SportsNation: The Darling of ESPN?

Although I don't exactly know when the SportsNation section started on ESPN.com, I started visiting it when the television program "SportsNation" made its 3:00PM EST debut on July 6, 2009.

Since then, the "Average Joe" has been able to make his or her opinion heard on ESPN, extensively through the use of Twitter, and polling through the SportsNation page on ESPN.com.  

In my opinion, ESPN has completely blown away other mainstream news sites such as CNN.com and NYTimes.com in terms of interactivity and usability.  Quite simply, ESPN is allowing the users to determine an entire hours worth of programming every week day.  

I like this.  I like this because no longer can the elite sports journalists of today sit on their pedestal and declare themselves the rulers of the collective sports galaxy.  

Colin Cowherd, one of the anchors to the television program, has been known to ruffle some feathers as one of the pretentious sports personalities at ESPN.

While I disagree with the great, outstanding majority of his opinions on many, many topics (LeBron, soccer in the United States, hockey, mid-major sports, just to name a few), his time on SportsNation seems to have made him realize that the sports fans of America speak louder than he does.  

I cannot factually state that his opinion has always been different than the majority of sports fans out there, but I can say I've seen him lambasted on the air by his co-host Michelle Beadle (I would marry her in an instant, just throwing it out there) because of his grossly exaggerated opinions on many topics.  

Now, once you get past that Michelle is a strikingly beautiful woman who definitely knows more about sports than I do, you realize that she represents all of us, and says all of the things that we wish we could say to personalities like Cowherd.  

She stands up for the voice of the "Average Joe," because it deserves to be heard.  

What does this mean for sports personalities, on any medium?  You better be careful and do your homework, and you had better not ruffle the wrong feathers too often, or you are going to be called out on it, and in a very public manner.

Journalism is heading down a new pathway, one that isn't under the shroud of closed culture newsrooms and elitism.  The "Average Joe" isn't so average when he is allowed to 1UP-Mario style and become a part of something bigger and better.

I think the big time media should look towards ESPN as an example of effectively using their audience as a means to create better content. 

"Pacman" Jones signs with Bengals

ESPN reported last night that Adam 'Pacman" Jones has been signed to a two-year deal with the Cincinnati Bengals.

My beloved Bengals, who have given a plethora of second chances to the bad boys of the league, just opened up a new can of worms by signing probably the worst of them all (Sorry Pacman, but your reputation precedes you, to the greatest extent).

Sure, Tank Johnson, Chris Henry, Cedric Benson, Larry Johnson, and Matt Jones all took the second chance and turned it into a winning attitude around the locker room, but Adam Jones is the most high-profile bad boy in the league. 

If the Bengals hadn't solidified their reputation as a correctional facility for the games biggest liabilities, they most certainly set it in concrete last night.  

I don't know how to feel about this, considering Leon Hall and Jonathon Joseph will start at the cornerback positions and are one of the best tandems in the league.  Adding Jones will only complicate the position battles, and cause unnecessary drama.  

I hope I'm wrong about this one, but signing Pacman makes me a little worried about next season.  Hopefully Pacman's ghosts don't spell out GAME OVER while he wears the orange and black.

Words of Wisdom

This past week, I tried to visit Armon Bassett's Twitter page, only to be greeted by the "This Page No Longer Exists" default page.  

If you care to connect the dots you can probably conclude that this is because of his recent arrest.  But this post isn't about Armon.  Chris Littman, an alumnus of Ohio University, blogged recently about the Bassett situation.  

The curious thing for me is why athletes think they are invincible on the Internet.  Littman's blog hints at the reason why Armon might have pursued the course of action he did on that night.  

I asked my journalism professor, Hans K. Meyer about Twitter and whether or not journalists were permitted to publish Tweets as facts in a published medium (NOTE:  I'm not getting extra credit for including hiim in my post!)

His definitive answer was YES, because it is in the public domain.  

He also raised an interesting point:  Should we protect athletes from themselves when deciding whether or not to publish their Tweets?

The answer to that is NO.  These men and women are presenting themselves to the public when they publish Tweets, Facebook statuses, and blogs.  As journalists, we are trained to always be mindful of the way we present our arguments, stories, editorials, etc., because one fact or quote gone astray spells doom for the trust we have tried to build with our readers. 

If an athlete does not take the same caution to protect their image in the public setting, then why should their readership, including journalists, hold them to a different standard?

This question will be answered differently by many, but just to add one more thought, I will ask this.  If you're an athlete that has thousands of kids looking up to you, because you're the "it" athlete right now, would you want those kids making the same choices you are?

That's a telling question.

Quick Interview with Ohio University Student

I interviewed Ohio University Student Alex Rice on Wednesday, April 28. I thought it was relevant considering the recent arrest of Ohio guard Armon Bassett.

I apologize for the poor quality of the video, the file seems to have exported incorrectly.

Also, I will admit right now that this is not the correct type of "journalistic production" that one might see on television or on a news website, but this interview was conducted solely for material to test out my skills on Final Cut Pro, so please excuse the amateur editing.

In the future, if I have more video content to post, you can expect the highest quality. 

BREAKING NEWS: Armon Bassett Arrested

According to an Athens Police news release, Ohio guard Armon Bassett was arrested for assault last night at Courtside Pizza and Bar on Court Street.  

The police report states the victim, a doorman at the establishment, suffered a broken nose due to the incident.  

There has been no other information released at this time.  

Bassett is preparing to enter the NBA draft, and must decide whether or not to return to Ohio University for his senior season by May 8th.  

The programs leading scorer from 2009-10 averaged 17.1 points per game, and garnered national acclaim for his 32 point performance against Georgetown in the NCAA tournament in March.

Columbus vs. Real Salt Lake, April 24, 2010

I apologize for the tardiness in this post, but this week has been rather busy, writing papers and doing interviews and such.  

This past weekend, I finally experienced a Columbus Crew game from the comforts of the Nordecke (pronounced Nor-deck-uh).  It was an experience to behold. 

Despite torrential downpours throughout the night and leaving more soaked than a wet blanket at a party (I'm talking to YOU, "guy-who-ruined-Highfest-with-your-feeble-attempts-at-starting-a-fire"), the atmosphere was electric and worthy of an entire blog post from yours truly.  

The amount of pride and excitement that the supporters sections show for the Crew is outstanding, and I wish that more people would realize how amazing the world's game actually is.  

It took me a few tries to get all of the songs right, but when I finally nailed them, I sang them loud and proud, and was enveloped with passion for "Guilleeeeeermo" and "Paduuulllaaaa" (Guillermo Barros Schelotto and Gino Padula, respectively).  

The game itself was mediocre at best, only because the Crew played sloppily in the second half and nearly let Real Salt Lake steal a draw long past the 80th minute mark.  But it was the superb keeping of Will Hesmer that kept the Crew from losing this one at home.  Schelotto put the Crew ahead in the first half off a penalty kick, but his play mirrored that of the team during the second half.  Mediocre at best, with the majority of his crosses finding the defender rather than his streaking teammates.  

However, the Crew pulled through, and I have become hooked on the Nordecke.  The Crew play at home May 5th, and I may just make the midweek drive to Columbus to support the city's finest team.  

For more information on the Crew, visit thecrew.com, or mlsnet.com for more information on Major League Soccer.

A New Experience

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned many things about the atmosphere at Crew games, and how "hooliganism" is becoming OK in American soccer.  

Today, I am about to experience this for the first time.  I will return tomorrow with a more detailed look at this experience, and how it affects the fan who cannot participate in this every time.  

It should be a good post, I'll see you all on Sunday afternoon!