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Move over Brett Favre, Your Replacement Has Arrived
Published: August 20, 2009
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With Brett Favre putting a Clubber Lang-level street beating on his reputation these past few seasons, the national media—most of which is tucked away neatly in the Northeast—was in dire need of a replacement.
The fans no longer cared that Favre called the media to chat, while he was mowing the lawn at his Mississippi farm or that if he did cartwheels down the field after a completion to show how much he loved the game. We didn’t want to hear about him anymore.
So the media needed a football player, preferably a quarterback, whose every move they could fawn over, as if he was the fourth Jonas Brother. They needed someone who they could create stories about out of thin air, who played in a market that allowed them to convince themselves that all football fans shared their passion.
And with one sentence uttered by commissioner Roger Goodell, the newest media man crush was born, “With the fifth pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, the New York Jets select Mark Sanchez, Quarterback, USC.”
Forget that he wasn’t even the first quarterback taken—really who cares about Detroit, right?—the fact that the Hollywood glamour boy who wasn’t afraid to wear something like this in public at one time, was snapped up by a New York team, to fill the position vacated by Brett Favre no less, meant that the media had exactly what they were hoping for on draft day.
Despite Sanchez having just 13 starts in college, he had become the de facto choice for most high profile NFL rookie, before ever throwing a pass in the league. His name flirted with headlines throughout the offseason, his pictures showed up in a Baywatch-inspired GQ photo shoot, he was as dreamy as Favre was rugged.
And when he did throw his first pass, he made hearts flutter in the press box when he completed it 48 yards downfield to David Clowney against a St. Louis Rams team that the Jets racked up 47 points against last year. When press time rolled around that night, the challenge was what word to use, while highlighting the QB—dazzles, sparkles, dazzles again.
Game recap headlines like this one appeared all throughout the web and print:
Damn those dastardly Rams for spoiling everything. Didn’t they know it was Mark’s day?
As if his one series in the preseason opener wasn’t enough to weaken knees, when Rex Ryan announced that he would start the second preseason game for the Jets, the media tore into the story like it was a free press box buffet. It mattered not that Ryan insisted that Sanchez was scheduled to start regardless of how he performed in the first game, the combination of his debut, his nomination as the starter for Game Two, and his dimples was the dynamite that set off the Mark Sanchez avalanche.
And he’s even on Twitter.
Get ready, America, the media has found a new toy.
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Another Reason to Watch E:60
Published: April 29, 2009
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As if there weren’t already a littany of reasons to watch the ESPN hardcore sports news show, the most recent edition offered up just another benefit to grabbing a season pass on your Tivo for E:60.
Lisa Salters challenged Jeremy Schaap to a pose-down after Schaap admitted he subscribes to Muscle Development magazine. Oh yeah, and for some reason it was in black and white:
We’re not sure if that’s a shadow or a tuft of hair pouring out of that pit and frankly, we don’t want to find out. ###MORE###
April 29
1892 – Charlie Reilly becomes baseball’s first pinch hitter
1951 – Dale Earnhardt is born into the world. Currently celebrated as a national holiday by 87.3% of mustached-Americans.
1954 – Jerry Seinfeld is born into the world. Currently celebrated as a national holiday by Matt Sebek.
1967 – After refusing induction into the United States Army the day before (citing religious reasons), Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title.
1986 – Roger Clemens, then of the Boston Red Sox, sets a major league baseball record with 20 strikeouts in nine innings against the Seattle Mariners. Kerry Wood tied the record over 10 years later (May 6th, 1998).
This day last year, Matt Sebek had an in-depth profile of the NFL Draft attendee. We won’t even pull text from the column to spike your interest, we’ll just post a couple of pics to give you an idea where he was coming from.
And that’s just the New York portion of the fans. For the whole column …
Okay, so this really isn’t video “goodness,” but it is worth your viewing. Apparently the higher ups at Foxsports.com have decided to mimic NBC’s Chris “Mad Dog” Russo videos with a loudmouth of their own, columnist Mark Kriegel. In this particular installment, Kriegel sounds off on the fans who attend the NFL Draft. Nothing wrong with that (ahem), but Kriegel’s tone, volume and his parting shot are head shakers.
At least he doesn’t flail around like a drunken, spastic monkey. Still needs to relax, though.
Okay, Mr. Widget. But can you stop the video in link form?
Julie A. has some unpleasant words for one Matthew Vasgersian…and it has nothing to do with past comments about sweaty Ozark residents and their beat up Camaros.
Peter King returns to his pooping ways in the Media Circus; and we issue a warning to watch out for the giant Lens Crafters hands attacking sports Web sites around the globe. Scary stuff.
