The Change Of A Name, But Not Much Else

We've been receiving a lot of requests to comment on the story yesterday that the brand ABC Sports is going away, being replaced by "ESPN on ABC." From now on, all ABC sports personalities will be ESPN personalities.

We'll be honest: We don't quite understand the big deal. Other than Keith Jackson, ESPN and ABC have been the same thing for years now anyway. John Saunders, Berman, Tirico ... they've all been hopping back and forth between the two networks anyway. We suppose there could be some nostalgia involved for the old yellow-jacketed days of ABC Sports — and we love how ESPN both pretends there's no real change and then trades off that tradition daily with those "Monday Night Football" segments — but that's for people, frankly, older than us. ESPN has been ABC Sports for quite some time now, and losing a logo doesn't seem to make much difference to us. You know?

That said, we do know this: Howard Cosell wouldn't have lasted very long on ESPN. We imagine him melting down on air at least twice a week. Can you imagine Cosell doing an ad for ESPN Mobile? He would never stop throwing up.

ABC Sports Gives Way To ESPN Brand [Reuters] The King Is Dead, Long Live The King [A Shot Of Southern Comfort]