Kenny Mayne should be on ESPN more

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but wasn't Kenny Mayne beyond hilarious back in the day when he was on SportsCenter regularly? I'm not sure whose decision it was to minimize his role, but I sure hope it wasn't ESPN's.

The sports behemoth has been fooling around with new, original forms on content on ESPN.com in the past few months, likely due to the site's flattening traffic numbers. Although ESPN.com still trumps all other sports Web sites, 2008 brought no growth in unique visitors despite the wealth of great sports stories this year.

One of these "experiments" has been an original Web comedy series starring Mayne. While the series has had its moments, I have to admit I haven't been the biggest fan. The writing falls flat in many places.

But after watching episode 9 today, in which Mayne gives a group of tourists an off-color tour of ESPN's Bristol, Conn., headquarters, I'm starting to think the series is coming around.

My favorite line? "This is the screening room. It looks kinda like a nice OTB. Each game has to viewed, logged and then edited by a person who has never had sex."

In writing, maybe not the funniest thing you've read. But that's why Mayne is so great. He makes the clip.

If you have a few minutes, watch and enjoy. And ESPN, bring this guy back into my living room.