I somehow managed to miss departing ESPN executive VP Mark Shapiro on Jim Rome’s radio program yesterday, but I’m sure host and guest spent hardly any air time whatsoever congratulating each other for their efforts in transforming sports entertaiment as we know it.
Over at the professional website that would have virtually no content were it not for the constant flirtations with ESPN employees (just send your fucking resume already!), Partyboy has a cute little list of the “hits” and “misses” during Shapiro’s tenure. Among the former, “Playmakers” (best known for being the launching pad for Omar Gooding’s eventual star turn in “Barbershop”. The TV show, not the film) and the NASCAR tear-jerker “3” (best known for being an improvement over Barry Pepper’s performance in “Knockaround Guys”) ; on the thumbs down list, “Quite Frankly (White Journalists Resent Steven A. Smith)” and “ESPN Hollywood” (which, quite frankly, functions as a slightly less shitty TV version of a recently launched, non-ESPN website).
As always, readers are solicited for “tips”, in case the author has completely missed the boat.
It seems all too fitting that said ambulance chaser’s critical faculties are right down there with those of Bill Simmons. How can an adult with a supposedly functioning brain attempt to chronicle the most wretched moments in ESPN’s recent history without once typing the name “Tom Sizemore” or the words “You’re Playing Poker, They’re Playing You”?