Conroversey at the Classic!

[KenDammit]

Originally Posted by IL.bassin

It has nothing to do with the sport it has to do with ratings. When ESPN took over it's all about the ratings. Every sport needs it's badboys. Tony Stewart, Ron Artest, T.O. even pro wrestling has bad boys and it's all scripted* Fact is those personalities draw attention to the sport so people watch.

And honestly they've always been there. Roland Martin is known as a jerk. They say Hank Parker was a handful in his day.

Another thing, and this is just my opinion, FLW was/is well on it's way to catching BASS. As cleancut and wholsome as FLW and Wal-Mart is making their series, maype ESPN thought they would shake things up a bit in hopes to elevate their organization over the other.

yeah but people say that his antics are "good for the sport"..they say that its "helping the sport grow"..but is it really, or is it really becoming a detriment? Is it lowering the sportsmanship standards that newcomers will have in the sport? Imagine a lake full of screaming Ikes, cursing and kicking and breakdancing...would that be good? When the actions of someone overshadow the reason everyone is there in the first place, you have a problem. You mentioned T.O. and look what happens to him...teams cut ties with him because it becomes a distraction. The same thing happened with Ron Artest. These guys start to become a sideshow and take the focus of everyone away from whats really meaningful, and in this case..its the betterment of fishing and its ethics. I understand the point that BASS likes it because it draws ratings, but is that something you are willing to support?