The Official "Espn First Take , FS1 Undisputed, Sportscenter , Sports Radio, Podcasts etc" Thread.

Curt Schilling Continues Crusade Against ESPN: ‘Most Racist People in Sports Are at the Station’
Fired ESPN analyst Curt Schilling claims his former network is a hotbed of racism in the sports world.

While appearing on Fox & Friends, Schilling chimed in on the recent ESPN controversy in which SportsCenter anchor Jemele Hill called President Donald Trump a white supremacist on Twitter — an issue he feels especially passionate about as he was fired from the network for making controversial right-wing comments.

After Fox & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt made a comparison between Hill’s political comments and Schilling’s, implying that the conservative got fired for doing it while the liberal did not, the former Red Sox pitcher responded:

“Her calling [Trump] a racist is not a surprise. Disney and ESPN have stopped giving all pretense of objectivity and they support a very intolerant, exclusive liberal agenda. Some of the most racist people in sports are at the station there now and they have a voice. They have always had a voice. My only issue with the entire thing is that they try to hide it as something it’s not. Everything around what the left does is based on your race, your sex, your sexual preference, your color, your religion, how you worship or how you don’t. It’s about identity politics.”

Schilling also added that, back in his day, an athlete refusing to stand for the national anthem would not have happened — unlike today where a number of sports figures have protested police shootings by kneeling. “It was a different generation,” he said — claiming that the “lack of respect for our flag” is due to a narrative propped up by the “liberal education system.”

The three time World Series champ was let go by ESPN after making anti-transgender comments on social media. However, he is now paid for his conservative screeds as a host for Breitbart News.

ESPN Ratings: ‘SC6’ Remains Steady Amid Jemele Hill Controversy

With the controversy surrounding ESPN anchor Jemele Hill as she described Donald Trump as a “white supremacist” via several tweets on Monday, Sep. 11 and the White House twice suggesting for her firing, how did the uproar affect the ratings for her weeknight show “SC6” (6 p.m. SportsCenter)? The short answer: ratings relatively remained the same.

For Sep. 12-15, 2017, “SC6” averaged 448,000 viewers. It fell 34 percent from its 5:30 p.m. lead-in, “Pardon the Interruption” (PTI) that averaged 676,000 viewers over the same period.

For the seven dates that the 6 p.m. “SportsCenter” followed “PTI” on the ESPN flagship network pre-controversy — for Aug. 21-25 and Sep. 5-6 — the 6 p.m. “SportsCenter” averaged 454,000 viewers while “PTI” averaged 693,000 viewers. The 6 p.m. “SportsCenter” earned roughly the same retention from “PTI” on ESPN for the two weeks prior to Sep. 11 (65 percent retention) as for the week that involved the controversy (66 percent retention).

Compared to the same week in the same time slots one year ago (Sep. 13-16, 2016), “PTI” was down 17 percent (676,000 viewers vs. 816,000 viewers) while “SC6” fell 20 percent (448,000 viewers vs. 562,000 viewers). The 6 p.m. “SportsCenter” retention from “PTI” for Sep. 13-16, 2016 was 69 percent.

While it remains to be seen whether or not there will be drastic ratings erosion for “SC6” in the long-term, the immediate conclusion one can draw from the current “SC6” ratings is that its ebbs and flows have so far been negligible and its ratings movements (ups or downs) are directly parallel to those of its “PTI” lead-in.

Jemele Hill on doing the right thing

A lesson from her grandmother: Be better. No matter what.


I don’t remember exactly how old I was, but let’s just say I was 11.

I was spending the night at my grandmother’s house with a couple of my close friends. And they had an idea. A terrible idea.

They wanted me to steal a couple of beers from my grandmother. My grandmother, you see, loved to entertain. She had card parties and hosted all the family gatherings, and so she always had an ample supply of alcohol.

I figured with all the liquor she had, she would never miss a couple of beers. So I got my Ethan Hunt on and stole the beers right out from under my grandmother’s nose. I didn’t even drink it. I just wanted to impress my friends, maybe climb a few spots up the unofficial neighborhood G rankings.

As for Ethan? It took my grandmother less time than it takes to solve a case on Law & Order to figure out beers were missing and I was the culprit.

When she confronted me, I cried and immediately confessed to the crime. My grandmother didn’t whip me. All she said was, “I am extremely disappointed in you,” and walked away.

I was heartbroken because I felt like I had let my grandmother, who was one of my best friends, down. And there is no feeling worse than letting down the people who love and support you.

I had not felt that way since … until two weeks ago when I was sitting in ESPN president John Skipper’s office having the most difficult conversation of my career.

It was the first time I had ever cried in a meeting. I didn’t cry because Skipper was mean or rude to me. I cried because I felt I had let him and my colleagues down.

Since my tweets criticizing President Donald Trump exploded into a national story, the most difficult part for me has been watching ESPN become a punching bag and seeing a dumb narrative kept alive about the company’s political leanings.

If we’re keeping it all the way real, that narrative is often pushed by the folks in the media who benefit most from that notion and all the attention that criticism of ESPN brings.

But this isn’t about that. It’s simply indicative of just how complex things get for people in OUR position — especially if you’re a woman and a person of color.

I can’t pretend as if this isn’t a challenging time in our country’s history. As a career journalist, I can’t pretend that I don’t see what’s happening in our world.

I also can’t pretend as if the tone and behavior of this presidential administration is normal. And I certainly can’t pretend that racism and white supremacy aren’t real and that marginalized people don’t feel threatened and vulnerable, myself included, on a daily basis.

Yes, my job is to deliver sports commentary and news. But when do my duties to the job end and my rights as a person begin?

I honestly don’t know the answer to that.

I do know that we’re clearly living in a time of blurred lines. The president’s recent inflammatory attacks on NFL players, his choice to disinvite the Golden State Warriors to the White House, are just the latest examples of silence being impossible. This is not a time for retreating comfortably to a corner.

Still, Twitter wasn’t the place to vent my frustrations because, fair or not, people can’t or won’t separate who I am on Twitter from the person who co-hosts the 6 p.m. SportsCenter. Twitter also isn’t a great place to have nuanced, complicated discussions, especially when it involves race. Warriors player Kevin Durant and I probably need to take some classes about how to exercise better self-control on Twitter. Lesson learned.

Also, let me be clear about something else: My criticisms of the president were never about politics. In my eyes, they were about right and wrong. I love this country. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t want it to be better.

The events of last weekend showed that the intersection of sports and politics is the most pronounced we’ve seen in decades. Sports always has been intertwined with social change in America. But let’s not forget some of the athletes who instigated that change — Jesse Owens, Wilma Rudolph, Muhammad Ali, Curt Flood and Jackie Robinson — only became beloved icons once history proved them to be right.

In November, I will celebrate my 11th year at ESPN. I’ve grown immensely as a person and a professional during that time and have accomplished things that I never imagined possible.

As I think on it now, I wonder about the real lesson my grandmother, who died seven years ago, wanted me to learn. Sure, not stealing is the obvious takeaway. But maybe the larger point was: Be better. No matter what.

the ghost wrote: »

aneed123 wrote: »

Skip ? hard today... ole I cant criticize Jerry Jones and I wanna play the middle ass ?

Yea he gets tired of Shannon complaining everyday i can tell...''You're constantly worried Trump, thats all you talk all about.''

And Joy always have that...''Oh ? , here this ? go again whinning about racism'' ? expression.

aneed123 wrote: »

the ghost wrote: »

aneed123 wrote: »

Skip ? hard today... ole I cant criticize Jerry Jones and I wanna play the middle ass ?

Yea he gets tired of Shannon complaining everyday i can tell...''You're constantly worried Trump, thats all you talk all about.''

And Joy always have that...''Oh ? , here this ? go again whinning about racism'' ? expression.

I disagree... the political stuff is what skip wants... H only has a handful of topics. Cowboys Patriots Lebron and Trump/race topics so Shannon can do his thing. This is why he left espn so he can have hs show to troll and to focus on his talking points. He just is biased on teams he like and cant be objective.. Oklahoma football Patriots Cowboys Bron Brady are toics he cant ever be objective on

the ghost wrote: »

aneed123 wrote: »

the ghost wrote: »

aneed123 wrote: »

Skip ? hard today... ole I cant criticize Jerry Jones and I wanna play the middle ass ?

Yea he gets tired of Shannon complaining everyday i can tell...''You're constantly worried Trump, thats all you talk all about.''

And Joy always have that...''Oh ? , here this ? go again whinning about racism'' ? expression.

I disagree... the political stuff is what skip wants... H only has a handful of topics. Cowboys Patriots Lebron and Trump/race topics so Shannon can do his thing. This is why he left espn so he can have hs show to troll and to focus on his talking points. He just is biased on teams he like and cant be objective.. Oklahoma football Patriots Cowboys Bron Brady are toics he cant ever be objective on

Nah bruh, he's said several times he doesn't know anything about politics and doesn't want to get into it whenever Shannon talks about it.

I've noticed everytime Shannon goes on about racial injustice and the plight of black people Skip always says ''Let's get back to the original topic''...he wants no parts of it.

All Skip want is sports and it is a debate show about sports so cool but there is nothing wrong with talking about whats going on in the country sometimes especially when it involves something that happens to an actual sports figure.

And yes i agree Skip is biased as hell, Shannon exposes him on it everyday.

the ghost wrote: »

wilberdmillz wrote: »

the ghost wrote: »

aneed123 wrote: »

the ghost wrote: »

aneed123 wrote: »

Skip ? hard today... ole I cant criticize Jerry Jones and I wanna play the middle ass ?

Yea he gets tired of Shannon complaining everyday i can tell...''You're constantly worried Trump, thats all you talk all about.''

And Joy always have that...''Oh ? , here this ? go again whinning about racism'' ? expression.

I disagree... the political stuff is what skip wants... H only has a handful of topics. Cowboys Patriots Lebron and Trump/race topics so Shannon can do his thing. This is why he left espn so he can have hs show to troll and to focus on his talking points. He just is biased on teams he like and cant be objective.. Oklahoma football Patriots Cowboys Bron Brady are toics he cant ever be objective on

Nah bruh, he's said several times he doesn't know anything about politics and doesn't want to get into it whenever Shannon talks about it.

I've noticed everytime Shannon goes on about racial injustice and the plight of black people Skip always says ''Let's get back to the original topic''...he wants no parts of it.

All Skip want is sports and it is a debate show about sports so cool but there is nothing wrong with talking about whats going on in the country sometimes especially when it involves something that happens to an actual sports figure.

And yes i agree Skip is biased as hell, Shannon exposes him on it everyday.

IDK what show you're watching, skip engages in all topics. He just didn't want to talk down on the cowboys yesterday. Any other time race is discussed he has something to say. When he does he always starts with "Obviously I don't know what its like to be black, but" and then he usually goes on to agree with Shannon.

I should have put lately, you're right he has engaged in the past but my point is i think he reached his breaking point about race issues because Shannon goes hard on it everyday, and lately he's been on some ''lets get back to the topic at hand'' completely brushing Shannon off.

You can tell on the clip above when he said all Shannon is worried about is Trump and thats all he talks about like Trump vs. the NFL isn't topic in the first place, that ? has had enough and he exploded yesterday.