Whos Now? Who Cares....

I took the tube back out of town
Back to the Rollin' Pin
I felt a little like a dying clown
With a streak of Rin Tin Tin

I stretched back and I hiccupped
And looked back on my busy day
Eleven hours in the Tin Pan
God, there's got to be another way

Who are you?

The Who - Who Are You?

Probably 75% of the actual television I watch is sports. This means that Sportscenter is my TV bible. I watch it everyday. It comforts me. I need noise to seep, and in the absence of music I'll go with Sportscenter. Lately, though, they have been doing this stupid 'Who's Now?' segment where they pit 32 athletes in a March Madness type tournament to decide who the ultimate 'now' athlete is. Now, as interesting as this might sound (i mean, what guy doesn't love arguing sports?), there are several flaws with ESPN"S whole tournament process.
The athletes selected poses a major problem. Shaun White? Kelly Slater? Chuck Liddell?? How are they even on the list? And you're putting Vince Young and Matt Leinart on the list instead of McNabb or Favre? And where's AI, KG, Duncan, Oden, Durant? No way in hell TonyParker is bigger than any of them (rap album or not). I mean, how can you do a 'who's who' of athletes without some of the biggest names? And you expect people to accept this thing as somehow legitimate? Such bullshit.
And the whole thing only considers non-retired athletes. Which, again, is total bullshit. Where's Barkley? And Bird? And Magic? What about Emmit Smith, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, Wayne Gretzky, Bo Jackson, Willie Mays, Pele. The whole thing is flawed as balls. How can you expect anyone to take this seriously when you leave off Michael Jordan, who is still arguably the biggest athlete on the planet? Put him in the bracket and NOBODY, beats him (with maybe Tiger Woods being the exception, but I have a feeling Jordan would win that battle).
Lastly, the way they decide who wins is utter crap. Their "panel" accounts for 30% percent of the vote. Now, I'm fine with Wilbon, he covers all sports on a daily basis. But Keyshawn Johnson? Sorry if I don' exactly respect his opinion on a wide variety of sports or expect him to be unbiased as it regards to football (though, he did surprisingly vote against Reggie Bush, but I'm gonna chalk that up to jealousy). Don't you really need a larger panel here? I mean, these guys said Tony Parker was bigger than Roger Federer. So the greatest tennis player of this generation (and, by the time he's done, maybe all time) is less 'now' than Parker who, though an all-star, can't really even be considered a top-5 NBA point guard? What kind of crap is that? What about LT over David fricking Beckham? Ridiculous.
I'd say it was a good idea... but it's not really. Does anyone actually like this thing? It's annoying as balls. And I didn't mind Stuart Scott before the whole thing began (unlike a large number of people), but he's starting to get on my nerves at this point. And honestly, if they define "now" to me one more time, I will kidnap Chris Berman until they stop this travesty. I still love you ESPN, but this time you have led your flock astray. Just stick to highlights.