Who's Now? Who Cares?
ESPN's current stupidity-laden concept is this unwatchable "Who's Now" thing, where every day they match up two current athletes and ask the public and their hodgepodge "panel" to determine who is more "now." The "winner" then moves on in the bracket. The brackets are named for famous athletes, simply to be politically correct, which ESPN loves to be. You have the Babe Ruth bracket, but then you can't have any more white males. So you have to have a woman. So yes, one of the four brackets about great athletes is named for Billie Jean King, a tennis-playing woman. Just saying.
Then another one is for Jordan, which is hard to argue, and the last one is Ali, also hard to argue as a polarizing, great sports figure.
But what's the point of all this? This whole "Who's now" bullspit is completely impossible to define and, thus, how can we know who is more... now, or whatever? And if so, what is this telling us? Last night's matchup was Tiger Woods and Dwayne Wade. Wade's sport is off for the summer -- Tiger is playing in the British Open this weekend. Does that make Tiger more "now"? But I saw D-Wade in a commercial where he gives free basketballs to some kids and a free Lincoln Navigator to their coach. Does that count for anything? Are there points in this game? Does anyone care?
Most pressing: Will D-Wade pay for the maintenance or gas on that behemoth Lincoln?
I have an idea for another cool segment on Sportscenter, which, trust me kids, used to be a really awesome show to watch. How about we do one called "Who cares?" In this segment, the public gets to vote on all the other segments, failed ESPN concepts and shows, and grating ESPN "personalities" that they want to see tossed into a giant bucket and catapulted into outer space. Here, I can get you started...
Chris Berman
NFL Live airing in May instead of Baseball Tonight
Stephen A. Smith
Stories about David Beckham and Posh Spice
Coverage of the WNBA
Anyone who argues that Pat Summitt is "really" the NCAA victories leader
Keyshawn
Fact or Fiction
Around the Horn
Max Kellerman
Stu Scott's pretend hood lingo