Twitter Wars: Michael Smith vs Dave Dameshek
It's Christmas Eve, which means this is no time for a Twitter War. This is a time to spread holiday cheer, a time to be joyful, a time to be kind and generous and giving to your fellow man. A time to put aside differences and come together. A time... aww forget that, let's play the feud!
The two gentlemen above, ESPN's Numbers Never Lie host Michael Smith and Dave Dameshek of NFL.com and NFL Network look like nice enough guys, right? They're both successful at what they do and both have decent followings. But over Sunday night and Monday morning, they became involved in a holiday slugfest over Dameshek's insinuation that Numbers Never Lie stole the animation bits of the "N if L." You can view one of Dameshek's segments here and one of NNL's animation segments here and screengrabs below.
N "if" L Whiteboard
Numbers Never Lie Whiteboard
As you can see, both are remarkably similar and for whatever reason, Dameshek decided December 23rd was the time to air his grievances to Smith on Twitter.
It's a Festivus smackdown for the ages delivering holiday presents of pain for all to enjoy. ESPN vs NFL Network! Smith vs Dameshek! Whiteboard animation vs whiteboard animation! Get your popcorn ready...
It's rare that a Twitter War like this would last over the course of two days, but the Monday morning round was even better than the Sunday night opening salvos. The passive-aggressive nature of the "little cult following" barbs are absolutely tremendous. And how about Michael Smith calling Dameshek "Dan." Bravo.
Both combatants were able to land decisive blows throughout. It's a tough spot to be in for Michael Smith when someone is accusing your show of stealing their work. There's not too many plays in the playbook for that one, but Smith handled it as well as he could taking the "seriously, who is this guy?" tact. Referring to Dameshek as "Person I've Never Heard Of Or Whose Work I've Never Seen" was cold, cunning, and cutthroat. Also, bonus points to Smith for also getting in a minor dig at The BS Report along the way.
If Smith did make one mistake, he was a little too aggressive in his attack. If he really didn't know who Dameshek was and wanted to de-legitimize his claims, he should have fired off one or two tweets and ignored the rest. Instead, Smith's engagement with Dameshek made the two appear as equals and worked in the Pittsburgh pugilist's favor. Dameshek took the unorthodox strategy of counter-punching with humor and did so effectively. Perhaps the best and most staggering blow of the entire fight was Dameshek's Lynn Hoppes wisecrack. That shot stopped Smith right in his path.
As far as who stole what from who, it's impossible to say or prove definitively. Let's just say they both stole it from that creepy UPS guy and call it a truce, shall we? It is Christmas after all.
A tough decision to make with one of the better waged Twitter fights we've seen... so since it's Christmas and I'm in a benevolent mood, you get to decide who wins this Twitter War. Who has their hand raised in victory for a Christmas Eve triumph?
Whats the relevance if there are white guys on the show or not? Aren't there ENOUGH WHITE PEOPLE on tv for your sake? but other than that, all of these show are really terrible to be honest, ESPN doesn't need 3 channels and the NFL doesn't need a network,mind you a network struggling to give round the clock shows and information. I really missed the old days when sports weren't on 24/7 and sports were a nice release, but now with all this oversaturation of sports programming it just makes the shows and the athletes all the more unlikeable.
@awfulannouncing Michael Smith is awful. His show is worse than Lebatard's. He's too cocky. Glad @AroundTheHorn never has him on anymore.
@awfulannouncing you should get some stats nerds to do a standard deviation of voting. then they can at least get some "relative wins"
@awfulannouncing From this week's issue of Spider-Man: the Daily Bugle questioning Tebow's legitimacy. http://t.co/r6hrr0kU
@Dameshek: On the bright side, at least we at @awfulannouncing have heard of you, unlike, say, @michaelsmith...
@awfulannouncing Surprised my Smith's unnecessary jab at BS Report.. he's a numbers guy, has he seen the downloads/ month for that podcast?
@awfulannouncing The 'I don't know who you are' schtick gets pretty weak by the 3rd time one replies to someone. @michaelsmith @dameshek
Who cares. ALL NFL "analysts" and "pundits" are douchebags. Just a bunch of high school JV rejects trying to ride the coattails of NFL players fame. A big reason I don't watch the NFL anymore is because of self righteous cunts like these two. NEITHER is a big deal, and both should walk out into on rushing traffic.
@RobertCarella In all seriousness, the most self righteous comment on this entire page was yours. If you don't watch an entire sport because of the pundits that cover it, then you are the definition of self righteous.
@awfulannouncing @michaelsmith @dameshek, who cares? People who fight over trivial s#%& aren't worth watching anyway.
@awfulannouncing Apparently @dameshek has never been to YouTube where there are tons of those animation videos.
@awfulannouncing only on Michaels side because I have also never heard of that other guy.
@awfulannouncing @michaelsmith @Dameshek I voted for Martin Heit, inventor of the whiteboard. GIVE THAT MAN SOME RECOGNITION! #TeamHeit
Guys guys guys... Festivus was December 23rd #AiringOfGreivances @awfulannouncing @michaelsmith @Dameshek #TeamShek
@awfulannouncing @michaelsmith @dameshek So where can one see the tweets in order to judge a winner?
@awfulannouncing @michaelsmith @Dameshek I don't think MS is wrong, but I'm amused at his scoreboarding. "Who is he?" x 100. We get it.
@awfulannouncing Am I misreading the post, or does the "full recap" not include examples of the actual tweets? :/
@Chuck Schick there was but they switch the format to have only three people instead of 5.
@awfulannouncing @michaelsmith @Dameshek based on the fact that I have no idea who @Dameshek is, Mike wins.
