The Tebow DocuDRAMA…

[DKW 86 7,431]

Tebow: Media-ism over Journalism: The Tebow DocuDRAMA…

Sometime ago, there started a sports network that was head and shoulders above the rest. I am referring to ESPN. We, the sports fans in the US and around the world were heartened by the additional coverage of events, the in-depth analysis’s, the great reporting. Life was definitely getting better for us sports fans.

Flash forward to 2005.

We, the US sports fans, more precisely the college football fans, are getting queasy with the inundation of over-hyped and over-blown opinions. Sometimes it seems that opinions are just given so as to just have a counter opinion. Ever wondered if some of the lame excuses for the GameDay picks weren’t the result of bad draws out of the hat at the bar last night? Did Corso really think Pacific could beat Auburn?? Really? Sometimes the hype is just for hypes’ sake. The recent Tim Tebow Recruitment was the latest installment in the Reality TV Media Circus. This is “ESPN meets MTV’s The Real World.” In “The Real World” the producers are notorious for manipulating stories and lying to create confrontation. A Jerry Springer guest said that producers of that show offered a cash bonus to start a fight with another guest. Does anyone not see the manufactured BS factor in all this?

THIS IS NOT FOOTBALL! THIS IS NOT SPORTS JOURNALISM!

Please spare us the “revealing look at recruiting” garbage. This was a more revealing look at the future of Schlock Sports Journalism. Maybe I should say Schlock Sports Media-ism. I refuse to call it journalism. I have friends that are journalists. I know journalists. The folks producing this crap are no journalists. They are far more akin to the hype machine artists working for The Jerry Springer Show than to actual knowledgeable and fact based journalists.

Make no mistake about what was going on the ESPN “Documentary” about the Recruitment of Tim Tebow. I doubt that there was really any real conflict where Tim Tebow was going to play college ball once you passed his front door. The entire Tebow home AND yard were covered with Florida Gator Collectibles and Art. The only time a kid this in love with a team doesnt commit is when his favorite team totally ignores him. Florida was hot and heavy after him. There was no real drama here. There was only MANUFACTURED DRAMA.

For the uninformed: the Tebows, the parents, both graduated from Florida. Tim was a lifelong fan. Tim has been home schooled for, depending on whom you talk to, 1-2 years. I guess we didn’t want anything like real school work to interfere with little Timmy’s burgeoning football career. In the last two years Tebow has traveled across this great land more times than some airline pilots. Let’s face it. His real avocation for the last 18 months has been to BE Recruited, and BE VISIBLY recruited. To BE HIGHLY and VISIBLY recruited. That is where he ended up at too. Good job Tim. Hope you are as good at quarterbacking in the SEC.

Enter ESPN. Now the producers at ESPN are always looking for a new story to tell. The last few years they even got into the movie business themselves. ESPN got into making flicks about Bear Bryant with The Junction Boys, poker, billiards, and several other sports events. That is not so unreasonable. Hollywood has given us many extremely compelling sports movie docudramas. Pride of the Yankees makes grown men cry to this day. Want to tell me about Hoosiers? Just Do It! Want to let me relive the Miracle on Ice? Just Do It! Want me to “Remember the Gipper” as in Knute Rockne: All-American? Just Do It! Why should we be surprised at what ESPN just aired for us? ESPN gave us another DocuDRAMA, NOT a Documentary. But the difference in this program was that it was all manufactured. This is not retelling about some great accomplishment. The great accomplishment was in manufacturing this crap as a docudrama. That is what stings to the true sports fans. (Hey, maybe we need a docuDRAMA about making the Tim Tebow Documentary?)

Do you really want to try and sell us the idea that the life and decisions of an 18 year old kid are important enough to retell on a national level? What has Tim Tebow ACTUALLY accomplished? He won a state title for his high school! Excuse me, but so did 5 other quarterbacks in Florida alone. If every state has only 4 classifications, even the smaller states have as many as six, that is 200 quarterbacks in 2005 alone. Now add in the Christian and private school athletic associations and you likely have another 100 or more. Now, multiply that by an average life expectancy of 70 years. That means that in their lifetime the average college football fan has lived through that accomplishment 21,000 times.

Now, to my real thrust here. Did Alabama actually have a real chance at Tebow? There must have been something there but was it really that much?

Let me play Devil’s Advocate here for a second. Please hear me out on this. You are an ESPN producer. You have a lot of airtime to kill. You find this stud quarterback that is projecting high as a junior. He lives in Florida, a prime recruiting hot bed. The producers were left with lots of potential for some real drama with family, team mates, girlfriends, wild bikini and beer parties etc. You are looking forward to your ESPN version of Johnny B. Goode. You approach the kid and family about “doing a real inside look at college recruiting.” You are content that this will be great airtime once the job is done. You make an agreeable financial arrangement with the family of said recruit to compensate them for their time. Sometime during the filming over a year you realize that there is no drama with the football team, no girlfriend flare-ups, no real grade/SAT problems, not even a sexy wild Florida beach party, no college co-eds dancing on the hood of the car etc. To be honest there is no “conflict” to “resolve” at all. This show might put the Nitol folks out of business. You, as a producer, panic!!! Well, what would you do? Or more importantly, what would Jerry Springer do?

Well, we find out now. We subject this poor kid to stifling his real feelings and shutting his mouth till we get his live announcement on the air. We put him and thousands of real people, coaches, boosters, fans, etc to real stress. Why? Because we need to find a team, with a national following, with very ardent fans, that are hungry to return to the glory days. A team that had a great season end on a sour note. Alabama is that “made to order" team. As a bonus, Alabama has fans that follow recruiting very well. Now, if we can just get Tebow to actually cooperate with us…. As a bonus, seems he knows the coach’s family. As another added bonus, seems the other team’s coach has a very well known football family name. As a bonus, the coach is a young, personable, good looking guy too. That will get the nation to pay attention. Cool! You can save the show now. Somewhere, some producer for ESPN must be living right. I just wonder if the producers all got up out of the tub running down the street naked yelling Eureka!... Eureka!... Eureka!

Suddenly this recruit is making national headlines and national news. Nevermind that the recruit’s skill set doesn’t match Alabama’s Offense but does happen to match Florida’s new coach’s offense perfectly. Don’t pay attention to the Florida stuff in the kid’s yard, home, and school. Just tune in and watch… As the same thing that was going to happen 18 months ago happens: Tebow to Florida.

Never mind that the Alabama fans and coaches were jerked around and lost some valuable recruiting time. No big deal. Heck, all ESPN lost was their dignity.

[IrishWarEagle 0]

As a member of the sports media I must say I concur.

Wanting to hear more of the pity party from Alabama fans loosing out of Tebow, I decided to listen to Finebaum one more time before I stopped till Texas Tech embarrasses them. After hearing them bash Tebow for a while I began to ask myself, what in the wide world of sports was I doing listening and watching stuff about this 18-year old kid. ESPN, word of advice from someone who would give an arm to work for you, the TOTAL SPORTS NETWORK....the WORLDWIDE LEADER IN SPORTS needs to stick to just that...SPORTS! If I want to hear about the family Tebow or what happened to a 1940's Army team cheating on finals, how Bear Bryant beat the un-Godly crap out of some kids in nowheresville Texas, the life and times of Dale Ehrenhart I will watch MTV, NBC, Lifetime, or whatever NON-SPORTS NETWORK has it on there. Don't let a Programming Diretor that has aspirations of turning the ONLY (FoxSportsNet has a few more miles to travel) sports outlet we have to get any kind of any information into just another channel. That said, Fire Corso!

WDE

FEAR THE THUMB BAMA, NOT TEBOW

[Raven_tiger 5]

Tebow: Media-ism over Journalism: The Tebow DocuDRAMA…

You are an ESPN producer. You have a lot of airtime to kill.

205710[/snapback]

You could always rerun that classic: Junction Boys...

[quietfan 233]

But David, don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel!

E[/u]ntertainment & Sports Programming Network, and I suppose some folks actually find this crap entertaining. Still, this is also a good argument for a play-off of the top 4 teams after the bowls: It'll give us something to talk about besides recruiting for another week or two in January!]

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

I said it earlier but it went without notice.........I really believe that bama doesn't yet realize that thye lost more than Tebow. They gambled in the national media and lost. No doubt in my mind that this seriously tarnishes the national image and reputation of the mighty tide. If there was ever any doubt, the "offer them and they shall come" attitude of bama is forever a myth. Thank you Mr. Shula.

[AFTiger 282]

ESPN ran a reality series called Bound For Glory this fall about a high school team trying to learn how to win with Dick Butkus as the coach. I really enjoyed watching that.