Simmons act grew old. I quit reading him a long time ago. I get why people love him, I just got tired of it. I throughly enjoyed Dan Patrick calling Cowshit out every time Cowshit would try to one up DP. It was great entertainment.
you certainly got the impression all the money had gone to his head which kind of kills his everyday fan shtick. he actually seemed to start believing he was some sort of great analyst and media mogul.
I was pissed when Kornheiser left. I get he was an obnoxious ass, but he was entertaining and the part fit him. I throughly enjoyed his show and listened to him a lot online after it. He's so much better on radio than TV. I never liked Cowshit. Basically from day 1 I didn't like him.
When it was Kornheiser followed up with Patrick/Dibble, that was a great 6 hours of radio while at work.
ESPN was his platform, and the platform for many others as well. Since he was more widely read than those many others, I think that answers your question. His VORP was tangible and quantifiable.
Simmons was definitely 'fresh' when he came on the scene. Nobody else wrote with his perspective/tone. That's a novelty that wears off, but I never stopped reading him and always thought his stuff was good. After he had sufficiently blown up, the counter-culture sentiment that 'Simmons sucks now' struck, and still strikes, me as conveniently hipsterish.
Of course. But this doesn't make the person they are trying to replace "replaceable". When I eventually get booted from my perch as a moderator for being too much of an *******,* I'm sure there will hoards of posters vying for this lofty lofty position. But there's only one Kidb. *This isn't imminent. It's just a hypo.** **Though not a wildly absurd one, I suspect.
This might be true, but I don't believe it was reflected in his columns. I think Simmons knows his basketball analysis chops are limited. He hired Zach Lowe at Grantland for a reason.
I also dislike Cowherd. I often wanna punch him in the face real hard. He has a substantially punchable face. I'd take him over milquetoast Mike and Mike with a gun to my head, though.
I still found the guy entertaining in general, he just started grating on me. I used to listen to his podcast fairly regularly, now i'll occasionally listen to the nfl guess the lines one because it's entertaining, but I definitely noticed a change in attitude over the past say 3-4 years. perhaps it's, as you suggested, the novelty wearing off, but he seemed to go more from a "i'm a fan and not really taking this seriously" vibe (even though we know he takes his jobt VERY seriously, but he at least conveyed otherwise) to thinking he had brilliant points and analysis (in particular on the nfl where I don't find him to be overly knowledgeable) and everything he says is gold. listen to him talk with guys like lowe or barnwell. it's not a "let me pick your brain because you know more than me" attitude. it's a "my opinion is on par with yours." same when he talks to Jalen rose.
I like him because he talks college football, but I can't stand the fact he just has callers ask him a question and then hangs up on them, nor the fact he repeats everything he says over and over again. and similar to simmons I think he thinks he's a lot smarter than he is. (though simmons IS a lot smarter than cowherd) for the life of me I don't understand how that program gets good ratings. I guess some people just don't want to hear conflicting or interesting opinions. they are like ryan seacrest or something. of course, the type of people who like people who never say anything negative and just want sunshine up their ass constantly probably wouldn't be fans of this site either.
Well, he did post his NFL ATS picks and his results,* and so it'd be tough for him to not realize he wasn't very good at it. I can see some of what you're saying, though. It's tough to maintain and everyman's perspective when you become legitimately rich and start hanging out with the very people you're writing about regularly. You can't be an everyman and an insider all at the same time. *And deserves credit for doing that. It's difficult to pick NFL games ATS -- especially when you're picking all of them -- and so posting them is basically knowingly setting yourself up for public failure.
Not really. What is his replacement's readership like? What about ESPN's ratings and overall readership with him gone? My main question was why are people so enamored with talking heads? You obviously think he's great. Why?
If we're Power Ranking people who think they are smarter than they are by the discrepancy between how smart they think they are and how smart they actually are, I have to put Cowherd as my preliminary #1.
I think he's good just because I think he's good. I like his tone, perspective, and generally think he has interesting things to say/write. I think there are a lot of instances in this world -- and more specifically, in this field -- where people who have essentially no talent become popular notwithstanding said lack of anything brought to proverbial table. I don't think Simmons falls into that camp. I think he has legitimate talent. And what do you mean not really? His replacement would have a readership and one that could be measured. We look at that and compare it to Simmons. Analysis over.
yeah his record against the spread is pretty good, I do admit. NFL games are not easy. right and I think in his mind he's not that guy anymore, which is fine, but something about him is just much more annoying now. I do like other rich guys who don't pretend otherwise (like adam carolla) so I don't think it's that.
he's definitely not easily replaceable, but espn was having problems monetizing him. and he certainly benefited being the right guy at the right time, but you have to give him credit for it.
So in summary, you are comfortable with him, and you assume his replacement and ESPN will not have as good or better numbers.
