Former NFL player Warren Sapp will be an analyst on Inside the NFL this season, the first season the show is appearing on Showtime after three decades on HBO.Shows don't stay on TV for three decades if they're not doing something right, but Sapp doesn't think highly of the way HBO presented the show. Asked if Inside the NFL will be better than it was on HBO, Sapp told the Boston Globe:
"I would hope to God it would be because the one on HBO just got bland. It got bland, it got boring, and it just sat there that it was a foregone conclusion that somebody was supposed to tune in because it was what it was. You have to entertain the people."
Peter King of Sports Illustrated, who was on the HBO version of Inside the NFL, didn't take too kindly to the way Sapp dissed him and his former colleague, and he responds in his column today.
King writes:
Not that I'm sensitive about the quality of the show or anything like that, but this boring, bland show must have really put a lot of people to sleep. Three times in the past six years, this show that just sat there won the Emmy for Best Sports Studio Show. Not best football show. But best studio show in all of sports television. Three times, more than any other sports show in the past six years. Better than all the ESPN shows, better than the FOX shows, better than the shows on Showtime parent CBS.
King goes on to suggest that Cris Collinsworth, the one holdover from the HBO show that Showtime has brought on, is not going to be pleased with Sapp. If that's the case, I hope Showtime televises the Collinsworth-Sapp confrontation.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-01-2008 @ 12:37PM
Randolley said...
I got to see Sapp in Seattle. Somebody told him he was important. As his team was going through the Pre Game warm-ups, Sapp watched his team warm up from the End Zone. He was on one knee, so when the team was finished warming up, Sapp stood up, put his foot in his helmet and kicked the helmet in the air and caught it. He then re-joined his team-mates before the Kick-off. Who told that fat Turd he was so good he did not have to go through the pre drills. This was un-real to watch. Sapp was very over-rated. His mouth not his play kept him in the league.
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9-01-2008 @ 12:38PM
mathesond said...
These sports Emmy are issued by the same people that keep awarding Joe Morgan Emmys as well, correct?
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9-01-2008 @ 1:00PM
Wayne said...
"Asked if Inside the NFL will be better on HBO, Sapp told the Boston Globe:"
That should read, "...will be better on Showtime...".
When you guys aren't busy bashing the Patriots, you should try proofreading.
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9-01-2008 @ 1:37PM
Fatdaddy said...
You know Sapp might have fat mouth but nost time what comes out of his mouth is complete truth. HBO version ITN had become very boring and for someone who had catch highlights that way made me want to stop watching the program altogether. So what Iam hoping for on a personal level that showtime will blow HBO version out the water. ITN you be a very good show turned to crap. I been watching for over 20 years now and think it really to change for thew better. So kudos to Warren Sapp for speaking his mind and the truth.
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9-24-2008 @ 10:42PM
ryan leaf said...
Wow! It certainly looks like someone got Peter King's panties all up in a bunch.The NFL's gossip girl sure is sensitive dont cha think?
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9-01-2008 @ 4:51PM
Lakergregg said...
Hey Wayne, it reads,"Asked if inside the NFL will be better THAN IT WAS on HBO."
Apparently its YOUR proofreading skills that are suspect homie.
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9-01-2008 @ 5:51PM
Wayne said...
Sorry, Lakergregg, your summer continues to get even worse. He corrected his typo. I copied and pasted the quoted text in my original reply. My original comment still stands.
9-02-2008 @ 2:18AM
Cray said...
I'm kinda surprised King bothered to give such lengthy response to Sapp's ignorant comments.
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9-09-2008 @ 9:36PM
SilkMaye said...
Wow Warren has definitley fallen off the map from his days as a buc...I even heard that now he is on Dancing With The Stars...i think i saw it on this blog site called www.urbanthoughtcollective.com but wow Warren was once the sack man...now hhe is a tango dancer!
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9-10-2008 @ 12:19AM
Kassie said...
"Inside the NFL" didn't get boring - our minds have just gotten more ruined by all of the noisy, quick-cut, graphically-busy, overly-stimulating junk that saturates t.v. these days. I thank God that "Inside" didn't clutter up their show with all those "bells and whistles".
IMO, the show was always well-done. Always. Classy set - even classy wardrobe. (The suits didn't belong to the guys who were wearing them - I remember Cris Carter revealing this fact on the air.)
I think I'm going to switch one of my cable movie channels to Showtime - like, tommorrow. Although I'm not that thrilled about Warren Sapp being on the show - he's too obnoxious. Why can't they get Solomon Wilcots, or someone like that?
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9-25-2008 @ 12:09AM
Bob A Ganoush said...
This show was great - IT NOW SUCKS - BIG TIME!
Warren you truly are a Sapp. Where is Bob Costas and Dandy
Dan and Chris with the crazy eyebrows when you need them?
Not only that, Phil Simms was a great Giant and isa good play-by-play guy, here he absolutely stinks!
J.B.- I hate to say it - You bore me to tears!
Chris Collngsworth reminds me of a pair of brown shoes with a tux - way out of place!
I watch because I love the game; they have turned the best show on television into a real dog turd.
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9-25-2008 @ 5:19PM
gnel said...
Hey, Bob A Ganoush, you couldn't be more dead on. the show sucks hard now. there is absolutely no chemistry between the hosts... part of the fun in watching the past few years was the rapport that the guys had, dan and cris yucking it up and giving bob a hard time, carter doing his somewhat stoic, but blunt thing...
it all just seems like business now. phil simms is aweful. jb is dialing it in and collinsworth looks pained to be there. yeah, he's out of place now, cuz now the show sucks. for all of you who switched to Showtime just for this show, keep this is mind: the highlights are still quality, but the studio stuff blows. this was BIG MISTAKE and i wish the old show was back. it was part of what made the season fun.
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