ESPN & TO: An unhappy marriage

God, I'm already so damn sick of the whole T.O. fiasco. I've stopped watching ESPN for the time being. It seems like whenever Terrell Owens has so much as a hangnail, it's front page news, not only in the sports world, but national media as well.

As if that's not bad enough, ESPN has been out of freakin' control over the whole deal. Now, don't get me wrong - I flat out love ESPN - I've been watching it for many, many years. I remember as an 11-year old, when my parents got one of those ancient cable boxes on top of the TV, which had this weird network that ran sports 24-7. It didn't take me long to become a fan.

However, lately, my opinion of ESPN has changed a little, and not for the better. It seems that the network is turning into the marketing arm for the National Football League, and it's getting annoying.

As the leading sports reporting network in the United States, ESPN not only reports sports stories big and small, but it's responsible for determining what is news, as well.

Remember this bullshit? I do, quite well. It's that idiot TO, doing sit-ups in his driveway in front of a drooling and ga-ga press corps, and ESPN was right in the middle of it all.

Why am I bringin' all of this up? On the way to work today, I was listening to ESPN Radio, and Chris Mortensen was on, talking about the latest TO saga. In short, Mort stank up the joint.

"TO has been holding ESPN hostage," said Mort, referring to TO's thirst for media attention, specifically the latest story on his alleged suicide attempt (which now looks to be bullshit), and his antics of the last 2-3 years.

I screamed out "What?!?" to no one in particular, since I was alone in my car on the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

What fucking balls on this guy. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Mort - he is, hands down, the best information man in the NFL. His reports on NFL Countdown are top notch, and he rarely gets anything wrong. This guy has won more awards than Tom Hanks - he's the only sports writer to win a Polk, ever, and he was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in his journalism days in the 1970s. But, when I heard Mort blurt that out, I couldn't believe my ears.

If anything, ESPN has been holding its viewers hostage, reporting on all of this TO nonsense seemingly every day. The network just feeds into all of this crap; TO knows that if he sneezes, he makes the 6 p.m. show, and he'll probably be the lead story.

It's a double-edged sword - as the country's premiere sports network, ESPN has a responsibility to report the TO mess, especially an alleged suicide attempt, but when it's making a big deal out of this asshole doing situps in his driveway? That's a bit extreme.

Later on in the interview, Mortensen dropped a bombshell. Referring to Dallas Cowboys Head Coach Bill Parcells, Mort had this to say:

"While with the New York Giants, Parcells had to deal with Lawrence Taylor, but he's never had to deal with anything like this TO situation."

Really, Mort? Hyperbole cop, pull over!

TO is not school boy, but he isn't a coke head, either. Like Owens or hate him, this man isn't a criminal. While it appears that LT has cleaned up his act (Bravo, LT), this man has had repeated run-ins with the law, including narcotics convictions.

Owens may be an asshole, but that's not against the law. By comparing TO to Lawrence Taylor (and calling TO worse), Mort not only damaged his own credibility, but of the network he works for. It's outrageous, but of course it goes largely unnoticed, and unreported.

The bottom line, ESPN (and Mort) - you can't feed into the media frenzy, play a large part in creating the media frenzy, then bitch about the media frenzy.

Wake up and smell the sweat socks, Mort. You're better than that.