What a world we live in. Growing up as a kid, ESPN was untouchable. They had Chris Berman and Stuart Scott on top of the world. They were the kings of content. Those guys are virtually gone and ESPN has lost all of its glory. ESPN’s biggest threat is Barstool. A company that’s right up everyone’s ally. No bullsh*t. Just a bunch of guys that try to make you laugh.
Barstool and ESPN have an ugly past. They two tried to work together when the Pardon My Take crew would host a show on ESPN2 called Barstool Van Talk. ESPN cancelled the show after one episode because of Sam Ponder and John Skipper but it predictably turned into one of ESPN’s biggest mistakes. It gave Barstool an even bigger fan base and a group of people who were sick of piss poor sports content.
This summer, the two were competing over the services of Alex Rodriguez to host content. I’ll let the New York Post tell the story.
NY POST – In May, ESPN and Rodriguez announced to advertisers with much fanfare that they would do a show called “Pivot” during the MLB season. And then they didn’t do it.
“In an odd occurrence, the A-Rod series was never produced, even after ESPN made it a featured part of its presentation at its upfronts at Times Square’s Minskoff Theatre seven months ago. The upfronts are the yearly event in which networks try to attract advertisers. It was announced then that Rodriguez would be “Pivot”’s executive producer and host of a four-show series during the baseball season.
“I’m looking forward to uncovering personal stories the world deserves to
hear, while sharing the lessons I’ve learned — sometimes through the hard way,” Rodriguez said at the time in a press release.He apparently wasn’t looking that forward to it, as he went 0-for-4 in delivering the specials. A-Rod did record a podcast series this summer with Dan Katz from Barstool Sports that seemed to have a somewhat similar concept. “The Corp” was released Thursday.”
Barstool captured another A-list celebrity while ESPN was stuck with their pants around their ankles and no toilet paper. The big bad wolf that is ESPN has turned into
ARod was not shy about why he picked Barstool over ESPN:
Rodriguez knows Barstool’s reputation. “Look, any time you do something, there’s going to be man’s reaction—some positive, some not so positive,” he says. “I think the Barstool platform is unique in many ways. I think it has the ear of millennials. I think there’s a way of communicating with millennials about sports and business in a way that isn’t so buttoned up. For most of my other work, it is buttoned up, whether that’s Fox or ESPN, or CNBC. I think with this, we get to have a little bit of fun and show our personalities.”
What a world we live in. Alex Rodriguez is likable and Derek Jeter is
