Sports > September 25, 2008

By Connor Swarbrick | Sports editor

Usually when you think of cheaters and liars in sport names like Bill Belichick, Pete Rose, Tonya Harding, Barry Bonds, the Chicago Black Sox and the entire Tour de France come to mind. I’m here to add one more name to that list: Sportscenter.

Sportscenter has been lying to you Sept. 7, 1979, but perhaps the best example of their deceitfulness was just this past Sunday Sept 21.

The producer’s, anchors and writers lied to sports fans everywhere when they led the Sept. 21 evening telecast reporting on the Patriot’s loss to the Miami Dolphins. They led sports fans to believe this was an important event and pushed aside the U.S. Ryder Cup victory and the closing of Yankee Stadium for 10 nauseating minutes of “analysis” of the game.

It was a historic day in sports. The United States won the Ryder Cup for the first time in nine years after having lost three times and being destroyed twice more.

It was one of the biggest upsets in the history of golf. A U.S. team full of young guns, minus the best player in the world obliterated a star studded European team that included the likes of Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Padraig Harrington

Okay, okay so you don’t think golf is that big of a deal?

What about the closing of Yankee Stadium? “The House that Ruth Built” is home to 26 World Championships, the former home of the New York Giants, the location for 20 of boxing’s most famous fights, the site of three Papal visits, the 1976 home for Pelé and the New York Cosmos, and the site of one of the New York Cosmos, and the site of one of the best 20th century college football games when Army played Notre Dame in 1946.

Names such as Berra, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Maris, Mantle and Ruth have graced the facility.

It is home to some of the most passionate fans in sport.

In the stadium’s final season, the Yankees set a record for attendance, 4,298,543.

At the end, the fans were drawn to Ruth’s house in ways he never could have dreamed.

But according to the gods of sports casting the Patriots’ loss was far more important. I mean the ending of a 21 straight regular-season win streak is history right?

Yeah, right. You want to talk history, talk Yankee Stadium.

But it was an upset; after all they did lose to Miami right?

Yeah, right. You want to talk upsets you talk U.S. Ryder Cup victory.

Was the Dolphins’ victory even a surprise?

They have two talented running backs and a veteran quarterback.

I’m sorry ESPN’s analysts couldn’t predict that the simple Dolphin offense would run all over an aging Patriot defense.

Oh and it was also a big surprise that a kid who hasn’t started a game since high school couldn’t lead his NFL team to victory.

The ignorant commentary that lead off Sportscenter went as far as calling the Dolphins’ win “just as big a surprise as the Giants win in the Super Bowl.”

What?

Let me let you in on a little secret: it’s all about the money. Sure, football is America’s most loved sport at the moment, but that is not why a lowly NFL game preceded the historic events of Sept. 21 on Sportscenter.

Nope, it’s all about the money. ESPN pays for broadcasting rights so that they can show highlights.

Take a guess which one of the broadcasting rights cost them the most on Sunday.

Yup, the NFL.

This isn’t just a one time thing. How many Olympic highlights did you see on ESPN? None, they didn’t buy the rights.

How many X Games highlights did you see? Countless, because ESPN exclusively owns the rights so they dedicate whole Sportscenters to the goofy thing.

Sure, ESPN did show hours of coverage leading up to the Yankees game, but if you are going to record a Sportscenter and play it throughout the night, the most important events have to come first, in the name of journalism.

The Ryder Cup barely got a slot on their Web site and was delegated to about 20 minutes into the Sportscenter broadcast.

A real shame, considering that was one of the most exciting sporting events I have seen in a long time.

So Sportscenter, in this election year we the people of the sports nation have had enough of the politics.

Your own sportsnation poll agrees; we, your viewers, named the U.S. men’s golf team at the Ryder Cup last week’s “King of the Night.”

In the name of journalism, forget the money and report on what is most important to the wide world of sports- fans.