NBC fires Bud Collins

Did some marketing nimrod suggest throwing Collins under the bus because Sprite thought he turned off young potential viewers? Disgraceful.

 

If NBC decided they didn't want Bud Collins doing Wimbledon, fine; that's their prerogative, even if I disagree with it.

But to wait until he gets there for the start of Wimbledon to tell him so is extremely shitty.

 

god, i despised Collins and his cloying, ingratiating and self-serving post-match interviews

but this is pretty low, even for NBC

 

If I'm not mistaken, Bud coined "Breakfast at Wimbledon."

NBC should be banned from ever airing Wimbledon again.
The All-England should cancel the contract and start over next year with a new network.

And absolutely disgraceful way to treat one of the classiest people in the business.

 

terrible move, no question. but didn't the story say bud was told on june 22? why breaking just now?

i'll re-read it to see if i missed something.

 

A great guy, terrific writer, legend in the field.

 

He's still on this year's broadcasts (barely) and writing for the Boston Globe (plenty). Amazing that so few people outside the biz (and many within it) don't know what a great writer he is.

 

Collins should have received his farewell tour from NBC. It's rotten, what NBC did.

That said, he'd turned into Dick Vitale. Good guy. Very generous. Wealth of knowledge. Very grating.

 

Maybe so, Alma. But Vitale shouldn't be fired, and Collins shouldn't be, either. Worse, NBC showed no class whatsoever. In a perfect world, even hardcore tennis fans would boycott any broadcasts on the Peacock ...

 

slappy, outside of women's tennis, who really watches the men? Federer couldn't entertain a slab of stone and the American men contiune to get bitch-slapped up and down the court.

Yeah, the lemmings will watch, but if NBC Sports was going to continue clipping Bud's airtime year after year, and then wait until he got there to pink-slip him, that's below the belt. D-3 Fan losing his job without notice finds Bud Collins being fired messed up.

I wish nothing but the best Bud. He's too good and way too nice to even look back at NBC and flip them the bird.

 

come on, Sam

Collins is annoying as hell. I'm as hardcore a tennis fan as there is and I couldn't stand him

doesn't mean I think this was handled well - though the details are sketchy - and I don't want to see the guy canned

but this won't change my viewing habits and I'm sure that's the case for most tennis fans

(heck, I didn't give up on Genesis just because Gabriel left!)