No sports show on the planet has more critics than ESPN's First Take and Skip Bayless in particular.
The critics of First Take and Skip Bayless are numerous and boisterous.
Yesterday, Richard Sherman went on First Take and spent his time attacking Skip Bayless, in the most public display of this type of criticism towards the analyst.
Sherman directed statements at Skip such as, "In my 24 years of life, I am better at life than you." "You have never accomplished anything." "I am an All Pro Stanford graduate, and those are accomplishments you can aspire too, but will never accomplish."
Sherman said Skip was a "cretin".
He wanted to vocalize his opinion that he was the better human being, but in the manner he went about it made him look like the fool.
Skip receives more criticism than anyone on the sports airwaves. But, all his statements are aimed at what athletes do in their profession. He never stoops to comments that attack an athlete's moral character.
He verbalized that he felt Skip's opinions don't matter because he does not use statistics consistently.
Somehow in this new statistical analyst era, it seems that you can not have a valid opinion unless it is derived from statistics. The opinion that you can not have a valid opinion if it is derived from simply consistently watching the games, is preposterous. I didn't need statistics to know that LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, Jerry Rice, Shaquille O'Neal, Michael Jordan, and etc. are dominant players in their sports. My eyes can tell me that.
Statistics can be used to attempt to validate both disagreeable and agreeable arguments. An example of this is you could say Matthew Stafford, Tony Romo, Andrew Luck, Josh Freeman, Carson Palmer and Matt Schaub are all better quarterbacks than Eli Manning because they all had more passing yards this past season. Eli is universally regarded as the best quarterback of the group, but the passing yard stat could be used to argue he isn't. Point is just like there are many sides to an argument, there are a plethora of statistics that can be used to back any statement.
The use of statistics doesn't automatically mean a point is valid.
Sherman during the interview showed irritation of Skip's comments that he was not in the same class as Darrelle Revis. An argument that Richard Sherman brought on himself with this Bleacher Report piece during Super Bowl week in New Orleans.
Then Sherman concluded the First Take interview saying, "Nobody listens to you."
This is the thing that sticks in my side about not just Sherman but First Take's critics in general. That their opinion is the show is garbage and it's main attraction Skip Bayless is a joke. That anybody who watches this show is doesn't know real sports. Yet, for them to have these opinions mean THEY WATCH THE SHOW!!!
My favorite example of these type of haters, was best diagrammed in Howard Stern's movie Private Parts. When Paul Giamatti's character the WNBC content manager Pig Vomit tries to figure out Stern's success:
Researcher: The average radio listener listens for eighteen minutes. The average Howard Stern fan listens for - are you ready for this? - and hour and twenty minutes.
Pig Vomit: How can that be?
Researcher: Answer most commonly given? "I want to see what he'll say next."
Pig Vomit: Okay, fine. But what about the people who hate Stern?
Researcher: Good point. The average Stern hater listens for two and half hours a day.
Pig Vomit: But... if the hate him, why do they listen?
Researcher: Most common answer? "I want to see what he'll say next."
The simple fact is just like Stern, Skip and First Take are in the business of viewers. They are not in the business of just having viewers who think positively about the program. As long as people are watching, the show is creating the advertising success that keeps them on the air.
Just like the old adage says, there is no such think as bad publicity.
So all these haters can express their displeasure of Skip and First Take on TV, Twitter, and all forms of social interaction. Yet, by doing so are HELPING THE SHOW SUCCEED!!!
If they truly want Skip and First Take to disappear, then they simply need to stop paying attention.
Stop watching and then degrading the opinion's of Skip Bayless.
Simply stop waiting to see what Skip will say next!
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