Again: ESPN = Joke

I know I said I'd be looking at last Sunday's free agent free-for-all, but I didn't realize my colleague, Jes, would do a similar column over at his other project, Hockey Rants. He's already done all the work, so I'm going to take the easy way out and direct you to his "The Free Agency Madness. Get Used to it!" post for all the details of Sunday's action. Besides, I've got something for YOU all to do...

We previously established that ESPN is a terrible network at least from a hockey fan's point of view, but I just heard there is yet one more reason for us to hate it. This time, the network is having a blatant popularity contest called "Who's Now: Determine the Ultimate Sports Star" in which there are four regions of 8 sports stars. The winner of each match up will advance based upon fan voting (70%) and ESPN's three-person panel (30%). The panel members for this first round are Michael Wilbon, Kirk Herbstreit, and Keyshawn Johnson.

The only NHL star to appear in the list of 32 finalists is our boy, Sidney. Not surprisingly, Sid is ranked #7 of the "Billie Jean King" bracket. He's number seven, above only surfer Kelly Slater. No offense to surfers or fans of surfers, but you simply cannot deny that Sidney Crosby > Kelly Slater by a far greater margin than that.

And here's the good part: He's being pitted against Yankee superstar, fellow Gatorade pitch man, and Avon cologne mogul Derek Jeter. Ordinarily, I would say that Sidney doesn't stand a chance against Jeter, but there is a grassroots movement in the blogosphere to get all hockey fans, even [*gasp*] Sidney-hating hockey fans to vote for the Kid in order to pull a spectacular upset on Jeter.

Now for your assignment. First and foremost:
VOTE FOR SID ON JULY 11, 2007!!!!!!
Secondly, make sure to tell all your hockey loving friends!!! Get the word out. I know a lot of you run blogs of your own; if you don't want to write an entire post about it, just create link to this one. It's not about a win for Sidney; it's a popularity contest anyways. It's about upsetting the contest and showing ESPN that there are more than "just a few" hockey fans out there. This is a chance for us to make a little noise. We're going to be up against Yankee nation, but I think we can take on the fans of these guys. ;)