Revisiting: ESPN 

When guys like Aaron Rodgers prefers the Pat McAfee show, a show run by a couple of guys, over ESPN, when ESPN is owned by Disney and is supposed to be the "Worldwide leader in sports", you know you've fallen. Edit: I've procrastinated on editing this but yeah this didn't age well lol

Thanks for the inclusion in the video. Appreciate it.

Lebron James: does a push-up ESPN: this might hurt his legacy big time

The Hockey Guy is the most genuine and down to earth fan of a sport ever, Dudes coverage is insanely good for how much work he puts in, Nonstop grind and a funny dry sense of humor, thank you sports youtubers and thank you hockey guy

You're way better than ESPN my man. Your content actually has personality.

The formula is too predictable. You can only have people arguing who the G.O.A.T is for so long.

Stephen Smith looks like the food critic from Ratatouie :P

We need to revisit ESPN again It’s almost like they’ve never learned from the first two videos

“Lightning win the Stanley cup” ESPN: interesting, that team with the good Russian guy pulls through. Now back to Lebrons favorite bedtime snack. Kellerman do you think it’ll affect his play?

The Hockey Guy is indisputably the all time goat of sportscasting

Couldnt have said it better myself

You nailed the political part bang on. My family is largely conservative with a few liberals mixed in. Since we are Oregon State Beavers fans (I know, pity us) we watched the Oregon State vs Oregon Football game as a family. The game had been known as “The Civil War” for over 100 years since the two schools are less than 10 miles from each other and the rivalry is VERY heated. However, since a couple ex-players came out and called the name “Racist” for apparently referencing The American Civil War (Which it didn’t btw), the schools dropped the name, despite massive fan backlash from both schools. In fact, a poll posted in the state news station on Facebook had a 90% disapproval rate of the name change. The game was on ESPN, and throughout the game, ESPN kept talking about the name change and “How the communities of both schools have been very supportive of the change.” This statement caused my Uber-Liberal Aunt to stand up and yell “WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? Have you talked to anyone in the community?!”

Lebron James says that he don't like burger king, will this affect his LEGACY?!!!

"Hockey and Baseball exists" ESPN: what's that? Must be a figment of my imagination.

I feel like ESPN never truly recovered after Stuart Scott died. It's like a piece of them died along with him.

6:15 THE HOCKEY GUY! One of the most knowledgeable guys about the sport on RU-vid!

UrinatingTree: not as tall as ESPN, but his roots run deeper.

The Last Dance was ESPN’s last ditch attempt at seeing what would stick. Their 30 for 30s have been great regardless of the regular content of the network. Would like to see them emphasize this more

Back in 2011, ESPN had a segment at the end of the year where they highlighted sports figures who had died during the past year. Well, in September of 2011 the entire Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (KHL hockey team) died in a plane crash. There were several former NHL players, men with olympic medals, and men who were considered amongst the best hockey players in the world on that plane. ESPN did not include them in their remembrance. It was one of the most tragic events in sports history and ESPN couldn’t be bothered to include it, because they have some sort of ridiculous grudge against the sport and had been trying to squash it ever since 2004. They have no integrity.

ESPN headline: Harden spilled water on Kyrie Irving, James Harden will sit another game

Honestly, wouldn’t mind seeing ESPN fade away into obscurity.

Dude, even TSN is better than ESPN.

The Hockey Guy deserves so much, his videos are 11/10

Tree, you, FlemLo, HockeyGuy, SetTheEdge, KTO, Griffiti, Brett Kollman, Thatsgoodsports, and others have kept sports media alive for me man. You guys are the future.

Fans: Oh boy the Stanley Cup finals have been insane!! ESPN: What did Lebron have for dinner

ESPN is part of a dying breed. Shows like The Pat McAfee Show are the way of the future for sport discussion. Authentic shows with humour, personality, and honest takes that don’t come off as manufactured.

Who’s here after ESPN lays off Max Kellerman, Jalen Rose, Steve Young, Matt Hasselbeck, Jeff Van Gundy, KeyShawn Johnson, Suzy Kolber, Ashley Brewer, Mark Jackson and soon to be more?

The top two college basketball teams in the country face off, go to quadruple OT, and the game ends on a half court buzzer beater. ESPN: *nah let’s talk about what shoes LeBron wore to his NBA game tonight*

ESPN isn't even competitive with their own traditional television competition anymore. Look at Inside the NBA on TNT for example. Three former players and an anchor who have great chemistry, aren't censored by the network, give actual analysis without the need for hot takes, don't attempt to be something they're not, and are relatively relatable. Charles Barkley for example is entertaining because he's funny, spontaneous, candid and authentic. The way him, Shaq, Kenny, and Ernie interact and play off of each other seems real, and it seems like they're just having fun and talking hoops like normal guys, instead of trying to drum up drama for clicks. They are an example of a show that has adapted to the modern audience, and they are endearing because of it.

As a hardcore Hockey fan, I'm glad you put the Hockey Guy up there. Dude is underrated and deserves a lot more views then he gets for the work he puts in.

I want to say thank you Tree, your the reason I got into sports and I can’t thank you enough for that. I remember back in 2016-17 when you made that “haters guide to 2016-17 nfl playoffs” and I got hooked, if it weren’t for that I would have never seen 28-3. Thanks to your other videos I branched out to other sports and got to see the Tampa Bay Lightning my favorite hockey team win the cup, which has been the best part of my life over the past two years. So from the bottom of my heart thank you Urinating Tree.

PTI is the only thing I even pay attention to on ESPN, and once Wilbon and Kornheiser are done, I'm not sure I'll ever tune in to them again.

I was just about to say “ESPN is CNN with sports,” while watching this video. And then Tree said “I felt like I was watching CNN.” Clearly this is something a lot of people are thinking. ESPN has become a victim of the 24 hour news cycle. The more you turn EVERYTHING into a controversy, the more it sounds like white noise.

6:17 The Hockey Guy is an absolute treasure!

Although I don’t watch all the sports and I’m only a Football and Basketball fan ESPN needs to know to be the “Worldwide Leader in Sports” you actually have to cover all sports not Brady Speculation and Jordan Lebron GOAT conversation

Yeah, let's just say this needs a part 3 considering today's round of cuts...

I’m happy he showed THG, He doesn’t get enough recognition because of the sport but dude grinds

I love that quick clip of The Hockey Guy in there, Shannon’s awesome. Him, Tree, and Tom Grossi all deserve 1 mil subs.

Nothing but love for The Hockey Guy. As a long time hockey fan he’s pretty much helped me catch up on my favourite sport over the years. I want nothing but the best for him.

Hard for authenticity to thrive in a media environment that actively stifles diversity of opinion and has a history of hammering the nail that sticks out.

Typical ESPN headline: "What LeBron ate this morning will tarnish his legacy"

Let’s be honest. Most of us only watch ESPN because the game we watch is on that channel, but that’s the sole reason

Remember when tosh.0 ripped ESPN apart....God I love that video

The Joker wanted to “burn the whole world down” in The Dark Knight. Given today’s level of resentment on both extremes of the political spectrum, that statement sounds both prophetic, and terrifying- due to its potential inevitability. Well, let’s make one exception, metaphorically. ESPN, and cable programming (I’m looking at you network news) . You, me, we, all of us have the power to bring them down via disinterest and avoidance. To quote one of my heroes, Henry Rollins: “don’t think about it. Do it!”

The Hockey Guy is where I get 99% of my hockey news

Reasons why ESPN manages to stay relevant: 1. TV deals with College Hoops/College Football, NBA, MLB & MNF 2. Their documentaries 3. Scott Van Pelt 4. Stephen A. Smith

Honestly, I am just happy to see the Hockey Guy hype in this comment section. He's been my go to hockey channel for two years now and he's just so informative and you can see his passion for the sport.

When they cancelled The Sports Reporters, that was it for me. That show was the last bastion for intelligent discourse.

Loved seeing The Hockey Guy make an appearance here

6:15 Hockey Guy time ladies and gentlemen

LIterally a day after this video went up, Pedro Gomez passed away. RIP Pedro

Lack of Authenticity sums up most things in entertainment now.

Hot Take: Tree's content quality, work ethic, relatable character and his connection with his viewers make him LIGHT YEARS ahead ESPN.

Shoutout to Alex Smith and all the other guys winning awards tonight!

I'm like a month late but... When I was 6 years old. I was a total noob to sports. I understood nothing about any sport, aside form the absolute basics. And yet, I found myself in front of the TV tuning into Around the Horn and PTI on routine. I loved the personalities, I loved the discussion, and I adored the people that made it great. I still listen to Tony Kornhieser's podcast with my dad. One day though, I turned on the TV and it felt...different. I stopped being interested in the people. It felt like the magic was gone. It was solidified when I tuned into HQ (the Hispanic show) and felt nothing. It didn't have that same magic that PTI had. At that point, I was 9 going on 10, and i had other interests. So I stopped watch ESPN. I'll glance up at it whenever I was at a restaurant, but the only other time I committed to ESPN was during the XFL. Now, I turn to people like you and Tom Grossi for updates on the NFL and other sport. The quality and humor value keep me coming back upload after upload, and recapture that magic I felt almost 10 years ago. Thank you.

1. Stephen A Smith saying Japanese players cant be marketable because of their fucking language. 2. Rachel Nichols and Maria Taylor warring over a pregame show no one watches, literally tearing apart every NBA segment the network does. 3. Jalen Rose saying a white guy making the Olympic basketball team is racist, while Jay Williams saying the Celtics just hired their first black coach (after having Doc Rivers, Bill Russell, and more be their coach) 4. Paying tens of billion annually for live rights while laying off hundreds of people. And that was just in the last week. You hit the nail on the head with this video. It is a tire fire at ESPN and I do not think it is fixable

You threw the Hockey Guy in there too! That man works so hard and is completely genuine. He deserves so much more recognition.

UrinatingTree and HockeyGuy are treasures.

As a avid viewer of ESPN in the 90's (never missed Sportscenter or Baseball Tonight. Ever.) I like so many here, haven't looked at ESPN unless I was waiting somewhere and it was on a TV. Then I would get immediately bored and turn to my phone for my sports news. RU-vid (Tree, Jomboy, KTO, Hockey Guy, Andy Hoops, amongst many others) has easily replaced ESPN. I sincerely doubt ESPN will recover. I give it 10 years before the plug is pulled. Also, RIP Pedro Gomez. Dude was a great reporter for ESPN and passed way too soon.

I remember the days when ESPN covered NASCAR with one guy with the most fun name to ever say: Dr. Jerry Punch.

Holy shit the mad lad did it again, wasn’t expecting this one at all Tree

Who would of thought the company that employed Booger Mcfarland is a lolcow.

I would pay to watch a sports network with Urinating Tree, FlemLo, Jomboy, and The Hockey Guy.

They fumbled the bag with Katie Nolan - Garbage Time won an Emmy for a reason and her ESPN podcast was great. They also have way too many debate shows - the direction of content sucks. They still have decent analysts who bring authenticity like SVP, Pablo Torre, and Mina Kimes but they aren’t using them in the best ways. Also, totally agree - the really need more sports documentaries - there are SO many topics they could cover.

This man showed a The Hockey Guy clip. This is perhaps the best thing to ever happen to Urinating Tree, he knows of a great youtuber who keeps it honest and authentic

There's nothing I wanted to be more when I was eight than to be an anchor on NFL Countdown to talk about the St. Louis Rams winning a bunch. How times have changed. Also nice shoutout to The Hockey Guy

You are the best sports RU-vidr 100%. You have personality, you give you're honest opinion on sports and don't hold back you're true feelings on teams, players, etc. Every video you do I along with everyone who is subscribed enjoys what you do. It was fun interviewing you on our former wrestling show we did The Nation Show a couple of years ago. Now I'm a producer and a co-host on a sports show with friends of mine. We've been doing Our Nation's Sports Show for a year and a half, part of the reason is because of you're content. Keep up the amazing work my man. Been a fan of you for 2 years now.

espn started to go downhill when they fired bill simmons and got rid of Grantland. that's when i realized it wasn't about creating quality content it was about keeping the NFL and NBA happy. just gotten worse and worse and the talent got thiner and thiner. honestly it's just terrible to watch now. almost all of it.

Sportscenter used to have such an impact on the American psyche that "Booyeah!" became cool to say.

Says a lot about priorities when they’ll spend 15 minutes breaking down steph currys three pointers from the night before. And give a passing glance at the Stanley Cup Finals.

You are way more funny than Espn. I actually laugh at your content more than anything with the Espn trademark for the past five years

It's crazy. I had the same dream, to be an anchor on sportscenter. I joined the Marines in the communications field and when I got out I pursued a journalism degree in college. Life happened, and I wasn't able to continue down that path, but looking at the network now, your analysis is spot-on. I used to wake up every morning and turn on sportscenter while I got ready for work. It's been almost a decade since I've done that. Now I watch sportscasters on youtube like you and others during my morning routine. It's actually quite sad. Some of my best sports moments play in my head with Dan Patrick or Stuart Scott or Kenny Mayne as the voice-over. Maybe one day they will recapture that lightning in a bottle. But the future doesn't look good for them.

Here’s what killed ESPN in one word - Disney. In the 90’s and 2000’s, when Disney was expanding their media empire under Michael Eisner (After Frank Wells’ death) and Bob Iger, instead of buying things that they thought could legitimately contribute to their company or that they understood, or vis versa, they would just buy something for the sake of buying it and would leave it up to chance as to whether it’d succeed or not. This signaled a decline for the Walt Disney Corporation that began in the early 2000’s and that is still continuing to this day, even if they accidentally strike a gem here or there. In short, the company that believed in quality over cost that was started with Walt Disney himself and carried on early into Michael Eisner’s tenure as CEO, died sometime in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, and now they are truly like any other corporation in the world - just looking for the quickest way to make a buck, no matter what. Rest In Peace Walt Disney. Your parks, your characters, your company; they deserve better than this.

I stopped watching ESPN because literally all they cover with any seriousness is basketball and football.

All of the nfl prime time episodes are on RU-vid and it’s glorious idc if it’s 1997

Made me happy that you showed my dude flemlo when talking about the RU-vid personalities. He's a real one.

ESPN went from a good, authentic product to parroting whatever hot take they read from Twitter, Instagram or Facebook

All they needed was authenticity. But when you have channels like this one, Scooter Magruder, FivePointsVids, and many others... They lost it. ESPN is dead.

Just a quick note, Jomboy is legitimately one of the best sports channels across any media... RU-vid, podcast, television, radio, whatever. Their breakdowns, relationships with former baseball players, and general baseball knowledge is some of the best combination of skills in the genre. I know there was a quick inclusion of their work in this vid, but they are to me the perfect combo of professional, earnest, and relaxed.

Honestly your authenticity is why I enjoy watching you Tree. Your snark makes these videos fun to watch while I learn more about sports than I have ever had..

6:15 MY HOCKEY GUY BEEN WATCHING THAT MAN FOR LIKE ALMOST 4 YEARS

I’m glad you put THG in here cause he’s honestly so genuine with his takes and creates multiple great videos every day. Super underrated with his main hockey and second channel

Good job. The only thing you missed is that allot of people (me being one of them) are getting turned off by there extreme biases, and I'm not talking about politics. I'm talking about the constant coverage of ONLY teams like the Cowboys, Patriots, and Lakers. Or the constant Tom Brady, Mahomes, and Lebron James coverage. IDK I used to love ESPN, but over the past few years I've turned to RU-vid. I mean I'm a Bill's fan, so there's pretty much no point in watching ESPN, rarely if ever do they cover my team. Yet there are many many youtubers who strictly just talk about my team. Also you're point about ESPN documentaries is spot on. The last series I really liked that ESPN did was the 30 for 30, and shows like it... but they rarely do those anymore. So in closing, if they aren't going to cover my favorite teams, sbd I'd they aren't doing Documentarys, then there is no point in watching.

Their is a reason why internet shows like Pat McAffe is doing good. A real group of friends that are Authentic.

I miss the old ESPN. The one that had Sports Center going all day and had all sorts of guests coming on to talk sports. It is very sad seeing it fall, all of which has been self inflicted.

Nice shoutout to The Hockey Guy, he’s a really underrated hockey youtuber

I had a feeling you’d revisit your video about ESPN again. Great job Schlasser! All I care about there nowadays are live sports like you said. Like Tennis, Baseball and Football sometimes. Sadly the network continues to go downhill.

You absolutely nailed this. Espn is literally cloning the first take formula and now its repetitive garbage

I used to watch SportsCenter every single day, it was a point of viewing years ago. Now, I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a full episode

ESPN's flagship show was Sportscenter. Now the highlights people want to see are online. The rest of it is pointless other than live events

I get excited when your new videos come out and the only ESPN content I watch now is old NFL Primtime clips on youtube, because its still awesome and nostalgia is all I have left for the channel.

Keith Olbermann was a great personality as Tree said but once he went into politics, he went off the deep end,

I like to believe many of us who grew up watching espn are now watching tree, grossi, thatsgoodsports, mcafee, kto, flemlo, foolishbaseball et al. Yall are the the driving force behind sportsball talk.

ESPN: No matter what they do, they keep getting worse.

How cool that you showcased all those other RU-vidrs! You’re a good and honest guy, Tree 🌲

I gave up following the flagship ESPN years ago, not because of politics (that seems a relatively new phenomenon), but because of favoritism and over-hyping of the biggest sports franchises and markets. You never hear that “the Detroit Tigers won”, rather that “the Yankees / Red Sox / Dodgers lost”. I do have ESPN+ but mainly to be able to watch the Penguins, and also cricket. I only tune into MNF to watch the ManningCast, or when the Steelers or Lions are on. And other than that, I pretty much just tune in to ESPN long enough to see what the hot chicks are wearing. Weirdly that never used to be a thing back in the 90’s. It was a rare treat to see a younger Suzy Kohler in bike shorts, or Linda Cohn in a swimsuit. And then only for maybe a second or two. Seems like I’m the last decade or so they’ve really pushed the image of making their female presenters into glorified sex symbols. (Unfortunately as a straight male it works on me.) But I’m also disgusted that they demoted Leah Hextall from their NHL play-by-play announcer role to an on-ice / tunnel reporter. What does that say about ESPN’s endeavors to elevate roles for women in sports?

"There's no authenticity or connection". Hard agree. When something happens in the NFL (only sport i watch really) I don't want to hear what some corporate suit has to say. When the Stafford trade happened, i thought " I wonder what Tree thinks of this and i can't wait to see Tom grossi's video on this and oh i bet Brandon from Thatsgoodsports will have a great breakdown on this" RU-vidrs have majorly replaced the typical sport personality. I actually know what teams are your favorites and you're all willing to say exactly what's on your minds in the funniest way. EDIT: lol i posted this before i finished the video, tree beat me to my point haha

All the LeBron James coverage killed ESPN for me. I only wanted to watch Nats highlights, but they spent over an hour on LeBron’s postgame interview, then they skipped the highlights entirely to talk about LeBron’s shoes. I then moved to MLB Network and eventually realized it was more of the same.

Not to mention that other autosports, like NASCAR, F1, and even INDYCAR have all EXPLODED in popularity on YT and Podcasts to the point where you don't really need to watch the races anymore...I still watch a lot of it but there is still SO MUCH in-depth analysis for motorsports on YT.

I only watch ESPN for live sporting events and 30 for 30s...everything else from them however is just about useless