The Ten Worst Sports Media Signings of the 21st Century

Here is our list of the 10 Worst Sports Media signings of the 21st Century. Before we begin, a few observations.

This is not a list of our personal likes or dislikes. We respect and enjoy the work of a few people below. Appearance on this list is not necessarily an indictment on the talent. The suits behind these moves bear as much (in some cases more) responsibility for the failure.

We broke down these signings as we would a free agent signing in sports. We considered the fanfare/publicity/financial hit in relation to the end product. Enjoy.

Jim Rome – Showtime

Jim Rome has been resting on his laurels for some time now, and he’s paid handsomely for it. Though much of our site’s staff did not even realize Rome was on Showtime for the past three years, he announced their decision not to renew his deal earlier this month (after the network filibustered one of our reporters off breaking the news for several hours). Weep not for Rome, though; he still has a nationally syndicated CBS Radio show, appears on CBS’s NFL pregame show, and will sooner or later be overpaid by a new crop of network executives seeking to capitalize on coveted 1990’s demographics.

Donovan McNabb – FS1

McNabb was known for being candid as a player. Therefore, there were high expectations for him to be an interesting analyst for the upstart FS1, which was billed as a “fun” alternative to ESPN at its launch. Like many of the network’s first initiatives, there was little payoff. McNabb was mostly bland, but would draw some attention when he said something profoundly dumb. This past July, McNabb was suspended by Fox after being charged with a second DUI.

Rush Limbaugh – ESPN

Speaking of Donovan McNabb, Rush Limbaugh’s 2003 stint on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown did not last a month into the season, when Bristol got exactly who they hired:

Let us all be thankful that incident took place before the advent of Twitter.

Michelle Beadle – NBC Sports

ESPN found gold with the smart, funny, and mildly rebellious Michelle Beadle. NBC Sports hired her to be a charming crossover presence in sports and pop culture. Instead, she ended up on “The Crossover,” a Sportsnation facsimile broadcast from NBC Sports Network’s dark, creepy basement. The show was revamped before being cancelled. She lasted 16 months. We’ll let Beadle describe her tenure there.

"“The whole thing was a hot mess,” Beadle said. “And I knew there was nothing for me to do there. The place just wasn’t a good fit for me … There are people that are over there that I don’t miss working with or for. So, it was the way everything was handled, the way the show was put together from the beginning, it was not what I was told was going to happen. I didn’t like my job anymore, and it was not fun having to go to work and pretend. It was great, a lot of people get stuck in jobs that they don’t like and it’s horrible for them and I was fortunate to have people fight for me to get me out of it, so I can go back to being a happy, smiling person. It was just a bad fit all around. That’s all I can say without getting into too much trouble.”"

Warren Sapp – NFL Network

The former defensive lineman was terminated from NFL Network this past February after he was charged with assault and soliciting prostitution. (He’s since pled guilty to that, and also for a domestic violence charge stemming from an incident with his girlfriend in Las Vegas this past April.) Like McNabb, Sapp was never especially insightful or prepared as a broadcaster, but he took that a step further when, as an employee of the league, he accused Jeremy Shockey of being the Bountygate snitch.

Rick Reilly – ESPN

ESPN gave Rick Reilly “ridonkulous” money to leave SI’s back page in 2007, reportedly $17 million over five years. ESPN billed Reilly as a preeminent voice across multiple platforms. He proved anything but. His columns were half-assed at best. He was awkward on television. Reilly was only notable when embarrassing himself. It’s hard to think of a credible, less productive media-related use for that much money.

Regis Philstrongin – FS1

FS1 launched in 2013. It tried to reinvent the sports show with a crazed, ensemble variety hour “Crowd Goes Wild,” built around 82-year-old TV legend Regis Philbin. The show produced Katie Nolan and had a weird charm, but it failed miserably in the ratings against ESPN staples Around the Horn and PTI. Regis never seemed to be sure what he was doing, why he was there, and how he was still getting paid for this. The show had edges he was no longer adept enough to soften.

Joe Buck – HBO

The MLB and NFL broadcaster takes more criticism than he deserves (it extends to games he’s not even announcing) for his play-by-play, but by any measure his live talk show with HBO was a debacle. The lone lingering memory of the 2009 show, which lasted just three episodes, was Artie Lange going off the rails in a manner that was buzzy at the time but feels mean – and homophobic – in retrospect:

Buck reflected on the experience this past October, saying that he was actually alright with Artie’s irreverence, but was disappointed by the totality of the experience:

"“That will forever be frustrating for me. It was only three [episodes], and they were three months between each time. So you never got into any rhythm. And they were live-live. It wasn’t like Jimmy Kimmel Live, which is live audience, but it’s pushed back, delayed broadcast. I sat in New York on a stage and it was on your TV in Nebraska. And not a lot of people have done that. I would submit to anyone, whether it’s David Letterman, or Conan O’Brien or Jimmy Fallon, three days into anything, you have no idea what the show’s going to be. You don’t get a chance to get a rhythm. We just never got there. The fact that it was a ratings success always kind of bothered me, too. I want to get some of that back.”"

Buck began hosting a new talk show on DirecTV’s Audience network this Fall.

Jason Whitlock – ESPN

Dennis Miller – Monday Night Footstrongall

Howard Cosell set a paradigm for personality in the Monday Night Football booth. ABC tried to recreate it, inserting comedian and Saturday Night Live alum Dennis Miller with Al Michaels and Dan Fouts. The experiment went on for two seasons. Miller’s arcane, convoluted metaphors were received by the football audience like a Leibniz appeal to the Royal Society. ABC retreated to John Madden’s comforting, football-focused bosom.

[Graphic by Mike Shamburger]