ESPN does many things well. But acting as the moral authority of sports isn’t one of them. They have so many talented journalists doing great work. But the newsroom is often undercut by the many and various business interests of the Worldwide Leader.
In a sign of how crazy sports has become, Michigan punter Blake O’Neill received death threats after mishandling the snap that led to Michigan State’s insane 27-23 victory Saturday. Some Internet trolls suggested the Australian O’Neill commit suicide.
ESPN’s on-air talent was justifiably outraged that a student-athlete would receive death threats from Internet trolls.
ESPN’s Joe Tessitore warned of the dangers of this “kill by keystroke” mentality in a great commentary following the incident.
“I fear we may be close to teetering on total civility failure. The idiots are getting far too big a voice nowadays,” warned Tessitore on College Football Final.
During The Sports Reporters, ESPN’s John Saunders cited a conversation with former University of Texas coach Mack Brown on how hard college athletes are on themselves after a devastating loss.
“He said he’s had to bring parents into the locker room because the kids were in the fetal position on the floor,” said Saunders. “He’s had to bring priests into the locker room to talk to young men.”
All great stuff. I couldn’t agree more with Tessitore and Saunders.
And yet … this is ESPN.
Hasn’t the network spent decades promoting fandom as a form of insanity? Doesn’t ESPN typically reward the craziest, loudest fans with the most camera time? Didn’t ESPN become obsessed with Tim Tebow because it goosed TV ratings?
In other words, hasn’t ESPN itself helped build this crazy sports fan culture it’s now worried is out-of-control? As ESPN’s long-time ad campaign liked to say: “It’s not crazy. It’s Sports.”
