I X-pect Better

The X Games are good - I have always watched them, but man how has ESPN not fixed some of the obvious kinks. First of all who decided Linda Cohn would be the sportscenter anchor in charge of XGs? This isn't her first year. Out of all the personalities to choose from to represent the "X" generation wouldn't you think she would be at the bottom? Other problems and thoughts:

-ESPN has rid itself of wakeboarding when it should have kept it and added wakeskating. They cited the problem of fans not being close to the action and the event not being close enought to the rest of the XGs. I say whoopty freakin doo. Surfing is still in the XGs and in fact, it is held in Mexico. Aren't you doing this for the TV audience anyways? There is now a PARKING LOT alternative for the wakeboarders.

-They have gone from six days in '03 to 4 in '06 for what, World Series of Darts? Bull Riding? Re-Runs of Satilites that ESPN tries to make people believe have something substantial to do with the world series of poker. There are not many sports in the summer, and it's not like they would have to pay more for two more days of rights.

-To kick of XG 12 espn showed 8 minutes of BMX dirt Finals. Wow. They showed 4 runs total. It was almost a why bother exersize. It is a sport that is still extreme and still progressing. Firsts this year: Nyquist: 720 barspin, White: triple tailwhip. But did you hear about either? If you were listening closely the second one was mentioned once I believe. Maybe if they would give it at least a half an hour, and mentions in recap shows the audience would build and the discipline wouldn't die.

-Street Skateboarding: Remember last year? Me neither. Because every year they just show a short recap with maybe 4 tricks. C'mon, if you're not going to give me live coverage at least give me a 15 minute recap.

-I think the XGs should bring back speed climbing. Make it more physical, more dangerous. Put Nitro and Diamond (of American Gladiator Fame) on the wall.

-ESPN likes to pick an athlete or two and the announcers talk about him the entire time and if an athlete other than the chosen one does something great it often takes a while, if ever, for the announcers to jump on board. There are exceptions, Tony Hawk being one. Tony Hawk is a fantastic announcer. He might be one of my favorites in any sport.

-Remember Street Luge? Street Luge was cool in some aspects but the fact that the guy who started last would always win kind of ruined it. The two competitors would just stop at the top of the hill and wait because neither wanted to go first because of the drafting aspect. Maybe they could shoot them out of gates like horses on a step decline and make it illegal to stop. Maybe I just miss hearing the name Biker Sherlock.

-Why isn't there an extreme downhill mountain bike? Probably hard to film but hey its the 21st centry.

-Inline Skating: Gone the way of the Dodo. Nice Work.

-Moto X Step Up: ESPN treats it like its skateboard vert and its not that exciting. They give it way too much air time. It must get great ratings but I don't understand why it would because it is just a high jump with a dirt bike. Step Up gets about an hour or more every year. That would be fine if wakeboard wasn't axed, BMX dirt wasn't relageted to 10 minutes, and so on. It also needs to be standerdized. Last year the height they started out at was 25ft. This years winning height was 23ft. That makes it only about the competion. They could also move the bar back a smidge so that the front tire would not knock it off so often and the riders would jump higher.

-I think there is too moto in the X-Games this year. I think Moto is awesome don't get me wrong. The Double Backflip, the first backflips, the body varial by Chuck Carothers, etc were all favorite moments for me in the X-Games. BUT there can be too much Moto. There is Moto best trick, Moto step up, Moto freestyle 1, Moto freestyle 2, SuperMoto (racing), and moto madness on PPV, and then in Winter they do it again. The Winter version waters it down. Moto Freestyle is the only event on that is on TV two seperate days.

-The 360 in Moto X: It is NOT a 360. It is an off axis backflip.

-GOOD NEWS: There is a new event called bmx big air which I think is where they jump off the GIANT ramp built by Danny Way and used last year for skateboarding only.
-BAD NEWS: It will be PPV only. Great. Who is the A-Hole who came up with the idea to make bmx big air a ppv event?

-Next year women will have tv time for the first time at the x games. This despite the trend of shrinking airtime for the x-games. ESPN did recieve a little pressure to give the women some help.