From a public relations standpoint, ESPN has had a rough year – from inappropriate hugs, to the wholly disappointing Monday Night Football crew, to the clueless direction on Cold Pizza – and we just hope that George Bodenheimer got the name of the shark that the network jumped in 2006.

The tipping point may have been
Jason Whitlock’s memorable interview which got him booted from Bristol. After the Overweight Lova turned bojangling into an adjective that wound up in the New York Times, the negativity toward the network went from a stream to a torrent.

For the most part, it has been bloggers and Phil Mushnick of the NY Post beating up on the Worldwide Leader, but now, other newspapers are getting into it. Nobody at the network – there’s even a Chris Berman “You’re with me, Leather” line at the end – is spared. Although we largely ignore Stuart Scott here – bashing him seems so 2004 – we found this rather comical:

Stuart Scott: He is the most annoying person on planet Earth, quite an accomplishment considering we live in a world that somehow turned Nicole Ritchie, Kevin Federline and Paris Hilton (all talent-less hacks) into celebrities. Scott’s contributions as a talent-less hack include “Booyah” and once referring to John Madden as “Dog.”

Well then. Who’s next, Fox News? The Discovery Channel?

Rubs Me Raw: Sadly, ESPN is going the way of MTV (My San Antonio.com)