Make it Stop!

Sports coverage has changed significantly in our lifetime. A lot of it has been good, but there are some things that have gone horribly wrong. Every week I'll be taking a little time to whine about one of these things with no hope whatsoever that anything will change.

I'm admittedly no expert when it comes to critiquing the media. However, it doesn't take an expert to figure out that a Gilbert Brown body fat-like percentage of what is on television sucks. I don't need to be an expert to watch an episode of Sportscenter or read something in the sports section and think to myself "who really cares about this?"

Well here and now is where I grab my e-megaphone and complain to all (six) of you about some topic the sports media is covering that should be beaten to death with a tire iron.

So today, I'll pick what I consider one of the most egregious practices of ESPN and Sportscenter. "Dancing With the Stars" does not belong on your network. No one cares if Emmitt Smith and Jeff Garcia just need to dance. Charles Rogers is working at a 7-11 somewhere and I'm not seeing any special features on serving Big Gulps or stocking shelves.

I understand that the show is on ABC and through the miracle of media synergy, you feel obliged to help Walt Disney out and give 'em some pub. You know what else is on ABC sometimes? F*^$ing sports! Why don't we try covering those thoroughly before moving on to reality shows?

Now I don't watch a ton of Sportscenter anymore, I can get my sports news from legitimate sources, like Deadspin and other sites that feature crass language and pictures of cheerleaders; but when I was watching recently and saw a teaser for a "Dancing With the Stars" update after the break, I was frighteningly close to requiring a change of shorts.

Unless some NFL player was arrested for stalking one of the dancers, or they actually made Emmitt Smith talk on the show, then this is an abomination. It seems like we used to get at least 15-20 seconds of highlights on every game played the night before, and while the six segments per show talking about the Pats and Cowboys is a topic for another week, eliminating this ridiculous coverage could at least give us a few more seconds of actual sports.