March Media Madness 2015: The Francesa Region
By Ty Duffy
March is almost here. Which means it’s officially faux-bracket season. We’re bringing our March Media Madness competition back for 2015. We mixed in a few concepts with the people this year. 2014 champ Mike Francesa has been retired to the March Media Madness pantheon. Vote early, vote often, vote on multiple devices. Polls close at 10pm on March 4.
Charissa Thompson knocked off Bob Costas as a No. 16 seed last year, making a run all the way to the finals. Rebecca Lowe does excellent work every week on NBC Sports’ EPL coverage.
LeBron James was a free agent and chose the best long-term basketball option. SI wrote his PR. The Cavaliers, with a new head coach and two new stars, struggled but are now playing well. Alex Rodriguez returned to collect the money the Yankees agreed to pay him. Strong opinions were written.
A refreshingly guileless sports media personality vs. a refreshingly guileless athlete social media account.
Erin Andrews was present for some notably awkward baseball interviews in 2014. She was called a “gutless bitch” by a Boston radio host. Tara and Johnny brought some sartorial liveliness to both the Kentucky Derby and the Super Bowl pregame show.
The former revolutionized college football, by keeping more or less the same format and adding one extra game. The latter revolutionized college sports coverage, by repackaging content you already had access to (or didn’t care for access to) into a separate network you had to pay for.
Jon Stewart defined the medium and let the NCAA have it. John Oliver can go longer without commercials and has an accent. Here he is on FIFA, on Roger Goodell,and on Dan Snyder. And, of course, who could forget the Michelle Beadle salmon incident.
The lead story from the Super Bowl buildup vs. the lead story from the Super Bowl. One gave us both Tom Brady and Bill Belichick discussing their respective balls. One we were off social media for, missed while watching in real time and still don’t quite understand. Decent effort on the “This is Sportscenter” commercial though.
Fox Sports personality Clay Travis rankles people to the point of digging up tweets from 2010. SI media columnist Richard Deitsch backhands Travis at pretty much every opportunity. Only one patch of exposed chest hair will win.