Never read the comments but, one of the people who responded to him pointed out that in his sport a long time the National Champion was decided by a poll.
It should be pointed out that Kanell also hosts a radio/TV ESPN show with Russillo, thus showcasing ESPN"s march to the bottom.
To be fair to Kanell, the players don't decide whether a sport determines its champion with a regular season record without regards to strength of schedule, a playoff, or a poll. The leagues, schools, NCAA, NFL, MLS, etc. make the decisions.
poifect example of a media idiot: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/s...hought-nycfc-red-bulls-team-article-1.2641359
That was classic! Do they kick with both legs? What's this guy doing on Fox Sports? He belongs on ESPN.
With comments like that it's no wonder. If a national sports talk show host can't competently talk about the biggest sport in the world, he shouldn't be hosting a show in the first place.
As it currently stands, the shot-callers in U.S. sports media (especially talk radio) is still dominated by traditionalist curmudgeons stuck in their US/Canadian sports bubble. ESPN president John Skipper is a huge soccer guy, which is why it's perplexing how the "worldwide leader" can have incompetent SportsCenter anchors, who can't even bother to get basic rules/player names right when doing highlights of the worldwide sport--this lack of the most basic understanding of the game is even worse among local sports media outlets.
Well according to this article someone at ESPN must've convinced the soccer-loving president to massively overpay for NFL, MLB, and NBA rights. No mention of overpaying for soccer though. And those huge investments are obviously going to dictate what's discussed and shown on their sports programming. If they had invested heavily in soccer I'm sure that even those hosts that didn't know anything about soccer would've learned quickly to love it if they wanted to keep their jobs. And it's not like it's that hard to learn such a simple sport. But how does talking about soccer help their ratings when Fox Sports and Fox Soccer devote more coverage to the sport? They would just be helping their competition. You can also use a simple eye test to determine what importance they place on soccer. I remember a friendly between Brazil and Italy that I thought would be on ESPN or ESPN2 and they were airing Little League baseball instead. Not only do they have way too much non-sports programming for a sports network, if you were to add up the number of hours for each sport they do show, I bet you'd find they have more coverage for tennis, women's softball or the WNBA then they have for soccer. They could probably make a bid for NASL or USL games for next to nothing. I think the writing is on the wall for ESPN which is why so much talent is leaving for Fox Sports.
A guy who managed to play professionally just long enough to earn a pension, but who has no significant accomplishments. The only ring he has is for a schoolboy championship he got backing up Charlie Ward in 1992. Typical BMOC/NFL nobody.
Sports have special events. The NCAA Softball Tournament will be prioitized over soccer, and so will the Little League World Series, but not regular season games in those sports. I don't know if Fox Saturday Baseball has a fixed time anymore, and they might not have a game on Fox every week. Sometimes Fox Sports 1 would have a game instead. A few years ago when Fox Saturday Baseball was normally in the afternoon, Fox made it a night game the day of the UEFA Champions League Final because that's a special event. Should baseball fans have complained that a regular season game was considered less important than the Champions League Final?
I know that it has been policy at ESPN for many years now to stick with the live event - no matter what it is - until its completion and push the scheduled start to one of the other channels or even delay if the league agrees to it.
Spends 8 minutes bitching about something he supposedly doesn't care about. The demographic of your inner circle is showing, Mikey. Amazing how many sports personalities are willing to reduce themselves to caricatures just to stay relevant.
I want to say that his contract runs out sometime in 2017 and I don't believe it will be renewed...so his time is soon coming to an end. Not soon enough in my book...
Mike Francesa said that at the end of 2017 he will leave his radio show but continue to be involved in sports.
ESPN Ratings 2014 Little League World-Series South Korea vs Chicago 5,343,000 2015 USMNT soccer friendly USA-Brazil 1,012,000
Aside from the fact that you picked the most watched Little League final ever, which even beat out MLB ratings, you do realize the Little League final is on ABC, not ESPN, right? Not to mention it falls on a Saturday afternoon. While the friendly you mentioned was on ESPN2 on a Tuesday evening. The 2015 Little League final had 2.8 million viewers (also on ABC). ESPN only shows the regional Little League games and even an MLS game would garner better ratings. But aside from strictly ratings, isn't there something exploitative about showcasing 11 and 12 year olds on national tv for a sporting competition?
Is that any different from America's Most Talented Kid, MasterChef Junior, or other reality competitions for kids?