Why ESPN's ratings have been going down

Moments ago, in the 7th round of the NFL Draft Caleb Campbell from Army was taken by the Lions...only the 4th player in the last decade plus to be taken during the draft that played for one of the armed forces football teams.

In a post-pick interview: Trey Wingo (whom I generally like) said the following to this soldier: "Thanks for letting us be a part of your story." GAG ME! This just in ESPN...you are NOT a part of the story...it's not ALWAYS about you!

ESPN's ratings have tanked in recent years for several reasons. Among them:

1. Their constant, glad-handing, and total own ass-grabbery/self-promotion. They constantly feel the need to make themselves "part" of the story when they are supposed to be a sports news organization.

2. The birth of regional sports networks (primarily via FoxSportsNet, and ComcastSportsNet) have dug into ESPN's core audience.

3. A bit of a controversial one here, but I think their inclusion and heavy coverage of NASCAR has hurt them. NASCAR has a solid, core demographic of predominantly lower-middle class socioeconomic people. Most of these people don't have cable, can't afford it. And ESPN has turned off people like me with their annoying coverage of this supposed "sport."

4. Their on-air personalities have become a caricature of their real personality. Some personalities like Scott Van Pelt, Linda Cohn, Cindy Brunson, Suzy Kolber, Trey Wingo, Karl Ravech, and my own personal fave, Kenny Mayne have been cast aside and given side roles as hosts or sidelines reporters. Meanwhile, people like Steve Berthiume and Neal Everett do a shabby job of making nightly highlights fresh and interesting. It's not the catchphrases that are the problem, it's the BAD catchphrases are completely overused. For years, Dan Patrick used the catch phrase "en fuego" to describe when someone was "on fire"...it was a phrase he used over and over, but it never became overly stale because he knew HOW and WHEN to use it.

5. Finally, and perhaps the most asinine thing ESPN has done to lose people, including me, as regular viewers of their franchise show (SportsCenter) is the BLATANT product pushing they've done. They have completely sold out to every corporation possible. Every highlight package, every recap of an event, every interview, is brought to you by some corporation. That wouldn't be so bad, but when it's splayed all over the screen with a graphic and 5 second annoying audio cue...it gets mighty old, might fast...and it starts to leave a sour taste in your mouth.

"The Budweiser Hot Seat???"...seriously? It's an asinine segment to begin with, which has changed from an in-depth interview, to a ass-grab-fest between the on-air personality lobbing fat softballs to some person related to a sports team. ESPN has lost their core, their journalism core and they've become a bastardization of themselves.

ESPN had me back in the late 90s before the ridiculous product announcements began, and I will continue to not watch ESPN's staple show until they take that shit out. I do miss Kenny Mayne, and the continued under-use of him by ESPN is a damn shame because he's hilarious.