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ESPN to televise Rock Paper Scissors

Michael Hiestand

USA Today

Jul. 6, 2007 11:59 AM

Not so long ago, ESPN could startle viewers with hot dog gorgers, dogs jumping off docks and extreme TV close-ups of poker hands.

That seems so 20th-century. So ESPN will push the edge of the envelope in prime time Saturday with its debut coverage of the USA Rock Paper Scissors Championship.

Trey Wingo, who hosted coverage taped in May in Las Vegas, says the “unbelievable spectacle†went far beyond the technical aspects of the sport  in which rock crushes scissors, scissors cuts paper and paper covers rock. Some competitors wore “throwing gloves.â€Â

Wingo says he was “shocked†by an event that ran “the gamut of human interactions†even as Vegas sports books took bets on its results and its winner received $50,000. Some competitors, he says, brought posses as they were led by ring-card girls onto a stage set up like a boxing ring. One entrant, he says, “walked about in a robe and oven mitts. He said his hands were on fire and he didn't want to burn anybody. It was ridiculous.â€Â

Wingo doesn't duck the troubling question of whether performance-enhancing drugs affected the action: “There was testing. If a guy shows up with Popeye forearms, you know that can't just come from spinach.â€Â