CLASSIC NOW, ESPN Classic, 230 Episodes of Prime Time Flagship Sports and Pop Culture Daily Show.

It all traces back. You don’t even need to try sometimes. Tom Brady leads the Patriots down the field during the last minutes of the Super Bowl and immediately you utter the phrase “he is just like Joe Montana.” You see Lebron James break away down the open court for a windmill dunk and you remember the first time you saw Dr J bring down the house with a “rock the cradle” dunk. You spend hours arguing with your friends about who you would rather have pitching in the seventh game of the World Series, Sandy Koufax or Roger Clemens. It all traces back. Mantle to Jeter. Tiger to Jack. The bridge connecting sports yesterday to sports now constantly running both ways.

What is CLASSIC NOW? It’s a new daily show on ESPN Classic where sports present and past are teammates. One a grizzled veteran, the other a fresh faced rookie, each one teaching the other. Every day CLASSIC NOW will take a fresh perspective on the sports news of the day by looking at it through the lens of history. On Wednesday the Yankees losing streak will have everyone wondering the state of the “Evil Empire” but on CLASSIC NOW we will show you how the 2005 Yankees are just like their counterparts 40 years ago. Every day the events of the present will propel us back as we slide head first into history to see how we may place today’s latest sports scandal, miraculous victory, incredible upset in proper perspective.
The debate and discussion on CLASSIC NOW will be driven by the guests in studio or via satellite. Russell Crowe and Ron Howard join us in studio to talk about James Braddock and the movie Cinderella Man as well as the state of boxing today. Magic Johnson will stop by during the NBA Finals to talk about why teams playing “Showtime” basketball haven’t been able to win an NBA title since the Lakers of the 1980s.

CLASSIC NOW is not a daily sports history lesson, there are no dusty, heavy textbooks. CLASSIC NOW is where history gets hip. It’s ARod and Joe D, it’s McEnroe and Roddick, it’s Pete Rose and Barry Bonds, it’s the past and present in the arena together, every day.

This is not your high school history class, this is CLASSIC NOW.