Missed Opportunity

I don't know what ESPN was thinking, but they had the Sports Guy, Bill Simmons, all lined up to do a podcast interview with Barack Obama...and then they pulled the plug on the idea. Sure the source is the Daily News Gossip section, but that has to be more reliable than the Harrisburg Patriot Fan Line right? We're missing a golden opportunity to hear Simmons ask Obama about their shared interests in poker, basketball and quitting smoking. I would hope that he would have brought up his distrust for reformed smokers, because he feels they spend a good portion of their life lying about where they were going or what they were doing only to grab a quick smoke.

Wonder why ESPN decided against the interview?

ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz told us: "It's absolutely not an issue about any one candidate. Our position is that when they're down to the final two candidates, we'll look for options to interview each accordingly. Fans don't expect political coverage on our air.

Hey guess what? Fans also don't expect to turn on "Baseball Tonight" and hear Eric Young or Fernando Vina give their expert advice. What the F. Bring back Herold Reynolds please! Who cares if he hugged someone inappropriately. My ears have been violated by Berman and Vitale for the last three decades, I'd call that a fair swap.

Also, is that really a reason to not have one of your most entertaining employees interview one of the most intriguing figures in America right now. I suppose the real reason for shutting down the interview is so that they could focus more attention on their next big idea, ala "Who's NOW?", or "The Greatest Highlight". Because...yeah, those were awesome.

I did some digging and found a security camera image of their top brass hard at work:

I feel like this may explain a lot.