The slap of the mat…the sigh of relief…hand getting raised in victory…priceless.
There is not a greater feeling in sports, than getting your hand raised on the mat. A battlefield, per say, in which you go against another competitor and literally exhaust yourself to be the victor. Wrestling has been around since human conception and evolution, to whichever you may believe, and to this day, it still lacks the luster of American Football, baseball, or basketball programs around the country.
ESPN Fails to Recognize Small Sports
There probably were a lot of people that personally had a Peter Griffin “What really grinds my gears” moment, after this years ESPY winner for best college athlete was announced. Baker Mayfield took home the honors with Jalen Brunson, Katie Ledecky, and A’ja Wilson being the other nominees. This years ESPYs showed that it is not about the athletes – it’s about the almighty dollar. It is about who can advertise better on major markets and showcase their brand more. It is not about the recognition, and it never has been. ESPN consistently fails to recognize the smaller market sports.
The only segment of the ESPYs worth noting, was when the Fab 3 QBs Jim Kelly, Dan Marino, and John Elway stood on the stage to listen to Jim Kelly’s heartwarming speech after receiving Jimmy V’s Perseverance award.
As I digress, Baker Mayfield was not even in my top 5 athletes in college last year. He got recognition, because he beat The Ohio State University in the Shoe. Then he took his flag and planted it on the 50-yard line. Yes he was a walk on, and of course he has overcome adversity, and yes he is a great quarterback – but how can people look in the mirror and not even include Kyle Snyder into this conversation?
Kyle Snyder’s Achievements
- He finished off his career as the greatest college heavyweight to ever walk on this planet. A 3x NCAA Champ, 4x Finalist.
- He is the #1 pound for pound best freestyle wrestler on the planet.
- He is a World Champion. 2x while still in college at Ohio State.
- Olympic Champion – after his sophmore year in college!
- He won World Gold every year since his freshman year in college. He will try and make that 4 world titles in 4 tries later this year. Note: Kyle Snyder took Silver at this years World Championships, after this article was originally published.
- World Cup winner
The lengthier list of this man’s accomplishments are too lengthy to fit into this short blog. An outstanding athlete, and ever greater student, as he embodies what it means to be a student-athlete. Incredibly generous to his fans and supporters. He is a class act all the way around.
Wrestling Getting Shafted at ESPYS
The award should of went to Snyder or swimming prodigy, Ledecky, in my honest opinion. However, there is always an overcasting with the sport of wrestling, and it’s a very political and biased decision with who is nominated. Decisions seemed to be based on who can be marketed by ESPN and their affiliates.
Wrestling will and never will be as popular as the college athletics big three. Since its conception and Cael Sanderson winning the first ESPY ever, there has been only 7 nominees for this award in the sport of wrestling. There is a quite a list of wrestlers that could be put together, that have deserved to be nominated – especially over some college basketball and football stars. Some of the most decorated athletes in professional sports have been wrestlers. Ask politely and most wrestlers will give a little history lesson on what badasses have gotten overlooked over the years.
Since 2002, the number of nominees should have been nearly tripled. The committee failed to even nominate Anthony Robles who won a national championship at 125 with ONE LEG! Robles was never the heavy favorite to win his weight class coming into college.
Wrestling has Marketing Potential
Wrestling can be marketable, and wrestling can be profitable.
Since ESPN has aired all sessions of the NCAA tournament, it has increased the sports’ viewership to the rest of the country. ESPN announced the ratings for this past years NCAA Championships went up to 8 million total viewers for the three-day tournament. They set a record for most views for the second round, and the semi-final match-up was top 3 ever for the tournament’s television views. Just imagine if they put some more thought into their marketing strategy, and got more sponsors involved – it is a very achievable feat.
It’s a ridiculous idea, I know, but wrestlers and the sport of wrestling have been fighting for this type of exposure. Even though the sport it is one of the founding sports of the Olympic Games.
Closing Thoughts on the ESPYS
The ESPYs are a joke of an award show in itself. For them to not even consider the greatest college athlete of this millennia, is a direct representation how much of a joke they really are.
Here is a video of Snyder winning World Gold against Sadulaev of Russia in 2017 – a wrestler many believed to be unbeatable at the time.
