Sports Media Discussion (RIP ESPN) - Page 202 - Sporting Events and Fantasy Sports

Enjoyed 538s special on chess. Chapter from Nate's book is probably better than the clip if you've never read it.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...-the-machines/

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10-24-2014 , 07:35 AM

#5029

DannyOcean_

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anywhere to watch the grantland hour online?

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10-24-2014 , 08:40 AM

#5030

mcb33f

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yeah nate's book was legit even if his site is historically lol. i mean the nba preview linked to something seth wrote. lol

the simbo/lowe/hbob pod was good, but simbo is a negative addition there and needs to hit the bricks pronto. i like listening to him talk about bball with plenty of ppl but those two are on another level of understanding and his presence derails the potential for really high level bball convo

Last edited by mcb33f; 10-24-2014 at 08:46 AM.

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10-24-2014 , 09:23 AM

#5031

lloyd45

grinder

Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 678

Omg the fake whispering is obnoxious in the bill and jalen previews

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10-24-2014 , 11:39 AM

#5032

DannyOcean_

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Quote:

Originally Posted by DannyOcean_

anywhere to watch the grantland hour online?

anybody know where to find this?

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10-24-2014 , 11:53 AM

#5033

True North

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Quote:

Originally Posted by DannyOcean_

anybody know where to find this?

PM sent

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10-24-2014 , 12:46 PM

#5034

Nwildcat

see red

Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 1,256

Quote:

Originally Posted by DannyOcean_

anybody know where to find this?

This seems to work - http://www.veoh.com/watch/v79392297HEq6dqcq

Wait, nvm don't watch that. Audio is way out of sync.

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10-24-2014 , 01:20 PM

#5035

loK2thabrain

Tiger > Jack

Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 23,203

Quote:

Originally Posted by lloyd45

Omg the fake whispering is obnoxious in the bill and jalen previews

+1

Roughly as bad as Bill's absolutely atrocious Andrew Luck impersonation on the Sal pods.

Don't get me wrong I love the Sal pod, but Bill has a few "bits" in all his pods that make me want to write him a hate letter.

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10-24-2014 , 01:36 PM

#5036

lloyd45

grinder

Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 678

Luck bit is hilarious tho

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10-24-2014 , 02:08 PM

#5037

loK2thabrain

Tiger > Jack

Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 23,203

He doesn't even sound like that tho? Maybe I'm missing the joke meh

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10-24-2014 , 07:55 PM

#5038

nath

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Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 68,688

Quote:

I rededicated myself to understanding football gambling better. I mean, why not? What else was I going to do? One morning, I was killing time power-walking on a treadmill before a doubleheader of The Equalizer and A Walk Among The Tombstones when I came up with a gambling brainstorm: What if there were a better way to figure out NFL records than just wins and losses? For instance, Arizona battled back in Week 1 to beat San Diego 18-17 on Monday night — the Cardinals got the “win” and San Diego got the “loss,” but really, that was an “either/or” game, right? For gambling purposes, there had to be a better way to capture that.

Maybe my reading comprehension isn't the best, but is Simmons saying he realized that W-L record isn't the best way to evaluate a team, and also that this is some kind of "gambling brainstorm," implying that this was a vein of thought previously untapped by the gambling community?

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10-24-2014 , 08:20 PM

#5039

TakeItSleazy

old hand

Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 1,427

I agree I'm pretty sure bill actually thinks he created some revolutionary metric

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10-24-2014 , 08:41 PM

#5040

mutigers

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Quote:

Originally Posted by nath

That really is an amazing quote

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10-24-2014 , 09:39 PM

#5041

wheatrich

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Quote:

Originally Posted by nath

considering college football polls every year; that is a major revelation to like 95% of people and definitely at least some of the gambling community (not anyone who might win at it of course)

espn's in bed with nba/nfl for billions so you're just not going to get anything more than phil simms style criticism over anything anymore. hbob doesn't cash their checks but you really can't say so and so is terrible in the media; it's unprofessional at the very least. Simmons might get away with that on another suspension but lowe probably would get replaced immediately.

Last edited by wheatrich; 10-24-2014 at 09:48 PM.

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10-24-2014 , 10:29 PM

#5042

loK2thabrain

Tiger > Jack

Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 23,203

SVP is the epitome of the guy who grew up nerdy and awkward and now thinks he's in with the cool kids. Listen to him and RR a couple times per week while lifting and usually they're okay but I find myself getting more and more annoyed by them lately.

Rather than find that prediction thread I'll leave this here. If we find out Scott gets plowed by Russilo I won't be shocked. (not that there's anything wrong with that)

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10-24-2014 , 10:37 PM

#5043

kidcolin

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Simmons is a professional writer. And he's tapped into a bunch of gambling circles, plus football outsiders and MIT sloan conference etc etc. He obv doesn't believe he just came up with some revolutionary way to gamble. He just came up with a cute, easy to explain, fairly subjective concept to say something interesting to the lay-sports fan.

I like both Russilo and SVP, but I could see daily listening would get old. Russilo was awesome a few years ago with his NBA podcast.

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10-24-2014 , 10:42 PM

#5044

Melkerson

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Can someone give me the cliffs on this whole Simmons thing as I haven't been following it that closely.

Basically what I got is that Simmons dared ESPN to suspend him, they did it, and then instead of following through on his ambiguous threats, he just took it and didn't do anything.

Did I miss anything?

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10-24-2014 , 11:04 PM

#5045

CubicZirconia

old hand

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Melkerson

That covers it.

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10-25-2014 , 12:20 AM

#5046

mullen

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I can't remember exactly what he said but I believe Simmons threatened to go public if anyone told him to knock it off with criticizing the commissioner. Then ESPN suspended him 3 weeks. So I guess he really didn't make any threats but he didn't think espn had the balls to suspend him that long or at all

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10-25-2014 , 03:08 AM

#5047

Biesterfield

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Yeah Simmons is editor in chief which by definition means he has read nearly everything on the site I think, and Barnwell and Keri have written about Pythag a lot.

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10-25-2014 , 07:32 AM

#5048

True North

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Quote:

Originally Posted by mullen

I think he didn't follow through because ESPN laid the hammer of God down on him. He's still got a year left on his contract, if they threatened to bench him for the entirety of the contract that would pretty much ruin whatever plans he may have had for when his contract expires. Sometimes you just have to sit and take it.

Also, reading his column, it's abundantly clear that he didn't get suspended for what he said about Goodell.