Cavs playoffs and The Avengers movie review – WFNY Podcast – 2015-05-03
May 3, 2015LeBron on his headband: “I just wanted to look like my teammates”
May 4, 2015Happy Monday, you crazy cats. Your Cleveland Browns have added 12 new players, your Cleveland Cavaliers are set to tip off the second round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs and your Cleveland Indians actually won a game. We’ll be digging into all of the lakefront goodness over the next few hours, but While We’re Waiting…
Good news, folks: Another NFL Draft is in the books. While countless pundits and fans will assess and analyze the pros and cons of the players who were selected between Thursday night and Saturday afternoon, the one constant that came out of the 2015 NFL Draft was that picks were once again shared all throughout Twitter, oftentimes long before they were announced on television. This, of course, was despite the league’s efforts at putting this to an end with a memo distributed pre-draft. Ironically enough, it was the league who, in the end, allowed all of this to happen, taking inopportune commercial breaks and having a broadcast that fell as much as 15 minutes behind when the selections were being turned in, allowing picks to electronically filter in one by one while advertisers were getting their air time and a boat load of talking heads were delivering their ever-important thoughts.
If you followed the draft at WFNY, not only are you awesome, but you likely noticed that it was FOX Sports Ohio’s Zac Jackson who was ahead of each and every announced pick when it came to the Cleveland Browns, in some instances, tweeting out the selection 15 minutes before those watching at home became aware.
Related: Not my fault Farmer won't take a WR or that TV is 10 minutes behind, but thanks for the love*
— Zac Jackson (@AkronJackson) May 2, 2015
While doing this—tweeting picks in advance of television—in the past drew the ire of some, Jackson stuck to his reporting guns. He didn’t get a memo from the league, asking him to pump the breaks—these were apparently reserved for national types like CBS Sports’ La Canfora. But even if he did, it may not have mattered.
“Nobody told me not to,” Jackson told WFNY this past weekend. “I understand the edict and what they’re trying to accomplish. Look, you and I both know that we have things we just understand we have to abide by. Me? The Draft was not on FOX; it wasn’t on FOX Sports Ohio. When people say ‘you’re spoiling it,’ I don’t think I am. I’m not citing sources or sharing what I’m hearing—I’m reporting what the team has turned in.”
“I understand it’s a made-for-tv event, but they’re overstepping reality.”
“With Twitter, you can’t win,” said Jackson. “The consequences of being wrong are way worse than the benefit of being right. But this is a news event, and I’m just doing my job.
“I had them all in advance. There’s so much going on that I don’t know if I’m necessarily first, but I know that I’ve had them all in advance of when they’ve been announced on TV.”
While others—like La Canfora or Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski and the NBA Draft—have been e-chastised from the mountaintops for tweeting picks seconds before they’re announced, Jackson believes that his reporting was considerably less egregious not only because he was sharing what the team had already turned in to the league, but it was the league who held on to information, opting to share it only when it was convenient for their telecast rather than when it actually happened. It was to the point where the NFL and ESPN were more than a team behind, and this was in the second and third rounds where the pomp and circumstance is exponentially less.
“That Nate Orchard pick? I had it 15 minutes before it was announced,” said Jackson. “I understand it’s a made-for-TV event, but they’re overstepping reality. When it comes to the Browns, am I the only one? Perhaps. But this is happening league-wide. There were New York Jets picks I was retweeting 10 minutes before they were announced. The team hands in their cards and I reported what I was told.”
Let’s not forget: ESPN is the same network that, for years, attempted to air the ESPYs a week after they actually happened, and do so as if it were a live event. And while the ESPYs are more entertainment than anything, the NFL Draft continues to grow in popularity for fan bases oozing hope across the country. The city of Cleveland was the most tuned-in market for the first night, an area where hope is a chief export. But for those who yearn for the Twitter tipping to stop, hoping to keep an annual announcement of names as sacred as possible, rather than pointing the finger at those doing their job, it might be time to focus the attention toward a league attempting to report the past all due to the almighty advertising dollar.
“When Phil Savage was [in Cleveland], he let me sit in the draft room for three years,” said Jackson. “When those first picks were coming off of the board, even they didn’t know who was being selected until it was announced on TV. Now, the teams submit and there’s such a gap. I get the first few picks and the interviews and stuff that take place. But come on. Fifteen minutes in the second round? The team submitted. I get the info after it’s submitted and I reported it.”
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I feel like I should have some sort of thoughts about the fight that took place Saturday night, but all I can think about is Floyd Mayweather and his latest act of cowardice in ensuring that critical scribes did not have access to cover the fight. I didn’t watch the fight—it was on past my bed time—nor did it bother me much to miss it. I’m all about monumental events, but athletes like Mayweather make it very difficult to detach the person from the player.
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One event, one company, five terrific pieces. It’s this week’s edition of #ActualSportswriting that proves that it’s never possible to have too much coverage—assuming that all of the coverage is of the highest quality.
“Welcome to Manny’s World” by Pablo S. Torre (ESPN The Magazine): “It’s 6:30 a.m. on a Monday in L.A., 26 days before the sporting event no self-respecting scumbag could possibly resist, and the ex-heavyweight is talking to me through the driver’s side window of his black Dodge Ram pickup. Every day but Sunday, when Pacquiao rests, abstaining from his beloved morning run, Fortune parks at this time and in this spot in front of his employer’s ranch-style, five-bedroom house in Hancock Park. And as Pacquiao puts on his customary white beanie, black windbreaker and blue shorts — ready to traverse seven miles with a smile across his goateed face — the coach waits, and watches.”1
“The Beginning of the End” by Tim Keown (ESPN The Magazine): “His eyes are weapons; those around him are so attuned to his needs that words have been relegated to a secondary form of communication, employed only when the eyes fail. When he is displeased, his glare lingers longer, the better to maximize the recipient’s discomfort. If he is happy, they can loosen a whole room.”2
“The Boxer and the Batterer” by Louisa Thomas (Grantland): “Maybe this is a good place to start: Nothing Mayweather has done has hurt him. “Floyd doesn’t put himself in a position where he can lose,” Josie Harris told Yahoo Sports. “You can take that how you want to.” Perhaps Mayweather has just made the most basic calculation of all. Money Mayweather can beat women because it costs him very little. He hasn’t really been hit. The black lights of the unconscious? He’s never seen them.”3
“The Devil and an Empty Arena” by Brian Curtis (Grantland): “After Mayweather won Saturday night, in exactly the methodical, efficient way that Manny fans had feared, the arena was cleared. Then Floyd Mayweather Sr., the champ’s trainer, wandered in. He was looking for an audience… Nobody laughed.”4
“The Illusionists: Mayweather-Pacquiao and Boxing’s Desperate, Doomed Playbook From the Past” by Charles P. Pierce (Grantland): “Old-school boxing tradition has it that the sport most clearly and honestly forces to the surface the moral choices that exist tacitly within all of our other games. How much damage will we countenance in order to be entertained? How brutal do we really want our hired gladiators to be?”5
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I can’t believe there are only two episodes of Mad Men remaining. Last night was a bit of a wake up call that it’s all coming to an end. I won’t spoil it here (you’re lucky it’s Monday morning as tomorrow would be No Hold Barred), but man…
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And finally, the latest from John Oliver. Happy Monday, you guys.
- Easily one of the best pieces of sportswriting in the last few weeks, if not the year, Torre goes inside with one of the best to ever box on the downside of his career arc. [↩]
- Conversely, Keown does the same, but with Mayweather. Unlike those who have been kept outside for writing critical pieces, Keown has a way to approach Mayweather that isn’t puff, but still keeps him in good graces as this isn’t the first time we’ve seen coverage by TK. [↩]
- Right up there with Torre’s piece, this Louis Thomas gem is perfectly laid out, each section punching you like one of Money’s right jabs, that hand-written police report from his child being the death blow. [↩]
- A beautiful piece that discusses the aftermath of the fight. [↩]
- And finally, a pertinent essay from one of the best. It could be about boxing or not even about sports at all. [↩]
8 Comments
I agree with Zac wholeheartedly after the first round. I still think I could make a pretty good argument that it’s not worthwhile reporting to beat the first round pick announcements on TV by tweeting them even a couple minutes before they happen. He couldn’t be more right about the following rounds where the TV coverage was stupidly far behind.
But still, this isn’t a trade deadline where you could be tortured waiting for a formal announcement. This is an organized draft where we know the info is going to come out. Being “FIRST!” to report something in this case is pretty useless.
And I love Zac’s commentary about all things Browns. That’s where he’s adding quality for me as a reporter and commentator.
The fact that the NFL isn’t allowing itself to break the news first is the problem, and thus in my eyes it deserves whatever annoyance it takes from getting “scooped” on draft picks.
I follow the NFL draft probably too much in the lead-up, which is why I don’t bother to watch it on TV. Seeing the pick “live” on the program is the same to me as seeing it pop up on my computer screen. Either way, I got the news.
Screw the NFL’s gestapo tactics. The Browns turned in the card, I don’t need the pomp, circumstance and feel-good moments that fell short (servicemen announcing draft picks, cheerleaders, team veterans, blah-blah-blah). Those staged moments detracted very heavily from the excitement inherent in live a timed event.
re: Mayweather/Pacman – I’m no genius and not a boxing guru, but in the run up to this bout I was amazed at how many people were buying into the hype, completely ignoring that 1.) this fight should have happened twelve years ago and b.) Mayweather has always been a boring (though proficient) boxer. I’d seriously get more enjoyment watching somebody do their taxes.
I make the argument that, if/when boxing does eventually “die” and MMA becomes the preeminent fighting sport, a large portion of the blame should be put on Mayweather.
Craig, you and I agreed on this last week, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to agree again.
Hard for me to get bent out of shape with Zac Jackson, who’s one of my favorite Cleveland Browns (and Rolling Acres) follows. I wish the selections wouldn’t get reported on Twitter before they were revealed on the telecast, but I tend to agree with Zac (and Scott). The NFL has begun letting a ridiculous amount of time expire between the selection being turned in and it being announced on TV, almost like they’re daring reporters to spoil the picks on Twitter.
Unfortunately, I doubt they’ll do much to change it, thought I heard this weekend that Thursday night’s draft show was the 2nd highest rated in history, only behind last year’s.
The NFL, where you can keep doing things in a stupid, obstinate way and getting more and more ratings despite yourself.
I found it hilarious that people were getting upset about spoiling the picks. There are several solutions. 1) Don’t get on Twitter if you’re watching the telecast. 2) Look away from your phone 15 minutes prior to the Browns’ next pick and then get back on after you see the pick. 3) Stop being a tool and just live with it.
Personally, I love the surprise of the first round, so I stay clear of Twitter until it’s over. Instead I, you know, interact with real people who are watching the draft with me. Then for the rest of the draft, the picks are far less exciting so I just hop onto Twitter and allow the spoiling to happen because who really cares if a 3rd day pick is spoiled.
I was actually searching for someone to spoil the picks while I was watching the telecast. I go on Twitter because I want to see the picks as soon as they come in. I watch TV for the mindless hours of entertainment with opinions of the talking heads. I want them both, and honestly, not getting both made me care less about tuning into either. After not finding anyone nationally ‘spoiling’ the picks, I found other things to do and got on Twitter periodically to see what picks I had missed.