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Though the event took place Wednesday, July 15th, it wasn’t aired until Sunday evening, July 19th on ESPN. This year’s show, broadcasted from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, brought the return of movie icon Samuel L. Jackson as the host, his fourth time fielding such an Honor.
There’s a reason Jackson has hosted this gig four times and it’s a simple one, the guy is good at it. He’s can be both funny and serious when its needed and has an ease about him on stage that you don’t normally get from award show hosts. Now granted, not all the jokes came over very well; the twitter joking that was done on multiple occasions seemed a bit forced (especially the ones immediately after the uber-serious and touching tribute to Nelson Mandela, the Aurthur Ashe Courage Award winner), but the opening routine more than made up for it.
Jackson came out firing on all cylinders, tossing out scathing jokes that would be easily welcomed on a Comedy Central Roast. He said them unashamed and without flinching, even when the athlete was sitting not ten feet away. My personal favorite was when he came to Michael Phelps, with a twinkle in his eye, and said…
“You must be glad to be back in the pool, nobody gives you a hard time when you smoke the competition.” (In reference to the mild controversy that came about from a picture of Phelps partaking of a little ganja)
But Phelps took it all in stride and honestly came out as the winner of the night in my book. The unkempt, scraggly looking swimmer came away with 5 ESPYs to go along with those 8 gold medals he earned this past summer. The biggest award of the night for Phelps was the Best Male Athlete award, where he ended Tiger Woods three year winning streak.
Ok, let’s rapid fire through some random thoughts I had throughout the show…
*Is there anyone that looks more out of place in a suit than a NASCAR driver? I mean I thought Phelps looked awkward but at least he realized he can’t pull off a tie and didn’t try; whereas Jeff Gordon just looked downright freaky. Seeing him gave me the realization that if NASCAR ever quits working out for him, he should try horse racing. That guy is SMALL!
*The award for most camera appearances by an athlete who didn’t get to leave his seat for an award goes to Kobe Bryant, who had to be inwardly flummoxed. He lost out to multiple awards to a swimmer and couldn’t even grab Best NBA Player, which went to LeBron James…ouch.
*Gotta give props to Wade Phillips. For some reason, he was the butt of a few of Jackson’s jokes and all of them centered on pie. Sure, Wade looked as confused as I was about the whole pie thing, but he laughed it up like a champ.
*How sick of each other are the Williams sisters? I mean, they have to be tired of each other, don’t they? You can’t hear ones name without the other and then they compound it by showing up at every award show arm in arm. There HAS to be some resentment in there, somewhere…doesn’t there?
*Was it me or did Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (spelled it right first time!) just look like he would rather be anywhere but there? Big Ben looked distracted and gave the politically correct speeches both times he was up there (“I’d like to thank my line, the team, the opposing teams players, their mom’s, their mom’s dentists…etc, etc.”) with a rushed vibe that was totally opposite to teammate Santonio Holmes, who looked like a kid in a candy store with money to spend. Holmes even came up the second time with kids in tow, one draped unconscious over his shoulder, with an honest grin that just made you want him to win every award.
Overall, the evening has to be listed as a giant success for ESPN. The ESPYs are easily the most enjoyable, non drawn-out, awards show around. The humor was funny, the touching moments actually were touching and the band, B.O.B. aka Bobby Ray was smooth and entertaining. If you get a chance to catch a replay, do so, it’s worth the time.
