How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love ESPN

It has been roughly three months since, after getting sick of the hyperbole and bickering, I dropped ESPN cold-turkey.  And not just ESPN, but pretty much the entire “sports talk” genre.  I’ll watch actual games when they’re on, but no more SportsCenter, PTI, Mike & Mike, or other shows I had traditionally watched.  And, frankly, I still feel I’m as much of a sports fan as ever.

What triggered my “boycott” of ESPN was their coverage around the Eastern Conference Finals between the Magic and Celtics.  As you probably remember, the Magic went down in the series 0-3, at which point the pundits start calling out how the Magic didn’t belong and projecting a future series against the Lakers (this is, of course, after many of them had picked the Magic to win the series after they had swept the first two rounds).  However the Magic came back to win the next two games, and they all change their tunes, picking the Magic to complete the “reverse” sweep and comparing it to the 2004 Yankees/Red Sox series.  And, of course, the Magic lose the next game and they immediately all switch back to how the Magic were a weak competitor who were outmatched.

That’s my main complaint about ESPN.  Not how they consistently favor teams that can help their ratings, not how they overhype stories (the 2010 NBA free agent class, Brett f’in Favre), not even TMZ-ing of athletes as celebutantes, but it’s this new focus they have on analyzing events that haven’t happened yet!  And it’s going on across the field of sports talk and even the print and online journalists have fallen into the trap.  Instead of actually covering the events and news from the day, they consistently feel the need to bring “perspective” by comparing everything to great moments in sports history (every SportsCenter has to have one random statistic compared to that other random statistic through the history of the game).  Or, they must constantly speculate, which I find is just brainless filler material.  The thing is, sometimes “picks” can be fun but it shouldn’t be something they focus on.  As the U.S. made the knock-out round of the World Cup, they were already prognosticating them making the finals and devoted a whole segment to their spectacular run.  Of course, they were immediately knocked out in their first game by Ghana.

Here’s some tips for the sports fan like me who still loves the games but have had enough of the ESPN’s over-the-top hype:

• If you just want highlights without as much of the “analysis”, I’ve been watching FSN’s Final Score over SportsCenter.
• As a fan on the Cubs and Bears, ESPN Chicago has their local SportsCenter.  Just highlights and some news without all the other fluff.  Of course, as of right now, ESPN only has local editions for a few major markets.
• Sports talk radio is not informative, it’s not even entertaining.  It’s just annoying blowhards arguing over stuff they don’t even know about with callers who know even less.  I actually kind of respect shows like Mike & Mike because they don’t take listener calls, though then it goes back to the over-analysis and prognostication that annoys me.

I’m guessing that I’m in the vast minority as ESPN continues adding more talk shows and analysis, but I know I can’t be the only one.