Well, well, well.
Looked what the cat dragged in. Why, it’s Keith Olbermann, looking for a job.
According to a story in the New York Times, Olbermann’s throwing rocks at the window of ESPN. I can visualize Olbermann with a boom box held over his head ala John Cusak.
If this seems strange to you…well, you’d be right. This oozes of desperation, the kind where self-loathing is only trumped by one’s willingness to have their voice heard, even if nobody listens anymore.
Olbermann has become the bigot in Henry Fonda’s “12 Angry Men”, where everyone just ignores him now.
His first time around, Olbermann spent five years at ESPN (1992-1997), pairing with Dan Patrick to create one of the greatest broadcast teams in sports. During an era when ESPN and SportsCenter were both simultaneously growing and peaking in popularity, everyone watched the 11pm SportsCenter. And for that hour, Patrick and Olbermann were your witty, snide and insightful co-hosts of sports highlights.
They were a fantastic team and SportsCenter became must watch viewing for males 14-450. Everyone watched. They were creating catch phrases and making athletes themselves watch “The Big Show.”
But then Olbermann lost his mind. He was suspended for going on a former colleague’s show and calling ESPN a “Godforsaken place”. He might as well have burned down the Bristol campus the way he left town. He spent the next decade either verbally eviscerating ESPN or half-heartedly apologizing.
Meanwhile, Olbermann continued his erratic professional behavior at Fox, MSNBC and CurrentTV have all parted ways with him, mainly because he just kept saying things that would cross the line. It’s hard in the current political landscape to actually say enough against another party to lose one’s job, but Olbermann keeps finding ways to do it.
Perhaps it’s because it’s so venomous, spiteful and angry. Or, it could be, as Rupert Murdoch once said, “I fired him…he’s crazy.” He even found a way to make Al Gore hate him and Gore is of similar political leanings. He’s a master of professional and journalistic arson
Either way, Olbermann’s reached a point where no one credible will hire him. He’s one step away from using his catchphrases in a fast-food drive thru.
Which is why, short of toying with him, I can’t imagine why ESPN would even entertain this. I picture ESPN as something akin to Henry F. Potter in “It’s a Wonderful Life”, when George Bailey comes to him for help after “misplacing” the money:
“Look at you. You used to be so cocky. You were going to go out and conquer the world.”
But Keith Olbermann is no George Bailey.
He’s smarmy, arrogant, incendiary, rude, unyielding – a reckless force of nature now. He’s grown to think his importance and stature are above that of the topics he covers. It’s all background noise to the Keith Olbermann Show itself. His ego is bigger than the state of Connecticut.
And there’s just no way ESPN can put him back out there. First, ESPN isn’t big on big stars. Second, there’s the whole Keith Olbermann “I Hate ESPN” campaign that was only missing some bumper stickers and its own Super PAC.
Perhaps most importantly, nobody cares about what Keith Olbermann has to say anymore. When he has dipped his right holier-than-thou toes into the sports scene, it’s clear he considers it to be a somewhat silly attempt to lower himself to that level of commentary again.
In other words, Keith Olbermann thinks he’s too good for sports. And can you imagine how his 1990s catch-phrase style would come off now?
For the time being, ESPN is wisely staying away. Then again, they are doing just what I said they might, which is toy with him. Like an executive took Olbermann out to dinner and then made it known to other media outlets than Olbermann was looking for work, but that it’s ESPN and ESPN doesn’t need him.
On second thought, maybe they deserve each other. Because I can’t think of anyone outside of Olbermann who thinks higher of their own self-importance than ESPN does.
ESPN’s biggest problem is has all the angles covered: SportsCenter isn’t just highlights and brief analysis. Now it’s on all the time, with 10 minutes devoted to the Jets backup quarterback situation on a Tuesday in February.
There’s a blur between opinion, journalism and commentary. What’s factual isn’t always so clear, due to the instant analysis nature of the brand now. And maybe that’s where Olbermann fits, in this style of telling you, oh lowly viewer and impressionable mind, what to think about a topic. But instead of politics, it’s sports. We aren’t allowed to judge or develop our own narratives, it’s done for us now, by former coaches and ex-players and never-weres like Olbermann. ESPN News, when it’s actually on, is what SportsCenter used to be 10 years ago.
So this is what we’ve been reduced to: stories about two massive egos who value themselves as entities so highly that they deem this a news story. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t cover this whole thing themselves, further blurring the line.
Come to think of it, we’d be better off if we just ignored them all together. Since that’s not going to happen with ESPN, we can at least all agree to ignore Olbermann.
Keith, just go away. Your 15 minutes is up. After all, it’s not 1997 anymore.
worldbetweenlines.com 