ESPN's Rose Bowl Debacle

Texas QB Vince Young needs to say, "Fuck ESPN"

What an unbelievable game. The defending BCS Champion USC Trojans were defeated 41-38 on a touchdown run by Texas QB Vince Young with just 0:19 remaining on the clock, in a game that featured 3 of the biggest marquee players to ever lace up a collegiate uniform.

I have a vendetta with ESPN stemming from this game that I've managed to keep bottled up for the last 2 weeks. I've cut my Sportscenter watching down from 7 times a day to about 1.5, and I'm even penalizing my own self by not watching Around the Horn & Pardon the Interruption every day after work (P.S. - "Home Improvement" is still funny on TBS). Why? Because of ESPN's continued fall from grace into becoming the armpit of sports journalism.

How many times did you flip to channel 32 (or whatever ESPN is to you) only to find a college football analyst struggling to enunciate multi-syllable words, and in the end failing miserably because of the giant USC donkey dick flopping around their mouth? The entire self-concocted "05 Trojans vs. ESPN's Top Ten" was a farce - complete and utter bullshit. When they ranked '02 Ohio State as #9 as greatest of all-time and I watched Kirk Herbstreit and Mark May both speak of how they thought USC wins, I called bullshit right then and there and immediately discredited every remaining ounce of hype generated by the ESPN propaganda machine.

First of all, last year's USC would smoke this year's USC. Now, because I'm an OSU homer (I still tell it like it is though) I have to defend my champions and question...does anyone realize that '02 Miami is essentially '05 USC with a defense? I really don't think '05 USC defeats '02 Miami for that matter, much less the '01 version that ESPN rated (I think*) #3 and had a split analyst opinion on who'd win. However the ridiculousness of the remaining 8 teams didn't get any better, but in the interest of not writing forever I'm going to leave it at that.

Now I was a bit urinated off at the way I felt Vince Young represented himself in New York at the Heisman presentation, as I felt he appeared a sore loser. Being invited is an honor in itself, however because of Reggie Bush's ESPN-led Heisman campaign Vince had to know going in that he had no prayer. Well, last night Vince showed he was the best player in college football (something Buckeye fans could've told you a few months ago) by rushing for 200 yards and throwing for 267 more, essentially taking his Longhorns on his back and carrying them to their first national championship since 1970.

Now - did anyone catch Sportscenter afterwards? How Vince went from Heisman candidate playing alongside 2 former Heisman winners before the game to one of the greatest college players of all time? Are you serious? My god how the tides have turned. No longer are there outstanding games by outstanding players, now it seems that any feat deemed worthy of national attention automatically places said entity into elite status. Someone along the way must've decided that no one will watch sports without the ongoing assumption that you're watching history that will be talked about well into the 22nd century.

So where do we go from here? I dunno. If Tom Brady breaks Bart Starr's consecutive playoff win streak this Saturday I'm sure ESPN will be quick to jump in front of the proverbial money shot, and after Brady makes the "we don't get any respect" comment that is sure to follow, we'll again hear all week about how we're watching one of the greatest teams of all time. Such is life.