The scandal that’s rocked the ESPN newsroom and panelist Tim Cowlishaw has admitted to tanking, something that is just not acceptable anywhere it’s found. Tanking is quite honestly the deliberate act of failing. It’s giving up essentially, doing the least amount possible in order to get by and move on to the next subject, item, or whatever is on the agenda. Tanking is for the most part not acceptable to anyone and is hard to forgive when it’s discovered. Cowlishaw is no doubt going to be in the hot seat for a little bit for the admission that he’s tanked a show or two in the past. As a sportscaster this is something that’s just not usually allowed and isn’t good at all for a person’s reputation. It might not be a death knell but it’s certainly a hard knock for any rep to take when it’s their name on the line.
It really sounds like Cowlishaw didn’t mean to admit that he’d done such a thing, but now that the proverbial cat’s out of the bag you can bet that people are going to be wanting to know what’s up, and that the show is not likely going to tell as much as they want to hear. It seems any time that someone in a place of authority or influence makes a mistake that the chances are fifty-fifty that they’ll be forthcoming about it and be completely honest. Even if they are the chances are good then that their representatives and others that are invested in their career will come to their aid whether asked to do so or not. In other words Cowlishaw might get reprimanded for letting such a thing slip but he probably won’t lose his job. If anything he’ll be given a stern talking to and the show will deny that anything such as tanking ever really occurred.
Tanking is not the worst thing in the world but it is a very cheap technique used to undermine one’s own work in an effort to just get past a bad episode that may or may not have been able to be worked out and possibly salvaged by a strong enough attempt on the part of those involved. Tanking is unfortunately a kind of betrayal to those that listen to the show and believe in Cowlishaw’s words when he speaks. The reason this is so is that people tune in to hear what he has to say and listen to his opinion, so for a lot of them hearing that one of their favorite broadcasters has phoned it in during past shows is kind of a foundation-shaking revelation that might leave a bitter taste in some people’s mouths.
Those who have been listening to Cowlishaw for a while might not be fazed by this, but their belief in his words might be a little weaker now that they know that he hasn’t always put his best effort forward. The guy is human after all, but the fact remains that he’s the voice that a lot of people like to listen to and as a result he needs to be up on his game more often than not. Deliberately failing isn’t something that people tend to believe in.
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