The ESPY's

I love sports.  That is probably an obvious statement seeing as I do have a sports blog, but I wanted to make that clear before I dig into ESPN’s ESPY awards show.

Let’s be honest, the ESPY’s are incredibly lame.  Just like the NBA all-star game, I liked them when I was 12, but seeing as I am older now, my interest has passed.  Now, just like many lame things, they ESPY's has its moments.  Most notably it’s “images” of the previous year and the Arthur Ashe Award for courage.  Both are great.  Other than that, the entire show is a flop.

The premise is not bad.  Bring a bunch of athletes together to celebrate the previous year in sports.  Unfortunately though, they decide to do this by handing out hokey awards for things like “Best Male Athlete.”  It’s not hokey because it’s lame to be one of the best athletes in the world, but it’s hokey because there is no possible way to compare athletes who compete in different sports.

This year’s nominees for that category were Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, and Alex Rodriguez.  Where do you even begin?  Let’s see, Brady completed 68.9% of his passes and Tiger’s short game was magnificent.  Can’t forget about Kobe though, he completed a higher percentage of passes than Brady and his touch inside 15 feet was tremendous as well.  But A-Rod’s team won almost twice and many games as Kobe’s!  This is a tough one.

All right, enough sarcasm.  I’m just trying to point out it doesn’t work.  They all had spectacular years in quite different sports.  Not to mention three of them played on what we like to call “teams.”  You know, those groups of guys who help them become the best in their leagues.  All were the MVP of their leagues (except obviously, Tiger) and all won the ESPY for their sport.  Isn’t that enough?  Apparently not.

Despite that, Tiger Woods was the winner of this year’s “Best Male Athlete.”  He also won “Best Male Golfer.”  I’m sure he is thrilled.  He now has 18 ESPY’s tying him with the great Jack Nicklaus.  Oh wait.  Well, at least he has 17 more than Phil Mickelson.