ESPN's obsession with Favre

ESPN has done it again. They have created enough buzz around one guy and one game to attract enough viewers to support an entire country.

There is no question in my mind that ESPN knows exactly what it is doing. There like con artists who suck the viewer in, plant a ticking time bomb in fans heads and before it is too late they pull the lever.
This Monday night the buzz created by ESPN over Brett Favre will allow them to cash in on their over extensive coverage of Favre, proving that they are no different than any other media business in the world.

Some stories are worthy enough to give extensive coverage to, such as Kobe Bryant being accused of rape in Colorado, or Alex Rodriguez, one of the best baseball players of all time, being caught for taking steroids. But extensive coverage, for two summers in-a row of a 40-year-old quarterback, half way over the hill who keeps retiring and un-retiring to join other teams can only mean one thing; ESPN knows how to lay out its cards.

Sure the Brett Favre saga was something worth noting, covering and analyzing but ESPN spent the last two summers covering Favre's drama with his old team, the Packers, to his new team, The Jets, to another retirement to un retiring to his new, new team, the Vikings, as much as cable news network’s covered 9/11 on 9/12.

For two summers Favre's latest tweet, most recent text, recent flight plans and even what he ate for lunch was reported on ESPN radio, magazine and was constantly the headline on ESPN.com and Sports Center.

Summer time is never a big time for sports fans. Plenty of golf and summer baseball, but certainly not enough action to get fans watching, listening, and reading ESPN as much as they do during the most of the year.

So, ESPN has to find a way to suck fans in, attract viewers and keep the advertisers coming.

Three summers ago it was the Michael Vick dog fighting story and every summer there will always be some story that ESPN will blow up.

Sometimes, it is hard to differentiate between whether or not fans think a story is a big deal or the story itself receives a lot of attention simply because it is blown up by ESPN; think, what came first the chicken or the egg?

I once learned that TV tells viewers what topics they should care about, not the other way around.

If ESPN gave little attention to Favre this off-season would fans complain? Sports Illustrated obviously got sick of the Favre attention, coming out with an issue in August that had a headline on the top right that said “Favre-free issue."

Whether or not the Favre saga received enough attention or not is debatable, but what can be concluded is that ESPN, while promising to " Serve sports fans wherever sports is read, heard or watched," is also in the business of making fans become obsessed with a certain story, thus increasing their ratings. Yes, my friend, even sports can get twisted, biased and unfair.

Let's not simply blame ESPN, however. Cable news coverage will also hope on the train of a certain story and ride it as long as it has legs in hopes of sucking in viewers and driving up ratings, especially during slow news months. Think; famous kidnappings, Michael Jackson and Bill Clinton.

But ESPN? You betcha.

This Monday night, ESPN will cash in on its Favre Coverage (by the way I forgot to mention that ESPN had a bottom ticker in the summer called " Favre.")
This Monday night ESPN will feature the Vikings ( Favre’s new team) against the Packers ( his old team that he played for, for over fifteen years, won a Super Bowl and three MVP's with).
So why is this a big game? Note: Favre was probably more known in Green Bay in his playing days there than the governor of Wisconsin.

The game will be nationally televised on Monday Night Football on ESPN, and advertisers have probably payed millions of dollars for spots during the game. There will probably be about 30 million people watching the game and maybe even more.

What ESPN does so well is create " Buzz." Throughout this week ESPN has had reporters at both teams’ practice facilities, asking players on both sides how Favre's first match against his former team will affect the overall game.

Through all this ESPN successfully creates buzz, as if they needed to anymore. While a fan may even be sickened by the amount of Favre coverage, they can’t help but watch on Monday night. Even my mom, who barely watches sports, knows the significance of Monday night’s game.

What ESPN has the luxury of, as opposed to regular news, is that the story they are covering has longevity. Sometimes in news a story dies and the network has to pick another news story to give extensive coverage to. For instance once a crazy murder happens if the killer is not captured than eventually the news has to stop covering it.

But with ESPN, coverage of a story almost always turns into reality. ESPN can talk about Michael Vick going to jail for several months, and then when he gets out of jail for several more and then spend several weeks talking about his first game. Sometimes, a story like that can last for years.

On Monday night the Favre saga will once again come to fruition for ESPN. All of it’s over obsessive coverage will pay off, as millions of viewers will stay tuned.

No matter what the outcome, ESPN has created enough buzz to make sure that it always wins just like a bad movie can create enough buzz that people will show up and see it anyways. Think Transformers 2.

So next time you see a story on the number one network for sports, just realize that ESPN is no different than Fox News, CNN or your local news outlet.

While they all may be serving us, in the end, they're just making sure their wallets get fatter.

Maybe ESPN should send a thank you card to Favre after Monday’s game.