Blog #1: Why This is Not ESPN

Jeff Schwartz

Blog #1: Why this is Not ESPN

July 2, 2010

About two years ago, I began to realize that I had grown tired of ESPN. It wasn’t that I had realized the programming was bad or anything because I had already known that. The real problem was the incredible bias that their talking heads had shown on air. I’d seen countless hours of guys like Dan Patrick and Stuart Scott as a kid repeating the same tired catch phrases over and over. There was no substance but there was an impeccable slant towards all things big city.

I’ve grown up in a city know for two things, The Professional Football Hall of Fame and Hoover Vacuums, Canton, Ohio. It’s a pretty small city but it’s got everything I need to be happy. I grew up on the Browns, Indians, Cavs, and The Ohio State University sports. I also had an obsession with the Duke Blue Devils, which still holds true today. The bottom line is that as a fan of those teams I had seen ESPN favor one (Duke) and hate on the others long enough that I began to hate the so called “World Wide Leader.” Mike and Mike, the so called top radio show ESPN boasts about is four hours of yammering that commences five days a week. I think I’d rather sit through five days in a row of being in a waiting room, waiting for my name to be called.

ESPN or Entertainment Sports Programming Network has some good to it. Jim Rome is Burning is a fantastic show, that has talk of sports with minimal bias of the host, Jim Rome. Rome’s a guy I’ve listened to for over a decade. He’s the sports voice of my generation. How he has avoided suffering from what I’ve dubbed “Bristol Disease” (Bristol, CT is the home of ESPN’s main studios), I’ll probably never know. The second and final positive to ESPN is their extensive college basketball coverage. Regardless of how much guys like Dick Vitale and Digger Phelps have become parodies of television commentators, the nearly 15 games a night that ESPN’s networks show have become an institute of my life during the season.

So what will make this blog different from something you’d see appear at ESPN.com? I’m not going to shill for big city life or for teams from Florida, Los Angeles, & New York. When a Cleveland team loses I’m not going to rip them for being losers. There is no low light reel that will appear every time a big loss occurs. There will be straight forward, bull shit free commentary from someone who just wants to see his teams win. I don’t make excuses, and I don’t cover for people who don’t deserve it. This blog is all about venting, on all subjects in sports.

Some people might feel insulted when they read something about them. That’s just too damn bad. My voice and my beliefs will go unchanged, so the readers of this blog should just get used to it. To quote the great Ari Gold, “We’re going to hell, so bring your sun block.”