It’s time for an all too-rare CSTB favorable nod in the direction of Phil Mushnick today, as the NY Post’s resident Conscience Of All Things Sports TV is not nearly as lazy as I’ve made him out to be. Phil’s taken the time (presumably) to watch Showtime’s “Inside The NFL”, something very few of us are willing to do, and notes the premium cable channel “so much wants Warren Sapp to be the next Charles Barkley that it has turned to forced feedings.”
In the “Ask Warren” segment, Sapp was asked if he’ll watch Keyshawn Johnson’s new reality show about interior design.
“Me, watch Keyshawn on an interior decorating show?” Sapp said. “Keyshawn, I knew you were a bitch. And thanks for making it clear.”
Yep, a hateful and crude street put-down – comparing Johnson to a woman, a lower form of human life – proudly presented, and on tape, in the name of sports on a show carrying the NFL’s logo and license!
It’s not just Sapp, whose sense of social sensitivity is limited to whatever best serves him, it’s also that Showtime/CBS was eager to promote this response, to highlight it in a press release, as if, in Sapp, it has the latest outspoken, irreverent ex-athlete/TV character, as opposed to another low-brow act whom dimwits might confuse as outspoken and irreverent.
I didn’t manage to catch the clip in question, but Sapp is working on a unique quadruple crown of televised lameness this autumn. Between his appearances on “Dancing With The Stars”, NFL.com’s fantasy football commercials, and his turgid commentary for both Showtime and the NFL Network, Warren combines the ubiquity of Frank Caliendo with the trenchant analytical insight of Emmit Smith. Not so sure about the Sir Charles comparison, however, other than Sapp and Barkley both being rather rotund black dudes Phil Mushnick strongly dislikes.