Dear ESPN, FoxSports, Sports Illustrated, etc.

Dear ESPN, FoxSports, SportsIllustrated, etc.

Why are you ruining sports journalism?  I get newspapers are in decline as people (like myself) have long ago switched to consuming media online, and don’t read (much) hard-copy print anymore (mainly due to the timeliness and delivery delay issue).  I realize I do not fit your ideal advertising demographic anymore, as I am nearly 50, male, married, employed full time in the I.T. industry and fairly loyal to the brands I have bought from over the past 25 years of my life, as long as their products don’t take a huge downturn in quality.  But the interesting aspect of this is the irony of this note, I have been a loyal ESPN viewer since it came on the air, and now I am finding myself hoping someone better comes along because the product I loyally consumed for so long has really turned into crap.  And I possess the means to purchase said alternative!

No, I am actually not referring to the particular controversy over an anchor thinking Trump sucks or worse.  That is an annoying distraction I'll get to in a minute, but no different than any of a thousand Hollywood celebrities on the air or online at any given moment, or 50% of my Facebook and Twitter feeds.  It doesn’t affect me in the least, as long as the SPORTS news and information I want to see is being disseminated to me without the additional baggage of political commentary.  

But, I do insist on SPORTS news, information, in depth analysis on sports and NOT staged argument for faux drama sake.  Can you say Fake Take, Uninteresting, Pardon the Interruption of meaningful sports news and analysis, Around the Boring and Jim Rome is Annoying?  Lets have more 30 for 30, Sports Reporters, NFL Matchup, GameDay, and NFL PrimeTime.  

But ESPN, you let Ron Jaworski go, you let John Clayton go, you let Ed Werder go, you let Jayson Stark go, you let Doug Glanville go, Andrew Brandt, Jerome Bettis, and Trent Dilfer too. That is an awful lot of sports journalism and analysis (about 160 years’ worth right there) just gone.  Fox?  You hired Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless!  They are as intelligent and witty as Anthony Weiner and Anthony Saramucci. 

And what did you do with the cost savings? 

You paid Stephen A. Smith, whose only real talent is a comedic William Shatner as James T. Kirk style of talking using bigger words and equally outrageous logic while talking vaguely about sports (aka staged disagreement and outlandishness whilst being loquacious provides a palpable viewership experience),  Rex Ryan who is as interesting to listen to and watch as paint drying, Jesse Palmer who really offers nothing other than some mild Bachelor crossover mojo which faded away faster than cable subscribers and to top it off, you kept Kirk Herbstreit who’s love for all things Ohio State is only rivaled by Jesus’ love for mankind.  Having him appear to be impartial by not having him pick games he will be analyzing later in the day is a farce, more so than Spaceballs The Movie.  Give David Pollack his chair on Game Day.  Or have Kirk give up the in-game analysis (that would be awesome too).  (I will say giving Samatha Ponder the shot on NFL Countdown was a good call.  She understand sports, she offers a solid female voice to a show devoid of that for decades and she can offer a player's wife perspective as a bonus)

 

Want to have a really good and entertaining show?  Look at the NBA on TNT.  I hate the NBA, but every now and then I might tune in.  Why? Shaq and Charles Barkley are hilarious.  They aren’t blowhards, they’re funny. And they aren't argumentative for faux drama sake, they are guys who were funny when they played, and just continue to be themselves now.  

Sigh.  Now on the politics thing.  I don’t care if my doctor, my dentist, my wait staff, my car mechanic, my financial adviser or my sports anchors hate or worship my political or even my religious beliefs…as long as they do the job they are being paid to do well and without pouring commentary all over me while they work.   It isn’t relevant to the work being performed.  

News flash.  I don’t like the person occupying the oval office either.  I actively campaigned against him and tried to get people to vote for alternatives.  I wish we had a different outcome in 2016.  I hope someone else rises to the top in 2020, if not sooner.  But, even if you completely agree with everything I hold dear (you love Jesus, you believe in the right to concealed carry, the idea vets deserve the utmost respect for their service to country, in Net Neutrality, the right to privacy, equality in race, gender, marriage, etc for all, freedom of speech, religion, and that the government typically screws up pretty much 75% of everything it touches) I don’t care.  I guarantee, I did not tune into ESPN or drive to your office for a circle jerk on our similarities, I tuned into ESPN for….uh SPORTS news.  SPORTS Commentary.  SPORTS analysis.  

Why did Green Bay play Cover 2 against Atlanta on the first drive?  What is the prognosis on Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, Mike Daniels, Demarco Murray, TJ Watt, Gronk, Bryce Harper, Clayton Kershaw, etc?  Who was made available on waivers in August, and is this going to be Kirk Cousins’ final year in Washington?  Are the Dodgers/Indians/Other Playoff team realigning their starting rotation in preparation for the playoffs and if so how and why?

 

That matters.  If I want political commentary, I can go to Twitter, Facebook, PMSNBC, CNN, FauxNews, or Reddit.  I don’t need it when I am trying to escape the real world for a bit and listen to information about the sports I love (and specifically NOT politics).  

ESPN, Fox, others: have a very simple rule.  Make your talent sign a contract stipulating if they wish to have personal commentary about politics on their various social media, then please limit it to a restricted group of friends and not wide open to the general public, OR, create an alias, share it only with friends and we won’t know.  Want to be a political pundit, then quit ESPN/Fox and go to the aforementioned political news channels/mediums.  The problem is when you use your medium as a pulpit, and you are not a TV preacher.  In that regard Curt Schilling and Jamele Hill are both annoying.

Now, Fox Sports, you need to pay attention now too, with respect to the websites. 

I don’t want non-stop, auto-play videos.  (A) Most of us consume a ton of information via the smartphone and data is expensive.  Video happens to be THE most EXPENSIVE data to download on a phone and it requires a very robust pipe for traffic.  And guess what?  That is true of millennials, my generation and even younger than millennials.  (B) If we happen to be at work, in a doctor’s office, etc, we cannot have LOUD video volume blaring out of our phones because, uh, its freaking rude.  (C) We like online feeds for news and information because it allows for the quickest possible transmission and consumption of news and information, especially when I can read it FASTER than a person can speak it. 

 

So, if you have annoying videos playing on your webpages, do you know what I do?  I use blocking tools to specifically remove it from my webpages.  Then I can consume the information faster and without annoying the crap out of the people around me.  

Okay, this really became 50% vent and maybe 50% polite commentary.  Fortunately, I am not an ESPN anchor, personality or televangelist.  I am just a consumer.  I am loyal to my brands, only a few of them in sports are starting to give me a reason to seek alternatives.  If a new company hires the aforementioned talent, I have to tell you, I will be clicking over there and bookmarking those sites.  I will tune in for their shows, and I will be helping them meet their hit counts and viewer ratings, not yours.  ESPN is still good at live sports, and some of the analysis shows, but they are slipping.  Sometimes now I turn down the volume and just watch.  

In closing sports media moguls, stick to sports.  Keep the written words.  Provide a mix of video and virtual print, let the consumer choose the medium and track the numbers.  Drop the televangelists and drama kings/queens and give us more Dirty Jobs, everyman/everywoman analysis and news.   I realize people say drama sells.  Well, you have pumped up the drama and outrageous debates and your ratings are not just trending down, they are heading down faster than Trump’s approval ratings.  Cord cutters are not your only problem.  Me?  I am annoyed at having to put forth the effort to go find my favorite analysts, journalists, and commentators, but rest assured, I will put the effort into it and if it leads me away from your networks, well, you will at least know another reason why.  You just can’t say you weren’t warned. Just my two virtual cents.