death.