Of all of the awards ceremonies out there, the one with the least enviable hosting gig is probably the ESPYs. After all, athletes prove to us on a daily basis that they don’t necessarily have the best senses of humor, and this event actually puts a lot of guys who hate each other in the same room. Factor in the egos, swagger and tough guy personas, and there are some guys who simply don’t want to be caught smiling on camera. But picking Drake to host made this an impossible job from Day One, and as the show is underway on ESPN right now, the rapper is not making much of a case for a return gig.
Even when trying to poke fun at his reputation for being a jock-sniffing bandwagon jumper, Drake was trying too hard, and he seemed like he expected bigger laughs from the standard awards show jokes that were written for him. For every winning joke that he had – the Tim Howard one was a gem – there were five more that had the people at home feeling the groans of the millionaire superstars. The Turtle/Gabrielle Union joke, for example, was just… hoo boy. But I’ve injected this with enough criticism and will let you watch the opening for yourself.
If you were playing a drinking game based on how many athletes Drake said he loved in his monologue, you’re probably dead. All in all, I’m pretty sure that Blake Griffin’s reaction sums up the majority of that video.
