Ever since the early days of The Media Circus, there has been one show that has continually garnered our praise as an ideal mix of serious analysis, humor, vulgar signs and grown men wearing mascot heads.
Back in 2006, we made a statement that we still stand firmly behind today:
"Kudos to the (ESPN) College Gameday Crew. If more sports shows were like this one, this column would suck every week."
Simply put, we feel that ESPN's College Gameday is one of the best sports-specific preview/highlight shows on the air. Each year, we prep ourselves for some sign that the show is regressing or taking a Baseball Tonight-level swoon, but then, as the college football season begins, our original stance gets re-affirmed.
The show's success can be attributed to the consistency of host Chris Fowler, the unique mix of personality and knowledge from analyst Kirk Herbstreit (sprinkled in with some hair frost, fake bronzing and arrogance) and of course...Lee Corso.
Corso is the type of "analyst" that theoretically should be shredded in this column regularly, but instead seems to have a mysterious power over the Media Circus that keeps him free and clear from criticism. Take his comments this past week as an example.
While laying out his predictions during a studio show a few days prior to the first College Gameday "on campus" show of the 2008 season, Corso went into his reasoning for why he sees Missouri as the team that will ultimately meet USC in the national championship game.
Two of those reasons were:
1.) Chase Daniels
2.) Jeremy McClain
He's not the first and won't be the last to tack a 's' on to the end of Chase's last name but his unique mispronunciation of Jeremy Maclin's last name (pronounced Mack-lin) had his counterpart Herbstreit literally in tears a few feet to his left.
A national "expert" claiming Mizzou will make the national championship game and then proceeding to butcher both their star players' names to the point where his own co-host is openly mocking him? This is the reason the Media Circus was created, right?
Well, rather than crack open the laptop and immediately start the crucification, we just laughed and chalked it up as part of the charm of College Gameday.
Why does Gameday get special treatment? We're not sure, but the mascot head never hurts.
Crap that actually came from somebody's mouth - Mad Hungarian Edition
Last week, we included a comment from Cardinals analyst Al Hrasboky that looked vaguely familiar to astute readers of the Media Circus.
“Milwaukee has a much easier schedule than the Cardinals do, but sometimes, you’d rather play a winning club or somebody who has something at stake like you do than to play the weaker ones.”
Makes perfect sense. Why would you want to play a team that's been crappy all season when you could try to gain those all-important victories over teams that have been good all season?
The reason the quote looked familiar is because one year ago this week, Al Hrabosky said pretty much the same thing, and we responded in similar fashion.
“(The Cardinals) have the toughest schedule amongst the three contenders (for the NL Central title), but many times you would rather face a team that has something on the line than a team that wants to be a spoiler.”
Okay, Al, let’s make this a little more fun. How about we put money down on the teams who are actually playing good enough baseball to be in contention in September and you put the same amount of money down on the bad teams who have sucked all year and thus are relegated to the role of “spoiler” and we’ll see who has more money in the end.
At this point, we're of the belief that a robotic Al Hrabosky or "Hungo Auto Pilot" could do a better job as television analyst than the real deal. Just for grins and giggles, here are our favorite Hungo-isms from the '07 and '08 campaigns. Read and marvel at the simplicity and uber-obvious thoughts that ramble through Hungo's brain.
"Adam (Wainwright) gets a hold of something, he’s going to jerk it to left or center"
"We knew (J.R. Towles) wasn't as good as the 8 RBI game he showed last year."
"It's only a bad move if you fail to get the next guy out." (on intentional walks)
“Most of the time you talk about a backup catcher, you talk about a guy who can catch and throw.”
"If (the defense) can get an out on every play, they’re going to be okay."
If you're wondering, yes, we photoshopped the neckbrace image and yes; we think it suits Al perfectly.
When Ocho Cinco is No Longer Cool to Say
There we were, checking our email like any other Tuesday morning when we received official confirmation via Yahoo!'s fantasy football news-wire that Chad Johnson is a dirty media whore.
Yep; he finally went ahead and changed his last name to Ocho-Cinco, the name Chad Johnson coined for himself. Normally people accept nicknames that are given to them, not created by them, but Chad is apparently the exception to the rule. He's also the first athlete we can think of to legally change his last name to his self-appointed nickname. An apt comparison might be former WWF wrestler Ken Patera officially changing his name to "Ken World's-Strongest-Man" or Dino Bravo opting for "Dino Canadian Strong Man".
All that absurdity aside, we're wondering what it will be like for play-by-play men to call their first Ocho Cinco reception. Will Al Michaels have an internal debate about whether to recognize number 85 as "Chad Ocho Cinco"? Is Jim Nantz able to create puns in Spanish? Will Joe Buck call the name change a "disgusting act"?
None of us will have an answer until we reach Sunday afternoon, but we're pretty sure John Madden will be thoroughly confused. That and, Mark Schlereth will label Chad Ocho Cinco as "the most dynamic altered-surname wide receiver in the National Football League".
Another Unnecessary Name Change
While we're happy to heap praise on ESPN's College Gameday, we're not about to get blinded by love. Simply put, the new college segment with Lou Holtz called "Dr. Lou" need not apply for reinstatement. If you haven't seen it, Lou Holtz plays the role of doctor for people who happen to call his hotline. In the episode below, Tim Tebow and Lloyd Carr phone in their queries and Lou spits out his advice (pun intended).
According to Lou, Tebow must be "significant" this year and Lloyd Carr must take his wallet with him when golfing. Why viewers care about Lloyd Carr's quest to improve his golf game is beyond us. But hey, we didn't script this stuff.
We can't quite grasp the need to convince Lou Holtz to play a doctor, but we guess it beats Mark May as an auto-mechanic.
Bob Carpenter Memorial Snappy Line
Much like the Media Circus staff, the Bobber is busy preparing for the start of the NFL season and all the knee-jerk snap it brings. While he doesn't award a thumbs up to a media luminary, he suggests heeding the advice of Dr. Lou: "There's no one who loves you any more, wants to see you succeed anymore. My wife is somebody I love dearly. She's my best friend."
The Bobber thinks that's one of the cutest lines he's ever seen.
The Media Circus is written by Josh Bacott and Patrick Imig. They swear this stuff is real. Email them at info@joesportsfan.com