Not news: Pete Prisco wrote something dumb. The CBS Sports football columnist, who cooks up the hottest of HOT TAKES, is a favorite ’round UPROXX headquarters, for his inane ramblings make us feel better about our MEDIUM TAKES. Once we crawl out of our basements, that is. Anyway, Prisco recently wrote a column about the NFL’s $765 million concussion settlement that will fund medical exams for over 4,500 former players. He’s against it.
News: last night on his eponymous ESPN2 show, Keith Olbermann picked apart Prisco’s words, and destroyed him.
Keith Olberman: 1. Pete Prisco: -419, which is also how many pounds he can bench press.
So many STRONG TAEKS
I don’t care what the haters say. I love Keith. Always have always will. Intelligent Anger is awesome and he knows how to do it.
100% agree
Agreed. Big.
Which one of you is Sorkin? WHICH ONE! Bah, I kid. And agree.
I’m glad he’s back doing sports. NO POLITICS, KEITH.
Wow Jessica. I truly feel sorry for you if you think Bathtub Boy is intelligent.
Has Rebecca Lobo lifted her restraining order yet?
Well Dick if you could just show us proof of what Ivy League school you were admitted to when you were 16 and subsequently graduated from then I will gladly accept your judgment on his intelligence. I also find it amusing that anyone thinks that it was a bad thing that KO would rather stay home than report on the Lewinsky bullshit. Just because you disagree with someone’s politics doesn’t make them dumb although it does tend to say a lot about the accuser.
I gotta say, I hate Olberman quite a bit but the guy is really, really talented and obviously very smart. This was a great takedown and I’ll give credit where credit is due.
He can veer a little too far into smug at times, but that was glorious.
General – no problem, just as soon as Olbermann does the same. See, Olbermann did not graduate from the Cornell he implies that he did. He went to the Agricultural campus of Cornell. So he did not graduate from an Ivy League school.
As well, he calls himself the Edward Murrow of his generation, so that means he considers himself the most honest and trustworth journalist out there. Refusing to go into work because you don’t want to talk about how the President went on National TV and lied is not something an honest journalist will do. Especially when that very same person had no problem screaming “Fascist” at the very next President. And finally, where did I say I disagreed with his politics? Here’ s a tip, I didn’t. See, you assume that because it’s easier to claim I’m a (fill in the blank) than it is to actually discuss the issue. Olbermann is a complete and utter joke. He is a hack and a disgrace who is deathly afraid of anyone who does not support what he has to say. It is why he refused to have a single guest on his last two shows that didn’t do anything other than nod their heads in agreement with him. He’s a moron and a coward.
He went to the Agricultural campus of Cornell. So he did not graduate from an Ivy League school.
What are you talking about? Cornell has eight colleges within the university. Even if you’re in the Ag School there, you’re still taking classes throughout the university and graduate with a degree from Cornell. You make it sound like he attended the Cornell Agricultural Extension off in Utica.
where did I say I disagreed with his politics?
It’s all over your posts. Reading comprehension — you should try it some time.
The Agricultural Extension in Utica is where he learned about the delightful cuisine known as steamed hams.
Otto – you sound just like the Obama apologists who changed the definition of lecturer once it was reviled that Obama was not a Law Professor in Chicago.
Olbermann entered Cornell academics through the Public side of the University, and not the Ivy side. Those are simple facts, and if you want to believe a proven liar because he is so utterly insecure about himself, that he had to bring a copy of his diploma from Cow University onto his show, then go right ahead.
Funny how you seem to claim to have these wonderful reading comprehension skills, yet are so clueless about Bathtub Boy. In my original post, I objected to anyone calling Keith “intelligent” amd wondered if his ex still had a restraining order against him. Oh wait, I see, only Lefties support Bathtub Boy, so because I don’t turn my brain off and believe every piece of garbage he spews, I must be on the other side of the political aisle.
Thanks Otto, you just proved how stupid the Left is.
Now go get a job. I’m tired of paying for you
Keith is as smug and arrogant as they come – but that doesn’t make him wrong. I like KO, but I can admit he goes a little too far sometimes. However, when he’s on his game, I challenge you to find someone who can do righteous indignation better than him.
There will never be a reply so rife with spelling, syntactical or grammatical errors as the reply calling someone stupid for spelling, syntactical or grammatical errors.
Pete Prisco needs to change his undies because I’m pretty sure he just shit himself hard
Ok I don’t exactly get it. Why should they pay almost a 1billion dollars? I don’t even know anything about American Football apart from what I have seen in FNL and even I can see that it can be very dangerous. Anyone going into this and not expecting concussions is an idiot
Nice trolling. But this is more about the NFL not protecting their players and looking after the mental health of the retired players then it is just about the concussions. The NFL has been built on the backs and the lives of these players and there has really been total disregard for their long term health and well being and you just flat calling ex-players and current player idiots does not make for a reasonable discussion about this issue at all.
the damages, in my understanding, are meant to be punitive. The ruling finds that the NFL knew about the dangers of concussions and did nothing AT ALL to either prevent the damage that results from a concussion (coaching proper tackling technique, instituting rules preventing/discouraging improper technique), educate coaches and players on how dangerous it is to continue to play with a concussion, educate coaches and players on the dangers of multiple concussions, and so on. The damages are punitive because the NFL was willfully negligent in these regards in order to maintain profits and growth in the league.
nobody disputes that sports can be dangerous and that concussions can and will happen. But you don’t tell a player to shake it off and go back out there when they’ve had their bell rung. And you don’t encourage improper spearing technique for the sake of the ESPN highlight reels which promote your game. The damages aren”t about the concussions, it’s about what the NFL knew and didn’t do regarding players that got them.
Well long story short, for a very long time in the NFL the doctors working for the teams were giving diagnosis’ to the players in regards to concussions and other injuries that was shall we say clouded in judgement that always seem to favor what was best for the team as opposed to the players themselves.the lawsuit was really going to be about when did the NFL realize concussions cause these problems how did they hide it and how did the teams tell the physicians to keep the players from knowing about it. These documents existed at some point and if they were found, it would be a massive amount of money that the league would have to pay out.
Not trolling I just have no idea why the players aren’t taking responsibility for their own health. If I ever played a sport and felt unwell I would tell my coach to go screw himself and immediately get checked out by the best doctor I can find
Now if the teams doctors were giving deliberately wrong diagnosis and this federation has known and encouraged this sure this I can understand
It was encouraged, though. Lots of players were told on the sidelines “Oh, you just got your bell rung. Get back in the game.” Many players were getting sent back out on the field not knowing they had a concussion and not being allowed to heal properly before getting their heads bashed in repeatedly. And the whole “Screw the coach, tell him you’re not going back in” argument? Yeah, your ass would be cut before you finished that sentence. Plus the fact you don’t even know the severity of your condition because you’re being improperly diagnosed.
The league knew of risks the players weren’t educated on and didn’t take necessary steps to prevent injury until after it became public knowledge.
By “total disregard for the player’s health” you must mean “paying them incredible amounts of money as well as a health plan, retirement pension, and access to the best doctors while employed”.
@MDVE Not in the old days. These are 4500 retired players that didn’t have anything close to the health care/retirement benefits of modern players. Many of those players had no pension for their years of service. Absolutely nothing as payment for the years of concussions and ensuing Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.
Ok I can get the doctors giving false diagnosis but seriously getting cut? So what? I sure as hell am not endangering my life just because Oh god I can get cut. If some of these players are stupid enough to do this that’s on them
Wow, that was well done and those clips of the old players were seriously depressing for me. I grew up playing and watching football but I just never really thought about the dangers of the constant head trauma. So sad.
If anything the settlement wasn’t big enough. 765M over 20 years is pocket change to the league. As to KO, what can be said? The guy is an amazing broadcaster. He’s a sincere version of Glenn Beck. Love him or hate him the guy’s a top five sportscaster of all time. Easily the best one out there today.
He didn’t work for cable news because cable news networks are owned by giant media conglomerates. So anchors can never really address how they feel about some issue. These guys aren’t dumb enough to bite the hand that feeds. KO, however, is stubborn enough to do so. I’m surprised he didn’t go worse. Well, not really considering how Goodell made ESPN bitch out of the frontline investigation.
Don’t you mean that he DID work for cable news, then got fired and went to Al Gore’s Current TV because it was the only place that would hire him? Then he got fired from there too and went back to sports because there was nobody wanted him to do news.
How can you say that he’s one of the best if 90% of people who watch spots hate him?
The guy is a time bomb, and with ESPN afraid that Fox Sports will do to them what Fox News has done to the other “news” outlets, they’ve hit the panic button and brought is a disaster in the making. 6 months from now, Bathtub Boy will have driven the audiences away, and burned every bridge within the network, and will be back on the unemployment line (which is fair since most of Obama’s supporters don’t work)
Calm down, apply some salve.
“Most of Obama’s supporters don’t work”
God, that is some glue-huffing stupidity right there.
Otto, do you work? I rest my case.
How many people are out of wok these days? How many voted for Barry?
Yeah, nice try.
From a previous comment:
“See, you assume that because it’s easier to claim I’m a (fill in the blank) than it is to actually discuss the issue.”
and
“Otto, do you work? I rest my case.”
Hypocrisy demonstration successful.
Otto, do you work?
Yes. Quite successfully, in fact.
How many people are out of wok these days? How many voted for Barry?
There are approximately 11.5 million unemployed in America. Obama won 65.9 million votes in 2012. Even if every single unemployed person cast a vote in the election and even if every one of them cast it for Obama, that would mean that 17.4% of his vote came from people who were out of work.
I’m actually impressed by your comments here, Dick. You might just be the single stupidest person on the entire internet, and that’s saying something.
I meant to add — even the mathematical ceiling for your assumption (17.4%) is wrong, because studies showed that the unemployed were almost fairly evenly split between Obama and Romney last election:
[www.businessinsider.com]
Facts. You should try them some time.
Ugh. We need a warning sign here. *DON’T FEED THE TROLLS*
Sure, sure Otto. Let me guess, you “work” for the Government. I guess cashing welfare checks is hard for someone like you.
You might want to understand the true number of people not working, and not those whom the Government classifies as “unemployed”. Kinda hard to take a guy seriously who accuses others of being stupid, when every post you makes exposes your lack of intelligence.
PS, if you want some facts, have a look at the economy that heir Obama has created. Oh wait, it’s Bush’s fault right?
Liberals, stuck on stupid and unable to be fixed
God….he….this…Pete is hanging himself right now.
This is just classic Keith Olbermann here… he makes you think he’s dissecting an article, or an argument by just substituting facts for emotional tugs on your heart. Its good to see the guy hasn’t learned any new tricks… or anything really.
guys killing themselves and getting permanent brain damage are pretty solid facts.
Facts aren’t for people like Keith. Yelling and screaming into the echo chamber is more her style
Rash…makes sense. You and Johnston are wrong. Maybe the Tom Brady’s of the NFL make enough to handle any health problems they may have later on, but on average an NFL player’s career only lasts 3 or 4 years. What if some utility guy suffers a head injury and has to retire after only playing a couple of years? Should there be some kind of fund in place to help him. I know, that guy knew the risks. But,Hell, the NFL is a multi-billion dollar operation. They have the ability to take care of these guys a little if they really wanted to.
There was a guy who grew up around the corner from me who played pro ball for a very short time as a utility player. He quickly realized the risk wasn’t worth it and retired. But since he actually got an education when a free one was offered to him, he had something to fall back on. I have no pitty for those who put themselves in harms way to play a sport, then cry like babies because they didn’t earn / save enough to take care of themselves when they stopped playing
I’m glad Keith is back and taking is anger to a place where it’s sorely needed: the near-worthless channel that ESPN has become. Hopefully he lasts a while, and it’s nice to get a break from partisan politics.
A break from partisan politics with Keith “Bathtub Boy” Olbermann? Surely you must be joking?
Dick, go the fuck away. There are no badges here for your bullshit.
Yes, do fuck off.
Why? Oh yes, it’s easier to feel smart when you surround yourself in the echo chamber. Everybody must agree with me, or they will be banned.
If you have gotten to the point where you find yourself not only agreeing with Bathtub boy, but also defending him, it might be time to re-think your status in life
“Oh yes, it’s easier to feel smart when you surround yourself in the echo chamber.”
I think you’ve just succinctly captured the essence of Fox News. Very trustworth. sic
Non sequiturs are different from echo chambers dumbass. I grew to despise some of KO’s political bullshit, but this is about him being on ESPN. WTF does bathtub boy even mean, let alone have to do with the topic above?
This is an entertainment website not a young Republican’s mad libs workshop.
It seems the guy who’s accusing everyone else of mindlessly parroting a partisan media line is mindlessly parroting the partisan media line of Fox News.
I know, I know. I’m shocked too.
The site apparently rejected the video. Must’ve been Gibson’s translucent skin.
“I think you’ve just succinctly captured the essence of Fox News. Very trustworth. sic”
Ah yes, the blame Fox News line. Tell me Wonderbread, how many true Republicans are on the Left Wing media shows? What about when Keith was on both MSNBC and GoreTV. Oh that’s right, ZERO. Yet over at Fox, every day Liberals are given a chance to speak. And oh my God, they even criticized Bush. Can you imagine Bathtub Boy doing that to Obama? Well, you’d have to, because he never has, and never will.
JTRO – his nickname was earned during the time when Clinton went on TV and lied to the public about his relationship with Lewinsky. Instead of going into work and reporting on the story, Keith stayed at home in the bathtub. That’s the person you are defending.
Otto, do you even know how dumb you look when you post? It’s no wonder you are a blind loyalist to not only Bathtub Boy, but also the failure in Chief.
I’m glad Keith olberman is done with politics. This Keith olberman might actually bring in ratings
Prisco probably has a couple of good points about things like killing puppies to control pet population as well. Let’s all listen in.
There’s a similar issue going on in England at the moment, to do with the football association and the mental health of former players. Although ‘soccer’ isn’t really a contact sport a lot of retired players go on to suffer from depression and the sad fact is that these big sport franchises don’t do enough to protect and help players when they stop playing.
That’s true of many industries, however. People who have worked in comic books, in film, in music…many of them encounter difficult circumstances in later years, and the business or industry that they were a part of takes little or no notice.
Heading the ball ten or twenty thousand times in a lifetime is not without risk. Doctors (and soon lawyers) are on it.
Keith back on sports and forgetting that unfortunate foray into political commentary is as rewarding as John Lennon’s lecture on how overrated Asian pussy would have been… had some dickhead not shot him.
I work at a pizzeria and we socialize with our customers about sports, how awesome Delaware is, and a few times a week people ask me how many times I hit my head on the hood vent(I am 6’8, 3″ shorter and I would simply graze it). Due to the coverage on the concussion settlement however people are making the joke that I should get checked out and maybe try to sue. I am epileptic as well so I have had my fair share of spills and hitting my head so their lite joke really pisses me off. My tie in is that Pete said playing pop warner entitles him to a cut so what really grinds my gears is people making stupid little jokes about tapping your head and being owed. (This post is sponsored by Being Under the Influence of Beer)
PLEASE DO NOT TURN THIS INTO A POLITICAL DISCUSSION I HAVE NO DESIRE TO BE INVOLVED IN ONE. Thank you.
It’s nice to see Keith back to doing what he does best. He never should have forayed into politics. I’m sure ESPN would be at least somewhat better if he hadn’t gotten an unfair heave-ho back in the day.
Dick, fuck off. Not because you’re a conservative, but because you’re an idiot. The complaints of Keith Olbermann have nothing to do with his news or sportscasting skills, it’s his politics or personality. Fair enough, to each his own. Likewise, the praise he is receiving has nothing to do with his politics or personality, here we are lauding his sportscasting skills.
There is no one on ESPN, short of Max Kellerman, who is as good at what they do as Keith is. All the talent left. Eisen is on the NFL network, Brian Kenny is on MLB, Patrick left for CBS IIRC, and Costas is on NBC. Their Sportscenter anchors are not A-list sportscasters, their booth teams suck asshole galore, their analysis programs are soft, and Chris Berman still has a job. Objectively speaking, Keith Olbermann is an upgrade. You know who gets away with being a smug, antagonistic, and self righteous asshole? Someone who is really fucking good at their job.
If ESPN wasn’t so shitty I might not be as stoked on KO. I used to watch Countdown but he eventually went off the deep end, one Chris Mathews was too many Chris Mathews already-we didn’t need another one. KO is a great personality as long as he stays on his meds. Like I said before, I welcome his brand of anger on a network overrun with myopic sycophants “GRRR FOOTBALL!!! NO OTHER SPORT EXISTS!!!.”
Yes, when Chris Berman is still a big part of your network an upgrade is needed. I like KO and I liked Countdown, but why I’m excited for him to be on ESPN has nothing to do with politics.
Omar, I’m not a conservative, but I wouldn’t expect someone with an IQ has low as yours to figure that out.
You can claim otherwise, but there is no reason other than the sheer panic that is going through ESPN right now to hire Bathtub Boy. He burns bridges everywhere he goes, and treats his staff like garbage. He is far too arrogant and self centered to stay away from Politics. Keith will crash and burn like he has done EVERYWHERE HE HAS EVER GONE. And I will laugh my ass off at him, and the rest of you idiots
Right, you’re not a conservative. You just parrot conservative rhetoric, while about so called “liberal” institutions, and praise Fox because well “Fox News” I’m guessing. You also have these weak ass conservative comebacks that are only taken seriously by people who listen to Rush Limbaugh. There’s people here that totally believe that.
You honestly think that ESPN is freaking out over Fox Sports Live? Please. PTI gets better ratings than their primetime show. What personalities do they have that aren’t rejects from some other shit organization? NBC Sports does better than FS1 does. You’re quite possibly the stupidest person on the internet if you think that ESPN gives two shits about FS1. And I WANT FS1 to do well. I’m a huge MMA fan, I throughly loathe ESPN and cable sports network. I want the network that broadcasts UFC events to have a huge audience and bring in more MMA fans. I want the UFC’s partner to pay them through the ass so they have fewer PPVs and more free cards. I want intelligent conversations about sports, not that FS1 wants to give me that, but it’d be nice for a competitor in the market to cater to fans that aren’t morons. They’ll survive purely because of NewsCorp, but I’m thinking this 80 cents a subscriber fee in 2016 will have to be renegotiated quickly.
And I’m pretty sure no one thinks that Keith will last at ESPN longer than 30 months as an absolute ceiling, and UPROXX has in several places slammed KO, the way he treats staff, and the way he burns bridges. So, apparently you don’t read.
And please no one is afraid of Fox Sports. Their ratings are utter shit and Regis’ show doesn’t even draw over 50K viewers. The UFC ***PRELIMS*** have been moved to FS1 because they draw better ratings than anything else on that network. UFC Fight Night 27: Condit vs. Kampmann II had its ratings cut in half from where UFC Fight Night style cards are usually at. Abysmal ratings for them at 860K, and guess what? It’s still five times better than any other non UFC programming that network has. Their programming is garbage and by contrast makes NFL Live seem like a Mensa meeting. They have b-list also rans doing their big program, and quite frankly NBC Sports is more entertaining, which is saying something.
Fox is also brand new, and needs to get a hold of better TV rights. Give it time. They will bankrupt ESPN
Well you’re right that they’re new, not everyone has FS1, a lot of providers have FS1 on one of their more expensive tiers which means that its in fewer homes, and they’re figuring out what works and what doesn’t. So far they’ve figured out that the UFC works, and everything else doesn’t.
However, you are severely fucked in the head if you think that ESPN is even halfway afraid of going bankrupt. ESPN is one of Disney’s flagship assets. Disney is worth about 20B more than NewsCorp so, there’s no way that FS1 is more well financed than ESPN. ESPN gets 17 regular season NFL games a year, plenty of baseball games, flag ship NBA games, the BCS, HUGE college football rights that crush Fox’s NCAA rights, NASCAR, and they have scores of alternative sports including the X Games. Every bar with a TV can get ESPN. Not the case with FS1.
FS1 has some attractive assets. They’ve got plenty of soccer rights, Fox has the World Series, the NFL, and NASCAR. The only way they can even compete with ESPN is if the UFC or soccer explodes again. Many in the MMA community are worried that the FS1 deal may not be the best thing for the UFC. The ratings are doing quite a bit worse than expected. While the UFC still dominates FS1’s ratings, MMA as a whole still needs to grow. So good for the UFC for being able to get favorable position with NewsCorp, bad for MMA with fewer fans watching these events.
Right now the NFL is considering the unthinkable, putting a playoff game on Cable. They’re doing so because of ESPN. If ESPN didn’t just dominate ratings, they wouldn’t even think of doing such a thing. The NFL had to simulcast their games on the internet when they broadcast on the NFL Network because their own network doesn’t reach enough homes. Do you honestly think that there is something that FS1 can do to top the NFL network in the next five years? I mean maybe, but they won’t with shitty shows like Fox Sports Live, The Crowd Goes Wild, or anything like that.
Lets put it this way. After every UFC fight there’s a press conference. Usually they go up on YouTube and get a few hundred thousand views. Live viewership is substantially less, fans and writers usually watch sometime around Sunday afternoon. The MMA hour, a SBNation web program, typically gets about the same over the course of a week. FS2 has NOTHING ELSE TO BROADCAST, but these post fight press conferences. It’s a crappier Fuel right now with a better name. Hell the weigh ins for a UFC event might get put on FS1 soon.
I will give Olbermann credit. He is passionate. I may not agree with his political viewpoints, but he is passionate with what he believes.
Wow, if this is what we can expect from Olbermann’s new show, count me in.