Terrell Owens is an Obsession and an Addiction

#81 for the Dalla Cowboys has been a media focus for his enitre career in the NFL.  #81 is owrn by Terrell Owens, the number one wide receiver, but not neccesarily the number one target.  That does not always sit with with Owens seeing as he has created detremental conflict with his quarterback every place he has been.  In San Fransisco, he ran Jeff Garcia out of town.  In Philadelphia, he got into a screaming match with Donovan McNabb, to the point that they lashed out through the media for a month straight. 

The latest developement involves Owens, his quarterback Tony Romo, and the Tight End Jason Witten.  Owens is jealous of Romo and Witten’s relationship.  Owens knows he is loaded with talent, and in the middle of a Wild card chace decides to let the world know he is the most talented player on the football field.  He is mad that Romo throws to Witten when Owens shoudl be getting the ball.

As the media has always done in the past, they jumped all over it.  ESPN made it its number one story for three days straight.  It was not the firing of an NBA coach, the Cavaliers winning streak snapped, the Texans beating the Titans, or even that Sam Bradford won the Heisman.  ESPN and the American people are fascinated with Terrell Ownes, becuase the conflict of others, especially when created by an individual is something Americans sawrm to.  They have every quote from Owens, not one from Romo or Witten.  Owens can say whatever he wants.  Even the owner of the Cowboys will side with Owens.  When Owens asked for the ball more, despite being the most targeted player statistically, Jerry Jones concured absolutely. 

Everyone is afraid to anger Terrell Owens, becuase when it does he becomes a distraction to the team, the goal, and to America.  ESPN and Fox Sports will spend an entire show or game focused on Owens, and perhaps this is why he decides to act up.  If we showed him less attention, he might keep his mouth shut.  So props to Romo for doing just that and ignoring him.  Luckily, for Dallas they won last night, becuase if they hadn’t only Owens knows what would have happened.  Well…..we know what would happen with media headlines.

Outbid by a slim margin of 25 million dollars

Since 1998 Fox Sports has had a contract with BCS officials and conference commissioners to televise four of five BCS Bowl games.  ABC held the rights to the fifth: The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA.  Yesterday ESPN bid an an outstanding amount of money for the rights to the four that FOX sports owned.  Fox Sports had been paying 82 million dollars a year for the rights, and then bid 100 million dollars a year for four years to retain the rights.  ESPN outbid them with 125 million dollars a year for four years.  The funny thing is ESPN will probably make a large profit on the televising of the BCS games. The most important thing is that the television the second most watched sporting events in America are no longer being watched on network stations.  That does not matter because ESPN reaches 98 million American households.  With this new age we are currently in, the internet and more and more people are buying cable, ESPN’s audience will only continue to grow.  ESPN has become the premier producer of sports media in the United States, and will have no trouble gathering a large audience and gaining profit from their 500 million dollar investment. This transaction is a symbol of the new age we are entering or some may say have been in.  ESPN has already been discussed as being made a network station.  This shows the magnitude of the sports industry, and its wide following.  With the transition from Fox to ESPN brings ESPN closer and closer to being a network station.

Heisman=Hei$man

Tim Tebow is the quarterback at the University of Florida. Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, Marcus Allen, and Carson Palmer played for the USC Trojans. Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams went to the University of Texas. Archie Griffin, Troy Smith, and Eddie George went to Ohio State. These are just a few of the 38 Heisman winners since 1970. Thirty six of the past thirty eight winners are from BCS schools. Those schools are in the Big 12, SEC, Pac-10, ACC, Big East, or Big 10. These six conferences are not the only conferences in the NCAA. They are the big schools previously mentioned. Yes, the BCS is a only a decade old, but the fact that the Heisman winners almost exclusively come from these big football schools. The most obvious reason why: the national sports media. There is more advertisement money in televising large school like Georgia, Nebraska, or Florida State. Naturally, national stations opt for these larger fan base schools. This is unfortunate. Last year, the University of Hawaii Quarterback Colt Brennan was working to win the Heisman and lead his team to a BCS bowl. Hawaii had to win every game in order for both of these to happen. The voters needed to see Brennan lead his team and win. The problem is that no station picked up his games. Brennan’s stats were better than any other college quarterback, and he led his team to an undefeated regular season and reached a BCS bowl. Brennan made it to New York as a finalist after a large campaign by his head coach. Brennan though did not finish even close to Tim Tebow (the winner) or Darren McFadden (the runner-up). Brennan was at a disadvantage from the beginning because he played for a small market university. ESPN could have made a killing on Brennan because he played for Hawaii. Their fan base is not substantial, but their location is outstanding. Brennan also has an incredible story. He went through a rough time (see Josh Hamilton), but made a comeback. Colt Brennan was a surfer and a quarterback. Can any other starting quarterback say that? ESPN could have capitalized on people’s inherent desire to be on the beach and in Hawaii. How often is there a story on Hawaii on ESPN? For those that consistently watch ESPN, almost none.

Colt Brennan is just one example. Even though a huge city and a large university, the University of Houston had a player named Donnie Avery last year who got little press solely based on the fact that he did not go to a BCS school. U of H is in Conference USA. Donnie Avery set national and school records for all purpose yards in a game and a season. He was the lightning bolt of the CUSA champion Cougars. He was more relied on than possibly any other player in the NCAA. He also got a negligible amount of Heisman recognition. Houston is the fourth largest city, but Rice nor the University of Houston are storied programs with storied fan bases. Therefore, they get almost no coverage.

Rice’s Quarterback Chase Clement and wide receiver Jarrett Dillard have the record most Touchdown connections between the two. Dillard was an All-American as a sophomore with 27 touchdown receptions. That is an outrageous number. Credit should go out to the voting committee for recognizing him. The problem is, very few sports fans had ever heard of him until they saw his name. This includes those avid fans from Houston. Even if a Houstonian does not root for Rice, they should have heard of an All American from a local university. Why is there no knowledge? No coverage. Even now with the new record set, there is only a simple mention of it. The record is the same record Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison have in the NFL. Not even close to the same level of difficulty but same concept. There is not one Colts game that this record is not mentioned. Clement and Dillard are the most prolific tandem in college football history. Did you know that?

Last night BYU lost to TCU 32-7. Any other year this is an insignificant came for America, but this year BYU was ranked number 9 in the country and on their way to a BCS bowl. Sadly BYU has no more shot at a BCS bowl, let alone the national championship. BYU has only lost one game and even if they win the rest of their games without allowing any other team to score they have zero realistic chance of being in a BCS game because they are BYU and not Georgia, Texas, USC, or Florida. It has happened before where teams are undefeated and do not even make a BCS bowl and simultaneously there is a two-loss team in the national championship. Justified? By a computer ranking system that is under scrutiny and is an entire seperate topic.

Media outlets, especially in the sports industry, need to take a deeper look into smaller markets and discover the gold before everyone else does. Yes, it may be more expensive to explore these smaller arena stories, but the work may pay off even more than extracting from the large market well.

Under Pressure

LeBron James, O.J. Mayo, Kevin Garnett, and Marquise Walker. All these basketball players have one thing in common: pressure. With the exception of Walker, they are in the NBA. LeBron and Garnett had no college experience. O.J. Mayo had one year at USC, and it would not have been that if the NBA rule was changed. They are all three success stories of intense media pressure. They are a minority in this process though. Every basketball fan and media outlet is looking for the next Michael Jordan, the next Tiger Woods, or the Next Peyton Manning. They will crown ten year olds as the next perennial MVP. It is simply ludacris. Marquise Walker, the You Tube Baby (proclaimed by ESPN) is a product of not only the national media but mostly in part to his own father. His father put YouTube videos of his son playing basketball and meeting some of the top NBA players. No doubt his son is talented…for an eight year old. His father hired a coach to help with garnering national attention to an 8 year old. It was extremely successful. ESPN did an entire feature on Outside the Lines. Marquise Walker was televised on National TV and now is a nationally recognized eight year old. He is being proclaimed the number one kindergarten prospect in the country. Really? Really? Talk about pressure. In the testimony of other former boy phenoms who were not successful at handling the pressure, they strongly discouraged creating such a hype abround such young kids.

If at all possible kids should not have to worry about intense pressure, especially from the national media. 8 year olds have never taken a Calculus test or even and algebra test, and I feel pressure under those moments. Most athletes are under pressure for at most their twenty year careers, and that is a very long career, but Marquise will be under pressure from age eight to age forty. No kid should have to deal with such attention at such a young age. Let us all hope that his father can take up some of the spotlight for a while.